/Berkeley 
LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
V     CALIPORHIA 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
WILLARD  HIGLEY  DURHAM 
DEPARTMENT  OF  ENGLISH         I 
I92I-I954 


Oliver  Cromwell's 


/  ( 


LETTERS  AND   SPEECHES 


IVITH  ELUCIDATIONS 


THOMAS  CARLYLE 


IN   THREE    VOLUMES 

Vol.  L 


GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  AND  SONS 

New-York  :  9  Lafayette  Place 

london  and  glasgow 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

lilAPTER  I.  Anti  Dryasdust 1 1 

p       11.   Of  the  Biographies  of  Oliver i8 

a     III.   Of  the  Cromwell  Kindred 22 

9      IV.   Events  in  Oliver's  Biography 32 

„       V.  Of  Oliver's  Letters  and  Speeches 59 


CROMWELL'S   LETTERS   AND   SPEECHES. 

PART  I. 

To  THE  Beginning  of  the  Civil  War.     1636-42. 

Letter  L  To  Mr.  Storie:  St.  Ives,  11  Jan.  1635-6     .        .        .        .69 

Lectureship  in  Huntingdonshire. 

„      IL  To  Mrs.  St.  John  :  Ely,  13  Oct.  1638 74 

Personal  Affairs. 

Two  Years 81 

Letter  III.  To  Mr.  Willingham  :  London,  Feb.  1640-1      .        .        .83 

The  Scots  Demands. 

In  the  Long  Parliament 85 

PART  II. 

To  the  End  of  the  First  Civil  War.     1642-46. 

Preliminary 91 

Better  IV.  To  R.  Barnard,  Esq.  :  Huntingdon,  23  Jan.  1642-3  ,         ,     ^9 

A  Domiciliary  V'  H 


CONTENTS 


PACK 

Letter  V.  To  T.  Knyvett,  Esq.  :  Norfolk,  Jan    1642-3      .        ,         .     100 

Parishioners  of  Hapton 
LOWESTOFF lOI 

Letter  VI.  Unknown:  Grantham,  13  May,  1643        ....     104 

Skirmish  at  Grantham 

,,     VIL  To  Cambridge  Committee  :  Huntingdon,  31  July,  1643    .      106 
Action  at  Gainsborough. 

WiNCEBY  Fight 109 

Letter  VIII.  To  Col.  Walton  :  York,  5  July  1644    .         .        .         .114 

Marston  Moor. 

Three  Fragments  of  Speeches.     Self-denying  Ordmance      .        •     n? 

Letter  IX.  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  Salisbury,  9  April,  1645     .         .         .121 
Proceedings  in  the  Webt ;  Goring,  Greenvil,  Rupert 

„  X.  To  Governor  R.  Burgess  :  Farringdon,  29  April,  1645 

Attack  on  Farringdon  Garrison. 

„        XL  To  the  same  :  same  date 

Same  subject. 

„       XII.  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  Huntingdon,  4  June,  1645  . 
Affairs  at  Ely. 

„     XIII.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall :   Harborough,  14  June,  1645 

Battle  of  Naseby, 

„      XIV.  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  Shaftesbury,  4  Aug.  1645  • 
The  Clubmen. 


„       XV   To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall:  Bristol,  14  Sept.  1645 
Storm  of  Bristol. 

„     XVI.  To  the  same  :  Winchester,  6  Oct    1645   • 
Taking  of  Wincnester 

„    XVII.  To  the  same  :  Basingstoke,  I4  Oct.  1645 
Basing  House  stormed. 

„  XVIIL  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  Wallop,  16  Oct.  1645 
Marching  lo  the  West. 


123 
123 

125 
129 
132 

138 
142 


PART   IIL 

Between  the  Two  Civil  Wars.     1646-48. 

Letter  XIX.  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  London,  31  July,  1646    .        .        .147 

Adjutant  Flemming. 

„  XX.  To  the  same  :  London,  10  Aug.  1646    .         .         .         .14.8 

News :  Commissioners  to  the  King  and  Scotch  Army  h^VQ  x%- 

turn«4. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Letter  XXI.  To  J,  Rushworth,  Esq.:  London,  26  Aug.  1646    ,         .     150 

On  behalf  of  Major  Henry  Lilburn. 

„      XXII.  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  London,  6  Oct.  1646       .         .         .151 
Staffordshire  Committeemen. 

„     XXIIL  To  Mrs.  Ireton  :  London,  25  Oct.  1646  .        .         .152 

Fatherly  Advice. 

„      XXIV.  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  London,  21  Dec.  1646    .         .         .153 
News,  by  Skippon  :  Agreement  with  the  Scots  conchided  ;  City 
disaffected  to  Army. 

„       XXV.  To  the  same  :  London,  11  March,  1646-7     ,  .         .156 

Army-matlers  ;  City  still  more  disaffected. 

„     XXVI.  To  the  same  :  London,  19  March,  1646-7      .         .         .157 
Encloses  an  Order  to  the  Army,  Not  to  come  within  Twenty- 
five  miles  of  London. 

Army  Manifesto .     15^ 

Letter  XXVn.  To  Col.  Jones  :  Putney,  14  Sept.  1647       .        .        .170 

Congratulates  on  the  Victory  at  Dungan  Hill. 

„       XXVIII.  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  Putney,  13  Oct.  1647  ,         .      171 

Capt.  Middleton,  Court- Martial. 

„  XXIX.  To  the  same  :  Putney,  22  Oct.  1647         .         .         .173 

Col.  Overton  for  Hull  Garrison. 

„  XXX.  To  Hon.   W.    Lenthall :  Hampton  Court,   II   Nov. 

1647 174 

King's  Escape  from  Hampton  Court. 

„  XXXI.  To  Col.  Whalley  :  Putney,  Nov.  1647      .         .         .176 

The  same. 

„        XXXII.  To  Col.  Hammond:  London,  3  Jan.  1647-8    .         .      I77 
Concerning  the  King  in  the  Isle  of  Wight. 

„      XXXIII.  To  Col.  Norton  :  London,  25  Feb.  1647-8       .         .     179 
On  Richard  Cromwell's  Marriage. 

„       XXXIV.  To  Sir  T.  Fairfax  :  London,  7  March,  1647-8  .         .     181 

Has  been  dangerously  ill. 

Free  Offer 182 

Letter  XXXV.  To  Col.  Norton  :  Farnham,  28  March,  1648     .         .     183 
Richard  Cromwell's  Marriage. 

,,       XXXVL  To  the  same  :  London,  3  April,  1648        .         .         .     184 
The  same. 

,,     XXXVII.  To  Col   Hammond  :  London,  6  April,  1648      .         .     186 
Isle-of- Wight  Business  ;  King  intends  Escape. 

Prayer-Meeting 187 


CONTENTS. 


PAkT  IV. 

Second  Civil  War.    1648. 

PAGB 

Letter  XXXVIII.  To  Major  Saunders  :  Pembroke,  17  June>  1648    .     196 
To  seize   Sheriff  Morgan  and  Sir  Trevor  Williams,  two 
Rebel  Welshmen. 

„  XXXIX.  To  Lord  (late  Sir  Thomas)  Falrfa*  t  I>embroke, 

28  June,  1648  ..*»».,     198 
Siege  of  Pembroke. 

Preston  Battle       «        ^        »...»*»        .    202 

Letter  XL.  To  Lancashire  Committee  :  Preston,  17  Aug.  1648  .     204 

Battle  of  Preston. 

„      XLL  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall  :  Warrington,  20  Aug.  1648  .     205 

The  same. 

),     XLlI.   To  Lofd  Wharton  :  near  KnaresboroUgh,  2  Sept.  1648   .     216 
Religious  Reflections ;  Congratulation  on  public  events  and  private. 

Declaration     .        .        .        .        ,        ,        ,        ,        ,        .        .     219 

Letter  XLIIL  To  Lord  Fairfax,  Berwick,  it  Sept.  1648.        .        .     219 

Col.  Cowell's  Widow. 

„        XLIV.  To  Marquis  Argyle,  and  the  Well  affected  Lords  now 

in  arms  in  Scotland  :  near  Berwick,  16  Sept.  1648   .     220 
Announces  Messengers  coming  to  them. 

„  XLV.  To  Scots  Committee  of  Estates  :  near  Berwick,  16  Sept. 

1648 222 

His  Reasons  for  entering  Scotland. 

,,         XLVI.  To  Earl  Loudon :  Cheswick,  18  Sept.  1648        •         ,     223 
Intentions  and  Proceedings  as  to  Scotland. 

Proclamation 226 

Letter  XLVIL  To  Scots  Committee  of  Estates :  Norham,  21  Sept. 

164S 226 

In  excuse  for  some  disorder  by  the  Durham  horse  in  Scotland. 

„      XLVIII.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall  :  Berwick,  2  Oct.  1648    .         .     228 

Surrender  of  Berwick  and  Carlisle. 
„          XLIX.   To  Lord  Fairfax  :  Berwick,  2  Oct.  1648   .         ,         ,     228 

To  have  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig  take  care  of  Berwick. 

»>  L.  To  Scots  Committee  of  Estates  :  Edinburgh,  5  Oct. 

1648 230 

His  Demands  concerning  Scotland. 


CONTENTS. 

t.—" — — ■ — ■ — 


PAGE 

Letter    LI.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall :  Dalhousie,  9  Oct.  1648       ,        ,     232 

Account  of  his  Proceedings  in  Scotland. 

,,         LII.  To  Governor  Morris  :  Pontefract,  9  Nov.  1648      ;         r    234 
Summons  to  Pontefract  Castle. 

j,       LIII.  To  Jeiiner    and  Ashe :    Knottingley,   near  Pontefraci:, 

20  Novi  1648   ........     235 

Rebuke  for  theit  Order  concerning  Col.  Owen, 

ii        LlV.  To  Lord  Fairfax  :  Knottingley,  20  Nov.  164^        .         .     238 
With  certain  Petitions  from  the  Army. 

»         LV.  To  Col.  Hammond:  Knottingley,  25  Nov.  1648    .         ,     239 
Exhortation  and  Advice  concerning  the  Business  of  the  King. 

Death-Warrant       .       .       • •       .245 


OLIVER    CROMWELL'S 
LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES. 


tt 


INTRODUCTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 
ANTI-DRYASDUST. 

What  and  how  great  are  the  interests  which  connect  themselves 
with  the  hope  that  England  may  yet  attain  to  some  practical  belief 
and  understanding  of  its  History  during  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
need  not  be  insisted  on  at  present  ;  such  hope  being  still  very  distant, 
very  uncertain.  We  have  wandered  far  away  from  the  ideas 
which  guided  us  in  that  Century  ;  and  indeed  which  had  guided 
Us  in  all  preceding  Centuries,  but  of  which  that  Century  was 
the  ultimate  manifestation  :  we  have  wandered  very  far  ;  and  must 
endeavour  to  return,  and  connect  ourselves  therewith  again  !  It  is 
with  other  feelings  than  those  of  poor  peddling  Dilettantism,  other 
aims  than  the  writing  of  successful  or  unsuccessful  Publications,  that 
an  earnest  man  occupies  himself  in  those  dreary  provinces  of  the  dead 
and  buried.  The  last  glimpse  of  the  Godlike  vanishing  from  this 
England ;  conviction  and  veracity  giving  place  to  hollow  cant  and 
formulism, — antique  '  Reign  of  God,'  which  all  true  men  in  their 
several  dialects  and  modes  have  always  striven  for,  giving  place  to 
modern  Reign  of  the  No-God,  whom  men  name  Devil :  this,  in  its 
multitudinous  meanings  and  results,  is  a  sight  to  create  reflections  in 
the  earnest  man  !  One  wishes  there  were  a  History  of  English  Puri- 
tanism, the  last  of  all  our  Heroisms  ;  but  sees  small  prospect  of  such 
a  thing  at  present. 

*  Few  nobler  Heroisms,'  says  a  well-known  Writer  long  occupied  on 
this  subject,  '  at  bottom  perhaps  no  nobler  Heroism  ever  transacted 

*  itself  on  this  Earth  ;  and  it  lies  as  good  as  lost  to  us  ;  overwhelmed 
'  under  such  an  avalanche  of  Human  Stupidities  as  no  Heroism  before 
'ever  did.     Intrinsically  and  extrinsically  it  may  be  considered  inac- 

*  cessible  to  these  generations.  Intrinsically,  the  spiritual  purport  of 
'  it  has  become  inconceivable,  incredible  to  the  modern  mind.  Ex- 
'  trinsically,  the  documents  and  records  of  it,  scattered  waste  as  a 
'  shoreless  chaos,  are  not  legible.  They  He  there,  printed,  written,  to 
'  the  extent  of  tons  and  square  miles,  as  shot-rubbish  ;  unedited,  un- 
'  sorted,  not  so  much  as  indexed  ;  full  of  every  conceivable  confusion  ; 
* — yielding  light  to  very  few;  yielding  darkness,  in  several  sorts,  to 

*  very  many.     Dull  Pedantry,  conceited  idle  Dilettantism, — prurient 

*  Stupidity  in  what  shape  soever, — is  darkness  and  not  light  I    There 


14  INTRODUCTION. 


*  are  from  Thirty  to  Fifty  Thousand  unread  Pamphlets  of  the  Civil 
'  War  in  the  British  Museum  alone  :  huge  piles  of  mouldering  wreck, 

*  wherein,  at  the  rate  of  perhaps   one  pennyweight  per  ton,  lie  things 

*  memorable.     They  lie  preserved  there,  waiting  happier  days  ;  under 

*  present  conditions  they  cannot,  except  for  idle  purposes,  for  dilettante 

*  excerpts  and  such  like,  be  got  examined.  The  Rushworths,  Whit- 
*lockes,  Nalsons,  Thurloes  ;  enormous  folios,  these  and  many  others, 

*  they  have  been  printed,  and  some  of  them  again  printed,  but  never 

*  yet  edited, — edited  as  you  edit  wagonloads  of  broken  bricks  and  dry 

*  mortar,  simply  by  tumbling  up  the  wagon  !  Not  one  of  those  mon- 
*strous  old  volumes  has  so  much  as  an  available    Index.     It  is  the 

*  general  rule  of  editing  on  this  matter.  If  your  editor  correct  the 
'press,   it  is  an  honourable  distinction    to  him.      Those  dreary  old 

*  records  were  compiled  at  first  by  Human   Insight,  in  part  ;  and  in 

*  great  part,  by  Human  Stupidity  withal ;— but  then  it  was  by  Stupidity 

*  in  a  laudable  diligent  state,  and  doing  its  best  ;  which  was  some- 

*  thing  : — and,  alas,  they  have  been  successively  elaborated  by  Human 

*  Stupidity  in  the  idle  state,  falhng  idler  and  idler,  and  only  pretend- 
ing to  be  diligent  ;  whereby  now,  for  us,  in  these  late  days,  they  have 

*  grown  very  dim  indeed  !    To  Dryasdust  Printing-Societies,  and  such 

*  like,  they  afford  a  sorrowful  kind  of  pabulum ;  but  for  all  serious 

*  purposes,  they  are  as  if  non-extant  ;  might  as  well,  if  matters  are  to 
'rest  as  they  are,  not  have  been  written  or  printed  at  all.     The  sound 

*  of  them  is  not  a  voice,  conveying  knowledge  or  memorial  of  any 

*  earthly  or  heavenly  thing ;  it  is  a  wide-spread  inarticulate  slumberous 

*  mumblement,  issuing  as  if  from  the  lake  of  Eternal  Sleep.     Crav- 

*  ing  for  oblivion,  for  abolition  and  honest  silence,  as  a  blessing  in 

*  comparison  ! 

'This  then,'  continues  our  impatient    friend,  'is  the  Elysium  we 

*  English  have  provided  for  our  Heroes  !    The  Rushworthian  Elysium. 

*  Dreariest  continent  of  shot-rubbish  the  eye  ever  saw.     Confusion 

*  piled  on  confusion  to  your  utmost  horizon's  edge  :  obscure,  in  lurid 
'  twilight  as  of  the  shadow  of  Death  ;  tracklets,  without  index,  with- 
'out  finger-post,  or  mark  of  any  human  foregoer  ; — where  your  human 
'footstep,  if  you  are  still  human,  echoes  bodeful  through  the  gaunt 
'solitude,  peopled  only  by  somnambulant  Pedants,  Dilettants,  and 
'  doleful  creatures,  by  phantasms,  errors,  inconceivabilities,  by  Night- 
'  mares,  pasteboard  Norroys,  griffins,  wiverns,  and  chimeras  dire  ! 
'  There,  all  vanquished,  overwhelmed  under  such  waste  lumber-moun- 
'  tains,  the  wreck  and  dead  ashes  of  some  six  unbelieving  generations, 
'  does  the  Age  of  Cromwell  and  his  Puritans  lie  hidden  from  us.  This 
'  is  what  we,  for  our  share,  have  been  able  to  accomplish  towards 
'  keeping  our  Heroic  Ones  in  memory.  By  way  of  sacred  poet  they 
'  have  found  voluminous  Dryasdust,  and  his  Collections  and  Philoso- 
'  phical  Histories. 

'  To  Dryasdust,  who  wishes  merely  to  compile  torpedo  Histories  of 
'  the  philosophical  or  other  sorts,  and  gain  immortal  laurels  for  him- 
'  self  by  writing  about  it  and  about  it,  all  this  is  sport ;  but  to  us  who 
'  struggle  piously,  passionately,  to  behold,  if  but  in  glimpses,  the  faces 
'of   our  vanished  Fathers,  it  is  death  ! — 0  Dryasdust,  my  voluminous 

*  friend,  had  Human  Stupidity  continued  in  the  diligent  state,  think 


ANTI-DRYASDUST.  13 

you  it  had  ever  come  to  this  ?  Surely  at  least  you  might  have  made 
an  Index  for  these  huge  books!  Even  your  genius,  had  you  been 
'  faithful,  was  adequate  to  that.  Those  thirty  thousand  or  fifty  thou- 
'  sand  old  Newspapers  and  Pamphlets  of  the  King's  Library,  it  is 
'  you,  my  voluminous  friend,  that  should  have  sifted  them,  many  long 
'years  ago.  Instead  of  droning  out  these  melancholy  scepticisms, 
'  constitutional  philosophies,    torpedo    narratives,    you    should    have 

•  sifted  those  old  stacks  of  pamphlet  matter  for  us,  and  have  had  the 

*  metal  grains  lying  here  accessible,  and  the  dross-heaps  lying  there 
'  avoidable  ;  you  had  done  the  human  memory  a  service  thereby  ; 
'some  human   remembrance   of  this   matter   had  been  more  pos- 

♦  sible  ! ' 

Certainly  this  description  does  not  want  for  emphasis :  but  all  in- 
genuous inquirers  into  the  Past  will  say  there  is  too  much  truth  in  it. 
Nay,  in  addition  to  the  sad  state  of  our  Historical  Books,  and  what 
indeed  is  fundamentally  the  cause  and  origin  of  that,  our  common 
spiritual  notions,  if  any  notion  of  ours  may  still  deserve  to  be  called 
spiritual,  are  fatal  to  a  right  understanding  of  that  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury. The  Christian  Doctrines  which  then  dwelt  ahve  in  every  heart, 
have  now  in  a  manner  died  out  of  all  hearts, — very  mournful  to  be- 
hold ;  and  are  not  the  guidance  of  this  world  any  more.  Nay  worse 
still,  the  Cant  of  them  does  yet  dwell  alive  with  us,  little  doubting 
that  it  is  Cant ; — in  which  fatal  intermediate  state  the  Eternal  Sacred- 
nes3  of  this  Universe  itself,  of  this  Human  Life  itself,  has  fallen 
dark  to  the  most  of  us,  and  we  think  that  too  a  Cant  and  a  Creed. 
Thus  the  old  names  suggest  new  things  to  us, — not  august  and  divine, 
but  hypocritical,  pitiable,  detestable.  The  old  names  and  similitudes 
of  belief  still  circulate  from  tongue  to  tongue,  though- now  in  such  a 
ghastly  condition  :  not  as  commandments  of  the  Living  God,  which 
we  must  do,  or  perish  eternally  ;  alas,  no,  as  something  very  different 
from  that !  Here  properly  lies  the  grand  unintelligibility  of  the 
Seventeenth  Century  for  us.  From  this  source  has  proceeded  our 
maltreatment  of  it,  our  miseditings,  miswritings,  and  all  the  other 

*  avalanche  of  Human  Stupidity,'  wherewith,  as  our  impatient  friend 
complains,  we  have  allowed  it  to  be  overwhelmed.  We  have  allowed 
some  other  things  to  be  overwhelmed  !  Would  to  Heaven  that  were 
the  worst  fruit  we  had  gathered  from  our  Unbelief  and  our  Cant  of 
Belief  ! — Our  impatient  friend  continues  : 

'  I  have  known  Nations  altogether  destitute  of  printer's-types  and 
learned  appliances,  with  nothing  better  than  old  songs,  monumental 
stone-heaps  and  Quipo-thrums  to  keep  record  by,  who  had  truer 
memory  of  their  memorable  things  than  this  !  Truer  memory,  I 
say  :  for  at  least  the  voice  of  their  Past  Heroisms,  if  indistinct,  and 
all  awry  as  to  dates  and  statistics,  was  still  melodious  to  those 
Nations.  The  body  of  it  might  be  dead  enough  ;  but  the  soul  of  it, 
partly  harmonised,  put  in  real  accordance  with  the  "  Eternal  Melo- 
dies," was  alive  to  all  hearts,  and  could  not  die.  The  memory  of 
their  ancient  Brave  Ones  did  not  rise  like  a  hideous  huge  leaden 
vapour,  an  amorphous  emanation  of  Chaos,  like  a  petrifying  Medusa 
Spectre,  on  those  poor  Nations :  no,  but  like  a  Heaven's  Apparition, 
which  it  was^  it  still  stood  radiapt  beneficent  before  all  hearts,  call- 


14  INTRODUCTION, 


:  ing  all  hearts  to  emulate  it,  and  the  recognition  of  it  was  a  Psalm 
and  Song.  These  things  will  require  to  be  practically  meditated  by 
and  by.  Is  human  Writing,  then,  the  art  of  burying  Heroisms,  and 
highest  Facts,  in  Chaos  ;  so  that  no  man  shall  henceforth  contem- 
plate them  without  horror  and  aversion,  and  danger  of  locked-jaw  ? 
What  does  Dryasdust  consider  that  he  was  born  for ;  that  paper 
and  ink  were  made  for  ? 

'  It  is  very  notable,  and  leads  to  endless  reflections,  how  the  Greeks 
had  their  living  I/md  where  we  have  such  a  deadly  indescribable 
Croniwelliad.  The  old  Pantheon^  home  of  all  the  gods,  has  become 
a  Peerage-Book, — with  black  and  white  surplice-controversies  super- 
added, not  unsuitably.  The  Greeks  had  their  Homers,  Hesoids, 
where  we  have  our  Rymers,  Rushworths,  our  Norroys,  Garter-Kings, 
and  Bishops  Cobweb.  Very  notable,  I  say.  By  the  genius,  wants 
and  instincts  and  opportunities  of  the  one  People,  striving  to  keep 
themselves  in  mind  of  what  was  memorable,  there  had  fashioned 
itself,  in  the  effort  of  successive  centuries,  a  Homer's  Iliad  ;  by  those 
of  the  other  People,  in  successive  centuries,  a  Collins' s  Peerage  im- 
proved by  Sir  Egerton  Brydges.  By  their  Pantheons  ye  shall  know 
them!  Have  not  we  English  a  talent  for  Silence.'*  Our  very  Speech 
and  Printed-Speech,  such  a  force  of  torpor  dwelling  in  it,  is  properly 
a  higher  power  of  Silence.  There  is  no  Silence  like  the  Speech  you 
cannot  listen  to  without  danger  of  locked-jaw  !  Given  a  divine 
Heroism,  to  smother  it  well  in  human  Dulness,  to  touch  it  with  the 
mace  of  Death,  so  that  no  human  soul  shall  henceforth  recognise  it 
for  a  Heroism,  but  all  souls  shall  fly  from  it  as  from  a  chaotic  Tor- 
por, an  Insanity  and  Horror, — I  will  back  our  English  genius 
against  the  world  in  such  a  problem  !  Truly  we  have  done  great 
things  in  that  sort  ;  down  from  Norman  William  all  the  way,  and 
earlier  :  and  to  the  English  mind  at  this  hour,  the  past  History  of 
England  is  little  other  than  a  dull  dismal  labyrinth,  in  which  the 
English  mind  if  candid  will  confess  that  it  has  found  of  knowable 
(meaning  even  conceivable),  of  loveable,  or  memorable — next  to 
nothing.  As  if  we  had  done  no  brave  thing  at  all  in  this  Earth  ; — 
as  if  not  Men  but  Nightmares  had  written  of  our  History  !  The 
English,  one  can  discern  withal,  have  been  perhaps  as  brave  a 
People  as  their  neighbours  ;  perhaps,  for  Valour  of  Action  and  true 
hard  labour  in  this  Earth,  since  brave  Peoples  were  first  made  in  it, 
there  has  been  none  braver  anywhere  or  anywhen  : — but  also,  it 
must  be  owned,  in  Stupidity  of  Speech  they  have  no  fellow  !  What 
can  poor  English  Heroisms  do  in  such  case,  but  fall  torpid  into  the 
domain  of  the  Nightmares  t  For  of  a  truth,  Stupidity  is  strong, 
most  strong :  as  the  Poet  Schiller  sings,  "Against  Stupidity  the  very 
gods  fight  unvictorious ; "  there  is  in  it  a  placid  inexhaustibility,  a 
calm  viscous  infinitude,  which  will  baffle  even  the  gods,— which  will 
say  calmly,  "  Try  all  your  lightnings  here ;  see  whether  I  cannot 
quench  them  I " 

"  Mit  der  Dummheit  kampfen  Gotter  selbst  vergebens."* 

Has   our  friend  forgotten  that   it   is    Destiny  withal   as  well  as 
*  Stupidity  ;'  that  such  is  the  case  -  more  or  less  with  Human  History 


ANTI-DRYASDUST.  15 

always  !  By  very  nature  it  is  a  labyrinth  and  chaos,  this  that  we  call 
Human  History  ;  an  abatis  of  trees  and  brushwood,  a  world-wide 
jungle,  at  once  growing  and  dying.  Under  the  green  foliage  and 
blossoming  fruit-trees  of  Today,  there  lie,  rotting  slower  or  faster,  the 
forests  of  all  other  Years  and  Days.  Some  have  rotted  fast,  plants  of 
annual  growth,  and  are  long  since  quite  gone  to  inorganic  mould  ; 
others  are  like  the  aloe,  growths  that  last  a  thousand  or  three  thousand 
years.  You  will  find  them  in  all  stages  of  decay  and  preservation  ; 
down  deep  to  the  beginnings  of  the  History  of  Man.  Think  where 
our  Alphabetic  Letters  came  from,  where  our  Speech  itself  came 
from ;  the  Cookeries  we  live  by,  the  Masonries  we  lodge  under  !  You 
will  find  fibrous  roots  of  this  day's  Occurrences  among  the  dust  of 
Cadmus  and  Trismegistus,  of  Tubalcain  and  Triptolemus  ;  the  tap- 
roots of  them  are  with  Father  Adam  himself  and  the  cinders  of  Eve's 
first  fire  !  At  bottom,  there  is  no  perfect  History ;  there  is  none  such 
conceivable. 

All  past  Centuries  have  rotted  down,  and  gone  confusedly  dumb 
and  quiet,  even  as  that  Seventeenth  is  now  threatening  to  do.  His- 
tories are  as  perfect  as  the  Historian  is  wise,  and  is  gifted  with  an 
eye  and  a  soul !  For  the  leafy  blossoming  Present  Time  springs 
from  the  whole  Past,  remembered  and  unrememberable,  so  confusedly 
as  we  say  : — and  truly  the  Art  of  History,  the  grand  difference  be- 
tween a  Dryasdust  and  a  sacred  Poet,  is  very  much  even  this  :  To 
distinguish  well  what  does  still  reach  to  the  surface,  and  is  alive  and 
frondent  for  us ;  and  what  reaches  no  longer  to  the  surface,  but 
moulders  safe  underground,  never  to  send  forth  leaves  or  fruit  for 
mankind  any  more  :  of  the  former  we  shall  rejoice  to  hear  ;  to  hear 
of  the  latter  will  be  an  affliction  to  us  ;  of  the  latter  only  Pedants  and 
Dullards,  and  disastrous  w<a:Mactors  to  the  world,  will  find  good  to 
speak.  By  wise  memory  and  by  wise  obUvion  :  it  lies  all  there  ! 
Without  obhvion,  there  is  no  remembrance  possible.  When  both 
oblivion  and  memory  are  wise,  when  the  general  soul  of  man  is  clear, 
melodious,  true,  there  may  come  a  modern  Iliad  as  memorial  of  the 
Past :  when  both  are  fooHsh,  and  the  general  soul  is  overclouded  with 
confusions,  with  unveracities  and  discords,  there  is  a  *  Rushworthian 
chaos.'  Let  Dryasdust  be  blamed,  beaten  with  stripes  if  you  will  ; 
but  let  it  be  with  pity,  with  blame  to  Fate  chiefly.  Alas,  when  sacred 
Priests  are  arguing  about  '  black  and  white  surplices  ;'  and  sacred 
Poets  have  long  professedly  deserted  Truth,  and  gone  a  woolgathering 
after  '  Ideals '  and  such  like,  what  can  you  expect  of  poor  secular 
Pedants  ?  The  labyrinth  of  History  must  grow  ever  darker,  more 
intricate  and  dismal ;  vacant  cargoes  of  '  Ideals  '  will  arrive  yearly,  to 
be  cast  into  the  oven  ;  and  noble  Heroisms  of  Fact,  given  up  to  Dry« 
asdust,  will  be  buried  in  a  very  disastrous  manner  ! — 

But  the  thing  we  had  to  say  and  repeat  was  this.  That  Puritanism 
is  not  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  but  of  the  Seventeenth ;  that  the 
grand  unintelligibility  for  us  lies  there.  The  Fast-day  Sermons  of  St, 
Margaret's  Church  Westminster,  in  spite  of  printers,  are  all  grown 
dumb  !  In  long  rows  of  little  dumpy  quartos,  gathered  from  the 
bookstalls,  they  indeed  stand  here  bodily  before  us  :  by  human  voli- 
tion they  can  be  read,  but  not  by  any  human  memory  remembered, 


l6  INTRODUCTION. 


We  forget  them  as  soon  as  read ;  they  have  become  a  weariness  to 
the  soul  of  man.  They  are  dead  and  gone,  they  and  what  they 
shadowed  ;  the  human  soul,  got  into  other  latitudes,  cannot  now  give 
harbour  to  them.  Alas,  and  did  not  the  honourable  Houses  of  Par- 
hament  listen  to  them  with  rapt  earnestness,  as  to  an  indisputable 
message  from  Heaven  itself?  Learned  and  pamful  Dr.  Owen,  learned 
and  painful  Dr.  Burgess  ;  Stephen  Marshall,  Mr.  Spurstow,  Adoni- 
ram  Byfield,  Hugh  Peters,  Philip  Nye  :  the  Printer  has  done  for 
them  what  he  could,  and  Mr.  Speaker  gave  them  the  thanks  of  the 
House  ; — and  no  most  astonishing  Review-Article  of  our  day  can 
have  half  such  '  brilliancy,'  such  potency,  half  such  virtue  for  pro- 
ducing belief,  as  these  their  poor  little  dumpy  quartos  once  had.  And 
behold,  they  are  become  inarticulate  men  ;  spectral  ;  and  instead  of 
speaking,  do  but  screech  and  gibber  !  All  Puritanism  has  grown  in- 
articulate ;  its  fervent  preachings,  prayings,  pamphleteerings  are  sunk 
into  one  indiscriminate  moaning  hum,  mournful  as  the  voice  of  sub- 
terranean winds.  So  much  falls  silent :  human  Speech,  unless  by 
rare  chance  it  touch  on  the  *  Eternal  Melodies,'  and  harmonise 
with  them  ;  human  Action,  Interest,  if  divorced  from  the  Eternal 
Melodies,  sinks  all  silent.  The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth 
away. 

The  Age  of  the  Puritans  is  not  extinct  only  and  gone  away  from  us, 
but  it  is  as  if  fallen  beyond  the  capabilities  of  Memory  herself  ;  it  is 
grown  unintelligible,  what  we  may  call  incredible.  Its  earnest  Pur- 
port awakens  now  no  resonance  in  our  frivolous  hearts.  We  under- 
stand not  even  in  imagination,  one  of  a  thousand  of  us,  what  it  ever 
could  have  meant.  It  seems  delirious,  delusive  ;  the  sound  of  it  has 
become  tedious  as  a  tale  of  past  stupidities.  Not  the  body  of  heroic 
Puritanism  only,  which  was  bound  to  die,  but  the  soul  of  it  also, 
which  was  and  should  have  been,  and  yet  shall  be  immortal,  has 
for  the  present  passed  away.  As  Harrison  said  of  his  Banner 
and  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah  :    "  Who  shall  rouse  him  up  .?"— 

'  For  indisputably,'  exclaims  the  above-cited  Author  in  his  vehement 
way,  '  this  too  was  a  Heroism  ;  and  the  soul  of  it  remains  part  of  the 
'  eternal  soul  of  things  !     Here,  of  our  own  land  and  lineage,  in  prac- 

*  tical  English    shape,  were   Heroes  on  the  Earth  once  more.     Who 

*  knew  in  every  fibre,  and  with  heroic  daring  laid  to  heart.  That  an 
'  Almighty  Justice  does  verily  rule  this  world  ;  that  it  is  good  to  fight 
'on  God's  side,  and   bad  to  fight  on  the  Devil's  side!    The  essence 

*  of  all  Heroisms  and  Veracities  that  have  been,  or  that  will  be  — 
I  Perhaps  it  was  among  the  nobler  and  noblest  Human  Heroisms, 
^  this  Puritanism  of  ours  :  but  English  Dryasdust  could  not  discern  it 
^  for  a  Heroism  at  all  ;— as  the  Heaven's  lightning,  born  of  its  black 
^  tempest,  and  destructive  to  pestilential  Mud-giants,  is  mere  horror 
^  and  terror  to  the  Pedant  species  everywhere  ;  which,  like  the  owl 
^m  any  sudden  brightness,  has  to  shut  its  eyes,— or  hastily  pro- 
^  cure  smoked-spectacles  on  an  improved  principle.     Heaven's  bri^^ht- 

ness  would  be  intolerable  otherwise.  Only  your  eagle  dares  fook 
i  direct  into  the  fire-radiance  ;  only  your  Schiller  climbs  aloft  "  to  dis- 
<  cover  whence  the  lightning  is  coming."     "  Godlike  men  love  light- 

mn§,  says  one.    Our  old  Nor^e  fathers  called  it  a  God  ;  the  sunny 


ANTI-DRYASDUST.  vj 

blue-eyed  Thor,with  his  all-conquering  thunder-hammer, — who  again, 
in  calmer  season,  is  beneticent  Summer-heat.  Godless  men  love  it 
not ;  shriek  murder  when  they  see  it  ;  shutting  their  eyes,  and  hastily 
procuring  smoked-spectacles.  O  Dryasdust;  thou  art  great  and  thrice 

great  ! ' 

'  But  alas,'  exclaims  he  elsewhere,  getting  his  eye  on  the  real  nodus 
of  the  matter,  '  what  is  it,  all  this  Rushworthian  inarticulate  ^ubbish- 

*  continent,  in  its  ghastly  dim  twilight,  with  its  haggard  wrecks  and 

*  pale  shadows  ;   what  is   it,  but  the  common  Kingdom  of  Death  ,? 

*  This  is  what  we  call  Death,  this  mouldering  dumb  wilderness  of 

*  things   once  alive     Behold  here  the  final  evanescence  of  Formed 

*  human  things  :  they  had  form,  but  they  are  changing  into  sheer 
'  formlessness  ; — ancient  human  speech  itself  has  sunk  into  unintel- 
'  ligible  maundering.     This  is  the  collapse,  the  etiolation  of  human 

*  features  into  mouldy  blank  ;    ^/jsolution  ;    progress    towards  utter 

*  silence  aud  disappearance  ;  disastrous  ever-deepening  Dusk  of  Gods 

*  and  Men  ! Why  has  the  living  ventured  thither,  down  from  the 

'  cheerful  light,  across  the  Lethe-swamps  and  tartarean  Phlegethons, 

*  onwards  to  these  baleful  halls  of  the  Dis  anrf  the  three-headed  Dog .? 
'  Some  Destiny  drives  him.  It  is  his  sins,  I  suppose  : — perhaps  it  is 
'  his  love,  strong  as  that  of  Orpheus  for  the  lost  Eurydice,  and  likely  to 
'  have  no  better  issue  1 ' — 

Wen,  it  would  seem  the  resuscitation  of  a  Heroism  from  the  Past 
Time  is  no  easy  enterprise.  Our  impatient  friend  seems  really  getting 
sad  !     We  can  well   believe   him,   there   needs   pious   love   in   any 

*  Orpheus '  that  will  risk  descending  to  the  Gloomy  Halls  ;— descend- 
ing, it  may  be,  and  fronting  Cerberus  and  Dis,  to  no  purpose  !  For 
it  oftenest  proves  so;  nay,  as  the  Mythologists  would  teach  us, 
always.  Here  is  another  Mythus.  Balder  the  white  Sungod,  say  our 
Norse  Skalds,  Balder,  beautiful  as  the  summer  dawn,  loved  of  gods 
and  men,  was  dead.  His  Brother  Hermoder,  urged  by  his  Mother's 
tears  and  the  tears  of  the  Universe,  went  forth  to  seek  him.  He  rode 
through  gloomy  winding  val-eys,  of  a  dismal  leaden  colour,  full  of 
howling  winds  and  subterranean  torrents  ;  nine  days  ;  ever  deeper, 
down  towards  Hela's  Death-realm  :  at  Lonesome  Bridge,  which,  with 
its  gold  gate,  spans  the  River  of  Moaning,  he  found  the  Portress,  an 
ancient  woman,  called  Modgudr,  '  the  Vexer  of  Minds,'  keeping  watch 
us  usual  :  Modgudr  answered  him,  "  Yes,  Balder  passed  this  way  ; 
"  but  he  is  not  here  ;  he  is  down  yonder, — far,  still  far  to  the  North, 
"  within  Hela's  Gates  yonder."  Hermoder  rode  on,  still  dauntless,  on 
his  horse,  named  '  Swiftness'  or  '  Mane  of  Gold  ;'  reached  Hela's 
gates  ;  leapt  sheer  over  them,  mounted  as  he  was  ;  saw  Balder,  the 
very  Balder,  with  his  eyes  : — but  could  not  bring  him  back  !  The 
Nomas  were  inexorable;  Balder  was  never  to  come  back.  Balder 
beckoned  him  mournfully  a  still  adieu  ;  Nanna,  Balder's  Wife,  sent 
'  a  thimble '  to  her  mother  as  a  memorial  :  Balder  never  could  return  ! 

Is  not  this  an  emblem  ?     Old  Portress  Modgudr,  I  take  it,  is 

Dryasdust  in  Norse  petticoat  and  hood ;  a  most  unlovely  beldame, 
the  '  Vexer  of  Minds  !' 

We  will  here  take  final  leave  of  our  impatient  friend,  occupied  in 


i8  INTRODUCTION. 


this  almost  desperate  enterprise  of  his  ;  we  will  wish  him,  which  it  is 
very  easy  to  do,  more  patience^  and  better  success  than  he  seems  to 
hope.  And  now  to  our  own  small  enterprise,  and  soUd  despatch  of 
business  in  plain  prose  ! 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF  THE  BIOGRAPHIES  OF  OLIVER. 


Ours  is  a  very  small  enterpris-e,  but  seemingly  a  useful  one  ;  pre- 
paratory perhaps  to  greater  and  more  useful,  on  this  same  matter  : 
The  collecting  of  the  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  and 
presenting  them  in  natural  sequence,  with  the  still  possible  elucida- 
tion, to  ingenuous  readers.  This  is  a  thing  that  can  be  done  ;  and 
after  some  reflection,  it  has  appeared  worth  doing.  No  great  thing  : 
one  other  dull  Book  added  to  the  thousand,  dull  every  one  of  them, 
which  have  been  issued  on  this  subject  !  But  situated  as  we  are,  new 
Dulness  is  unhappily  inevitable  ;  readers  do  not  reascend  out  of  deep 
confusions  without  some  trouble  as  they  climb. 

These  authentic  utterances  of  the  man  Oliver  himself— I  have 
gathered  them  from  far  and  near  ;  fished  them  up  from  the  foul 
Lethean  quagmires  where  they  lay  buried  ;  I  have  washed,  or  endea- 
voured to  wash  them  clean  from  foreign  stupidities  (such  a  job  of 
buck-washing  as  I  do  not  long  to  repeat)  ;  and  the  world  shall  now 
see  them  in  their  own  shape.  Working  for  long  years  in  those  un- 
speakable Historic  Provinces,  of  which  the  reader  has  already  had 
account,  it  becomes  more  and  more  apparent  to  one,  That  this  man 
Oliver  Cromwell  was,  as  the  popular  fancy  represents  him,  the  soul  of 
the  Puritan  Revolt,  without  whom  it  had  never  been  a  revolt  transcen- 
dently  memorable,  and  an  Epoch  in  the  World's  History  ;  that  in 
fact  he,  more  than  is  common  in  such  cases,  does  deserve  to  give  his 
name  to  the  Period  in  question,  and  have  the  Puritan  Revolt  con- 
sidered as  a  Cromwelliad,  which  issue  is  already  very  visible  for  it. 
And  then  farther,  altogether  contrary  to  the  popular  fancy  it  becomes 
apparent  that  this  Oliver  was  not  a  man  of  falshoods,  but  a  man  of 
truths  ;  whose  words  do  carry  a  meaning  with  them,  and  above  all 
others  of  that  time,  are  worth  considering.  His  words, — and  still 
more  his  silences,  and  unconscious  instincts,  when  you  have  spelt  and 
lovingly  deciphered  these  also  out  of  bis  words, — will  in  several  ways 
reward  the  study  of  an  earnest  man.  An  earnest  man,  I  apprehend, 
may  gather  from  these  words  of  Oliver's,  were  there  even  no  other 
evidence,  that  the  character  of  Oliver  and  of  the  Affairs  he  worked 
in  is  much  the  reverse  of  that  mad  jumble  of  '  hypocrisies/  &c.  &c., 
which  at  present  passes  current  as  such. 

But  certainly,  on  any  hypothesis  as  to  that,  such  a  set  of  Docu- 
«i^wt5  may  hope  to  be  eluci4fttjve  in  various  respects,    Oliver's  Cha-« 


BIOGRAPHIES   OF  OLIVER.  19 

racter,  and  that  of  Oliver's  Performance  in  this  world  :  here  best  of 
all  we  may  expect  to  read  it,  whatsoever  it  was.  Even  if  false,  these 
words,  authentically  spoken  and  written  by  the  chief  actor  in  the 
business,  must  be  of  prime  moment  for  understanding  of  it.  These 
are  the  words  this  man  found  suitablest  to  represent  the  Things  them- 
selves, around  him,  and  in  him,  of  which  we  seek  a  History.  The 
newborn  Things  and  Events,  as  they  bodied  themselves  forth  to 
Oliver  Cromwell  from  the  Whirlwind  of  the  passing  Time, — this  is 
the  name  and  definition  he  saw  good  to  give  of  them.  To  get  at 
these  direct  utterances  ot  his,  is  to  get  at  the  very  heart  of  the  busi- 
ness ;  were  there  once  light  for  us  in  these,  the  business  had  begun 
again  at  the  heart  of  it  to  be  luminous  ! — On  the  whole,  we  will  start 
with  this  small  service,  the  letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Oouiwell 
washed  into  something  of  legibility  again,  as  the  preliminary  of  all. 
May  it  prosper  wiih  a  few  serious  readers.  The  heart  of  that  Grand 
Puritan  Business  once  again  becoming  visible,  even  in  faint  twilight 
to  mankind,  what  masses  ot  brutish  darkness  will  gradually  vanish 
from  all  fibres  of  it,  from  the  whole  body  and  environment  of  it,  and 
trouble  no  man  any  more  !  Masses  of  foul  darkness,  sordid  con- 
fusions not  a  few,  as  I  calculate,  which  now  bury  this  matter  very 
deep,  may  vanish  :  the  heart  of  this  matter  and  the  heart  of  serious 
men  once  again  brought  into  approximation,  to  write  some  '  History' 
of  it  may  be  a  little  easier, — for  my  impatient  friend  or  another. 

To  dwell  on  or  criticise  the  particular  Biographies  oi  Cromwell, 
after  what  was  so  emphatically  said  above  on  the  general  subject, 
would  profit  us  but  little.  Criticism  of  these  poor  Books  cannot 
express  itself  except  in  language  that  is  painful.  They  far  surpass  in 
'  stupidity '  all  the  celebrations  any  Hero  ever  had  in  this  world 
before.  They  are  in  fact  worthy  of  oblivion, — of  charitable  Christian 
burial. 

Mark  Noble  reckons  up  some  half  dozen  '  Original  Biographies  of 
Cromwell  ;  '*  all  of  which  and  some  more  I  have  examined  ;  but  can- 
not advise  any  other  man  to  examine.  There  are  several  laudatory, 
worth  nothing  ;  which  ceased  to  be  read  when  Charles  II.  came  back, 
and  the  tables  were  turned.  The  vituperative  are  many  :  but  the 
origin  of  them  all,  the  chief  fountain  indeed  of  all  the  foolish  lies 
that  have  circulated  about  Oliver  since,  is  the  mournful  brown  little 
Book  called  Flagellum,  or  the  Life  and  Death  of  O.  Cromwell^  the 
late  Usurper^  by  James  Heath  ;  which  was  got  ready  so  soon  as 
possible  on  the  back  of  the  Annus  Mirabilis  or  Glorious  Restora- 
tion,t  and  is  written  in  such  spirit  as  we  may  fancy.  When  restored 
potentates  and  high  dignitaries  had  dug  up  '  above  a  hundred  buried 
'  corpses,  and  flung  them  in  a  heap  in  St.  Margaret's  Churchyard,' 
ihe  corpse  of  Admiral  Blake  among  them,  and  Oliver's  old  Mother's 
corpse  ;  and  were  hanging  on  Tyburn  gallows,  as  some  small  satis- 
faction to  themselves,  the  dead  clay  of  Ohver,  of  Ireton,  and  Brad- 
shaw  ; — when  high  dignitaries  and  potentates  were  in  such  a  humour, 
what  could  be  expected  of  poor  pamphleteers  and  garreteers.''  Heath's 

*  Noble's  Cromwell,  i.  294-300.     His  list  is  very  inaccurate  and  incomplete, 
but  not  worth  completing  or  rectifying. 
f  The  First  Edition  seems  to  be  of  06^, 


20  INTRODUCTION, 

poor  little  brown  lying  Flagellum  is  described  by  one  of  the  moderns 
as  a  '  Flagitiumj'  and  Heath  himself  is  called  '  Carrion  Heath,'— as 
being  '  an  unfortunate  blasphemous  dullard,  and  scandal  to  Humanity  ; 
'—blasphemous  ;  who  when  the  image  of  God  is  shining  througii  a 

*  man,  reckons  it  in  his  sordid  soul  to  be  the  image  of  the  Devil,  and 

*  acts  accordingly ;  who  in  fact  has   no  soul  except  what  save^  him 

*  the  expense  of  salt;  who  intrinsically  is  Carrion  and  not  Humanity  :' 
which  seems  hard  measure  to  poor  James  Heath.  'He  was  the  son 
'  of  the  King's  Cutler,'  says  Wood,  '  and  wrote  pamphlets,'  the  best 
he  was  able,  poor  man.  He  has  become  a  dreadfully  dull  individual, 
in  addition  to  all ! — Another  wretched  old  Book  of  his,  called  Chronicle 
of  the  Civil  IVars,  bears  a  high  price  in  the  Dilettante  Sale-cata- 
logues ;  and  has,  as  that  Fla^elbim  too  has,  here  and  there  a  credible 
trait  not  met  with  elsewhere  :  but  in  fact,  to  the  ingenuous  inquirer, 
this  too  is  little  other  than  a  tenebrific  Book  ;  cannot  be  read  except 
with  sorrow,  with  torpor  and  disgust, — and  in  fine,  if  you  be  of  healthy 
memory,  with  oblivion.  The  latter  end  of  Heath  has  been  worse  than 
the  beginning  was  !  From  him,  and  his  Flagellums  and  scandalou's 
Human  Platitudes,  let  no  rational  soul  seek  knowledge. 

Among  modern  Biographies,  the  great  original  is  that  of  Mark 
Noble  above  cited  ;*  such  '  original'  as  there  is  :  a  Book,  if  we  must 
call  it  a  Book,  abounding  in  facts  and  pretended-facts  more  than  any 
other  on  this  subject.  Poor  Noble  has  gone  into  much  research  of 
old  leases,  marriage-contracts,  deeds  of  sale  and  such  Hke  :  he  is 
learned  in  parish-registers  and  genealogies,  has  consulted  pedigrees 
'  measuring  eight  feet  by  two  feet  four  ; '  goes  much  upon  heraldry  ; 
— in  fact,  has  amassed  a  large  heap  of  evidences  and  assertions,  worth- 
less and  of  worth,  respecting  Cromwell  and  his  Connexions  ;  from 
which  the  reader,  by  his  own  judgment,  is  to  extract  what  he  can. 
For  Noble  himself  is  a  man  of  extreme  imbecility  ;  his  judgment,  for 
most  part,  seeming  to  lie  dead  asleep  ;  and  indeed  it  is  worth  little 
when  broadest  awake.  He  falls  into  manifold  mistakes,  commits  and 
omits  in  all  ways  ;  plods  along  contented,  in  an  element  of  perennial 
dimness,  purblindness  ;  has  occassionaliy  a  helpless  broad  innocence 
of  platitude  which  is  almost  interesting.  A  man  indeed  of  extreme 
imbecility  ;  to  whom  nevertheless  let  due  gratitude  be  borne. 

His  Book,  in  fact,  is  not  properly  a  Book,  but  rather  an  Aggregate 
of  bewildered  jottings  ;  a  kind  of  Cromwellian  Biographical  Diction- 
ary, wantififi  the  alphabetical,  or  any  other,  arrangement  or  index  : 
which  latter  want,  much  more  remediable  than  the  want  of  judgment, 
is  itself  a  great  sorrow  to  the  reader.  Such  as  it  is,  this  same  Dic- 
tionary without  judgment  and  without  arrangement,  '  bad  Dictionary- 
gone  to  pie,'  as  we  may  call  it,  is  the  storehouse  from  which  subse- 
quent Biographies  have  all  furnished  themselves.  The  reader,  with 
continual  vigilance  of  suspicion,  once  knowing  what  man  he  has  to  do 
with,  digs  through  it,  and  again  through  it ;  covers  the  margins  of  it 
with  notes  and  contradictions,  with  references,  deductions,  rectifica- 
tions, execrations, — in  a  sorrowful,  but  not  entirely  unprofitable 
manner.     Another  Book  of  Noble's,  called  Lives  of  the  Regicides ^ 

*  Memoirs  of  the  Protectoral  Bouse  of  Cromwell,  by  the  Rev.  Mark  NoblfJ? 
?  V0I5.     Lpndon,  1787. 


mOGRAPHlES  OP"  OLIVER.  2i 

written  some  years  afterwards,  during  the  French  Jacobin  time,  is  of 
much  more  stupid  character;  nearly  meaningless  indeed  ;  mere  water 
bewitched  ;  which  no  man  need  buy  or  read  :  and  it  is  said  he  has  a 
third  Book,  on  some  other  subject,  stupider  still,  which  latter  point, 
however,  may  be  considered  questionable. 

For  the  rest,  this  poor  Noble  is  of  very  impartial  mind  respecting 
Cromwell  ;  open  to  receive  good  of  him,  and  to  receive  evil,  even  in- 
consistent evil  :  the  helpless,  incoherent,  but  placid  and  favourable 
notion  he  has  of  Cromwell  in  1787,  contrasts  notably  with  that  which 
Carrion  Heath  had  gathered  of  him  in  1663.  For,  in  spite  of  the 
stupor  of  Histories,  it  is  beautiful,  once  more,  to  see  how  the  Memory 
of  Cromwell,  in  its  huge  inarticulate  significance,  not  able  to  speak  a 
wise  word  for  itself  to  any  one,  has  nevertheless  been  steadily  grow- 
ing clearer  and  clearer  in  the  popular  Enghsh  mind;  how  from  the  day 
when  high  dignitaries  and  pamphleteers  of  the  Carrion  species  did 
their  ever-memorable  feat  at  Tyburn,  onwards  to  this  day,  the  pro- 
gress does  not  stop.  In  1698,*  one  of  the  earliest  words  expressly  in 
favour  of  Cromwell  was  written  by  a  Critic  of  Ludlow's  Memoirs. 
The  anonymous  Critic  explains  to  solid  Ludlow  that  he,  in  that  solid 
but  somewhat  wooden  head  of  his,  had  not  perhaps  seen  entirely  into 
the  centre  of  the  Universe,  and  workshop  of  the  Destinies  ;  that,  in 
fact,  Oliver  was  a  questionable  uncommon  man,  and  he  Ludlow  a 
common  handfast,  honest,  dull  and  indeed  partly  wooden  man, — in 
whom  it  might  be  wise  to  form  no  theory  at  all  of  Cromwell.  By  and 
by,  a  certain  '  Mr.  Banks,'  a  kind  of  Lawyer  and  Playwright,  if  1  mis- 
take not,  produced  a  still  more  favourable  view  of  Cromwell,  but  in  a 
work  otherwise  of  no  moment  ;  the  exact  date,  and  indeed  the  whole 
substance  of  which  is  hardly  worth  remembering.t  The  Letter  of 
'  John  Maidston  to  Governor  Winthrop,' — Winthrop  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut, a  Suffolk  man,  of  much  American  celebrity, — is  dated  1659  ; 
but  did  not  come  into  print  till  1742,  along  with  Thurloe's  other 
Papers.;]:  Maidston  had  been  an  Officer  in  Oliver's  Household,  a 
Member  of  his  Parliaments,  and  knew  him  well.  An  Essex  man  he  ; 
probably  an  old  acquaintance  of  Winthrop's  ;  visibly  a  man  of  honest 
affections,  of  piety,  decorum,  and  good  sense.  Whose  loyalty  to  Oliver 
is  of  a  genuine  and  altogether  manful  nature,— mostly  silent,  as  we 
can  discern.  He  had  already  published  a  credible  and  still  interest- 
ing little  pamphlet,  Passages  concerning  his  late  Highnesses  last  Sick- 
ness; to  which,  if  space  permit,  we  shall  elsewhere  refer.  In  these 
two  little  off-hand  bits  of  writing  there  is  a  clear  credibility  for  the 
reader  ;  and  more  insight  obtainable  as  to  Oliver  and  his  ways  than 
in  any  of  the  express  Biographies. 

That  anonymous  Life  of  Cromwell,  which  Noble  very  ignorantly 
ascribes  to  Bishop  Gibson,  which  is  written  in  a  neutral  spirit,  as  an 
impartial  statement  of  facts,  but  not  without  a  secret  decided  leaning 

i  *  So  dated  in  Somers  Tracts  (London,  181 1),  vi.  416,— but  liable  to  correction 
f  needful.  Poor  Noble  (i.  297)  gives  the  same  date,  and  then  placidly,  in  the 
next  line,  subjoins  a  fact  inconsistent  with  it.     As  his  manner  is  ! 

t  Short  Critical  Review  of  the  Life  of  Ohver  Cromwell :  By  a  Gentleman  of  the 
Middle  Temple.     London,  1739. 
X  Thurloe,  i.  763-8. 


m  iNTkODUCTtON. 


to  Cromwell,  came  out  in  1724.  It  is  the  Life  of  Crofnwell  found 
commonly  in  Libraries  :*  it  went  through  several  editions  in  a  pure 
state  ;  and  1  have  seen  a  '  fifth  edition  w^ith  loreign  intermixtures, 
'  printed  at  Birmingham  in  1778,'  on  grey  paper,  seemingly  as  a  Book 
for  Hawkers.  The  Author  of  it  was  by  no  means  'Bishop  Gibson,' 
but  one  Kimber,  a  Dissenting  Minister  of  London,  known  otherwise 
as  a  compiiei  ot  books.  He  has  diligently  gathered  Irom  old  News- 
papers and  other  such  sources  ;  narrates  in  a  dull,  steady,  concise, 
but  altogether  unintelligent  manner ;  can  be  read  without  offence, 
but  hardly  with  any  real  instruction.  Image  of  Cromwell's  self  there 
is  none,  express  or  implied,  in  this  Book  ;  for  the  man  himself  had 
none,  and  did  not  feel  the  want  of  any :  nay  in  regard  to  external 
facts  also,  there  are  inaccuracies  enough, — here  too,  what  is  the 
general  rule  in  these  books,  you  can  find  as  many  inaccuracies  as  you 
like  :  dig  where  you  please,  water  will  come !  As  a  crown  to  all  the 
modern  Biographies  of  Cromwell,  let  us  note  Mr.  Forster's  late  one  :t 
full  of  interesting  original  excerpts,  and  indications  of  what  is  nota- 
blest  in  the  old  Books  ;  gathered  and  set  forth  with  real  merit,  with 
energy  in  abundance  and  superabundance  ;  amounting  in  result,  we 
may  say,  to  a  vigorous  decisive  tearing  up  of  all  the  old  hypotheses 
on  the  subject,  and  an  opening  of  the  general  mind  for  new. 

Of  Cromwell's  actual  biography,  from  these  and  from  all  Books  and 
sources,  there  is  extremely  little  to  be  known.  It  is  from  his  own 
words,  as  I  have  ventured  to  believe,  from  his  own  Letters  and 
Speeches  well  read,  that  the  world  may  first  obtain  some  dim  glimpse 
of  the  actual  Cromwell,  and  see  him  darkly  face  to  face.  What  little 
is  otherwise  ascertainable,  cleared  from  the  circumambient  inanity 
and  insanity,  may  be  stated  in  brief  compass.  So  much  as  precedes 
the  earliest  still  extant  Letters,  I  subjoin  here  in  the  form  most  con- 
venient. 


CHAPTER   IIL 


OF  THE  CROMWELL   KINDRED. 


Oliver  Cromwell,  afterwards  Protector  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  England,  was  born  at  Huntingdon,  in  St.  John's  Parish  there,  on 
the  25th  of  April  1599,  Christened  on  the  29th  of  the  same  month  ; 
as  the  old  Parish-registers  of  that  Church  still  legibly  testify.^ 

His  father  was  Robert  Cromwell,  younger  son  of  Sir  Henry  Crom- 
well, and  younger  brother  of  Sir  Oliver  Cromwell,  Knights  both  ;  who 

*  The  Life  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  Lord  Protector  of  the  Commonwealth.  Impar- 
tially collected,  &c,  London,  1724.  Distinguished  also  by  a  not  intolerable 
portrait. 

t  Statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth,  by  John  Forster  (London,  1840),  vols,  iv, 
and  V. 

\  Noble,  i.  92. 


THE  CROMWELL  KINDRED.  23 

dwelt  successively,  in  rather  sumptuous  fashion,  at  the  Mansion  of 
Hinchinbrook  hard  by.  His  Mother  was  Elizabeth  Steward,  daughter 
of  William  Steward,  Esquire,  in  Ely  ;  an  opulent  man,  a  kind  of  here- 
ditary farmer  of  the  Cathedral  Tithes  and  Church  lands  round  that 
city ;  in  which  capacity  his  son.  Sir  Thomas  Steward,  Knight,  in  due 
time  succeeded  him,  resident  also  at  Ely.  Elizabeth  was  a  young 
widow  when  Robert  Cromwell  married  her:  the  first  marriage,  to  one 
'  William  Lynne,  Esquire,  of  Bassingbourne  in  Cambridgeshire,'  had 
lasted  but  a  year:  husband  and  only  child  are  buried  in  Ely  Cathedral, 
where  their  monument  still  stands  ;  the  date  of  their  deaths,  which 
followed  near  on  one  another,  is  1 589.*  The  exact  date  of  the  young 
widow's  marriage  to  Robert  Cromwell  is  nowhere  given ;  but  seems  to 
have  been  in  isgi.f  Our  Oliver  was  their  fifth  child;  their  second 
boy  ;  but  the  first  soon  died.  They  had  ten  children  in  all ;  of  whom 
seven  came  to  maturity,  and  Oliver  was  their  only  son.  I  may  as 
well  print  the  little  Note,  smelted  long  ago  out  of  huge  dross-heaps 
in  Noble's  Book,  that  the  reader  too  may  have  his  small  benefit 
of  itt 

This  Elizabeth  Steward,  who  had  now  become  Mrs.  Robert  Crom- 
well, was,  say  the  genealogists,  '  indubitably  descended  from  the  Royal 
Stewart  Family  of  Scotland ; '  and  could  still  count  kindred  with 
them.  '  From  one  Walter  Steward,  who  had  accompanied  Prince 
James  of  Scotland,'  when  our  inhospitable  politic  Heniy  IV.  detained 
the  poor  Prince,  driven  in  by  stress  of  weather  to  him  here.  Walter 
did  not  return  with  the  Prince  to  Scotland ;  having  '  fought  tourna- 
ments,'— having  made  an  advantageous  marriage-settlement  here. 
One  of  his  descendants,  Robert  Steward,  happened  to  be  Prior  of  Ely 
when  Henry  VHI.  dissolved  the  Monasteries  ;  and,  proving  pliant  on 
that  occasion,  Robert  Steward,  last  Popish  Prior,  became  the  first 
Protestant  Dean  of  Ely,  and — 'was  remarkably  attentive  to  his 
family,'  says  Noble.     The  profitable  Farming  of  the  Tithes  at  Ely, 

*  Noble,  ii.  198,  and  MS.  penes  me.  +  Noble,  i.  88. 

X  .  Oliver  Cromwell's  Brothers  and  Sisters. 

Oliver's  mother  had  been  a  widow  (Mrs.  Lynne  of  Bassingbourne)  before 
marrying  Robert  Cromwell;   neither  her  age  nor  his  is  discoverable  here. 

1.  First  child  (seemingly),  Joan,  baptised  24th  September,  1592;  she  died  in 
1600  (Noble,  i.  88). 

2.  Elizabeth,  14th  October,  1593 ;  died  unmarried,  thinks  Noble,  in  1672,  at 
Ely. 

3.  Henry,  31st  August,  1595 ;  died  young,  '  before  1617.' 

4.  Catherine,  7th  February,  1596-7 ;  married  to  Whitstone,  a  Parliamentary 
Officer;   then  to  Colonel  Jones. 

5.  Oliver,  born  asih  April,  1599. 

6.  Margaret,  22d  February,  t6oo-i  ;  she  became  Mrs.  Wauton,  or  Walton, 
Huntingdonshire;   her  son  was  killed  at  Marston  Moor, — as  we  shall  see. 

7.  Anna,  2d  January,  1602-3  ;  Mrs.  Sewster,  Huntingdonshire ;  died  ist 
November,  1646  : — her  Brother  Oliver  had  just  ended  the  '  first  Civil  War '  then. 

8.  Jane,  19th  January,  1605-6 ;  Mrs.  Disbrowe,  Cambridgeshire  ;  died, 
seenii7igly,  in  1656. 

9.  Robert,  18th  January,  1608-9  I  died  same  April. 

10.  Robina,  so  named  for  the  above  Robert  :  uncertain  date  :  became  Mrs. 
Dr.  French  ;  then  Mrs.  Bishop  Wilkins  :  her  daughter  by  French,  her  one  child, 
was  married  to  Archbishop  'I  illotson. 


24  INTRODUCTION. 


above  mentioned  ;  this,  and  other  settlements,  and  good  dotations  of 
Church  lands  among  his  Nephews,  were  the  fruits  of  Robert  Steward's 
pliancy  on  that  occasion.  The  genealogists  say,  there  is  no  doubt  of 
this  pedigree  ;— and  explain  in  intricate  tables,  how  Elizabeth  Steward, 
Mother  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  was  indubitably  either  the  ninth,  or  the 
tenth,  or  some  other  fractional  part  of  half  a  cousin  to  Charles  Stuart 
King  of  England. 

Howsoever  related  to  Charles  Stuart  or  to  other  parties,  Robert 
Cromwell,  younger  son  of  the  Knight  of  Hinchinbrook,  brought  her 
home,  we  see,  as  his  Wife,  to  Huntingdon,  about  1591  ;  and  settled 
with  her  there,  on  such  portion,  with  such  prospects  as  a  cadet  of  the 
House  of  Hinchinbrook  might  have.  Portion  consisting  of  certain 
lands  and  messuages  round  and  in  that  Town  of  Huntingdon,— where, 
in  the  current  name  '  Cromwell's  Acre,'  if  not  in  other  names  applied 
to  lands  and  messuages  there,  some  feeble  echo  of  him  and  his  pos- 
sessions still  survives,  or  seems  to  survive.  These  lands  he  himself 
farmed :  the  income  in  all  is  guessed  or  computed  to  have  been  about 
300/.  a  year  ;  a  tolerable  fortune  in  those  times  ;  perhaps  solnewhat 
like  1000/.  now.  Robert  Cromwell's  Father,  as  we  said,  and  then  his 
elder  Brother,  dwelt  successively  in  good  style  at  Hinchinbrook  near 
by.  It  was  the  Father  Sir  Henry  Cromwell,  who  from  his  sumptuosity 
was  called  the  "  Golden  Knight,"  that  built,  or  that  enlarged,  re- 
modelled and  as  good  as  built,  the  Mansion  of  Hinchinbrook,  which 
had  been  a  Nunnery,  while  Nunneries  still  were  :  it  was  the  son.  Sir 
Oliver,  likewise  an  expensive  man,  that  sold  it  to  the  Montagues, 
since  Earls  of  Sandwich,  whose  seat  it  still  is.  A  stately  pleasant 
House,  among  its  shady  lawns  and  expanses,  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Ouse  river,  a  short  half  mile  west  of  Huntingdon  ; — still  stands  pretty 
much  as  Oliver  Cromwell's  Grandfather  left  it  ;  rather  kept  good  and 
defended  from  the  inroads  of  Time  and  Accident,  than  substantially 
altered.  Several  Portraits  of  the  Cromwells,  and  other  interesting 
portraits  and  memorials  of  the  Seventeenth  and  subsequent  centuries, 
are  still  there.  The  Cromwell  blazonry  '  on  the  great  bay  window,' 
which  Noble  makes  so  much  of,  is  now  gone  ;  has  given  place  to 
Montague  blazonry  ;  and  no  dull  man  can  bore  us  with  that  any 
more. 

Huntingdon  itself  lies  pleasantly  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Ouse  ; 
sloping  pleasantly  upwards  from  Ouse  Bridge,  which  connects  it  with 
the  old  village  of  Godmanchester  ;  the  Town  itself  consisting  mainly 
of  on 3  fair  street,  which  towards  the  north  end  of  it  opens  into  a  kind 
of  irregular  market-place,  and  then  contracting  again  soon  terminates. 
The  two  churches  of  All-Saints  and  St.  John's,  as  you  walk  up  north- 
ward from  the  Bridge,  appear  successively  on  your  left ;  the  church- 
yards flanked  with  shops  or  other  houses.  The  Ouse,  which  is  of  very 
circular  course  in  this  quarter,  '  winding  as  if  reluctant  to  enter  the 
Fen-country,'  says  one  Topographer,  has  still  a  respectable  drab- 
colour,  gathered  from  the  clays  of  Bedfordshire  ;  has  not  yet  the 
Stygian  black  Nvhich  in  a  few  miles  farther  it  assumes  for  good. 
Huntingdon,  as  it  were,  looks  over  into  the  Fens  ;  Godmanchester, 
just  across  the  river,  already  stands  on  black  bog.  The  country  to 
the  East  is  all  Fen  (mostly  unreclaimed  in  Oliver's  time,  and  still  of  a 


THE  CROMWELL  KINDRED,  25 

very  dropsical  character) ;  to  the  West  it  is  hard  green  ground,  agree- 
ably broken  into  httle  heights,  duly  fringed  with  wood,  and  bearing 
marks  of  comfortable  long-continued  cultivation.  Here  on  the  edge 
of  the  firm  green  land,  and  looking  over  into  the  black  marshes  with 
their  alder-trees  and  willow-trees,  did  Oliver  Cromwell  pass  his  young 
years.  Drunken  Barnabee,  who  travelled,  and  drank  and  made  Latin 
rhymes,  in  that  country  about  1635,  through  whose  glistening  satyr- 
eyes  one  can  still  discern  this  and  the  other  feature  of  the  Past, 
represents  to  us  on  the  height  behind  Godmanchester,  as  you 
approach  the  scene  from  Cambridge  and  the  south,  a  big  Oak  Tree, 
— which  has  now  disappeared,  leaving  no  notable  successor. 

Veni  Godmanchester,  ubi 
Ut  Ixion  cap t us  nube. 

Sic,  &r'C, 

And  he  adds  in  a  Note, 

Quercus  anilis  erat,  tamen  eminus  oppida  speciatj 
Stirpe  viam  monstrat,  plumea  fronde  iegit ; — 

Or  in  his  own  English  version. 

An  aged  Oak  takes  of  this  Town  survey, 

Finds  birds  their  nests,  tells  passengers  their  way.* 

If  Oliver  Cromwell  climbed  that  Oak-tree,  in  quest  of  bird-nests  or 
boy-adventures,  the  Tree,  or  this  poor  ghost  of  it,  may  still  have  a  kind 
of  claim  to  memory. 

The  House  where  Robert  Cromwell  dwelt,  where  his  son  Oliver 
and  all  his  family  were  born,  is  still  familiar  to  every  inhabitant  of 
Huntingdon  :  but  it  has  been  twice  rebuilt  since  that  date,  and  now 
bears  no  memorial  whatever  which  even  Tradition  can  connect  with 
him.  It  stands  at  the  upper  or  northern  extremity  of  the  Town, — 
beyond  the  Market-place  we  spoke  of  ;  on  the  left  or  river- ward  side 
of  the  street.  It  is  at  present  a  solid  yellow  brick  house,  with  a  walled 
court-yard  ;  occupied  by  some  townsman  of  the  wealthier  sort.  The 
little  Brook  of  Hinchin,  making  its  way  to  the  Ouse  which  is  not  far 
off,  still  flows  through  the  court-yard  of  the  place, — offering  a  conveni- 
ence for  malting  or  brewing,  among  other  things.  Some  vague  but 
confident  tradition  as  to  Brewing  attaches  itself  to  this  locality  ;  and 
traces  of  evidence,  I  understand,  exist  that  before  Robert  Cromwell's 
time,  it  had  been  employed  as  a  Brewery  :  but  of  this  or  even  of 
Robert  Cromwell's  own  brewing,  there  is,  at  such  a  distance,  in  such 
an  element  of  distracted  calumny,  exaggeration  and  confusion,  httle 
or  no  certainty  to  be  had.  Tradition,  '  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lort's  Manu- 
scripts,' Carrion  Heath,  and  such  testimonies,  are  extremely  insecure 
as  guides  !  Thomas  Harrison,  for  example,  is  always  called  '  the  son 
of  a  Butcher  ; '  which  means  only  that  his  Father,  as  farmer  or  owner, 
had  grazing-lands,  down  in  Staffordshire,  wherefrom  naturally  enough 
proceeded  cattle,  fat  cattle  as  the  case  might  be, — well  tatted,  I  hope. 
Thomas  Cromwell,  Earl  of  Essex  in   Henry  Eight's  time,  is  in  like 

*  Bamabfe  Itinerarium  (London,  18 18),  p.  96. 


26  TNTRODl/CnOM. 


manner  called  always  *  the  son  of  a  Blacksmith  at  Putney  ;  '—and 
whoever  figures  to  himself  a  man  in  black  apron  with  hammer  in 
hand,  and  tries  to  rhyme  this  with  the  rest  of  Thomas  Cromwell's 
history,  will  find  that  here  too  he  has  got  into  an  insolubility.  '  The 
'  splenetic  credulity  and  increduhty,  the  calumnious  opacity,  the  ex-< 

*  aggerative  ill-nature,  and  general  flunkey  ism  and  stupidity  of  man- 

*  kind,'  says  my  author,  'are  ever  to  be  largely  allowed  for  in  such 
'  circumstances.'  We  will  leave  Robert  Cromwell's  brewing  in  a  very 
unilluminated  state.  Uncontradicted  Tradition  and  old  printed 
Royalist  Lampoons  do  call  him  a  Brewer  ;  the  Brook  of  Hinchm, 
running  through  his  premises,  offered  clear  convenience  for  malting 
or  brewing ; — in  regard  to  which,  and  also  to  his  Wife's  assiduous 
management  of  the  same,  one  is  very  willing  to  believe  Tradition. 
The  essential  trade  of  Robert  Cromwell  was  that  of  managing  those 
lands  of  his  in  the  vicinity  of  Huntingdon  :  the  grain  of  them  would 
have  to  be  duly  harvested,  thrashed,  brought  to  market  ;  whether  it  was 
as  corn  or  as  malt  that  it  came  to  market,  can  remain  indifferent  to  us. 

For  the  rest,  as  documents  still  testify,  this  Robert  Cromwell  did 
Burgh  and  Quarter- Session  duties ;  was  not  slack  but  moderately 
active  as  a  country-gentleman  ;  sat  once  in  Parliament  in  his  younger 
years  ;"*  is  found  with  his  elder  or  other  Brothers  on  various  Public 
Commissions  for  Draining  the  Fens  of  that  region,  or  more  properly 
for  inquiring  into  the  possibility  of  such  an  operation  ;  a  thing  much 
noised  of  then  ;  which  Robert  Cromwell,  among  others,  reported  to  be 
very  feasible,  very  promising,  but  did  not  live  to  see  accomplished,  or 
even  attempted.  His  social  rank  is  sufficiently  indicated  ; — and  much 
flunkeyism,  falsity,  and  other  carrion  ought  to  be  buried  !  Better  than 
all  social  rank,  he  is  understood  to  have  been  a  wise,  devout,  stedfast 
and  worthy  man,  and  to  have  lived  a  modest  and  manful  life  in  his 
station  there. 

Besides  the  Knight  of  Hinchinbrook,  he  had  other  Brothers  settled 
prosperously  in  the  Fen  regions,  where  this  Cromwell  Family  had 
extensive  possessions.  One  Brother  Henry  was  '  seated  at  Upwood,' 
a  fenny  district  near  Ramsey  Mere  ;  one  of  his  daughters  came  to  be 
the  wife,  second  wife,  of  Oliver  St.  John,  the  Shipmoney  Lawyer,  the 
political  '  dark-lantern,'  as  men  used  to  name  him  ;  of  whom  we  shall 
hear  farther.  Another  Brother  '  was  seated  '  at  Biggin  House  between 
Ramsey  and  Upwood  :  a  moated  mansion,  with  ditch  and  painted 
paling  round  it.  A  third  Brother  was  seated  at— my  informant  knows 
not  where  !  In  fact  I  had  better,  as  before,  subjoin  the  little  smelted 
Note  which  has  already  done  its  duty,  and  let  the  reader  make  of  that 
what  he  can.f  Of  our  Oliver's  Aunts  one  was  Mrs.  Hampden  of 
Great  Hampden,   Bucks  :  an   opulent,  zealous  person,  not  without 

*  'ssto  Eliz.  :'  Feb.— April,  1593  (Noble,  i.  83  ;  from  Willis). 

t  Oliver's  Uncles. 

I.  Sir  Oliver  of  Hinchinbrook  :  his  eldest  son  John,  bom  in  1589  (ten  years  older 
than  our  Oliver),  went  into  the  army,  '  Colonel  of  an  English  regiment  in  the  Dutch 
service  :'  this  is  the  Colonel  Cromwell  who  is  said  or  fabled  to  have  sought  a  mid- 
night interview  with  Ohver,  in  the  end  of  1648,  for  the  purpose  of  buying  off 
Charles  I, ;  to  have  'laid  his  hand  on  his  sword,"  &c.  &c.     The  story  is  in  Noble, 


THE  CROMWELL  KINDRED  1? 

ambitions  ;  already  a  widow  and  mother  of  two  Boys,  one  of  whom 
proved  very  celebrated  as  John  Hampden  : — she  was  Robert  Crom- 
well's Sister.  Another  Cromwell  Aunt  of  Oliver's  was  married  to 
'  Whalley,  heir  ot  the  Whalley  family  in  Notts;'  another  to  the 
heir  of  the  Dunches  of  Pusey,  in  Berkshire ; '  another  to— 
In  short  the  stories  of  Oliver's  '  poverty/  if  they  were  otherwise  of 
any  moment,  are  all  false  ;  and  should  be  mentioned  here,  if  still 
here,  for  the  last  time.  The  family  was  of  the  rank  of  substantia  i 
gentry,  and  duly  connected  with  such  in  the  counties  round,  tor  three 
generations  back.  Of  the  numerous  and  now  mostly  forgetable 
cousinry  we  specify  farther  only  the  Mashams  of  Otes  in  Essex^  as 
like  to  be  of  some  cursory  interest  to  us  by  and  by. 

There  is  no  doubt  at  all  but  Oliver  the  Protector's  family  was  re- 

i.  51  ;  with  no  authority  but  that  of  Carrion  Heath.  Other  sons  of  his  were 
soldiers,  royahsts  these  :  there  are  various  Cousin  Cromwells  that  confusedly  turn 
up  on  both  sides  of  the  quarrel.  — Robert  Cromwell,  our  OHver's  Father,  was  the 
next  Brother  of  the  Hinchinbrook  Knight.     The  third  Brother,  second  uncle,  was 

2.  Henrv  Cromwell,  of  Upwood  near  Ramsey  Mere  :  adventurer  m  the  Virginia 
Company;' sat  in  Parliament  1603-1611;  one  of  his  daughters  Mrs.  St.  John. 
Died  1630  (Noble,  i.  28). 

3.  Richard  :  '  buys  in  1607'  a  bit  of  ground  in  Huntingdon;  died  'at  Ramsey,' 
1628  ;  was  Member  for  Huntingdon  in  Queen  ELlizabeth's  time  -.—Livedva.  Ramsey? 
Is  buried  at  Upwood. 

4.  Sir  Philip :  Biggin  House  ;  knighted  at  Whitehall,  1604  (Noble,  i.  31).  His 
second  son,  Philip,  was  in  Colonel  Ingoldsby's  regiment  ;— wounded  at  the  storm 
of  Bristol,  in  1645.  Third  son,  Thomas,  was  in  Ireland  with  Strafford  (signs 
Montnorris's  death-warrant  there,  in  1630)  ;  lived  afterwards  in  London;  became 
Major,  and  then  Colonel,  in  the  King  s  Army.  Fourth  son,  Oliver,  was  in  the 
Parliamentary  Army  ;  had  watched  the  King  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, — went  with  his 
cousin,  our  Oliver,  to  Ireland  in  1649,  and  died  or  was  killed  there.  Fifth  son, 
Robert,  '  poisoned  his  Master,  an  Attorney,  and  was  ^rjr^^^^Z  at  London,— \i  then" 
be  truth  in  'Heaths  Flagellum'  (Noble,  i.  35)  'and  some  Pedigrees:'— year  not 
given;  say  about  1635,  when  the  lad,  '  b  )rn  1617,'  was  in  his  18th  year?  I  have 
found  no  hmt  of  this  affair  in  any  other  quarter,  not  in  the  wildest  Royalist-Birken- 
head  or  VValker's-Independency  lampoon ;  and  consider  it  very  possible  that  a 
Robert  Cromwell  having  suffered  '  for  poisoning  an  Attorney,'  he  may  have  been 
called  the  cousin  of  Cromwell  by  '  Heath  and  some  Pedigrees.'  But  of  course 
anybody  can  '  poison  an  Attorney,'  and  be  hanged  for  it ! 


Oliver's  Aunt  Elizabeth  was  married  to  William  Hampden  of  Great  Hampden, 
Bucks  (year  not  given.  Noble,  i.  36,  nor  at  p.  68  of  vol.  ii.  ;  nor  in  Lord  Nugent's 
Memorials  of  Hampden)  :  he  died  in  1597;  she  survived  him  67  years,  continuing 
a  widow  (Noble,  ii.  69).  Buried  in  Great  Hampden  Church,  1664,  aged  90.  She 
had  two  sons,  John  and  Richard  :  John,  born  1594,  — Richard,  an  Oliverian  too, 
died  in  i6:;9  (Noble,  ii.  70). 

.\unt  Jom  (elder  than  Elizabeth)  was  'Lady  Barrington;'  Aunt  Frances, 
(younger)  was  Mrs.  Whalley.  Richard  Whalley  of  Kerton,  Notts ;  a  man  of 
mark;  sheriff,  &c.  ;  three  wives,  children  only  by  this  second,  'Aunt  Fanny.' 
Thomas  Whalley  (no  years  given.  Noble,  ii.  141)  died  in  his  father's  lifetime  ;  left 
a  son  who  was  a  kind  of  royalist,  but  yet  had  a  certain  acceptance  with  Ohver  too. 
Edward  Whalley,  the  famed  '  Colonel,'  and  Henry  Whalley,  '  the  Judge- Advocate' 
(wretched  biographies  of  these  two,  Noble,  pp.  141,  143-56).  Colonel  Whalley 
and  Colonel  Goff,  after  the  Restoration,  fled  to  New  England,  lived  in  'caves' 
there,  and  had  had  a  sore  time  of  it. 

Enough  of  the  Cousinry  ! — 


28  INTRODUCTION. 


lated  to  that  of  Thomas  Cromwell,  Earl  of  Essex,  the  Putney  '  Black- 
smith's' or  Iron-master's  son,  transiently  mentioned  above  ;  the  Malleus 
Monachorum,  or  as  old  Fuller  renders  it,  '  Mauler  of  Monasteries,'  in 
Henry  Eighth's  time.  The  same  old  Fuller,  a  perfectly  veracious  and 
most  intelligent  person,  does  indeed  report  as  of  'his  own  knowledge, 
that  Oliver  Protector,  once  upon  a  time  when  Bishop  Goodman  came 
dedicating  to  him  some  unreadable  semi-popish  jargon  about  the 
*  mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity,'  and  some  adulation  about  '  his  Lord- 
ship's relationship  to  the  former  great  purifier  of  the  Church,'  and 
Mauler  of  Monasteries, — answered  impatiently,  "  My  family  has  no 
relat  on  to  his  !"  This  old  Fuller  reports,  as  of  his  own  knowledge. 
I  have  consulted  the  unreadable  semi-popish  jargon,  for  the  sake  of 
that  Dedication  ;  I  find  that  Oliver's  relationship  to  Thomas  Cromwell 
is  in  any  case  stated  wrong  there,  not  right :  I  reflect  farther  that 
Bishop  Goodman,  oftener  called  '  Bishop  Badman '  in  those  times, 
went  over  to  Popery  ;  had  become  a  miserable  impoverished  old  piece 
of  confusion,  and  at  this  time  could  appear  only  in  the  character  of 
begging  <^^r^,— when,  at  any  rate,  for  it  was  in  the  year  1653,  Oliver 
himself,  having  just  turned  out  the  Long  Parliament,*  was  busy 
enough  !  I  infer  therefore  that  Oliver  said  to  him  impatiently,  with- 
out untruth,  "  You  are  quite  wrong  as  to  all  that  :  good  morning  \ — 
and  that  old  Fuller,  likewise  without  untruth,  reports  it  as  above.     " 

But  at  any  rate  there  is  other  very  simple  evidence  entirely  conclu- 
sive. Richard  or  Sir  Richard  Cromwell,  great-grandfather  of  Oliver 
Protector,  was  a  man  well  known  in  his  day  ;  had  been  very  active  in 
the  work  of  suppressing  monasteries  ;  a  righthand  man  to  Thomas 
the  Mauler  :  and  indeed  it  was  on  Monastic  Property,  chiefly  or 
wholly,  that  he  had  made  for  himself  a  sumptuous  estate  in  those  Fen 
regions.  Now,  of  this  Richard  Cromwell  there  are  two  Letters  to 
Thomas  Cromwell,  'Vicar-General,'  Earl  of  Essex,  which  remain  yet 
visible  among  the  Manuscripts  of  the  British  Museum  ;  in  both  of 
which  he  signs  himself  with  his  own  hand,  'your  most  bounden 
Nephew,' — an  evidence  sufficient  to  set  the  point  at  rest.  Copies  of 
the  Letters  are  in  my  possession  ;  but  I  grudge  to  inflict  them  on  the 
reader.  One  of  them,  the  longer  of  the  two,  stands  printed,  with  all 
or  more  than  all  its  original  mis-spelling  and  confused  obscurity,  in 
Noble  :  t  it  is  dated  '  Stamford,'  without  day  or  year  ;  but  the  context 
farther  dates  it  as  contemporary  with  the  Lincolnshire  Rebellion,  or 

*  The  date  of  Goodman's  Book  is  25th  June,  1653 ;  here  is  the  correct  title  of 
it  (King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to,  no.  73,  §  i)  :  'The  two  great  Mysteries  of  Chris- 
'  tian  Religion;  the  Ineffable  Trinity  and  Wonderful  Incarnation  :  by  G.  G.  G.' 
(meaning  Godfrey  Goodman,  Glocestrensis).  Unfortunate  persons  who  have  read 
Lauds  writings  are  acquainted  with  this  Bishop  Goodman,  or  Badman;  he  died 
a  declared  Papist.  Poor  man,  his  speculations,  now  become  jargon  to  us,  were 
once  very  serious  and  eloquent  to  him  !  Such  is  the  fate  that  soon  overtakes  all 
men  who,  quitting  the  'Eternal  Melodies,'  take  up  their  abode  in  the  outer  Tem- 
porary Discords,  and  seek  their  subsistence  there  !  This  is  the  part  of  the  Dedica- 
tion that  concerns  us  : 

'To  his  Excellency  my  Lord  Oliver  Cromwell,  Lord  General.  My  Lord, — 
Fifty  years  since  the  name  of  Socinus,'  &c.  — '  Knowing  that  the  Lord  Cromwell 
'  (your  Lordship's  great  uncle)  was  then  in  great  favour,  &c. — '  Godfree  Good- 
man.' 

t  i.  242. 


THE  CROMWELL  KINDRED.  29 

Anti-Reformation  riot,  which  was  directly  followed  by  the  more  for- 
midable '  Pilgrimage  of  Grace '  in  Yorkshire  to  the  like  effect,  in  the 
autumn  of  1536.*  Richard,  in  company  with  other  higher  official 
persons,  represents  himself  as  straining  every  nerve  to  beat  down  and 
extinguish  this  traitorous  fanatic  flame,  kindled  against  the  King's 
Majesty  and  his  Reform  of  the  Church  ;  has  an  eye  in  particular  to  a 
certain  Sir  John  Thymbleby  in  Lincolnshire,  whom  he  would  fain 
capture  as  a  ringleader  ;  suggests  that  the  use  of  arms  should  be 
prohibited  to  these  treasonous  populations,  except  under  conditions  ; 
— and  seems  hastening  on,  with  almost  furious  speed  ;  towards  York- 
shire and  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  we  may  conjecture.  The  second 
Letter,  also  without  date  except  '  Saturday,'  shadows  to  us  an  official 
man,  again  on  business  of  hot  haste  ;  journeying  from  Monastery  to 
Monastery  ;  finding  this  Superior  disposed  to  comply  with  the  King's 
Majesty,  and  that  other  not  disposed,  but  capable  of  being  made  so ; 
intimates  farther  that  he  will  be  at  his  own  House  (presumably  Hin- 
chinbrook),  and  then  straightway  '  home,'  and  will  report  progress  to 
my  Lord  in  person  On  the  whole,  as  this  is  the  earliest  articulate 
utterance  of  the  Oliver  Family  ;  and  casts  a  faint  glimmer  of  light, 
as  from  a  single  flint-spark,  into  the  dead  darkness  of  the  foregone 
century  ;  and  touches  withal  on  an  acciuaintance  of  ours  the  '  Prior  of 
Ely,' — Robert  Steward,  last  Popish  Prior,  first  Protestant  Dean  of 
Ely,  and  brother  of  Mrs.  Robert  Cromwell's  ancestor,  which  is  curious 
to  think  of, — we  will  give  the  Letter,  more  especially  as  it  is  very 
short : 

"  To  my  Lord  Cromwell. 

"  I  have  me  most  humbly  commended  unto  your  Lordship.  I  rode 
"  on  Sunday  to  Cambridge  to  my  bed  ;t  and  the  next  morning,  was 
"  up  betimes,  purposing  to  have  found  at  Ely  Mr.  Pollard  and  Mr. 
"  Williams.  But  they  were  departed  before  my  coming  :  and  so, 
"'they 'being  at  dinner  at  Somersham  with  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  I 
"overtook  them  '  there  .'J  At  which  time,  I  opened  your  pleasure 
"  unto  them  in  everything.  Your  Lordship,  I  think,  shall  shortly 
"perceive  the  Prior  of  Ely  to  be  of  a  froward  sort,  by  evident 
"  tokens  ;§  as,  at  our  coming  home,  shall  be  at  large  related  unto 
''  you. 

"  At  the  writing  hereof  we  have  done  nothing  at  Ramsey  ;  saving 
"  that  one  night  I  communed  with  the  Abbot  ;  whom  I  found  con- 
"  formable  to  everything,  as  shall  be  at  this  time  put  in  act.||  And 
"  then,  as  your  Lordship's  will  is,  as  soon  as  we  have  done  at  Ramsey, 
"  we  go  to  Peterborough.     And  from  thence  to  my  House  ;  and  so 

*  Herbert  (in  Kennet,  ii.  204-5). 

f  From  London,  we  suppose. 

X  The  words  within  single  commas,  '  they'  and  '  there,'  are  added,  for  bringing 
out  the  sense;  a  plan  we  shall  follow  in  all  the  Original  Letters  of  this  Col- 
lection. 

S  He  proved  tameable,  Sir  Richard,- and  inade  }'our  Great-grandson  rich,  for 
one  consequence  of  that  ! 

II  Brought  to  legal  black-on-white, 


30 


INTRODUCTION. 


**home.*    The  which,  I   trust,  shall  be  at  the  farthest  on  this  day 
"come  seven  days. 
*'  That  the  Blessed  Trinity  preserve  your  Lordship's  health  I 
"  Your  Lordship's  most  bounden  Nephew, 

"Richard  Cromwell. 

*'From  Ramsey,  on  Tuesday  in  the  morning. "f 

The  other  Letter  is  still  more  express  as  to  the  consanguinity  ;  it 
s^ys,  among  other  things,  '  And  longer  than  I  may  have  heart  so,  as 
*  my  most  bounden  duty  is,  to  serve  the  King's  Grace  with  body, 
'  goods,  and  all  that  ever  I  am  able  to  make  ;  and  your  Lordship,  as 
'  Nature  and  also  your  manifold  kindness  bindeth, — I  beseech  God  I 
'  no  longer  live;  '  As  Nature  bindeth.^  Richard  Cromwell  then  thanks 
him,  with  a  bow  to  the  very  ground,  for  'my  poore  wyef,' who  has  had 
some  kind  remembrance  from  his  Lordship;  thinks  all  'his  travail 
but  a  pastime  ;'  and  remains,  '  at  Stamford  this  Saturday  at  eleven  of 
the  clock, — your  humble  Nephew  most  bounden,'  as  in  the  other  case. 
A  vehement,  swift-riding  man  ! — Nephew,  it  has  been  suggested,  did 
not  mean  in  Henry  the  Eighth's  time  so  strictly  as  it  now  does, 
brother's  or  sister's  son  ;  it  meant  nepos  rather,  or  kinsman  of  a 
younger  generation  :  but  on  all  hypothesis  of  its  meaning,  the  con- 
sanguinity of  Oliver  Protector  of  England  and  Thomas  Mauler  of 
Monasteries  is  not  henceforth  to  be  doubted. 

Another  indubitable  thing  is.  That  this  Richard,  your  Nephew  most 
bounden,  has  signed  himself  in  various  Law-deeds  and  Notarial  papers 
still  extant,  'Richard  Cromwell  alias  Williams  ;'  also  that  his  sons 
and  grandsons  continued  to  sign  Cromwell  alias  Williams  ;  and  even 
that  our  Oliver  himself  in  his  youth  has  been  known  to  sign  so.  And 
then  a  third  indubitable  thing  on  this  matter  is.  That  Leland,  an 
exact  man,  sent  out  by  Authority  in  those  years  to  take  cognisance 
and  make  report  of  the  Church  Establishments  in  England,  and 
whose  well-known  Itinerary  is  the  fruit  of  that  survey,  has  written  in 
that  work  these  words  ;  under  the  head,  '  CommotesJ  in  Glamorgan- 
shire : ' 

'  Kibworth  lieth§  from  the  mouth  of  Remny  up  to  an  Hill  in  the 
'same  Commote,  called  Kevenon,  a  six  miles  from  the  mouth  of 
'  Remny.  This"  Hill  goeth  as  a  Wall  overthwart  betwixt  the  Rivers 
'  of  Thavell  3-i^d  Remny.  A  two  miles  from  this  Hill  by  the  south,  and 
'  a  two   miles  from  Cardiff,  be  vestigia   of  a  Pile  or   Manor  Place 

*  To  London. 

f  MSS.  Cotton.  Cleopatra  E.  IV.  p.  2046.  The  envelope  and  address  are  not 
here ;  but  this  label  of  address,  given  in  a  sixteenth-century  hand,  and  otherwise 
indicated  by  the  text,  is  not  doubtful.  The  signature  alone,  and  line  preceding 
that,  are  in  Richard's  hand.  In  the  Letter  printed  by  Noble  the  address  remains^ 
in  the  hand  of  Richard's  clerk. 

X  Commote  is  the  Welsh  word  Cwmwd,  now  obsolete  as  an  official  division, 
equivalent  to  cantred,  hundred.     Kibworth  Commote  is  now  Kibbor  Hundred. 

§  Extendeth. 

jl  Thaye  means  Taff ;  the  description  of  the  wall-like  Hill  between  these  twc 
streams  is  recognisably  correct;   JC^venon,  spelt  Cevti-on,  "ash-tr^e  ridge,"  is  stii, 

tne  name  of  the  Hju,  r      -  <,  ^    . 


THE   CROMWELL  KINDRED.  31 

*  decayed,  at  Egglis  Newith*  in  the  Parish  of  Landafif.  On  the  south 
'  side  of  this  Hill  was  bom  Richard  William  alias  Cromwell,  in  the 
'  Parish  of  Llanilsen.'t 

That  Richard  Cromwell,  then,  was  of  kindred  to  Thomas  Cromwell ; 
that  he  and  his  family  after  him  signed  '  alias  Williams  ; '  and  that 
Leland,  an  accurate  man,  said  and  printed,  in  the  official  scene  where 
Richard  himself  was  living  and  conspicuous,  he  was  born  in  Glamor- 
ganshire :  these  three  facts  are  indubitable ; — but  to  these  three  we 
must  limit  ourselves.  For,  as  to  the  origin  of  this  same  'alias 
Williams,'  whether  it  came  from  the  general  '  Williamses  of  Berk- 
ishire,':]:   or  from   '  Morgan   Williams,  a  Glamorganshire  gentleman 

•  married  to  the  sister  of  Thomas  Cromwell,'  or  from  whom  or  what 
it  came,  we  have  to  profess  ourselves  little  able,  and  indeed  not  much 
concerned  to  decide.  Williamses  are  many  :  there  is  Richard  Crom- 
well, in  that  old  Letter,  hoping  to  breakfast  with  a  Williams  at  Ely, 
— but  finds  both  him  and  Pollard  gone  !  Facts,  even  trifling  facts, 
when  indisputable  may  have  significance  ;  but  Welsh  Pedigrees, 
'  with  seventy  shields  of  arms,'  '  Glothian  Lord  of  Powys '  (prior  or 
posterior  to  the  Deluge),  though  'written  on  a  parchment  8  feet  by 
'2  feet  4,  bearing  date  1602,  and  belonging  to  the  Miss  Cromwells  of 
'  Hampstead,'§  are  highly  unsatisfactory  to  the  ingenuous  mind  !  We 
have  to  remark  two  things  :  First,  that  the  Welsh  Pedigree,  with  its 
seventy  shields  and  ample  extent  of  sheepskin,  bears  date  London, 
1602  ;  was  not  put  together,  therefore,  till  about  a  hundred  years 
after  the  birth  of  Richard,  and  at  a  great  distance  from  the  scene  of 
that  event :  circumstances  which  affect  the  unheraldic  mind  with 
some  misgivings.  Secondly,  that  '  learned  Dugdale,'  upon  whom 
mainly,  apart  from  these  uncertain  Welsh  sheepskins,  the  story  of 
this  Welsh  descent  of  the  Cromwells  seems  to  rest,  has  unfortunately 
stated  the  matter  in  two  different  ways, — as  being,  and  then  also  as 
not  being, — in  two  places  of  his  learned  Lumber-Book.])  Which  cir- 
cumstance affects  the  unheraldic  mind  with  still  fataller  misgivings, — 
and  in  fact  raises  irrepressibly  the  question  and  admonition,  "  What 
"boots  it?  Leave  the  vain  region  of  blazonry,  of  rusty  broken 
"  shields,  and  genealogical  marine-stores ;  let  it  remain  forever 
"  doubtful  !  The  Fates  themselves  have  appointed  it  even  so.  Let 
"  the  uncertain  Simulacrum  of  a  Glothian,  prior  or  posterior  to  Noah's 
"  Deluge,  hover  between  us  and  the  utter  Void  ;  basing  himself  on  a 
"  dust-chaos  of  ruined  heraldries,  lying  genealogies,  and  saltires 
"  cheeky,  the  best  he  can  ! " 

The  small  Hamlet  and  Parish  Church  of  Cromwell,  or  Crumwell 
(the  Well  of  Crum,  whatever  that  may  be),  still  stands  on  the  Eastern 

•  Eglwys  Nevtydd,  New  Church,  abolished  now. 

t  Noble,  i.  238,  collated  with  Leland  (Oxford,  1769),  iv.  fol.  56,  pp.  37,  8. 
Leland  gathered  his  records  'in  six  years'  between  1533  and  1540;  he  died, 
endeavouring  to  assort  them,  in  1552.  They  were  long  afterwards  published  b^ 
Heame. 

1  Biographia  Britannica  (London,  1789),  iv.  474, 

6  Noble,  i.  i. 

P  Du^dale's  garpnai^e,  ii,  374,  and  ii,  593^ 


32  INTRODUCTION, 


edge  of  Nottinghamshire,  not  far  from  the  left  bank  of  the  Trent ; 
simple  worshippers  still  doing  in  it  some  kind  of  divine  service  every 
Sunday.  From  this,  without  any  ghost  to  teach  us,  we  can  understand 
that  the  Cromwell  kindred  all  got  their  name, — in  very  old  times 
indeed.  From  torpedo  rubbish-records  we  learn  also,  without  great 
difficulty,  that  the  Barons  Cromwell  were  summoned  to  Parliament 
from  Edward  Second's  time  and  downward  ;  that  they  had  their  chief 
seat  at  Tattershall  in  Lincolnshire ;  that  there  were  Cromwells  of 
distinction,  and  of  no  distinction,  scattered  in  reasonable  abundance 
over  that  Fen-country, — Cromwells  Sheriffs  of  their  Counties  there  in 
Richard's  own  time."^  The  Putney  Blacksmith,  Father  of  the  Malleus 
or  Hammer  that  smote  Monasteries  on  the  head, — a  Figure  worthy 
to  take  his  place  beside  Hephaistos,  or  Smith  Mimer,  if  we  ever  get  a 
Pantheon  in  this  Nation, — was  probably  enough  himself  a  Fen- 
country  man  ;  one  of  the  junior  branches,  who  came  to  live  by 
metallurgy  in  London  here.  Richard,  also  sprung  of  the  Fens,  might 
have  been  his  kinsman  in  many  ways,  have  got  the  name  of  Williams 
in  many  ways,  and  even  been  born  on  the  Hill  behind  Cardiff,  inde- 
pendently of  Glothian.  Enough  :  Richard  Cromwell,  on  a  back- 
ground of  heraldic  darkness,  rises  clearly  visible  to  us  ;  a  man 
vehemently  galloping  to  and  fro,  in  that  sixteenth  century  ;  tourneying 
successfully  before  King  Harry,t  who  loved  a  man  ;  quickening  the 
death-agonies  of  Monasteries  ;  growing  great  on  their  spoil  ; — and 
fated,  he  also,  to  produce  another  Malleus  Cromwell  that  smote  a 
thing  or  two.  And  so  we  will  leave  this  matter  of  the  Birth  and 
Genealogy. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

EVENTS   IN  OLIVER'S   BIOGRAPHY. 


The  few  ascertained,  or  clearly  imaginable.  Events  in  Oliver's 
Biography  may  as  well  be  arranged,  for  our  present  purpose,  in  the 
form  of  annals. 

1603. 

Early  in  January  of  this  year,  the  old  Grandfather,  Sir  Henry,  '  the 
Golden  Knight,'  at  Hinchinbrook,  died  -^  our  Oliver,  not  quite  four 
years  old,  saw  funeralia  and  crapes,  saw  Father  and  Uncles  with 
grace  faces,  and  understood  not  well  what  it  meant, — understood 
only,  or  tried  to  understand,  that  the  good  old  grandfather  was  gone 
away,   and  would  never  pat  his  head    any  more.      The  maternal 

*  Fuller's  Worthies,  §  Cambridgeshire,  &c. 

t  Stowe's  Chronicle  (London,  1631),  p.  580;  Stowe's  Survey,  Holinshed,  &c. 

X  Poor  Noble,  unequal  sometimes  to  the  copying  of  a  Parish-register,  with  his 
judgment  asleep,  dates  this  event  1603-4  (^^^  P-  20,  vol.  j.),  and  then  placidly  (at 
p.  40)  states  a  fact  jnggnsigtent  therewith, 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY.  33 

Grandfather,  at  Ely,  was  yet,  and   for  above  a  dozen  years  more, 
living. 

The  same  year,  four  months  afterwards,  King  James,  coming  from 
the  North  to  take  possession  of  the  English  crown,  lodged  two  nights 
at  Hinchinbrook  ;  with  royal  retinue,  with  immense  sumptuosities, 
addressings,  knight-makings,  ceremonial  exhibitions  ;  which  must 
have  been  a  grand  treat  lor  little  Oliver.  His  Majesty  came  from 
the  Belvoir-Castle  region,  '  hunting  all  the  way,'  on  the  afternoon  of 
Wednesday  27th  April  1603  ;  and  set  off,  through  Huntingdon  and 
Godmanchester,  towards  Royston,  on  Friday  forenoon.*  The  Cam- 
bridge Doctors  brought  him  an  Address  while  here  ;  Uncle  Oliver, 
besides  the  ruinously  splendid  entertainments,  gave  him  hounds, 
horses  and  astonishing  gifts  at  his  departure.  In  return  there  were 
Knights  created,  Sir  Oliver  first  of  the  batch,  we  may  suppose  ;  King 
James  had  decided  that  there  should  be  no  reflection  for  the  want  of 
Knights  at  least.  Among  the  large  batches  manufactured  next  year 
was  Thomas  Steward  of  Ely,  henceforth  Sir  Thomas,  Mrs.  Robert 
Cromwell's  Brother,  our  Oliver's  Uncle.  Hinchinbrook  got  great 
honour  by  this  and  other  royal  visits  ;  but  found  it,  by  and  by,  a 
dear-bought  honour. — 

Oliver  s  Biographer's,  or  rather  Carrion  Heath  his  first  Biographer 
whom  the  others  have  copied,  introduce  various  tales  into  these  early 
years  of  Oliver  :  of  his  being  run  away  with  by  an  ape,  along  the 
leads  of  Hinchinbrook,  and  England  being  all  but  delivered  from  him, 
had  the  Fates  so  ordered  it  ;  of  his  seeing  prophetic  spectres  ;  of  his 
robbing  orchards,  and  fighting  tyrannously  with  boys  ;  of  his  acting 
in  School  Plays  ;  of  his  &c.  &c. — The  whole  of  which,  grounded  on 
'Human  Stupidity'  and  Carrion  Heath  alone,  begs  us  to  give  it 
Christian  burial  once  for  all.  Oliver  attended  the  Public  School  of 
Huntingdon,  which  was  then  conducted  by  a  Dr.  Beard,  of  whom  we 
shall  hear  again  ;  he  learned,  to  appearance  moderately  well,  what 
the  sons  of  other  gentlemen  were  taught  in  such  places  ;  went  through 
the  universal  destinies  which  conduct  all  men  from  childhood  to 
youth,  in  a  way  not  particularised  in  any  one  point  by  an  authentic 
record.  Readers  of  lively  imagination  can  follow  him  on  his  bird- 
nesting  expeditions,  to  the  top  of  '  Barnabee's  big  Tree,'  and  else- 
whither, if  they  choose  ;  on  his  fen-following  expeditions,  social  sports 
and  labours  manifold  ;  vacation-visits  to  his  Uncles,  to  Aunt  Hamp- 
den and  Cousin  John  among  others  :  all  these  things  must  have 
been  ;  but  how  they  specially  were  is  forever  hidden  from  all  men. 
He  had  kindred  of  the  sort  above  specified  ;  parents  of  the  sort 
above  specified,  rigorous  yet  affectionate  persons,  and  very  religious, 
as  all  rational  persons  then  were.  He  had  two  sisters  elder,  and  gra- 
dually five  younger  ;  the  only  boy  among  seven.  Readers  must  fancy 
his  growth  there,  in  the  north  end  of  Huntingdon,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  Seventeenth  Century,  as  they  can. 

In  January  i6o3-4,t  was  held,  at  Hampton  Court,  a  kind  of  Theo- 

*  Stowe's  Chronicle,  812,  &c. 

t  Here,  more  fitly  perhaps  than  afterwards,  it  may  be  brought  to  mind,  that 
the  English  year  in  those  times  did  not  begin  till  March  ,  that  New  Year  s  Day 
was  the  25th  of  March.     So  ia  England,  at  ihat  time,  in  all  records,  wn tings  and 

VOL.  I.  C 


34  INTRODUCTION. 


logical  Convention,  of  intense  interest  all  over  England,  and  doubt- 
less at  Huntingdon  too  ;  now  very  dimly  known,  if  at  all  known,  as 
the  '  Hampton-Court  Conference.'  It  was  a  meeting  for  the  settle- 
ment of  some  dissentient  humours  in  religion.  The  Millennary  Petition, 
— what  we  should  now  call  the  'Monster  Petition/  for  the  like  in 
number  of  signatures  was  never  seen  before, — signed  by  near  a  thou- 
sand Clergymen,  of  pious  straitened  consciences  :  this  and  various 
other  Petitions  to  his  Majesty,  by  persons  of  pious  straitened  con- 
sciences, had  been  presented  ;  craving  relief  in  some  ceremonial 
points,  which,  as  they  found  no  warrant  for  them  in  the  Bible,  they 
suspected  (with  a  very  natural  shudder  in  that  case)  to  savour  of 
Idol-worship  and  Mimetic  Dramaturgy,  instead  of  God-worship,  and 
to  be  very  dangerous  indeed  for  a  man  to  have  concern  with  ! 
Hampton-Court  Conference  was  accordingly  summoned.  Four  world- 
famous  Doctors,  from  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  represented  the  pious 
straitened  Uzlass,  now  beginning  to  be  generally  nicknamed  Puritans. 
The  Archbishop,  the  Bishop  of  London,  also  world-famous  men,  with 
a  considerable  reserve  of  other  bishops,  deans,  and  dignitaries, 
appeared  for  the  Church  by  itself  Church.  Lord  Chancellor,  the 
renowned  Egerton,  and  the  highest  official  persons,  many  lords  and 
courtiers  with  a  tincture  of  sacred  science,  in  fact  the  flower  of 
England,  appeared  as  witnesses  ;  with  breathless  interest.  The  King 
himself  presided  :  having  real  gifts  of  speech,  and  being  very  learned . 
in  Theology, — which  it  was  not  then  ridiculous  but  glorious  for  him  to 
be.  More  glorious  than  the  monarchy  of  what  we  now  call  Litera- 
ture would  be  ;  glorious  as  the  faculty  of  a  Goethe  holding  visibly  of 
Heaven  :  supreme  skill  in  Theology  then  meant  that.  To  know  God, 
Gfds,  the  Maker, — to  know  the  divine  Laws  and  inner  Harmonies  of 
this  Universe,  must  always  be  the  highest  glory  for  a  man  !  And  not 
to  know  them,  always  the  highest  disgrace  for  a  man,  however  com- 
mon it  be  ! — 

Awful  devout  Puritanism,  decent  dignified  Ceremonialism  (both 

books;  as  indeed  in  official  records  it  continued  so  till  1752,  In  Scotland  it  was 
already  not  so ;  the  year  began  with  January  there  ever  since  1600 ; — as  in 
all  ("atholic  countries  it  had  done  ever  since  the  Papal  alteration  of  the  Style  in 
1582;  and  as  in  most  Protestant  countries,  excepting  England,  it  soon  after  that 
began  to  do.  Scotland  in  respect  of  the  day  of  the  month  still  followed  the  Old 
Style. 

'  New  Year's  Day  the  25th  March  : '  this  is  the  whole  compass  of  the  fact ; 
with  which  a  reader  in  those  old  books  has,  not  without  more  difficulty  than  he 
expects,  to  familiarise  himself.  It  has  occasioned  more  misdatings  and  consequent 
confusions  to  modern  editorial  persons,  than  any  other  as  simple  circumstance. 
So  learned  a  man  as  Whitaker  Historian  of  Whalley,  editing  Sir  George  Rad- 
cliffe  s  Correspondence  (London,  1810),  with  the  lofty  air  which  sits  well  on  him  on 
other  occasions,  has  altogether  forgotten  the  above  small  circumstance  :  in  con- 
sequence of  which  we  have  Oxford  Carriers  dying  in  January,  or  the  first  half  of 
March,  and  to  our  great  amazement  going  on  to  forward  butter-boxes  in  the  May 
following; — and  similar  miracles  not  a  few  occurring:  and  in  short  the  whole 
Correspondence  is  jumbled  to  pieces;  a  due  bit  of  topsy-turvy  being  introduced 
into  the  Spring  of  every  year  ;  and  the  leai»ned  Editor  sits,  with  his  lofty  air,  pre- 
siding over  mere  chaos  come  again  ! In   the   text  here,  we  of  course  translate 

into  the  modern  year,  but  leaving  the  day  of  the  month  as  we  find  it  ;  and  if  for 
greater  assurance  both  forms  be  written  down,  as  for  instance  1603-4,  the  last 
figure  is  always  the  modern  one ;   1603-4  means  1604  for  our  calendar. 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY,  35 

always  of  high  moment  in  this  world,  but  not  of  equally  high) 
appeared  here  facing  one  another  for  the  tirst  time.  The  demands  of 
the  Puritans  seem  to  modern  minds  very  limited  indeed  :  That  there 
should  be  a  new  correct  Translation  ot  the  Bible  (granted),  and  in- 
creased zeal  in  teaching  {omitted)  ;  That  '  lay  impropriations  '  (tithes 
snatched  from  the  old  Church  by  laymen)  might  be  made  to  yield  a 
'seventh  part^  of  their  amount,  towards  maintaining  ministers  in 
dark  regions  which  had  none  [re/used)  ;  That  the  Clergy  in  districts 
might  be  allowed  to  meet  together,  and  strengthen  one  another's 
hands  as  in  old  times  {passionately  refused)  ; — on  the  whole  (if  such 
a  thing  durst  be  hinted  at,  for  the  tone  is  almost  inaudibly  low  and 
humble).  That  pious  straitened  Preachers,  in  terror  of  offending  God 
by  idolatry,  and  useful  to  human  souls,  might  not  be  cast  out  of  their 
parishes  for  genuflexions,  white  surplices  and  such  like,  but  allowed 
some  Christian  liberties  in  mere  external  things  :  these  were  the 
claims  of  the  Puritans  ;— but  his  Majesty  eloquently  scouted  them  to 
the  winds,  applauded  by  all  bishops,  and  dignitaries  lay  and  clerical  ; 
said.  If  the  Puritans  would  not  conform,  he  would  '  hurry  them  out 
of  the  country  ;  '—and  so  sent  Puritanism  and  the  Four  Doctors 
home  again,  cowed  into  silence,  for  the  present.  This  was  in  January 
1604.*  News  of  this,  speech  enough  about  it,  could  not  fail  in 
Robert  Cromwell's  house,  among  others.  Oliver  is  in  his  fifth  year,— 
always  a  year  older  than  the  Century. 

In  November  1605,  there  likewise  came  to  Robert  Cromwell's 
house,  no  question  of  it,  news  of  the  thrice  unutterable  Gunpowder 
Plot.  Whereby  King,  Parliament,  and  God's  Gospel  in  England, 
were  to  have  been,  in  one  infernal  moment,  blown  aloft  ;  and  the 
Devil's  Gospel,  and  accursed  incredibilities,  idolatries,  and  poisonous 
confusions  of  the  Romish  Babylon,  substituted  in  their  room  !  The 
eternal  Truth  of  the  Living  God  to  become  an  empty  formula,  a 
shamming  grimace  of  the  Three-hatted  Chimera  !  These  things  did 
fill  Huntingdon  and  Robert  Cromwell's  house  with  talk  enough  in  the 
winter  of  Oliver's  sixth  year.  And  again,  in  the  summer  of  his 
eleventh  year,  in  May  16 10,  there  doubtless  failed  not  news  and  talk, 
How  the  Great  Henry  was  stabbed  in  Paris  streets  :  assassinated  by 
the  Jesuits  ; — black  sons  of  the  scarlet  woman,  murderous  to  soul 
and  to  body. 

Other  things,  in  other  years,  the  diligent  Historical  Student  will 
supply  according  to  faculty.  The  History  of  Europe,  at  that  epoch, 
meant  essentially  the  struggle  of  Protestantism  against  Catholicism, 
— a  broader  form  of  that  same  struggle,  of  devout  Puritanism  against 
dignified  Ceremonialism,  which  forms  the  History  of  England  then. 
Henry  the  Fourth  of  France,  so  long  as  he  lived,  was  still  to  be 
regarded  as  the  head  of  Protestantism  ;  Spain,  bound  up  with  the 
Austrian  Empire,  as  that  of  Catholicism.  Henry's  '  Grand  Scheme ' 
naturally  strove  to  carry  Protestant  Englarrd  along  with  it  ;  James, 
till  Henry's  death,  Reld  on,  in  a  loose  way,  by  Henry  ;  and  his  Poli- 
tical History,  so  far  as  he  has  any,  may  be  considered  to  lie  there. 
After  Henry's  death,  he  fell  off  to  '  Spanish  Infantas,'  to  Spanish 

*  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans  (London,  1754)*  i.  411. 

C  Z 


36  INTRODUCTION. 


interests  ;  and,  as  it  were,  ceased  to  have  any  History,  nay  began  to 
have  a  tica^ative  one. 

Among  the  events  which  Historical  Students  will  supply  for  Robert 
Cromwell's  house,  and  the  spiritual  pabulum  of  young  Oliver,  the 
Death  of  Prince  Henry  in  1612,'^  and  the  prospective  accession  of 
IVince  Charles,  fitter  for  a  ceremonial  Archbishop  than  a  governing 
King,  as  some  thought,— will  not  be  forgotten.  Then  how  the  Elector 
Palatine  was  married  ;  and  troubles  began  to  brew  in  Germany  ;  and 
little  Dr.  Laud  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Huntingdon  : — such  news 
the  Historical  Student  can  Supply.  And  on  the  whole,  all  students 
and  persons  can  know  always  that  Oliver's  mind  was  kept  full  of 
news,  and  never  wanted  for  pabulum  !  But  from  the  day  of  his  Birth, 
which  is  jotted  down,  as  above,  in  the  Parish-register  of  St.  John's 
Huntingdon,  there  is  no  other  authentic  jotting  or  direct  record  con- 
cerning Oliver  himself  to  be  met  with  anywhere,  till  in  Sidney-Sussex 
College,  Cambridge,  we  come  to  this,t 

1616. 

^  A    Fes  to  Aiinimciationis^   16 16.     Oliver  ius    Cromwell  Himting- 

*  douiensis  admissiis  ad  couimeatiun  Sociorum,  Ap?^ilis  vicesimo  tertio  ; 

*  I'utore  Magistro  Ricardo  Howlet :^  Oliver  Cromwell  from  Hunting- 
don admitted  here,  23d  April  1616  ;  Tutor  Mr.  Richard  H owlet. — ■ 
Between  which  and  the  next  Entry  some  zealous  individual  of  later 
date  has  crowded-in  these  lines  :  '  Hie  fuit  grandis  ille  Impostor^ 
'  Carnifex  peniitissiinus,  qui  pientissimo  Rege  Carolo  Primo  nefarid 
^  ecede  sublato^  ipsum  iisiirpavit  Tlironuni^  et  Ttia  Regna  per  qiiinque 

*  lerme  amiorjun  spatium,  sub  Proleetoris  7io;nijie,  indoniitd  iyrannide 
^vexavit.^  Picjtlissimo,  which  might  as  well  be  pianlissiuio  if  conju- 
gation and  declension  were  observed,  is  accredited  barbarous-latin  for 
7uost  pious,  but  means  properly  7nost  expiative j  by  which  title  the 
zealous  individual  of  later  date  indicates  his  martyred  Majesty  ;  a 
most  '  expiative '  Majesty  indeed. 

Curious  enough,  of  all  days  on  this  same  day,  Shakspeare,  as  his 
stone  monument  still  testifies,  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  died  : 

Ob  lit  Anno  Domini  1616. 
Aitatis  53.  Die  23  Apr.X 

While  Oliver  Cromwell  was  entering  himself  of  Sidney-Sussex  College, 
William  Shakspeare  was  taking  his  farewell  of  this  world.  Oliver's 
Father  had,  most  likely,  come  with  him  ;  it  is  but  twelve  miles  from 
Huntingdon  ;  you  can  go  and  come  in  a  day.  Oliver's  Father  saw 
Oliver  write  in  the  Album  at  Cambridge  :  at  Stratford,  Shakspeare's 
Ann  Hathaway  was  weeping  over  his  bed.  The  first  world-great 
thing  that  remains  of  English  History,  the  1  iterature  of  Shakspeare, 
was  ending;  the  second  world-great  thing  that  remains  of  English 
History,  the  armed  Appeal  of  Puritanisrn  to  the  Invisible  God  of 
Heaven  against  many  very  Visible  Devils,  on  Earth  and  Elsewhere, 

*  6  Nov.  (Camden  s  Annals). 

f  Noble  i.  254. 

X  Collier's  Life  of  Shakespeare  (London,  1845),  P-  253. 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY.  37 

was,  so   to  speak,  beginning.     They  have  their  exits  and  their  en- 
trance.    And  one  People  in  its  time  plays  many  parts. 

Chevalier  Florian,  in  his  Life  of  Cervantes.^  has  remarked  that 
Shakspeare's  death-day,  23d  April  1616,  was  likewise  that  of  Cervantes 
at  Madrid.  *  Twenty-third  of  April '  is,  sure  enough,  the  authentic 
Spanish  date  :  but  Chevalier  Florian  has  omitted  to  notice  that  the 
English  twenty-third  is  of  Old  Style.  The  brave  Miguel  died  ten 
days  before  Shakspeare ;  and  already  lay  buried,  smoothed  right 
nobly  into  his  long  rest.  The  Historical  Student  can  meditate  on 
these  things  — 

In  the  foregoing  winter,  here  in  England,  there  was  much  trying  of 
Ker  Earl  of  Somerset  and  my  Lady  once  of  Essex,  and  the  poisoners 
of  Overbury  ;  and  before  Christmas  the  inferior  murderers  and  in- 
famous persons  were  mostly  got  hanged  ;  and  in  these  very  days, 
while  Oliver  began  his  studies,  my  Lord  of  Somerset  and  my  Lady 
were  tried,  and  not  hanged.  And  Chief  Justice  Coke,  Coke  upon 
Lyttleton,  had  got  into  difficulties  by  the  business.  And  England 
generally  was  overspread  with  a  very  fetid  atmosphere  of  Court- 
news,  murders,  and  divorce-cases,  in  those  months  ;  which  still  a  little 
affiects  even  the  History  of  England.  Poof  Somerset  Ker,  King's 
favourite,  *  son  of  the  Laird  of  Ferniehirst,'  he  and  his  extremely  un- 
edifying  affairs, — except  as  they  might  transiently  affect  the  nostrils 
of  some  Cromwell  of  importance, — do  not  much  belong  to  the  History 
of  England  !  Carrion  ought  at  length  to  be  buried.  Alas,  if  *  wise 
memory '  is  ever  to  prevail,  there  is  need  of  much  '  wise  oblivion ' 
first.— 

Oliver's  Tutor  in  Cambridge,  of  whom  legible  History  and  I  know 
nothing,  was  '  Magister  Richard  H owlet  : '  whom  readers  must  fancy 
a  grave  ancient  Puritan  and  Scholar,  in  dark  antiquarian  clothes  and 
dark  antiquarian  ideas,  according  to  their  faculty.  The  indubitable 
fact  is,  that  he  Richard  Howlet  did,  in  Sidney-Sussex  College,  with 
his  best  ability,  endeavour  to  infiltrate  something  that  he  called  m- 
struction  into  the  soul  of  Oliver  Cromwell  and  of  other  youths  sub- 
mitted to  him  :  but  how,  of  what  quality,  with  what  method,  with 
what  result,  will  remain  extremely  obscure  to  every  one.  In  spite  of- 
mountains  of  books,  so  are  books  written,  all  grows  very  obscure. 
About  this  same  date,  George  Ratcliffe,  Wentworth  Strafford's  George, 
at  Oxford,  finds  his  green-baize  table-cover,  which  his  mother  had 
sent  him,  too  small,  has  it  cut  into  '  stockings,'  and  goes  about  with 
the  same.*  So  unfashionable  were  young  Gentlemen  Commoners. 
Queen  Elizabeth  was  the  first  person  in  this  country  who  ever  wore 
knit  stockings. 

*  "  University  College,  Oxford,  4  Dec.  1610. 

"  Loving  Mother, —  *  *  Send  also,  I  pray  you,  by  Briggs"  (this  is  Briggs  the 
Carrier,  who  dies  in  January,  and  continues  forwarding  butter  in  May)  "a  green 
"  table-cloth  of  a  yard  and  half  a  quarter,  and  two  linen  table-cloths.  *  *'  If  the  green 
"table-cloth  be  too  little,  1  will  make  a  pair  of  warm  stockings  of  it.  *  *  — 
"  Thus  remembering  my  humble  duty,  I  take  my  leave. — Your  loving  Son, 

"Geouge  Radcliffe." 

Radchffes  Letters  (by  Whitaker),  p.  64-5. 


38  INTRODUCTION, 


1617. 

In  March  of  this  year,  1617,  there  was  another  royal  visit  at  Hinchin- 
brook."^  But  this  time,  I  conceive,  the  royal  entertainment  would  be 
much  more  moderate ;  Sir  Oliver's  purse  growing  lank.  Over  in 
Huntingdon,  Robert  Cromwell  was  lying  sick,  somewhat  indifferent  to 
royal  progresses. 

King  James,  this  time,  was  returning  northward  to  visit  poor  old 
Scotland  again,  to  get  his  Pretended-Bishops  set  into  activity,  if  he 
could.  It  is  well  known  that  he  could  not,  to  any  satisfactory  extent, 
neither  now  nor  afterwards  :  his  Pretended-Bishops,  whom  by  cunning 
means  he  did  get  instituted,  had  the  name  of  Bishops,  but  next  to 
none  of  the  authority,  of  the  respect,  or  alas,  even  of  the  cash,  suitable 
to  the  reality  of  that  office.  They  were  by  the  Scotch  People  derisively 
called  Tiilchan  Bishops. — Did  the  reader  ever  see,  or  fancy  in  his 
mind,  a  Tulchan .?  Tulchan  is,  or  rather  was,  for  the  thing  is  long 
since  obsolete,  a  Calf-skin  stuffed  into  the  rude  similitude  of  a  Calf, — 
similar  enough  to  deceive  the  imperfect  perceptive  organs  of  a  Cow. 
At  milking  time  the  Tulchan,  with  head  duly  bent,  was  set  as  if  to 
suck  ;  the  fond  cow  looking  round  fancied  that  her  calf  was  busy, 
and  that  all  was  right,  so  gave  her  milk  freely,  which  the  cunning 
maid  was  straining  in  white  abundance  into  her  pail  all  the  while  ! 
The  Scotch  milkmaids  in  those  days  cried,  "  Where  is  the  Tulchan  ; 
is  the  Tulchan  ready  ? "  So  of  the  Bishops.  Scotch  Lairds  were 
eager  enough  to  milk  the  Church  Lands  and  Tithes,  to  get  the  rents 
out  of  them  ireely,  which  was  not  always  easy.  They  were  glad  to 
construct  a  Fo7'm  of  Bishops  to  please  the  King  and  Church,  and 
make  the  'milk'  come  without  disturbance.  The  reader  now  knows 
what  a  Tulchan  Bishop  was.  A  piece  of  mechanism  constructed  not 
without  difficulty,  in  Parliament  and  King's  Council,  among  the  Scots  ; 
and  torn  asunder  afterwards  with  dreadful  clamour,  and  scattered  to 
the  four  winds,  so  soon  as  the  Cow  became  awake  to  it  ! — 

Villiers  Buckingham,  the  new  favourite,  of  whom  we  say  little,  was 
of  the  royal  party  here.  Dr.  Laud,  too.  King's  Chaplain,  Archdeacon 
of  Huntingdon,  attended  the  King  on  this  occasion  ;  had  once  more 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  Huntingdon,  the  cradle  of  his  promotions,  and 
the  birth-place  of  Oliver.  In  Scotland,  Dr.  Laud,  much  to  his  regret, 
found  "  no  religion  at  all,"  no  surplices,  no  altars  in  the  east  or  any 
where  ;  no  bowing,  no  responding  ;  not  the  smallest  regularity  of 
fuglemanship  or  devotional  drill-exercise  ;  in  short  "  no  religion  at  all 
that  I  could  see," — which  grieved  me  much.f 

What  to  us  is  greatly  more  momentous  :  while  these  royal  things 
went  on  in  Scotland,  in  the  end  of  this  same  June  at  Huntingdon, 
Robert  Cromwell  died.  His  Will  is  dated  6th  June.J  His  burial-day 
is  marked  in  the  Church  of  All- Saints,  24th  June,  161 7.  For  Oliver, 
the  chief  mourner,  one  of  the  most  pregnant  epochs.  The  same 
year,  died  his  old  Grandfather  Steward  at  Ely.     Mrs.  Robert  Crom- 

*  Camden's  Annals  ;  Nichols's  Progresses. 

t  Wharton's  Laud  (London,  1695)^  pp.  97,  109,  138. 

X  Noble,  1.  8^. 


^im^m^ 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY.  39 

well  saw  herself  at  once  fatherless  and  a  second  time  widowed,  in  this 
year  of  bereavement.  Left  with  six  daughters  and  an  only  son  ;  of 
whom  three  were  come  to  years. 

Oliver  was  now,  therefore,  a  young  heir ;  his  age  eighteen,  last 
April.  How  many  of  his  Sisters,  or  whether  any  of  them,  were  yet 
settled,  we  do  not  learn  from  Noble's  confused  searching  of  records  or 
otherwise.  Of  this  Huntingdon  household,  and  its  new  head,  we 
learn  next  to  nothing  by  direct  evidence  ;  but  can  decisively  enough, 
by  inference,  discern  several  things.  '  Oliver  returned  no  more  to 
Cambridge.'  It  was  now  fit  that  he  should  take  his  Father's  place 
here  at  Huntingdon  ;  that  he  should,  by  the  swiftest  method,  qualify 
himself  in  some  degree  for  that. 

The  universal  very  credible  tradition  is  that  he,  *  soon  after,'  pro- 
ceeded to  London,  to  gain  some  knowledge  of  Law.  '  Soon  after' 
will  mean  certain  months,  we  know  not  how  many,  after  July  1617. 
Noble  says,  he  was  entered  '  of  Lincoln's  Inn.'  The  Books  of  Lin- 
coln's Inn,  of  Gray's  Inn,  of  all  the  Inns  of  Court  have  been  searched  ; 
and  there  is  no  Oliver  Cromwell  found  in  them.  The  Books  of  Gray's 
Inn  contain  these  Cromwell  Names,  which  are  perhaps  worth  tran- 
scribing : 

Thomas  Cromwell,  1524  ;   Francis  Cromwell,  1561 ; 
(iilbert  Cromwell,  i6og;   Henry  Cromwell,  1620; 
Henry  Cromwell,  22d  February,  1653. 

The  first  of  which  seems  to  me  probably  or  possibly  to  mean  Thomas 
Cromwell  Malleus  Monachoriim,  at  that  time  returned  from  his 
Italian  adventures,  and  in  the  service  of  Cardinal  Wolsey  ; — taking 
the  opportunity  of  hearing  the  '  readers,'  old  Benchers  who  then 
accually  read,  and  of  learning  Law.  The  Henry  Cromwell  of  Feb- 
ruary 1653  is  expressly  entered  as  '  Second  sonne  to  his  Highness 
Oliver,  Lord  Protector  :'  an  interesting  little  fact,  since  it  is  an  indis- 
putable one.  For  the  rest,  Henry  Cromwell  was  already  a  Colonel  in 
the  Army  in  1651  :^  in  1654,  during  the  spring  months  he  was  in  Ire- 
land ;  in  the  month  of  June  he  was  at  Chippenham  in  Cambridgeshire 
with  his  father  in-law,  being  already  married  ;  and  next  year  he  went 
again  on  political  business  to  Ireland,  where  he  before  long  became 
Lord  Deputy  if  if  for  a  while,  in  the  end  of  1654,  he  did  attend  in 
Gray's  Inn,  it  can  only  have  been,  like  his  predecessor  the  Malletis, 
to  gain  some  inkling  of  Law  for  general  purposes  ;  and  not  with  any 
view  towards  Advocateship,  which  did  not  lie  in  his  course  at  all,  and 
was  never  very  lovely  either  to  his  Father  or  himself.  Oliver  Crom- 
well's, as  we  said,  is  not  a  name  found  in  any  of  the  Books  in  that 
period 

Whence  is  to  be  inferred  that  Oliver  was  never  of  any  Inn  ;  that 
he  never  meant  to  be  a  professional  Lawyer  ;  that  he  had  entered 
himself  merely  in  the  chambers  of  some  learned  gentleman,  with  an 

*  Old  Newspaper,  in  Cromwelliana,  p.  91. 

t  Here  are  the  successive  dates:  4th  March,  1653-4.  he  arrives  at  Dublin 
^h\XT\o&s  State  Papers,  ii,  149)  ;  is  at  Chippenham,  iSthJune,  1654  (^3.ii.  381); 
arrives  at  Chester  on  his  way  to  Ireland  again,  22d  June,  1655  (ib.  iii.  581)  ; — 
produces  his  commission  as  Lord  Deputy,  24th  or  25ih  November,  1657  (Noble, 
i-  2os). 


40  INTRODUCTION.  ^^ 

eye  to  obtain  some  tincture  of  Law,  for  doing  County  Magistracy, 
and  the  other  duties  of  a  gentleman  citizen,  in  a  reputable  manner. 
The  stories  of  his  wild  living  while  in  Town,  of  his  gambling  and  so 
forth,  rest  likewise  exclusively  on  Carrion  Heath  ;  and  solicit  oblivion 
and  Christian  burial  from  all  men.  We  cannot  but  believe  he  did  go 
to  Town  to  gain  some  knowled  of  Law.  But  when  he  went,  how  long 
he  stayed,  cannot  be  known  except  approximately  by  years  ;  under 
whom  he  studied,  with  what  fruit,  how  he  conducted  himself  as  a  young 
man  and  law-student,  cannot  be  known  at  all.  Of  evidence  that  he 
ever  lived  a  wild  life  about  Town  or  elsewhere,  there  exists  no  particle. 
To  assert  the  affirmative  was  then  a  great  reproach  to  him  ;  fit  for 
Carrion  Heath  and  others  :  it  would  be  now,  in  our  present  strange 
condition  of  the  Moral  Law,  one  knows  not  what.  With  a  Moral  Law 
gone  all  to  such  a  state  of  moonshine ;  with  the  hard  Stone-tables, 
the  god-given  Precepts  and  eternal  Penalties,  dissolved  all  in  cant  and 
mealy-mouthed  official  flourishings,— it  might  perhaps,  with  certain 
parties,  be  a  credit  !  The  admirers  and  censurers  of  Cromwell  have 
no  word  to  record  on  the  subject. 


1618. 

Thursday,  29th  October,  16 18.  This  morning,  if  Oliver,  as  is  pro- 
bable, were  now  in  Town  studying  Law,  he  might  be  eye-witness  of  a 
great  and  very  strange  scene  :  the  Last  Scene  in  the  Life  of  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh.*  Raleigh  was  beheaded  in  Old  Palace  Yard  ;  he 
appeared  on  the  scaffold  there  '  about  8  o'clock'  that  morning  ;  'an 
immense  crowd,'  all  London,  and  in  a  sense  all  England,  looking  on. 
A  cold  hoarfrosty  morning.  Earl  of  Arundel,  now  known  to  us  by 
his  Greek  Marbles;  Earl  of  Doncaster  (' Sardanapalus '  Hay,  ulti- 
mately Earl  of  Carlisle)  :  these  with  other  earls  and  dignitaries  sat 
looking  through  windows  near  by  ;  to  whom  Raleigh  in  his  last  brief 
manful  speech  appealed,  with  response  from  them.  He  had  failed  of 
finding  Eldorados  in  the  Indies  lately  ;  he  had  failed,  and  also  suc- 
ceeded, in  many  things  in  his  time  :  he  returned  home  with  his  brain 
and  his  heart  '  broken,'  as  he  said  ;— and  the  Spaniards,  who  found 
King  James  willing,  now  wished  that  he  should  die.  A  very  tragic 
scene.  Such  a  man,  with  his  head  grown  grey  ;  with  his  strong  heart 
'  breaking,'— still  strength  enough  in  it  to  break  with  dignity.  Some- 
what proudly  he  laid  his  old  grey  head  on  the  block  ;  as  if  saying,  in 
better  than  words,  "  There  then  !  "  The  Sheriff  offered  to  let  him 
warm  himself  again,  within  doors  again  at  a  fire.  "  Nay,  let  us  be 
'*  swift,"  said  Raleigh  ;  "  in  few  minutes  my  ague  will  return  upon  me, 
"  and  if  I  be  not  dead  before  that,  they  will  say  I  tremble  for  fear." 
—  If  Oliver,  among  'the  immense  crowd,"  saw  this  scene,  as  is  con- 
ceivable enough,  he  would  not  want  for  reflections  on  it. 

What  is  more  apparent  to  us,  Oliver  in  these  days  is  a  visitor  in 
Sir  James  Bourchier's  Town  residence.  Sir  James  Bourchier,  Knight, 
a  civic  gentleman  ;  not  connected  at  all  with  the  old  Bourchiers  PLarls 
of  Essex,  says  my  heraldic  friend  ;  but  seemingly  come  of  City  Mer- 

*  Camden  ;  Biog.  Britan. 


EVENTS  TN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY.  41 

chants  rathers,  who  by  some  of  their  quarterings  and  cognizances 
appear  to  have  been  '  Furriers/  says  he  : — Like  enough.  Not  less  but 
more  important,  it  appears  this  Sir  James  Bourchier  was  a  man  of 
some  opulence,  and  had  daughters  ;  had  a  daughter  Elizabeth,  not 
without  charms  for  the  youthful  heart.  Moreover  he  had  landed  pro- 
perty near  P^elsted  in  Essex,  where  his  usual  residence  was.  Felsted, 
where  there  is  still  a  kind  of  School  or  Free-School,  which  was  of 
more  note  in  those  days  than  now.  That  Oliver  visited  in  Sir  James's 
in  Town  or  elsewhere,  we  discover  with  great  certainty  by  the  next 
written  record  of  him. 

1620. 

The  Registers  of  St.  Giles's  Church,  Cripplegate,  London,  are 
written  by  a  third  party  as  usual,  and  have  no  autograph  signatures  ; 
but  in  the  List  of  Marriages  for  *  August,  1620,'  stand  these  words, 
still  to  be  read  sic  : 

'  Oliver  Cromwell  to  Elizabeth  Bourcher.     22." 

Milton's  burial-entry  is  in  another  Book  of  the  same  memorable 
Church,  *I2  Nov.  1674;'  where  Oliver  on  the  22d  of  August  1620 
was  married. 

Oliver  is  twenty-one  years  and  four  months  old  on  this  his  wedding- 
day.  He  repaired,  speedily  or  straightway  we  believe,  to  Hunting- 
don, to  his  Mother's  house,  which  indeed  was  now  his.  His  Law- 
studies,  such  as  they  were,  had  already  ended,  we  infer  :  he  had  already 
set  up  house  with  his  Mother  ;  and  was  now  bringing  a  Wife  home  ; 
the  due  arrangements  for  that  end  having  been  completed.  Mother 
and  Wife  were  to  live  together  :  the  Sisters  had  got  or  were  getting 
married.  Noble's  researches  and  confused  jottings  do  not  say  specially 
when  :  the  Son,  as  new  head  of  the  house,  an  inexperienced  head, 
but  a  teachable,  ever-learning  one,  was  to  take  his  Father's  place ; 
and  with  a  wise  Mother  and  a  good  Wife,  harmonising  tolerably  well 
we  shall  hope,  was  to  manage  as  he  best  might.  Here  he  continued, 
unnoticeable  but  easily  imaginable  by  History,  for  almost  ten  years  : 
farming  lands  ;  most  probably  attending  quarter-sessions  ;  doing  the 
civic,  industrial,  and  social  duties,  in  the  common  way  ; — living  as 
his  Father  before  him  had  done.  His  first  child  was  born  here,  in 
October  1621  ;  a  son,  Robert,  baptised  at  St.  John's  Church  on  the 
13th  of  the  month,  of  whom  nothing  farther  is  known.  A  second 
child,  also  a  son,  Oliver,  followed,  whose  baptismal  date  is  6th  Feb- 
ruary 1623,  of  whom  also  we  have  almost  no  farther  account,— except 
one  that  can  be  proved  to  be  erroneous.*  The  List  of  his  other 
children  shall  be  given  by  and  by. 


1623. 

In  October  1623,  there  was  an  illumination  of  tallow  lights,  a  ringing 
of  bells,  and  gratulation  of  human  hearts  in  all  Towns  in  England, 

*  Noble,  i.  134. 


42  INTRODUCTION. 


and  doubtless  in  Huntingdon  too  :  on  the  safe  return  of  Prince 
Charles  from  Spain  without  the  Infanta."^  A  matter  of  endless  joy- 
to  all  true  Englishmen  of  that  day,  though  no  Englishman  of  this 
day  feels  any  interest  in  it  one  way  or  the  other.  But  Spain,  even 
more  than  Rome,  was  the  chosen  throne  of  Popery  ;  which  in  that 
time  meant  temporal  and  eternal  Damnability,  Falsity  to  God's 
Gospel,  love  of  prosperous  Darkness  rather  than  of  suffering  Light, — 
infinite  baseness  rushing  short-sighted  upon  infinite  peril  for  this 
world  and  for  all  worlds.  King  James,  with  his  worldly-wise  endea- 
vourings  to  marry  his  son  into  some  first-rate  family,  never  made  a 
falser  calculation  than  in  this  grand  business  of  the  Spanish  Match. 
The  soul  of  England  abhorred  to  have  any  concern  with  Spain  or 
things  Spanish.  Spain  was  as  a  black  Domdaniel,  which,  had  the 
floors  of  it  been  paved  with  diamonds,  had  the  Infanta  of  it  come 
riding  in  such  a  Gig  of  Respectability  as  was  never  driven  since 
Phaeton's  Sun-chariot  took  the  road,  no  honest  English  soul  could 
wish  to  have  concern  with.  Hence  England  illuminated  itself.  The 
articulate  tendency  of  this  Solomon  King  had  unfortunately  parted 
company  altogether  with  the  inarticulate  but  ineradicable  tendency 
of  the  Country  he  presided  over.  The  Solomon  King  struggled  one 
way ;  and  the  English  Nation  with  its  very  life-fibres  was  com- 
pelled to  struggle  another  way.  The  rent  by  degrees  became  wide 
enough  ! 

For  the  present,  England  is  all  illuminated,  a  new  Parliament  is 
summoned  ;  which  welcomes  the  breaking  of  the  Spanish  Match,  as 
one  might  welcome  the  breaking  of  a  Dr.  Faustus's  Bargain,  and  a 
deliverance  from  the  power  of  sorcerers.  Uncle  Ohver  served  in  this 
parliament,  as  was  his  wont,  for  Huntingdonshire.  They  and  the 
Nation  with  one  voice  impelled  the  poor  old  King  to  draw  out  his 
fighting  tools  at  last,  and  beard  this  Spanish  Apollyon,  instead  of 
making  marriages  with  it.  No  Pitt's  crusade  against  French  Sans- 
culottism  in  the  end  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  could  be  so  wel- 
comed by  English  Preservers  of  the  Game,  as  this  defiance  of  the 
Spanish  Apollyon  was  by  Englishmen  in  general  in  the  end  of  the 
Seventeenth.  The  Palatinate  was  to  be  recovered,  after  all  ;  Pro- 
testantism, the  sacred  cause  of  God's  Light  and  truth  against  the 
Devil's  Falsity  and  Darkness,  was  to  be  fought  for  and  secured. 
Supplies  were  voted  ;  '  drums  beat  in  the  City '  and  elswhere,  as  they 
had  done  three  years  ago,t  to  the  joy  of  all  men,  when  the  Palati- 
nate was  first  to  be  '  defended  : '  but  now  it  was  to  be  '  recovered  ,- 
now  a  decisive  effort  was  to  be  made.  The  issue,  as  is  well  known, 
corresponded  ill  with  these  beginnings.  Count  Mansfeldt  mustered 
his  levies  here,  and  set  sail  ;  but  neither  France  nor  any  other  power 
would  so  much  as  let  him  land.  Count  Mansfeldt's  levies  died  of 
pestilence  in  their  ships  ;  '  their  bodies,  thrown  ashore  on  the  Dutch 
coast,  were  eaten  by  hogs,  till  half  the  armament  was  dead  on  ship- 
board :  nothing  came  of  it,  nothing  could  come.  With  a  James 
Stuart  for  Generalissimo  there  is  no  good  fighting  possible.  The  poor 

•  H.  L.  (Hamond  1' Estrange)  :  Reign  of  King  Charles  (London,   1656),  p.  3. 
'October  sth,'  the  Prince  arrived. 


\  nth  June  1620  (Camden's  Annals). 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY.  43 

King  himself  soon  after  died  ;*  left  the  matter  to  develope  itself  in 
other  still  fataller  ways. 

In  those  years  it  must  be  that  Dr.  Simc6tt,  Physician  in  Hunting- 
don, had  to  do  with  Oliver's  hypochondriac  maladies.  He  told  Sir 
Philip  Warwick,  unluckily  specifying  no  date,  or  none  that  has  sur- 
vived, "  he  had  often  been  sent  for  at  midnight  ;"  Mr.  Cromwell  for 
many  years  was  very  "  splenetic  "  (spleen-struck),  often  thought  he 
was  just  about  to  die,  and  also  "  had  fancies  about  the  Town  Cross."t 
Brief  intimation  ;  of  which  the  reflective  reader  may  make  a  great 
deal.  Samuel  Johnson  too  had  hypochondrias  ;  all  great  souls  are 
apt  to  have,— and  to  be  in  thick  darkness  generally,  till  the  eternal 
ways  and  the  celestial  guiding-stars  disclose  themselves,  and  the 
vague  Abyss  of  Life  knit  itself  up  into  Firmaments  for  them.  Temp- 
tations in  the  wilderness.  Choices  of  Hercules,  and  the  like,  in 
succinct  or  loose  form,  are  appointed  for  every  man  that  will  assert 
a  soul  in  himself  and  be  a  man.  Let  Oliver  take  comfort  in  his  dark 
sorrows  and  melancholies.  The  quantity  of  sorrow  he  has,  does  it 
not  mean  withal  the  quantity  of  sy7npathy  he  has,  the  quantity  of 
faculty  and  victory  he  shall  yet  have  ?  '  Our  sorrow  is  the  inverted 
image  of  our  nobleness.'  The  depth  of  our  despair  measures  what 
capability,  and  height  of  claim  we  have,  to  hope.  Black  smoke  as 
of  Tophet  filling  all  your  universe,  it  can  yet  by  true  heart-energy 
become y/«w<?,  and  brilliancy  of  Heaven.     Courage  ! 

It  is  therefore  in  these  years,  undated  by  History,  that  We  must 
place  Oliver's  clear  recognition  of  Calvinistic  Christianity  ;  what  he, 
with  unspeakable  joy,  would  name  his  Conversion  ;  his  deliverance 
from  the  jaws  of  Eternal  Death.  Certainly  a  grand  epoch  for  a  man  : 
properly  the  one  epoch  ;  the  turning-point  which  guides  upwards,  or 
guides  downwards,  him  and  his  activity  forevermore.  Wilt  thou  join 
with  the  Dragons  ;  wilt  thou  join  with  the  Gods.-*  Of  thee  too  the 
question  is  asked  ;— whether  by  a  man  in  Geneva  gown,  by  a  man  in 
'  Four  surplices  at  Allhallow-tide,'  with  words  very  imperfect ;  or  by 
no  man  and  no  words,  but  only  by  the  Silences,  by  the  Eternities,  by 
the  Life  everlasting  and  the  Death  everlasting.  That  the  '  Sense  of 
ditference  between  Right  and  Wrong'  had  filled  all  Time  and  all 
Space  for  man,  and  bodied  itself  forth  into  a  Heaven  and  Hell  for 
him  ;  this  constitutes  the  grand  feature  of  those  Puritan  Old-Christian 
Ages  ;  this  is  the  element  which  stamps  them  as  Heroic,  and  has 
rendered  their  works  great,  manlike,  fruitful  to  all  generations.  It  is 
by  far  the  memorablest  achievement  of  our  Species  ;  without  that 
element,  in  some  form  or  other,  nothing  of  Heroic  had  ever  been 
among  us. 

For  many  centuries.  Catholic  Christianity,  a  fit  embodiment  of  that 
divine  Sense,  had  been  current  more  or  less,  making  the  generations 
noble  :  and  here  in  England,  in  the  century  called  the  Seventeenth, 
we  see  the  last  aspect  of  it  hitherto, — not  the  last  of  all,  it  is  to  be 
hoped.  Oliver  was  henceforth  a  Christian  man  ;  believed  in  God, 
not  on  Sundays  only,  but  on  all  days,  in  all  places,  and  in  all  cases. 

*  Sunday,  27th  March  1625  (Wilson,  in  Kennet,  H.  790). 
t  Sir  Philip  Warwick's  Memoirs  (London,  1701)'  P-  249. 


44 


INTRODUCTION. 


1624. 

The  grievance  of  Lay  Impropriations,  complained  of  in  the  Hamp- 
ton-Court Conference  twenty  years  ago,  having  never  been  abated, 
and  many  parts  of  the  country  being  still  thought  insufficiently  sup- 
plied with  Preachers,  a  plan  was  this  year  fallen  upon  to  raise  by  sub- 
scription, among  persons  grieved  at  that  state  of  matters,  a  Fund  for 
buyiiig-in  such  Impropriations  as  might  offer  themselves  ;  for  sup- 
porting good  ministers  therewith,  in  destitute  places  ;  and  for  other- 
wise encouraging  the  ministerial  work.  The  originator  of  this  scheme 
was  '  the  famous  Dr.  Preston,'  "^  a  Puritan  College  Doctor  of  immense 
'  fame '  in  those  and  in  prior  years  ;  courted  even  by  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  and  tempted  with  the  gleam  of  bishopricks  ;  but  moul- 
dering now  in  great  oblivion,  not  famous  to  any  man.  His  scheme, 
however,  was  found  good.  The  wealthy  London  Merchants,  almost 
all  of  them  Puritans,  took  it  up  ;  and  by  degrees  the  wealthier  Puri- 
tans over  England  at  large.  Considerable  ever-increasing  funds  were 
subscribed  for  this  pious  object  ;  were  vested  in  '  Feoffees,' — who 
afterwards  made  some  noise  in  the  world  under  that  name.  They 
gradually  purchased  some  Advowsons  or  Impropriations,  such  as 
came  to  market  ;  and  hired,  or  assisted  in  hiring,  a  great  many 
'  Lecturers,'  persons  not  generally  in  full  '  Priest's-orders '  (having 
scruples  about  the  ceremonies),  but  in  Deacons'  or  some  other  orders, 
with  permission  to  preach,  to'  lecture,' as  it  was  called:  whom  accord- 
ingly we  find  '  lecturing'  in  various  places,  under  various  conditions, 
in  the  subsequent  years  : — often  in  some  market-town,  '  on  market- 
day  ; '  on  '  Sunday-afternoon,'  as  supplemental  to  the  regular  Priest 
when  he  might  happen  to  be  idle  or  given  to  black  and  white  sur- 
plices ;  or  as  '  running  Lecturers,'  now  here,  now  there,  over  a  certain 
district.  They  were  greatly  followed  by  the  serious  part  of  the  com- 
munity ;  and  gave  proportional  offence  in  other  quarters.  In  some 
years  hence,  they  had  risen  to  such  a  height,  these  Lecturers,  that 
Dr.  Laud,  now  come  into  authority,  took  them  seriously  in  hand,  and 
with  patient  detail  hunted  them  mostly  out  ;  nay  brought  the  Feoffees 
themselves  and  their  whole  Enterprise  into  the  Starchamber,  and 
there,  with  emphasis  enough,  and  heavy  damages,  amid  huge  rumour 
from  the  public,  suppressed  them.  This  was  in  1633  ;  a  somewhat 
strong  measure.  How  would  the  Public  take  it  now,  if, — we  say  not 
the  gate  of  Heaven,  but  the  gate  of  the  Opposition  Hustings  were 
suddenly  shut  against  mankind, — if  our  Opposition  Newspapers,  and 
their  morning  Prophesyings,  were  suppressed  ! — That  Cromwell  was 
a  contributor  to  this  Feoffee  Fund,  and  a  zealous  forwarder  of  it 
according  to  his  opportunities,  we  might  already  guess  ;  and  by  and 
by  there  will  occur  some  vestige  of  direct  evidence  to  that  effect. 

Oliver  naturally  consorted  henceforth  with  the  Puritan  Clergy  in 
preference  to  the  other  kind  ;  zealously  attended  their  ministry,  when 
possible  ;— consorted  with  Puritans  in  general,  many  of  whom  were 
Gentry   of  his   own   rank,  some  of  them    Nobility  of  much  higher 

*  Heylin's  Life  of  Laud. 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY:  45 

rank.  A  modest  devout  man,  solemnly  intent  '  to  make  his  call- 
ing and  his  election  sure/ — to  whom,  in  credible  dialect,  the  Voice 
of  the  Highest  had  spoken.  Whose  earnestness,  sagacity  and 
manful  worth  gradually  made  him  conspicuous  in  his  circle  among 
such. — The  Puritans  were  already  numerous.  John  Hampden,  Oliver's 
Cousin,  was  a  devout  Puritan,  Jahn  Pym  the  like  ;  Lord  Brook,  Lord 
Say,  Lord  Montague, — Puritans  in  the  better  ranks,  and  in  every 
rank,  abounded.  Already  either  in  conscious  act,  or  in  clear  ten- 
dency, the  far  greater  part  of  the  serious  Thought  and  iManhood  of 
England  had  declared  itself  Puritan. 

1625. 

Mark  Noble,  citing  Willis's  Notifia,  reports  that  Oliver  appeared 
this  year  as  Member  'for  Huntingdon'  in  King  Charles's  first  Parlia- 
ment.* It  is  a  mistake  ;  grounded  on  mere  blunders  and  clerical 
errors.  Browne  Willis,  in  his  Notitia  Parhametttaria^  does  indeed 
specify  as  Member  for  Huntingdoni-///r^  an  '  Oliver  Cromwell,  Esq.,' 
who  might  be  our  Oliver.  But  the  usual  member  in  former  Parliaments 
is  Sir  Oliver,  our  Oliver's  Uncle.  Browne  Willis  must  have  made,  or 
have  copied,  some  slip  of  the  pen.  Suppose  him  to  have  found  in 
some  of  his  multitudinous  parchments,  an  '  Oliver  Cromwell,  Knight 
of  the  Shire  ; '  and  in  place  of  putting  in  the  '  Sir,'  to  have  put  in 
'Esq.  ;'  it  will  solve  the  whole  difficulty.  Our  Oliver,  when  he  in- 
disputably did  afterwards  enter  Parliament,  came  in  for  Huntingdon 
Town  ;  so  that  on  this  hypothesis,  he  must  have  first  been  Knight 
of  the  Shire,  and  then  have  sunk  (an  immense  fall  in  those  days)  to 
be  a  Burgh  Member;  which  cannot  without  other  ground  be  credited. 
What  the  original  Chancery  Parchments  say  of  the  business,  whether 
the  error  is  theirs  or  Browne  Willis's,  I  cannot  decide  ;  on  inquiry  at 
the  Rolls'  Office,  it  turns  out  that  the  Records,  for  some  fifty  years 
about  this  period,  have  vanished  "  a  good  while  ago."  Whose  error 
it  may  be,  w^e  know  not ;  but  an  error  we  may  safely  conclude  it  is. 
Sir  Oliver  was  then  still  living  at  Hinchinbrook,  in  the  vigour  of  his 
years,  no  reason  whatever  why  he  should  not  serve  as  formerly  ;  nay, 
if  he  had  withdrawn,  his  young  Nephew,  of  no  fortune  for  a  Knight 
of  the  Shire,  was  not  the  man  to  replace  him.  The  Members  for 
Huntingdon  Town  in  this  Parliament,  as  in  the  preceding  one,  are  a 
Mr.  Main  waring  and  a  Mr.  St.  John.  The  County  Members  in  the 
preceding  Parliament,  and  in  this  too  vvith  the  correction  of  the  con- 
cluding syllable  in  this,  are  '  Edward  Montague,  Esquire,'  and  '  Oliver 
Cromwell,  Knight^ 

1626. 

In  the  Ashmole  Museum  at  Oxford  stands  catalogued  a  '  Letter 
'from  OHver  Cromwell  to  Mr.  Henry  Downhall, at  St.  John's  College, 
'Cambridge;  dated,  LIuntingdon,   14  October,  1626  ;'t  which  might 

*  Noble,  i.  100. 

t  Bodleian  Library  :  Codices  MSS.  Ashmoleani,  No.  8398. 


46  INTRODUCTION. 


perhaps,  in  some  very  faint  way,  have  elucidated  Dr.  Simcott  and  the 
hypochondrias  for  us.  On  applying  to  kind  friends  at  Oxford  for  a 
copy  of  this  Letter,  I  learn  that  there  is  now  no  Letter,  only  a  mere 
selvage  of  paper,  and  a  leaf  wanting  between  two  leaves.  It  was 
stolen,  none  knows  when  ;  but  stolen  it  is  ; — which  forces  me  to  con- 
tinue my  Introduction  some  nine  years  farther,  instead  of  ending  it  at 
this  point.  Did  some  zealous  Oxford  Doctor  cut  the  Letter  out,  as 
one  weeds  a  hemlock  from  a  parsley-bed  ;  that  so  the  Ashmole 
Museum  might  be  cleansed,  and  yield  only  pure  nutriment  to  man- 
kind.'' Or  was  it  some  collector  of  autographs  zealous  beyond  law? 
Whoever  the  thief  may  be,  he  is  probably  dead  long  since  ;  and  has 
answered  for  this, — and  also,  we  may  fancy,  for  heavier  thefts,  which 
were  likely  to  be  charged  upon  him.  If  any  humane  individual  ever 
henceforth  gets  his  eye  upon  the  Letter,  let  him  be  so  kind  as  send  a 
copy  of  it  to  the  Publishers  of  this  Book,  and  no  questions  will  be 
asked. 

1627. 

A  Deed  of  Sale,  dated  20  June  1627,  still  testifies  that  Hinchinbrook 
this  year  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Cromwells  into  those  of  the 
Montagues.*  The  price  was  ^3000;  curiously  divided  into  two 
parcels,  down  to  shillings  and  pence, — one  of  the  parcels  being 
already  a  creditor's.  The  Purchaser  is  *  Sir  Sidney  Montague, 
*  Knight,  of  Barnwell,  one  of  his  Majesty's  Masters  of  the  Requests.' 
Sir  Oliver  Cromwell,  son  of  the  Golden  Knight,  having  now  burnt 
out  his  splendour,  disappeared  in  this  way  from  Hinchinbrook;  retired 
deeper  into  the  Fens,  to  a  place  of  his  near  Ramsey  Mere,  where  he 
continued  still  thirty  years  longer  to  reside,  in  an  eclipsed  manner. 
It  was  to  this  house  at  Ramsey  that  Oliver,  our  Oliver,  then  Captain 
Cromwell  in  the  Parliament's  service,  paid  the  domiciliary  visit  much 
talked  of  in  the  old  Books.  The  reduced  Knight,  his  Uncle,  was  a 
Royalist  or  Malignant ;  and  his  house  had  to  be  searched  for  arms, 
for  munitions,  for  furnishings  of  any  sort,  which  he  might  be  minded 
to  send  off  to  the  King,  now  at  York,  and  evidently  intending  war. 
Oliver's  dragoons  searched  with  due  rigour  for  the  arms  ;  while  the 
Captain  respectfully  conversed  with  his  Uncle;  and  even  '  insisted' 
through  the  interview,  say  the  old  Books,  '  on  standing  uncovered  : ' 
which  latter  circumstance  may  be  taken  as  an  astonishing  hypocrisy 
in  him,  say  the  old  blockhead  Books.  The  arms,  munitions,  furnish- 
ings were  with  all  rigour  of  law,  not  with  more  rigour  and  not  with 
less,  carried  away  ;  and  Oliver  parted  with  his  Uncle,  for  that  time, 
not  '  craving  his  blessing,'  I  think,  as  the  old  blockhead  Books  say  ; 
but  hoping  he  might,  one  day,  either  get  it  or  a  better  than  it,  for  what 
he  had  now  done.  Oliver,  while  in  military  charge  of  that  country, 
had  probably  repeated  visits  to  pay  to  his  Uncle  ;  and  they  know 
little  of  the  man  or  of  the  circumstances,  who  suppose  there  was  any 
likelihood  or  need  of  either  insolence  or  hypocrisy  in  the  course  of 
these. 

As  for  the  old  Knight,  he  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  easy 

*  Noble,  i.  43. 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVERS  BIOGRAPHY.  /^y 

temper  ;  given  to  sumptuosity  of  hospitality  ;  and  averse  to  severer 
duties.^  When  his  eldest  son,  who  also  shewed  a  turn  for  expense, 
presented  him  a  schedule  of  debts,  craving  aid  towards  the  pay- 
ment of  them,  Sir  Oliver  answerecl  with  a  bland  sigh,  "  I  wish  they 
were  paid."  Various  Cromwells,  sons  of  his,  nephews  of  his,  besides 
the  great  Oliver,  took  part  in  the  civil  war,  some  on  this  side,  some 
on  that,  whose  indistinct  designations  in  the  old  Books  are  apt  to 
occasion  mistakes  with  modern  readers.  Sir  Oliver  vanishes  now  from 
Hinchinbrook,  and  all  the  public  business  records,  into  the  darker 
places  of  the  Fens.  His  name  disappears  from  Willis  : — in  the  next 
Parliament  the  Knight  of  the  Shire  for  Huntingdon  becomes,  instead 
of  him,  '  Sir  Capell  Bedall,  Baronet.'  The  purchaser  of  Hinchinbrook, 
Sir  Sidney  Montague,  was  brother  of  the  first  Earl  of  Manchester, 
brother  of  the  third  Lord  Montague  of  Bough  ton  ;  and  father  of  '  the 
valiant  Colonel  Montague,'  valiant  General  Montague,  Admiral  Mon- 
tague, who,  in  an  altered  state  of  circumstances,  became  first  Earl  of 
Sandwich,  and  perished,  with  a  valour  worthy  of  a  better  generalis- 
simo than  poor  James  Duke  of  York,  in  the  Seafight  of  Solebay 
(Southwold  Bay,  on  the  coast  of  Suffolk)  in  i672t. 

In  these  same  years,  for  the  dates  and  all  other  circumstances  of 
the  matter  hang  dubious  in  the  vague,  there  is  record  given  by  Dug- 
dale,  a  man  of  very  small  authority  on  these  Cromwell  matters,  of  a 
certain  suit  instituted,  in  the  King's  Council,  King's  Court  of  Re- 
quests, or  wherever  it  might  be,  by  our  Oliver  and  other  relations 
interested,  concerning  the  lunacy  of  his  Uncle,  Sir  Thomas  Steward 
of  Ely.  It  seems  they  alleged.  This  Uncle  Steward  was  incapable  of 
managing  his  affairs,  and  ought  to  be  restrained  under  guardians. 
Which  allegation  of  theirs,  and  petition  grounded  on  it,  the  King's 
Council  saw  good  to  deny  :  whereupon — Sir  Thomas  Steward  con- 
tinued to  manage  his  affairs,  in  an  incapable  or  semi-capable  manner ; 
and  nothing  followed  upon  it  whatever.  Which  proceeding  of 
Oliver's,  if  there  ever  was  such  a  proceeding,  we  are,  according  to 
Dugdale,  to  consider  an  act  of  villany, — if  we  incline  to  take  that 
trouble.  What  we  know  is,  That  poor  Sir  Thomas  himself  did 
not  so  consider  it ;  for,  by  express  testament  some  years  afterwards, 
he  declared  Oliver  his  heir  in  chief,  and  left  him  considerable  pro- 
perty, as  if  nothing  had  happened.  So  that  there  is  this  dilemma : 
If  Sir  Thomas  was  imbecile,  then  Oliver  was  right  ;  and  unless 
Sir  Thomas  was  imbecile,  Oliver  was  not  wrong !  Alas,  all 
calumny  and  carrion,  does  it  not  incessantly  cry,  "  Earth,  O,  for 
pity's  sake,  a  little  earth  ! " 


1628. 

Sir  Oliver  Cromwell  has  faded  from  the  Parliamentary  scene  into 
the  deep  Fen-country,  but  Oliver  Cromwell,  Esq.  appears  there  as 
Member  for  Huntingdon,  at  Westminster  on  '  Monday  the  17th  of 
March/   1627-8.     This   was   the   Third   Parliament  of  Charles:  by 

*  Fuller's  Worthies,  §  Huntingdonshire. 

t  Collins's  Peerage  (London,  1741),  ii.  286-9, 


4S  INTRODUCTION. 


much  the  most  notable  of  all  Parliaments  till  Charles's  Long  Parlia- 
ment met,  which  proved  his  last. 

Having  sharply,  with  swift  impetuosity  and  indignation,  dismissed 
two  Parliaments,  because  they  would  not  *  supply '  him  without 
taking  '  grievances '  along  with  them  ;  and,  meanwhile  and  after- 
wards, having  failed  in  every  operation  foreign  and  domestic,  at 
Cadiz,  at  Rhe,  at  Rochelle  ;  and  having  failed,  too,  in  getting  supplies 
by  unparliamentary  methods,  Charles  '  consulted  with  Sir  Robert 
Cotton  what  was  to  be  done  ; '  who  answered.  Summon  a  Parliament 
again.  So  this  celebrated  Parliament  was  summoned.  It  met,  as 
we  have  said,  in  March  1628,  and  continued  with  one  prorogation  till 
March  1629.  The  two  former  Parliaments  had  sat  but  a  few  weeks 
each,  till  they  were  indignantly  hurled  asunder  again  ;  this  one  con- 
tinued nearly  a  year,  Wentworth  (Strafford)  was  of  this  Parliament  ; 
Hampden  too,  Selden,  Pym,  Holies,  and  others  known  to  us  :  all 
these  had  been  of  former  Parliaments  as  well  ;  Oliver  Cromwell, 
Member  for  Huntingdon,  sat  therefor  the  first  time. 

It  is  very  evident,  King  Charles,  baffled  in  all  his  enterprises,  and 
reduced  really  to  a  kind  of  crisis,  wished  much  this  Parliament  should 
succeed  ;  and  took  what  he  must  have  thought  incredible  pains  for 
that  end.  The  poor  King  strives  visibly  throughout  to  control  him- 
self, to  be  soft  and  patient ;  inwardly  writhing  and  rustling  with 
royal  rage.  Unfortunate  King,  we  see  him  chafing,  stamping, — a 
very  fiery  steed,  but  bridled,  check-bitted,  by  innumerable  straps  and 
considerations  ;  struggling  much  to  be  composed.  Alas,  it  would 
not  do.  This  Parliament  was  more  Puritanic,  more  intent  on  rigorous 
Law  and  divine  Gospel,  than  any  other  had  ever  been.  As  indeed 
all  these  Parliaments  grow  strangely  in  Puritanism  ;  more  and  ever 
more  earnest  rises  from  the  hearts  of  them  all,  "  O  Sacred  Majesty, 
lead  us  not  to  Antichrist,  to  Illegality,  to  temporal  and  eternal  Perdi- 
tion !  "  The  Nobility  and  Gentry  of  England  were  then  a  very 
strange  body  of  men.  The  English  Squire  of  the  Seventeenth  Century 
clearly  appears  to  have  believed  in  God,  not  as  a  figure  of  speech, 
but  as  a  very  fact,  very  awful  to  the  heart  of  the  English  Squire. 
*  He  wore  his  Bible-doctrine  roimd  him,'  says  one,  '  as  our  Squire 
'  wears  his  shot-belt ;  went  abroad  with  it,  nothing  doubting.'  King 
Charles  was  going  on  his  father's  course,  only  with  frightful  accelera- 
tion :  he  and  his  respectable  Traditions  and  Notions,  clothed  in  old 
sheepskin  and  respectable  Church-tippets,  were  all  pulling  one  way  ; 
England  and  the  Eternal  Laws  pulling  another ; — the  rent  fast 
widening  till  no  man  could  heal  it. 

This  was  the  celebrated  Parliament  which  framed  the  Petition  of 
Right,  and  set  London  all  astir  with  '  bells  and  bonfires '  at  the  passing 
thereof ;  and  did  other  feats  not  to  be  particularised  here.  Across 
the  murkiest  element  in  which  any  great  Entity  was  ever  shown  to 
human  creatures,  it  still  rises,  after  much  consideration  to  the  modern 
man,  in  a  dim  but  undeniable  manner,  as  a  most  brave  and  noble 
Parliament.  The  like  of  which  were  worth  its  weight  in  diamonds 
even  now  ; — but  has  grown  very  unattainable  now,  next  door  to  in- 
credible now.  —We  have  to  say  that  this  Parliament  chastised  syco- 
phant Priests,  Mainwaring,  Sibthorp,  and  other  Arminian  sycophants, 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVERS  BIOGRAPHY.  49 

a  disgrace  to  God's  Church  ;  that  it  had  an  eye  to  other  still  more 
elevated  Church-Sycophants,  as  the  mainspring  of  all  ;  but  was 
cautious  to  give  offence  by  naming  them.  That  it  carefully  '  abstained 
from  naming  the  Duke  of  Buckingham.'  That  it  decided  on  giving 
ample  subsidies,  but  not  till  there  were  reasonable  discussion  of 
grievances.  That  in  manner  it  was  most  gentle,  soft-spoken,  cautious, 
reverential  ;  and  in  substance  most  resolute  and  valiant.  Truly  with 
valiant  patient  energy,  in  a  slow  steadfast  English  manner,  it  carried, 
across  infinite  confused  opposition  and  discouragement,  its  Petition 
of  Right,  and  what  else  it  had  to  carry.  Four  hundred  brave  men, — 
brave  men  and  true,  after  their  sort  !  One  laments  to  find  such  a 
Parliament  smothered  under  Dryasdust's  shot-rubbish.  The  memory 
of  it,  could  any  real  memory  of  it  rise  upon  honourable  gentlemen 
and  us,  might  be  admonitory, — would  be  astonishing  at  least.  We 
must  clip  one  extract  from  Rushworth's  huge  Rag-fair  of  a  Book  ;  the 
mournfullest  torpedo  rubbish-heap,  of  jewels  buried  under  sordid 
wreck  and  dust  and  dead  ashes,  one  jewel  to  the  waggon4oad  ; — and 
let  the  reader  try  to  make  a  visual  scene  of  it  as  he  can.  Here,  we 
say,  is  an  old  Letter,  which  '  old  Mr.  Chamberlain  of  the  Court  of 
Wards,'  a  gentleman  entirely  unknown  to  us,  received  fresh  and  new, 
before  breakfast,  on  a  June  morning  of  the  year  1628  ;  of  which  old 
Letter  we,  by  a  good  chance,*  have  obtained  a  copy  for  the  reader. 
It  is  by  Mr.  Thomas  Alured,  a  good  Yorkshire  friend.  Member  for 
Malton  in  that  county  ; — written  in  a  hand  which,  if  it  were  not 
naturally  stout,  would  tremble  with  emotion.  Worthy  Mr.  Alured, 
called  also  '  Al'red '  or  '  Aldred  ; '  uncle  or  father,  we  suppose,  to  a 
*  Colonel  Alured,'  well  known  afterwards  to  Oliver  and  us  :  he  writes ; 
we  abridge  and  present,  as  follows  : 

"  Friday,  6th  June,  1628. 

"  Sir, — Yesterday  was  a  day  of  desolation  among  us  in  Parliament ; 
"  and  this  day,  we  fear,  will  be  the  day  of  our  dissolution. 

"  Upon  Tuesday  Sir  John  Eliot  moved  that  as  we  intended  to 
"furnish  his  Majesty  with  Money,  we  should  also  supply  him  with 
"  Counsel."  Representing  the  doleful  state  of  affairs,  "  he  desired 
"  there  might  be  a  Declaration  made  to  the  King,  of  the  danger 
"  wherein  the  Kingdom  stood  by  the  decay  and  contempt  of  religion, 
"by  the  insufficiency  of  his  Ministers,  by  the"  &c.  &c.  Sir  Hum- 
phrey May,  "  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  said,  •  It  was  a  strange 
"  language  ; '  yet  the  House  commanded  Sir  John  Eliot  to  go  on. 
"  Whereupon  the  Chancellor  desired,  '  If  he  went  on,  he  the  Chan- 
"  cellor  might  go  out.'  They  all  bade  him  '  begone  : '  yet  he  stayed, 
"  and  heard  Sir  John  out.  The  House  generally  inclined  to  such  a 
"  Declaration^''  which  was  accordingly  resolved  to  be  set  about. 

"  But  next  day,  Wednesday,  we  had  a  Message  from  his  Majesty 
"by  the  Speaker,  That  as  the  Session  was  positively  to  end  in  a 
"  week,  we  should  husband  the  time,  and  despatch  our  old  businesses 
"without  entertaining  new.  Intending"  nevertheless  "to  pursue 
"our  Declaration^  we  had,  yesterday,  Thursday  morning,  a  new 
*'  Message  brought  us,  which  I  have  here  enclosed.     Which  requiring 

*  Rushworth's  9Jstorioal  Collections  (London,  1682),  i.  609-ip, 


50 


INTRODUCTION. 


"  us  not  to  cast  or  lay  any  aspersio7i  upon  any  Minister  of  his  Majesty, 
"  the  House  was  much  affected  thereby."  Did  they  not  in  former 
times  proceed  by  fining  and  committing  John  of  Gaunt,  the  King's 
own  son  ;  had  they  not,  in  very  late  times,  meddled  with  and 
sentenced  the  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon  and  others  ?  What  are  w^ 
arriving  at  !— 

Sir  Robert  Philips  of  Somersetshire  spake,  and  "  mingled  his  words 
"  with  weeping.  Mr.  Pym  did  the  like.  Sir  Edward  Cook "  (old 
Coke  upon  Lyttleton),  "  overcome  with  passion,  seeing  the  disolation 
"likely  to  ensue,  was  forced  to  sit  down  when  he  began  to  speak,  by 
"the  abundance  of  tears."  O  Mr.  Chamberlain  of  the  Court  of 
Wards  was  the  like  ever  witnessed  1  "  Yea,  the  Speaker  in  his 
"  speech  could  not  refrain  from  weeping  and  shedding  of  'tears. 
"  Besides  a  great  many  whose  grief  made  them  dumb.  But  others 
"  bore  up  in  that  storm,  and  encouraged  the  rest."  We  resolved 
ourselves  into  a  Committee,  to  have  freer  scope  for  speech  ;  and 
called  Mr.  Whitby  to  the  chair.  The  Speaker,  always  in  close  com- 
munication with  his  Majesty,  craves  leave  from  us,  with  much 
humility,  to  withdraw  "  for  half  an  hour  ; "  which,  though  we  knew 
well  whither  he  was  going,  was  readily  granted  him.  It  is  ordered, 
"No  other  man  leave  the  House  upon  pain  of  going  to  the  Tower." 
And  now  the  speaking  commences,  "  freer  and  frequenter  "  being  in 
Committee,  and  old  Sir  Edward  Coke  tries  it  again. 

"  Sir  Edward  Cook  told  us,  '  He  now  saw  God  had  not  accepted 
*'  of  our  humble  and  moderate  carriages  and  fair  proceedings ;  and  he 
"  feared  the  reason  was,  We  had  not  dealt  sincerely  with  the  King 
"  and  Country,  and  made  a  true  representation  of  the  causes  of  ail 
"  those  miseries.  Which  he,  for  his  part,  repented  that  he  had  not 
"  done  sooner.  And  therefore,  not  knowing  whether  he  should  ever 
"  again  speak  in  this  House,  he  would  now  do  it  freely  ;  and  so  did 
"  here  protest.  That  the  author  and  cause  ot  all  those  miseries  was — 
"  THE  Duke  of  Buckingham.'  Which  was  entertained  and  an- 
"  swered  with  a  cheerful  acclamation  of  the  House."  (Yea,  yea  ! 
Well  moved,  well  spoken  !  Yea,  yea  !)  "  As,  when  one  good  hound 
"  recovers  the  scent,  the  rest  come  in  with  full  cry  :  so  they  {we)  pur- 
"  sued  it,  and  every  one  came  home,  and  laid  the  blame  where  he 
"  thought  the  fault  was,"— on  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  to  wit. 
"  And  as  we  were  putting  it  to  the  question,  Whether  he  should  be 
"  named  in  our  intended  Remonstrance  as  the  chief  cause  of  all  our 
"  miseries  at  home  and  abroad, — the  Speaker,  having  been,  not  half 
"  an  hour,  but  three  hours  absent,  and  with  the  King,  returned  ; 
"  bringing  this  Message,  That  the  House  should  then  rise  (being 
"  about  eleven  o'clock),  adjourn  till  the  morrow  morning,  and  no 
"  Committees  to  sit,  or  other  business  to  go  on,  in  the  interim."  They 
have  been  meditating  it  all  night ! 

"  What  we  shall  expect  this  morning  therefore,  God  of  Heaven 
"  knows.  We  shall  meet  betimes  this  morning  ;  partly  for  the  busi- 
"  ness'  sake  ;  and  partly  because,  two  days  ago,  we  made  an  order, 
"  That  whoever  comes  in  after  Prayers  shall  pay  twelve-pence  to  the 
"  poor. 

*'  Sir,  excuse  my  hastQ  :— and  kt  us  have  your  prayers  ;  whereof 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVERS  BIOGRAPHY.  51 

"  both  you  and  we  have  need.     I  rest, — affectionately  at  your  ser- 
"  vice,  "  Thomas  Alured." 

This  scene  Oliver  saw,  and  formed  part  of ;  one  of  the  memor 
ablest  he  was  ever  in.  Why  did  those  old  honourable  gentlemen 
'  weep '  ?  How  came  tough  old  Coke  upon  Lyttleton,  one  of  the 
toughest  men  ever  made,  to  melt  into  tears  like  a  girl,  and  sit  down 
unable  to  speak?  The  modern  honourable  gentlemen  cannot  tell. 
Let  him  consider  it,  and  try  if  he  can  tell  !  And  then,  putting  off  his 
Shot-belt,  and  striving  to  put  on  some  Bible-doctrine,  some  earnest 
God's  Truth  or  other, — try  if  he  can  discover  why  he  cannot  tell  ! — 

The  Remonstrance  against  Buckingham  was  perfected ;  the  hounds 
having  got  all  upon  the  scent.  Buckingham  was  expressly  'named,' 
a  daring  feat  :  and  so  loud  were  the  hounds,  and  such  a  tune  in  their 
baying,  his  Majesty  saw  good  to  confirm,  and  ratify  beyond  shadow 
of  cavil,  the  invaluable  Petition  of  Right,  and  thereby  produce  '  bon- 
fires,' and  bob-majors  upon  all  bells.  Old  London  was  sonorous  ;  in 
a  blaze  with  joy-fires.  Soon  after  which,  this  Parliament,  as  London, 
and  England,  and  it,  all  still  continued  somewhat  too  sonorous,  was 
hastily,  with  visible  royal  anger,  prorogued  till  October  next, — till 
January  as  it  proved.  Oliver,  of  course,  went  home  to  Huntingdon 
to  his  harvest-work  ;  England  continued  simmering  and  sounding  as 
it  might. 

The  day  of  prorogation  was  the  26th  of  June.*  One  day  in  the 
latter  end  of  August,  John  Felton,  a  short  swart  Suffolk  gentleman  of 
military  air,  in  fact  a  retired  lieutenant  of  grim  serious  disposition, 
went  out  to  walk  in  the  e^istern  parts  of  London.  Walking  on  Tower 
Hill,  full  of  black  reflections  on  his  own  condition,  and  on  the  condi- 
tion of  England,  and  a  Duke  of  Buckingham  holding  all  England 
down  into  the  jaws  of  ruin  and  disgrace,  —  John  Felton  saw,  in  evil 
hour,  on  some  cutler's  stall  there,  a  broad  sharp  hunting  knife,  price 
one  shilling.  John  Felton,  with  a  wild  flash  in  the  dark  heart  of  him, 
bought  the  said  knife  ;  rode  down  to  Portsmouth  with  it,  where  the 
great  Uuke  then  was  ;  struck  the  said  knife,  with  one  fell  plunge,  into 
the  great  Duke's  heart.  This  was  on  Saturday  the  23d  of  August  of 
this  same  year  f 

Felton  was  tried  ;  saw  that  his  wild  flashing  inspiration  had  been 
not  of  God,  but  of  Satan.  It  is  known  he  repented  :  when  the  death- 
sentence  was  passed  on  him,  he  stretched  out  his  right  hand  ;  craved 
that  this  too,  as  some  small  expiation,  might  first  be  stricken  off; 
which  was  denied  him,  as  against  law.  He  died  at  Tyburn  ;  his  body 
was  swinging  in  chains  at  Portsmouth  ; — and  much  else  had  gone 
awry,  when  the  Parliament  reassembled,  in  January  following,  and 
Oliver  came  up  to  Town  again. 

*  Commons  Journals,  i.  920. 

t  Clarendon  (i.  68);  Hamond  L' Estrange  (p.  90);  D'Ewes  (ms.  Autobiography) 
&c.  ;  all  of  whom  report  the  minute  circumstances  of  the  ^s^ssiq^tipq,  not  on^  Qf 
th^ra  agreeing  completeljr  with  anpther, 


52  INTRODUCTION. 


1629. 

The  Parliament  Session  proved  very  brief ;  but  very  energetic,  very 
extraordinary,  '  Tonnage  and  Poundage,'  what  we  now  call  Custom- 
house Duties,  a  constant  subject  of  quarrel  between  Charles  and  his 
Parliaments  hitherto,  had  again  been  levied  without  Parliamentary 
consent  ;  in  the  teeth  of  old  Tallagio  non  concedendo,  nay  even  of  the 
late  solemnly  confirmed  Petition  of  Right ;  and  naturally  gave  rise  to 
Parliamentary  consideration.  Merchants  had  been  imprisoned  for 
refusing  to  pay  it ;  Members  of  Parliament  themselves  had  been 
^  supcendd:^  there  was  a  very  ravelled  coil  to  deal  with  in  regard  to 
Tonnage  and  Poundage.  Nay  the  Petition  of  Right  itself  had  been 
altered  in  the  Printing  ;  a  very  ugly  business  too. 

In  regard  to  Religion  also,  matters  looked  equally  ill.  Sycophant 
Mainwaring,  just  censured  in  Parliament,  had  been  promoted  to  a 
fatter  living.  Sycophant  Montague,  in  the  like  circumstances,  to  a 
Bishopric  :  Laud  was  in  the  act  of  consecrating  him  at  Croydon, 
when  the  news  of  Buckingham's  death  came  thither.  There  needed 
to  be  a  Committee  of  Religion.  The  House  resolved  itself  into  a 
Grand  Committee  of  Religion  ;  and  did  not  want  for  matter.  Bishop 
Neile  of  Winchester,  Bishop  Laud  now  of  London,  were  a  frightfully 
ceremonial  pair  of  Bishops  ;  the  fountain  they  of  innumerable  ten- 
dencies to  Papistry  and  the  old  clothes  of  Babylon  !  It  was  in  this 
Committee  of  Religion,  on  the  nth  day  of  February  1628-9  that  Mr. 
CromweD,  Member  for  Huntingdon,  stood  up  and  made  his  first 
Speech,  a  fragment  of  which  has  found  its  way  into  History,  and  is 
now  known  to  all  mankind.  He  said,  "  He  had  heard  by  relation 
"from  one  Dr.  Beard"  (his  old  Schoolmaster  at  Huntingdon),  "that 
"  Dr.  Alablaster  had  preached  flat  Popery  at  Paul's  Cross  ;  and  that 
"  the  Bishop  of  Winchester"  (Dr.  Neilej  "had  commanded  him  as 
"  his  Diocesan,  He  should  preach  nothing  to  the  contrary.  Main- 
"  waring,  so  justly  censured  in  this  House  for  his  sermons,  was  by 
"  the  same  Bishop's  means  preferred  to  a  rich  living.  If  these  are 
•"  the  steps  to  Church-preferment,"  added  he,  "  what  are  we  to 
*' expect!"* 

Dr.  Beard,  as  the  reader  knows,  is  Oliver's  old  Schoolmaster  at 
Huntingdon  ;  a  grave,  speculative  theological  old  gentleman,  seem- 
ingly,— and  on  a  level  with  the  latest  news  from  Town.  Of  poor  Dr. 
Alablaster  there  may  be  found  some  indistinct,  and  instantly  forget- 
able,  particulars  in  IFood's  At/iencE.  Paul's  Cross,  of  which  I  have 
seen  old  Prints,  was  a  kind  of  Stone  Tent,  '  with  leaden  roof,  at  the 
north-east  corner  of  Paul's  Cathedral,  where  Sermons  were  still,  and 
had  long  been,  preached  in  the  open  air  ;  crowded  devout  congrega- 
tions gathering  there  ;  with  forms  to  sit  on,  if  you  came  early.  Queen 
Elizabeth  used  to  '  tune  her  pulpits,'  she  said,  when  there  was  any 
great  thing  on  hand  ;  as  Governing  Persons  now  strive  to  tune  their 
Morning  Newspapers.  Paul's  Cross,  a  kind  of  Times  Newspaper, 
t)ut  edited  partly  by  Heaven  itself,  was  then  a  most  important  entity  1 

^  Parlicinientary  History  (London,  1763),  viii.  28^, 


■t     refu 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY.  53 

Alablaster,  to  the  horror  of  mankind,  was  heard  preaching  '  flat 
Popery'  there, —  'prostituting  our  columns'  in  that  scandalous 
manner  !  And  Neile  had  forbidden  him  to  preach  against  it  :  '  what 
are  we  to  expect  ? ' 

The  record  of  this  world  famous  utterance  of  Oliver  still  lies  in 
manuscript  in  the  British  Museum,  in  Mr.  Crewe's  Notebook,  or 
another's  :  it  was  first  printed  in  a  wretched  old  Book  called  the 
Ephemeris  Paj'liiunentaria^  professing  to  be  compiled  by  Thomas 
Fuller  ;  and  actually  containing  a  Preface  recognisable  as  his,  but 
nothing  else  that  we  can  so  recognise  :  for  '  quaint  old  Fuller '  is  a 
man  of  talent  ;  and  this  Book  looks  as  if  compiled  by  some  spiritual 
Nightmare,  rather  than  a  rational  Man.  Probably  some  greedy 
Printer's  compilation  ;  to  whom  Thomas,  in  ill  hour,  had  sold  his 
name.  In  the  Commons  Journals,  of  that  same  day,  we  are  farther  to 
remark,  there  stands,  in  perennial  preservation,  this  notice  :  '  Upon 

*  question.  Ordered^  Dr.  Beard  of  Huntingdon  to  be  written  to  by  Mr. 

*  Speaker,  to  come  up  and  testify  against  the  Bishop  ;  the  order  for 

*  Dr.  Beard  to  be  delivered  to  Mr.  Cromwell'  The  first  mention  of 
Mr.  Cromwell's  name  in  the  Books  of  any  Parliament. — 

A  new  Re7nonstratice  behoves  to  be  resolved  upon  ;  Bishops  Neile 
and  Laud  are  ev-^en  to  be  7iamed  there.  Whereupon,  before  they  could 
get  well  '  named,'  perhaps  before  Dr.  Beard  had  well  got  up  from 
I-untingdon  to  testify  against  them,  the  King  hastily  interfered.  This 
Parliament,  in  a  fortnight  more,  was  dissolved  ;  and  that  under  cir- 
cumstances of  the  most  unparalleled  sort.  For  Speaker  Finch,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  a  Courtier,  in  constant  communication  with  the  King : 
one  day  while  these  high  matters  were  astir,  Speaker  Finch  refused 
to  '  put  the  question'  when  ordered  by  the  House  !  He  said  he  had 
orders  to  the  contrary  ;  persisted  in  that ; — and  at  last  took  to  weep- 
ing. What  was  the  House  to  do  ?  Adjourn  for  two  days,  and  con- 
sider what  to  do  !  On  the  second  day,  which  was  Wednesday, 
Speaker  Finch  signified  that  by  his  Majesty's  command  they  were 
again  adjourned  till  Monday  next.  On  Monday  next.  Speaker  Finch, 
still  recusant,  would  not  put  the  former  nor  indeed  any  question, 
having  the  King's  order  to  adjourn  again  instantly.  He  refused  ;  was 
reprimanded,  menaced  ;  once  more  took  to  weeping  ;  then  started  up 
to  go  his  ways.  But  young  Mr.  Holies,  Denzil  Holies,  the  Earl  of 
Clare's  second  son,  he  and  certain  other  honourable  members  were 
prepared  for  that  movement :  they  seized  Speaker  Finch,  set  him 
down  in  his  chair,  and  by  main  force  held  him  there  !  A  scene  of 
such  agitation  as  was  never  seen  in  Parliament  before.  *  The  House 
was  much  troubled.'  "  Let  him  go,"  cried  certain  Privy  Councillors, 
Majesty's  Ministers  as  we  should  now  call  them,  who  in  those  days 
sat  in  front  of  the  Speaker,  "  Let  Mr.  Speaker  go ! "  cried  they 
imploringly. — "  No  ! "  answered  Holies  ;  "  God's  wounds,  he  shall  sit 
there,  till  it  please  the  House  to  rise  ! "  The  House,  in  a  decisive 
though  almost  distracted  manner,  with  their  Speaker  thus  held  down 
for  them,  locked  their  doors  ;  redacted  Three  emphatic  Resolutions, 
their  Protest  against  Arminianism,  Papistry,  and  illegal  Tonnage  and 
Poundage  ;  and  passed  the  same  by  acclamation  ;  letting  no  man  out, 
refusing  to  let  even  the  King's  Usher  in  ;  then  swiftly  vanishing  so 


54  INTRODUCTION. 

soon  as  the  resolutions  were  passed,  for  they  understood  the  Soldiery- 
was  coming.*  For  which  surprising  procedure,  vindicated  by 
Necessity  the  mother  of  Invention,  and  supreme  of  Lawgivers, 
certain  honourable  gentlemen,  Denzil  Holies,  Sir  John  Eliot,  William 
Strode,  John  Selden,  and  others  less  known  to  us,  suffered  fine,  im- 
prisonment, and  much  legal  tribulation  :  nay  Sir  John  Eliot,  refusing 
to  submit,  was  kept  in  the  Tower  till  he  died. 

This  scene  fell  out  on  Monday,  2d  of  March,  1629.  Directly  on 
the  back  of  which,  we  conclude,  Mr.  Cromwel'  quitted  Town  for  Hun- 
tingdon again  ;— told  Dr.  Beard  also  that  he  was  not  wanted  now. 
His  Majesty  dissolved  the  Parliament  by  Proclamation  ;  saying 
something  about 'vipers' that  had  been  there.  It  was  the  last  Par- 
liament in  England  for  above  eleven  years.  The  King  had  taken  his 
course.  The  King  went  on  raising  supplies  without  Parliamentary 
law,  by  all  conceivable  devices,-  of  which  Ship-money  may  be  con- 
sidered the  most  original,  and  sale  of  Monopolies  the  most  universal. 
The  monopoly  of  '  soap  '  itself  was  very  grievous  to  men.f  Your  soap 
was  dear,  and  it  would  not  wash,  but  only  blister.  The  ceremonial 
Bishops,  Bishop  or  Archbishop  Laud  now  chief  of  them, — they,  on 
their  side,  went  on  diligently  hunting  out  '  Lecturers,'  erecting  'altars 
in  the  east  end  of  Churches  ; '  charging  all  clergymen  to  have,  in  good 
repair  and  order,  '  Four  surplices  at  All-hallovvtide.';};  Vexations 
spiritual  and  fiscal,  beyond  what  we  can  well  fancy  nov/,  afflicted  the 
souls  of  men.  The  English  Nation  was  patient  ;  it  endured  in  silence, 
with  prayer  that  God  in  justice  and  mercy  would  look  upon  it.  The 
King  of  England  with  his  chief-priests  was  going  one  way  ;  the 
Nation  of  England  by  eternal  laws  was  going  another  :  the  split  be- 
came too  wide  for  healing.  Oliver  and  others  seemed  now  to  have 
done  with  Parliaments  ;  a  royal  Proclamation  forbade  them  so  much 
as  to  speak  of  such  a  thing. 


In  the  'new  charter'  granted  to  the  Corporation  of  Huntingdon, 
and  dated  8th  July,  1630,  Oliver  Cromwell,  Esquire,  Thomas  Beard, 
D.D.  his  old  schoolmaster,  and  Robert  Barnard,  Esquire,  of  whom 
also  we  may  hear  again,  are  named  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  thai 
Borough. §  I  suppose  there  was  nothing  new  in  this  nomination  ;  a 
mere  confirming  and  continuing  of  what  had  already  been.  But  the 
smallest  authentic  fact,  any  undoubted  date  or  circumstance  regarding 
Oliver  and  his  affairs,  is  to  be  eagerly  laid  hold  of. 

1631. 

In  or  soon  after  1631,  as  we  laboriously  infer  from  the  imbroglio 
records  of  poor  No1)le,  Oliver  decided  on  an  enlarged  sphere  of  action 
as  a  Farmer  ;  sold  his  properties  in  Huntingdon,  all  or  some  of  them  ; 

*  Rushworth,  i.  667-9.  t  See  many  old  Pamphlets. 

X  Laud's  Diary,  in  Wharton's  Laud.  §  Noble,  i.  io3. 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVER'S  BIOGRAPHY.  55 

rented  certain  grazing-lands  at  St.  Ives,  five  miles  down  the  River, 
eastward  of  his  native  place,  and  removed  thither.  The  Deed  of  Sale 
is  dated  7th  May,  1631  ;*  the  properties  are  specified  as  in  the 
possession  of  himself  or  his  Mother ;  the  sum  they  yielded  was 
^1,800.  With  this  sum  Oliver  stocked  his  Grazing-Farm  at.  St.  Ives. 
The  Mother,  we  infer,  continued  to  reside  at  Huntingdon,  but  with- 
drawn now  from  active  occupation  into  the  retirement  iDcfitting  a 
widow  up  in  years.  There  is  even  some  gleam  of  evidence  to  that 
effect  :  her  properties  are  sold  ;  but  Olivers  children  born  to  him  at 
St.  Ives  are  still  christened  at  Huntingdon,  in  the  Church  he  was 
used  to  ;  which  may  mean  also  that  their  good  Grandmother  was  still 
there. 

Properly  this  was  no  change  in  Oliver's  old  activities  ;  it  was  an 
enlargement  of  the  sphere  of  them.  His  mother  still  at  Huntingdon, 
within  few  miles  of  him,  he  could  still  superintend  and  protect  her 
existence  there,  while  managing  his  new  operations  at  St.  Ives.  He 
continued  here  until  the  summer  or  spring  of  1636.!  A  studious 
imagination  may  sufficiently  construct  the  figure  of  his  equable  life 
in  those  years.  Diligent  grass-farming  ;  mowing,  milking,  cattle- 
marketing  :  add  '  hypochrondria,'  fits  of  the  blackness  of  darkness, 
with  glances  of  the  brightness  of  very  Heaven  ;  prayer,  religious 
reading  and  meditation  ;  household  epochs,  joys  and  cares  : — we 
have  a  solid  substantial  inoffensive  Farmer  of  St.  Ives,  hoping  to  walk 
with  integrity  and  humble  devout  diligence  through  this  world  ;  and, 
by  his  Maker's  infinite  mercy,  to  escape  destruction,  and  find  eternal 
salvation,  in  wider  Divine  Worlds.  This  latter,  this  is  the  grand 
clause  in  his  Life,  which  dwarfs  all  other  clauses.  Much  wider  des- 
tinies than  he  anticipated  were  appointed  him  on  Earth  ;  but  that,  in 
comparison  to  the  alternative  of  Heaven  or  Hell  to  all  Eternity,  was 
a  mighty  small  matter. 

The  lands  he  rented  are  still  there,  recognisable  to  the  Tourist ; 
gross  boggy  lands,  fringed  with  willow-trees,  at  the  east  end  of  the 
small  Town  of  St.  Ives,  which  is  still  noted  as  a  cattle-market  in  those 
parts.  The  '  Cromwell  Barn,'  the  pretended  '  House  of  Cromwell,' 
the  &c,  &c.  are,  as  is  usual  in  these  cases,  when  you  come  to  try  them 
by  the  documents,  a  mere  jumble  of  incredibilities,  and  oblivious 
human  platitudes,  distressing  to  the  mind. 

But  a  Letter,  one  Letter  signed  by  Oliver  Cromwell  and  dated  St. 
Ives,  does  remain,  still  legible  and  indubitable  to  us.  What  more  is 
to  be  said  on  St.  Ives  and  the  adjacent  matters,  will  best  arrange 
itself  round  that  Document.  One  or  two  entries  here,  and  we  arrive 
at  that,  and  bring  these  imperfect  Introductory  Chronicles  to  a  close. 


1632. 

In  January  of  this  year  Oliver's  seventh  child  was  bom  to  him  ;  a 
boy,  James  ;  who  died  the  day  after  baptism.  There  remained  six 
children,  of  whom  one  other  died  young ;  it  is  not  known  at  what 

*  Ibid.  i.  103-4.  f  Noble,  I.  106. 


56  INTRODUCTION, 


date.  Here  subjoined  is  the  List  of  them,  and  of  those  subsequently 
born  ;  in  a  Note,  elaborated  as  before,  from  the  imbroghos  of  Noble.* 
This  same  year,  William  Prynne  first  began  to  make  a  noise  in 
England.  A  learned  young  gentleman  '  from  Painswick  near  Bath,' 
graduate  of  Oxford,  now  'an  Outer  Barrister  of  Lincoln's  Inn  ;'  well 
read  in  English  Law,  and  full  of  zeal  for  Gospel  Doctrine  and 
Morality.  He,  struck  by  certain  flagrant  scandals  of  the  time,  espe- 
cially by  that  of  Play-acting  and  Masking,  saw  good  this  year  to  set 
forth  his  Histriomasttx,  or  Player's  Scourge  ;  a  Book  still  extant,  but 

*  Oliver  Cromwell's  Children. 
(Married  tc  Elizabeth  Bouchier,  22d  August,  1620.) 

1.  Robert ;  baptised  13th  October,  1621.  Named  for  his  Grandfather.  No 
farther  account  of  him  ;   he  died  before  ripe  years. 

2.  Oliver;  baptised  6th  P'ebruary,  16:12-3;  went  to  Felsted  School.  'Captain 
in  Harrison's  Regiment,' —no.  At  Peterborough  in  1643  (Noble,  i.  133-4).  He 
died,  or  was  killed  during  the  war  ;  date  and  place  not  yet  discoverable.  Noble 
says  it  was  at  Appleby  ;  referring  to  Whitlocke.  Whitlocke  (p.  318  of  ist  edition, 
322  of  2nd),  on  ransacking  the  old  Pamphlets,  turns  out  to  be  indisputably  in 
error.  The  Protector  on  liis  deathbed  alludes  to  this  Oliver's  death  :  "  It  went  to 
my  heart  like  a  dagger,  indeed  it  did." 

3.  Bridget;    baptised  4th   August,    1624.     Married  to   Ireton,    15th  January, 
1646-7  (Noble,   i.    134)  ;    widow,    26   November,    1651.     Married  to  Fleetwood 
(exact  date,  after  long  search,  remains  undiscovered  ;  Noble,  ii.  355,  says  '  before 
June  1652,  which  is  impossible).     Died  at  Stoke  Newiri^ton,  near  London,  Sep- 
tember, 168 1. 

4.  Richard ;  born  4th  October,  1626.  At  Felsted  School.  '  In  Lincoln's  Inn, 
27th  May,  1647:'  an  error?  Married  in  1648,  Riohard  Mayor's  daughter,  of 
Hursley,  Hants.  First  in  Parliament,  1654.  Protector,  1658.  Dies,  poor  idle 
Triviahty,  at  Cheshunt,  12th  July,  1712, 

5.  Henry;  baptised  at  All-Saints  (the  rest  are  at  St.  John's),  Huntingdon,  20th 
January,  1627-8,  Felsted  School.  In  the  army  at  sixteen.  Captain  in  Fairfax's 
Lifeguard  in  1647.  Colonel,  in  1649,  and  in  Ireland  with  his  Father.  Lord 
Deputy  there  in  1657.  In  1660,  retired  to  Spinney  Abbey,  'near  Soham,' nearer 
Wicken,  in  Cambridgeshire.  Foolish  story  of  Charles  II,  and  the  'stable-fork' 
there  (Noble,  i.  212).  Died  23rd  March,  1673-4 ;  buried  in  Wicken  Church,  A 
brave  man  and  true  :  had  he  been  named  Protector,  there  had,  most  likely,  been 
quite  another  History  of  England  to  write,  at  present ! 

6.  Elizabeth  ;  baptised  2d  July,  1629.  Mrs,  Claypole,  1645-6.  Died  at  3  in 
the  morning,  Hampton  Court,  6th  August,  1658, — 4  weeks  before  her  Father.  A 
graceful,  brave,  and  amiable  woman.  The  lamentation  about  Dr.  Hewit  and 
'  bloodshed '  (in  Clarendon  and  others)  is  fudge. 

At  St,  Ives  and  Ely  : 

7.  James  ;  baptised  8th  January,  163 1-2  ;  died  next  day, 

8.  Mary  ;  baptised  (at  Huntingdon  still)  9th  February,  1636-7.  Lady  Faucon- 
berg,  1 8th  November,  1657.  Dean  Swift  knew  her  :  '  handsome  .and  like  her 
Father.'  Died  14th  March,  1712  (1712-3?  is  not  decided  in  Noble).  Richard 
died  within  a  few  months  of  her. 

9.  Frances  ;  baptised  (at  Ely  now),  6th  December,  1638.  '  Charles  II.  was  for 
marrying  her  :'  not  improbable.  Married  Mr.  Rich,  Earl  of  Warwick's  grandson, 
nth  November,  1657  :  he  died  in  three  months,  i6th  February,  1657-8.  No  child 
by  Rich.  Married  Sir  John  Russel, — the  Checquers  Russels.  Died  27th  January, 
172C-1. 

In  all  5  sons  and  4  daughters;  of  whom  3  sons  and  all  the  daughters  came  to 
maturity. 

The  Protector's  Widow  died  at  Norborough,  her  son-in-law  Claypole's  place 
(now  ruined,  patched  into  a  farm-house ;  near  Market  Deeping ;  it  is  itself  in 
Northamptonshire),  8th  October,  1672. 


EVENTS  IN  OLIVERS  BIOGRAPHY.  57 

never  more  to  be  read  by  mortal.  For  which  Mr.  WiUiam  Prynne 
himself,  before  long,  paid  rather  dear.  The  Book  was  licensed  by  old 
Archbishop  Abbot,  a  man  of  Puritan  tendencies,  but  now  verging  to- 
wards his  end.  Peter  Heylin, 'lying  Peter 'as  men  sometimes  call 
him,  was  already  with  hawk's  eye  and  the  intensest  interest  reading 
this  now  unreadable  Book,  and  by  Laud's  direction,  taking  excerpts 
from  the  same. — 

It  carries  our  thought  to  extensive  world-transactions  over  sea,  to 
reflect  that  in  the  end  of  this  same  year, '  6  November,  1632,'  the  great 
Gustavus  died  on  the  Field  of  Lutzen  ;  fighting  against  Wallenstein  ; 
victorious  for  the  last  time.  "While  Oliver  Cromwell  walked  peace- 
fully intent  on  cattle-husbandry,  that  winter-day,  on  the  grassy  banks 
of  the  Ouse  at  St.  Ives,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  shot  through  the  back, 
was  sinking  from  his  horse  in  the  battle-storm  far  off,  with  these 
words  :  "  Ich  habe  genug,  Bruder ;  rette  Dich.  Brother,  I  have  got 
"  enough  ;  save  thyself  ! "  * 

On  the  19th  of  the  same  month,  November  1632,  died  likewise 
Frederick  Elector  Palatine,  titular  King  of  Bohemia,  husband  of 
King  Charles's  sister,  and  father  of  certain  Princes,  Rupert  and  others, 
who  came  to  be  well  known  in  our  History.  Elizabeth,  the  Widow, 
was  left  with  a  large  family  of  them  in  Holland,  very  bare  of  money, 
of  resource,  or  immediate  hope  ;  but  conducted  herself,  as  she  had 
all  along  done,  in  a  way  that  gained  much  respect.  '  A  lies  fiir  Ruhm 
und  Ihry  All  for  Glory  and  Her,'  were  the  words  Duke  Bernhard  of 
Weimar  carried  on  his  Flag,  through  many  battles  in  that  Thirty- Years 
War.  She  was  of  Puritan  tendency  ;  understood  to  care  little  about 
the  Four  surplices  at  Allhallowtide,  and  much  for  the  root  of  the 
matter. 

Attorney-General  Noy,  in  these  months,  was  busy  tearing  up  the 
unfortunate  old  manufacturers  of  soap  ;  tormenting  mankind  very 
much  about  soap.t  He  tore  them  up  irresistibly,  reduced  them  to 
total  ruin  ;  good  soap  became  unattainable. 


1633. 

In  May  1633,  the  second  year  of  Oliver's  residence  in  this  new 
Farm,  the  King's  Majesty,  with  train  enough,  passed  through  Hunt- 
ingdonshire, on  his  way  to  Scotland  to  be  crowned.  The  loud  rustle 
of  him  disturbing  for  a  day  the  summer  husbandries  and  operations 
of  mankind.  His  ostensible  business  was  to  be  crowned  :  but  his  in- 
trinsic errand  was,  what  his  Father's  formerly  had  been,  to  get  his 
Pretended-Bishops  set  on  foot  there  ;  his  Tulchans  converted  into 
1  eal  Calves  ; — in  which,  as  we  shall  see,  he  succeeded  still  worse  than 
his  Father  had  done.  Dr.  Laud,  Bishop  Laud,  now  near  upon  Arch- 
bishophood,  attended  his  Majesty  thither  as  formerly  ;  still  found  '  no 
rehgion'  there,  but  trusted  now  to  introduce  one.  The  Chapel  at 
Holyrood-house  was  fitted  up  with  every  equipment  textile  and  me- 
tallic ;  and  little  Bishop  Laud  in  person  *  performed  the  service,'  in  a 

*  Schiller  :  Geschichte  des  30jahrigen  Krieges. 
f  Rushworth,  ii.  135,  252,  &c. 


58  INTRODUCTIOK. 


way  to  illuminate  the  benighted  natives,  as  was  hoped, — shew  them 
how  an  Artist  could  do  it.  He  had  also  some  dreadful  travelling 
through  certain  of  the  savage  districts  of  that  country. — Crossing 
Huntingdonshire,  in  his  way  Northward,  his  Majesty  had  visited  the 
Establishment  of  Nicholas  Ferrar  at  Little  Gidding  on  the  western 
border  of  that  county.*  A  surprising  Establishment,  now  in  full 
flower  ;  wherein  above  fourscore  persons,  including  domestics,  with 
Ferrar  and  his  Brother  and  aged  Mother  at  the  head  of  them,  had 
devoted  themselves  to  a  kind  of  Protestant  Monachism,  and  were- 
getting  much  talked  of  in  those  times.  They  followed  celibacy,  and 
merely  religious  duties;  employed  themselves  in  'binding  of  Prayer- 
books,'  embroidering  of  hassocks,  in  almsgiving  also,  and  what  chari- 
table work  was  possible  in  that  desert  region  ;  above  all  they  kept 
up.  night  and  day,  a  continual  repetition  of  the  English  Liturgy  ; 
being  divided  into  relays  and  watches,  one  watch  relieving  another  as 
on  shipboard  ;  and  never  allowing  at  any  hour  the  sacred  fire  to  go 
out.  This  also,  as  a  feature  of  the  times,  the  modern  reader  is  to  medi- 
tate. In  Isaac  Walton's  Lives  there  is  some  drowsy  notice  of  these 
people,  not  unknown  to  the  modern  reader.  A  far  livelier  notice ; 
record  of  an  actual  visit  to  the  place,  by  an  Anonymous  Person,  seem- 
ingly a  religious  Lawyer,  perhaps  returning  from  Circuit  in  that  direc- 
tion, at  all  events  a  most  sharp  distinct  man,  through  whose  clear  eyes 
we  also  can  still  look  : — is  preserved  by  Hearne  in  very  unexpected 
neighbourhood.f  The  Anonymous  Person,  after  some  survey  and 
communing,  suggested  to  Nicholas  Ferrar,  "  Perhaps  he  had  but  as- 
"  siwied  all  this  ritual  mummery,  in  order  to  get  a  devout  life  led 
'* peaceably  in  these  bad  times?"  Nicholas,  a  dark  man,  who  had 
acquired  something  of  the  Jesuit  in  his  Foreign  travels,  looked  at  him 
ambiguously,  and  said,  '*  I  perceive  you  are  a  person  who  know  the 
world  ! "     They  did  not  ask  the  Anonymous  Person  to  stay  dinner, 

which  he  considered  would  have  been  agreeable. 

Note  these  other  things,  with  which  we  are  more  immediately  con- 
cerned. In  this  same  year  the  Feoffees,  with  their  Purchase  of  Ad- 
vowsons,  with  their  Lecturers  and  Running  Lecturers,  were  fairly 
rooted  out,  and  flung  prostrate  into  total  ruin  ;  Laud  having  set  At- 
torney-General Noy  upon  them,  and  brought  them  into  the  Star- 
charnber.  '  God  forgive  thein^  writes  Bishop  Laud, '  and  grant  me 
'  patience  ! ' — on  hearing  that  they  spake  harshly  of  him  ;  not  grate- 
fully, but  ungratefully,  for  all  this  trouble  he  took  '  In  the  same  year, 
by  procurement  of  the  same  Bishop  hounding-on  the  same  invincible 
Attorney-General,  William  Prynne  our  unreadable  friend,  Peter  Heylin 
having  read  him,  was  brought  to  the  Starchamber  ;  to  the  Pillory,  and 
had  his  ears  cropt  off,  for  the  first  time  ; — who  also,  strange  as  it  may 
look,  manifested  no  gratitude,  but  the  contrary,  for  all  that  trouble  !J 

*  Rush  worth,  ii. 

t  ThomaeCaii  Vindiciae  Antiquitatis  Academise  Oxoniensis  (Oxf.  1730),  ii.  702- 
794.  There  are  two  Lives  of  Ferrar;  considerable  writings  about  him  but, 
except  this,  nothing  that  much  deserves  to  be  read. 

t  Rushworth ;  Wharton's  Laud. 


OP  OLIVER'S  LETTEPS  AND  SPEECHES.      '    59 


1634. 

In  the  end  of  this  the  third  year  of  Oliver's  abode  at  St.  Ives,  came 
out  the  celebrated  Writ  of  Shipmoney.  It  was  the  last  feat  of  At- 
torney-General Noy  :  a  morose,  amorphous,  cynical  Law- Pedant,  and 
invincible  living  heap  of  learned  rubbish  ;  once  a  Patriot  in  Padia- 
ment,  till  they  made  him  Attorney-General,  and  enlightened  his  eyes, 
who  had  fished  up  from  the  dust-abysses  this  and  other  old  shadows 
of '  precedents/  promising  to  be  of  great  use  in  the  present  distressed 
state  of  the  Finance  Department.  Parliament  being  in  abeyance,  how 
to  raise  money  was  now  the  grand  problem.  Noy  himself  was  dead 
before  the  Writ  came  out  ;  a  very  mixed  renown  following  him.  The 
Vintners,  says  Wood,  illuminated  at  his  death,  made  bonfires  and 
'  drank  lusty  carouses  :'  to  them,  as  to  every  man,  he  had  been  a  sore 
affliction.  His  heart,  on  dissection,  adds  old  Anthony,  was  found  all 
'  shrivelled  up  like  a  leather  penny-purse,'  which  gave  rise  to  com- 
ments among  the  Puritans.*  His  brain,  said  the  pasquinades  of  the 
day,  was  found  reduced  to  a  mass  of  dust,  his  heart  was  a  bundle  of 
old  sheepskin  writs,  and  his  belly  consisted  of  a  barrel  of  soap.f 
Some  indistinct  memory  of  him  still  survives,  as  of  a  grisly  Law  Pluto, 
and  dark  Law  Monster,  kind  of  Infernal  King,  Chief  Enchanter  in  the 
Domdaniel  of  Attorneys  ;  one  of  those  frightful  men,  who,  as  his  con- 
temporaries passionately  said  and  repeated,  dare  to  '  decree  injustice 
by  a  law.'' 

The  Shipmoney  Writ  has  come  out,  then  ;  and  Cousin  Hampden 
has  decided  not  to  pay  it  ! — As  the  date  of  Oliver's  St.  Ives  Letter  is 
1635-6,  and  we  are  now  come  in  sight  of  that,  we  will  here  close  our 
Chronology. 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF  OLIVER'S   LETTERS  AND   SPEECHES. 

Letters  and  authentic  Utterances  of  Oliver  lie  scattered,  in  print 
and  manuscript  in  a  hundred  repositories,  in  all  varieties  of  condition 
and  environment.  Most  of  them,  all  the  important  of  them,  have 
already  long  since  been  printed  and  again  printed  ;  but  we  cannot  in 
general  say,  ever  read  ;  too  often  it  is  apparent  that  the  very  editor  of 
these  poor  utterances  had,  if  reading  mean  understanding,  never  read 
them.  They  stand  in  their  old  spelling  ;  mispunctuated,  misprinted, 
unelucidated,  unintelligible, — defaced  with  the  dark  incrustations  too 
well  known  to  students  of  that  Period.  The  Speeches  above  all,  as 
hitherto  set  forth  in  The  Sorters  Tracts^  in  The  Milton  State-Papers^ 
in  Burton's  Diary,  and  other  such   Books,  excel  human  belief:  cer- 

*  Wood's  Athenae  (Bliss's  edition,  London,  1815),  ii.  583. 
t  Rushworth, 


eo  INTRODUCTION, 


tainly  no  such  agglomerate  of  opaque  confusions,  printed  and  re- 
printed ;  of  darkness  on  the  back  of  darkness,  thick  and  threefold  ;  is 
known  to  me  elsewhere  in  the  history  of  things  spoken  or  printed  by 
human  creatures.  Of  these  Speeclies,  all  except  one,  which  was  pub- 
lished by  authority  at  the  time,  I  have  to  believe  myself,  not  very 
exultingly,  to  be  the  first  actual  reader  for  nearly  two  Centuries 
past. 

Nevertheless  these  Documents  do  exist,  authentic  though  defaced  ; 
and  invite  every  one  who  would  know  that  Period,  to  study  them  till 
they  become  intelligible  again.  The  words  of  Oliver  Cromwell,--the 
meaning  they  had,  must  be  worth  recovering  in  that  point  of  view. 
To  collect  these  Letters  and  authentic  Utterances,  as  one's  reading 
yielded  them,  was  a  comparatively  grateful  labour ;  to  correct 
them,  elucidate  and  make  them  legible  again,  Avas  a  good  his- 
torical study.  Surely  '  a  wise  memory '  would  wish  to  preserve 
among  men  the  written  and  spoken  words  of  such  a  man  ; — and  as 
for  the  'wise  oblivion,'  that  is  already,  by  Time  and  Accident,  done 
to  our  hand.  Enough  is  already  lost  and  destroyed  ;  we  need  not, 
in  this  particular  case,  omit  farther. 

Accordingly,  whatever  words  authentically  proceeding  from  Oliver 
himself  I  could  anywhere  find  yet  surviving,  I  have  here  gathered  ; 
and  will  now,  with  such  minimum  of  annotation  as  may  suit  that 
object,  offer  them  to  the  reader.  That  is  the  purport  of  this  Book. 
I  have  ventured  to  believe  that,  to  certain  patient  earnest  readers, 
these  old  dim  Letters  of  a  noble  English  Man  might,  as  they  had 
done  to  myself,  become  dimly  legible  again  ;  might  dimly  present, 
better  than  all  other  evidence,  the  noble  figure  of  the  Man  himself 
again.  Certainly  there  is  Historical  instruction  in  these  Letters  : — 
Historical,  and  perhaps  other  and  better.  At  least,  it  is  with  Heroes 
and  god-inspired  men  that  I,  for  my  part,  would  far  rather  converse, 
in  what  dialect  soever  they  speak  !  Great,  ever  fruitful  ;  profitable 
for  reproof,  for  encouragement,  for  building  up  in  manful  purposes  and 
works,  are  the  words  of  those  that  in  their  day  were  men.  I  will  advise 
serious  persons,  interested  in  England  past  or  present,  to  try  if  they 
can  read  a  little  in  these  Letters  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  a  man  once 
deeply  interested  in  the  same  object.  Heavy  as  it  is,  and  dim  and 
obsolete,  there  may  be  worse  reading,  for  such  persons  in  our  time. 

For  the  rest,  if  each  Letter  look  dim,  and  have  little  light,  after  all 
study  ; — yet  let  the  Historical  reader  reflect,  such  light  as  it  has  can- 
not be  disputed  at  all.  These  words,  expository  of  that  day  and  hour, 
Oliver  Cromwell  did  see  fittest  to  be  written  down.  The  Letter  hangs 
there  in  the  dark  abysses  of  the  Past  :  if  like  a  star  almost  extinct, 
yet  like  a  real  star  ;  fixed  ;  about  which  there  is  no  cavilling  possible. 
That  autograph  Letter,  it  was  once  all  luminous  as  a  burning  beacon, 
every  v/ord  of  it  a  live  coal,  in  its  time  ;  it  was  once  a  piece  of  the 
general  fire  and  light  of  Human  Life,  that  Letter  !  Neither  is  it  yet 
entirely  extinct  :  well  read,  there  is  still  in  it  light  enough  to  exhibit 
its  own  self;  nay  to  diffuse  a  faint  authentic  twilight  some  distance 
round  it.  Heaped  embers  which  in  the  daylight  looked  black,  may 
still  look  red  in  the  utter  darkness.  These  Letters  of  Oliver  will  con- 
vince any  man  that  the  Past  did  exist !    By  degrees  the  combined 


OF  OLIVER'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES,  6i 

small  twilights  may  produce  a  kind  of  general  feeble  twilight,  render- 
ing the  Past  credible,  the  Ghosts  of  the  Past  in  some  glimpses  of 
them  visible  !  Such  is  the  effect  of  contemporary  letters  always  ;  and 
I  can  very  confidently  recommend  Oliver's  as  good  of  their  kind.  A 
man  intent  on  forcing  for  himself  some  path  through  that  gloomy 
chaos  called  History  of  the  Seventeenth  Century,  and  looking  face 
to  face  upon  the  same,  may  perhaps  try  it  by  this  method  as  hopefully 
as  by  another.  Here  is  an  irregular  row  of  beacon-fires,  once  all 
luminous  as  suns  ;  and  with  a  certain  inextinguishable  erubescence 
still,  in  the  abysses  of  the  dead  deep  Night.  Let  us  look  here.  In 
shadowy  outlines,  in  dimmer  and  dimmer  crowding  forms,  the  very 
figure  of  the  old  dead  Time  itself  may  perhaps  be  faintly  discernible 
here  ! —  . 

I  called  these  Letters  good, — but  withal  only  good  of  their  kind. 
No  eloquence,  elegance,  not  always  even  clearness  of  expression,  is 
to  be  looked  for  in  them.  They  are  written  with  far  other  than  lite- 
rary aims  ;  written,  most  of  them,  in  the  very  flame  and  conflagration 
of  a  revolutionary  struggle,  and  with  an  eye  to  the  despatch  of  indis- 
pensable pressing  business  alone  :  but  it  will  be  found,  I  conceive, 
that  for  such  end  they  are  well  written.  Superfluity,  as  if  by  a  natural 
law  of  the  case  the  writer  has  had  to  discard  ;  whatsoever  quality  can 
be  dispensed  with  is  indifferent  to  him.  With  unwieldy  movement, 
yet  with  a  great  solid  step  he  presses  through,  towards  his  object  ; 
has  marked  out  very  decisively  what  the  real  steps  towards  it  are  ; 
discriminating  well  the  essential  from  the  extraneous  ; — forming  to 
himself,  in  short,  a  true,  not  an  untrue  picture  of  the  business  that  is 
to  be  done.  There  is  in  these  Letters,  as  I  have  said  above,  a  silence 
still  more  significant  of  Oliver  to  us  than  any  speech  they  have. 
Dimly  we  discover  features  of  an  Intelligence,  and  Soul  of  a  Man, 
greater  than  any  speech.  The  Intelligence  that  can,  with  full  satis- 
faction to  itself,  come  out  in  eloquent  speaking,  in  musical  singing, 
is,  after  all,  a  small  Intelligence.  He  that  works  and  does  some 
Poem,  not  he  that  merely  says  one,  is  worthy  of  the  name  of  Poet. 
Cromwell,  emblem  of  the  dumb  English,  is  interesting  to  me  by  the 
very  inadequacy  of  his  speech.  Heroic  insight,  valour  and  belief, 
without  words,— how  noble  is  it  in  comparison  to  eloquent  words 
without  heroic  insight  ! — 

I  have  corrected  the  spelling  of  these  Letters  ;  I  have  punctuated, 
and  divided  them  into  paragraphs,  in  the  modern  manner.  The 
Originals,  so  far  as  I  have  seen  such,  have  in  general  no  paragraphs: 
if  the  Letter  is  short,  it  is  usually  found  written  on  the  first  leaf  of  the 
sheet ;  often  with  the  conclusion,  or  some  postscript,  subjoined  cross- 
wise on  the  margin, — indicating  that  there  was  no  blotting-paper 
in  those  days  ;  that  the  hasty  writer  was  loath  to  turn  the  leaf. 
Oliver's  spelling  and  pointing  are  of  the  sort  common  to  educated 
persons  in  his  time  ;  and  readers- that  wish  it  may  have  specimens 
of  him  in  abundance,  and  of  all  due  dimness,  in  many  printed  Books  : 
but  to  us,  intent  here  to  have  the  Letters  read  and  understood,  it 
seemed  very  proper  at  once  and  altogether  to  get  rid  of  that  encum- 
brance. Would  the  rest  were  all  as  easily  got  rid  of !  Here  and 
there,  to  bring  out  the  struggling  sense,  I  have  added  or  rectified  a, 


62  INTRODUCTION. 


word, — but  taken  care  to  point  out  the  same ;  what  words  in  the 
Text  of  the  Letters  are  mine,  the  reader  will  find  marked  off  by  single 
commas  :  it  was  of  course  my  supreme  duty  to  avoid  altering,  in  any 
respect,  not  only  the  sense,  but  the  smallest  feature  in  the 
physiognomy,  of  the  Original.  And  so,  'a  minimum  of  annotation' 
having  been  added,  what  minimum  would  serve  the  purpose, — here 
are  the  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell;  of  which  the 
reader,  with  my  best  wishes,  but  not  with  any  very  high  immediate 
hope  of  mine  in  that  particular,  is  to  make  what  he  can. 

Surely  it  is  far  enough  from  probable  that  these  Letters  of  Crom- 
well, written  originally  for  quite  other  objects,  and  selected  not  by  the 
Genius  of  History,  but  by  blind  Accident  which  has  saved  them 
hitherto  and  destroyed  the  rest, — can  illuminate  for  a  modern  man 
this  Period  of  our  Annals,  which  for  all  moderns,  we  may  say,  has 
become  a  gulf  of  bottomless  darkness  !  Not  so  easily  will  the  modern 
man  domesticate  himself  in  a  scene  of  things  every  way  so  foreign  to 
him.  Nor  could  any  measureable  exposition  of  mine  on  this  present 
occasion,  do  much  to  illuminate  the  dead  dark  world  of  the  Seven- 
teenth Century,  into  which  the  reader  is  about  to  enter.  He  will 
gradually  get  to  understand,  as  I  have  said,  that  the  Seventeenth 
Century  did  exist ;  that  it  was  not  a  waste  rubbish-continent  of 
Rush  worth- Nalson  State-papers,  of  Philosophical  Scepticisms,  Dilet- 
tantisms, Dryasdust  Torpedoisms  ; — but  an  actual  flesh-and-blood 
Fact ;  with  colour  in  its  cheeks,  with  awful  august  heroic  thoughts  in 
its  heart,  and  at  last  with  steel  sword  in  its  hand  !  Theoretically 
this  is  a  most  small  postulate,  conceded  at  once  by  everybody  ;  but 
practically  it  a  very  large  one,  seldom  or  never  conceded  ;  the  due 
practical  conceding  of  it  amounts  to  much,  indeed  to  the  sure  promise 
of  all. — I  will  venture  to  give  the  reader  two  little  pieces  of  advice, 
which,  if  his  experience  resemble  mine,  may  prove  furthersome  to 
him  in  this  inquiry  :  they  include  the  essence  of  all  that  I  have 
discovered  respecting  it. 

The  first  is,  By  no  means  to  credit  the  wide-spread  report  that 
these  Seventeenth-Century  Puritans  were  superstitious  crackbrained 
persons  ;  given  up  to  enthusiasm,  the  most  part  of  them  ;  the  minor 
ruling  part  being  cunning  men,  who  knew  how  to  assume  the  dialect 
of  the  others,  and  thereby,  as  skilful  Machiavels,  to  dupe  them.  This 
is  a  wide-spread  report  ;  but  an  untrue  one.  I  advise  my  reader  to 
try  precisely  the  opposite  hypothesis.  To  consider  that  his  Fathers, 
who  had  thought  about  this  World  very  seriously  indeed,  and  with 
very  considerable  thinking  faculty  indeed,  were  not  quite  so  far 
behindhand  in  their  conclusions  respecting  it.  That  actually  their 
'  enthusiasms,'  if  well  seen  into,  were  not  foolish  but  wise.  That 
Machiavelism,  Cant,  Official  Jargon,  whereby  a  man  speaks  openly  what 
he  does  not  mean,  were  surprising  as  it  may  seem,  much  rarer  then 
than  they  have  ever  since  been.  Really  and  truly  it  may  in  a  manner 
be  said,  Cant,  Parliamentary  and  other  Jargon,  were  still  to  invent  in 
this  world.  O  Heavens  one  could  weep  at  the  contrast !  Cant  was 
not  fashionable  at  all ;  that  stupendous  invention  of  '  Speech  for  the 
purpose  of  concealing  Thought,'  was  not  yet  made.  A  man  wagging 
the  tongue  of  him,  a5  if  it  were  the  clapper  of  a  bell  to  be  rung  for 


OF  OLIVERS  LETTERS  AND   SPEECHES.  63 

economic  purposes,  and  not  so  much  as  attempting  to  convey  any 
inner  thought,  if  thought  he  have,  of  the  matter  talked  of, — would  at 
that  date  have  awakened  all  the  horror  in  men's  minds,  which  at  all 
dates,  and  at  this  date  too,  is  due  to  him.  The  accursed  thing  !  No 
man  as  yet  dared  to  do  it  ;  all  men  believing  that  God  would  judge  them. 
In  the  History  of  the  Civil  War  far  and  wide,  I  have  not  fallen  in  with 
one  such  phenomenon.  Even  Archbishop  Laud  and  Peter  Heylin 
meant  what  they  say  ;  through  their  words  you  do  look  direct  into  the 
scraggy  conviction  they  have  formed  : — or  if  '  lying  Peter,'  do  lie,  he 
at  least  knows  that  he  is  lying  !  Lord  Clarendon,  a  man  of  sufficient 
unveracity  of  heart,  to  whom  indeed  whatsoever  has  direct  veracity  of 
heart  is  more  or  less  horrible,  speaks  always  in  official  language  ;  a 
clothed,  nay  sometimes  even  quilted  dialect,  yet  always  with  some 
considerable  body  in  the  heart  of  it,  never  with  none  !  The  use  of  the 
human  tongue  was  then  other  than  it  now  is.  I  counsel  the  reader  to 
leave  all  that  of  Cant,  Dupery,  Machiavelism,  and  so  forth,  decisively 
lying  at  the  threshold.  He  will  be  wise  to  believe  that  these  Puritans 
do  mean  what  they  say,  and  to  try  unimpeded  if  he  can  discover  what 
that  is.  Gradually  a  very  stupendous  phenomenon  may  rise  on  his 
astonished  eye.  A  practical  world  based  on  Belief  in  God  ; — such  as 
many  centuries  had  seen  before,  but  as  never  any  century  since  has 
been  privileged  to  see.  It  was  the  last  glimpse  of  it  in  our  world, 
this  of  English  Puritanism  :  very  great,  very  glorious  ;  tragical 
enough  to  all  thinking  hearts  that  look  on  it  from  these  days  of 
ours. 

My  second  advice  is.  Not  to  imagine  that  it  was  Constitution, 
*  Liberty  of  the  people  to  tax  themselves,'  Privilege  of  Parliament, 
Triennial  or  annutal  Parliaments,  or  any  modification  of  these  sublime 
Privileges  now  waxing  somewhat  faint  in  our  admirations,  that 
mainly  animated  our  Cromwells,  Pyms,  and  Hampdens  to  the  heroic 
efforts  we  still  admire  in  retrospect.  Not  these  very  measurable 
'  Privileges,'  but  a  far  other  and  deeper,  which  could  not  be  measured; 
of  which  these,  and  all  grand  social  improvements  whatsoever,  are 
the  corollary.  Our  ancient  Puritan  Reformers  were,  as  all  Reformers 
that  will  ever  much  benefit  this  Earth  are  always,  inspired  by  a 
Heavenly  Purpose.  To  see  God's  own  Law,  then  universally  acknow- 
ledged for  complete  as  it  stood  in  the  holy  Written  Book,  made  good 
in  this  world ;  to  see  this,  or  the  true  unwearied  aim  and  struggle 
towards  this  :  it  was  a  thing  worth  living  for  and  dying  for  !  Eternal 
Justice  ;  that  God's  Will  be  done  on  Earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven  :  corol- 
laries enough  will  flow  from  that,  if  that  be  there  ;  if  that  be  not 
there,  no  corollary  good  for  much  will  flow.  It  was  the  general  spirit 
of  England  in  the  Seventeenth  Century.  In  other  somewhat  sadly 
disfigured  form,  we  have  seen  the  same  immortal  hope  take  practical 
shape  in  the  French  Revolution,  and  once  more  astonish  the  world. 
That  England  should  all  become  a  Church  if  you  like  to  name  it  so  :  a 
Church,  presided  over  not  by  sham-priests  in  '  Four  surplices  at  All- 
hallowtide,'  but  by  true  god-consecrated  ones,  whose  hearts  the  Most 
High  had  touched  and  hallowed  with  his  fire  : — this  was  the  prayer 
of  many,  it  was  the  godlike  hope  and  effort  of  some. 

Qur  modern  mQtlio^s  of  Reform  differ  somewhat,— as  indeed  the 


64  INTRODUCTION. 


issue  testifies.  I  will  advise  my  reader  to  forget  the  modern  methods 
of  Reform  ;  not  to  remember  that  he  has  ever  heard  of  a  modern 
individual  called  by  the  name  of  Reformer,  if  he  would  understand 
what  the  old  meaning  of  the  word  was.  The  Cromwells,  Pyms, 
Hampdens,  who  were  understood  on  the  Royalist  side  to  be  firebrands 
of  the  Devil,  have  had  still  worse  measure  from  the  Dryasdust  Philo- 
sophies, and  sceptical  Histories,  of  later  times.  They  really  did 
resemble  Firebrands  of  the  Devil,  if  you  looked  at  them  through 
spectacles  of  a  certain  colour.  For  fire  is  always  fire.  But  by  no 
spectacles,  only  by  mere  blinders  and  wooden-eyed  spectacles,  can 
the  flame-girt  Heaven's-messenger  pass  for  a  poor  mouldy  Pedant  and 
Constitution-monger,  such  as  this  would  make  him  out  to  be  ! 

On  the  whole,  say  not,  good  reader,  as  is  often  done,  "  It  was  then 
all  one  as  now."  Good  reader,  it  was  considerably  different  then 
from  now.  Men  indolently  say,  "  The  Ages  are  all  alike  ;  ever  the 
"  same  sorry  elements  over  again,  in  new  vesture  ;  the  issue  of  it 
"  always  a  melancholy  farce-tragedy,  in  one  Age  as  in  another  ! " 
Wherein  lies  very  obviously  a  truth  ;  but  also  in  secret  a  very  sad 
error  withal.  Sure  enough,  the  highest  Life  touches  always,  by  large 
sections  of  it,  on  the  vulgar  and  universal :  he  that  expects  to  see  a 
Hero,  or  a  Heroic  Age,  step  forth  into  practice  in  yellow  Drury-lane 
stage-boots,  and  speak  in  blank  verse  for  itself,  will  look  long  in  vain. 
Sure  enough,  in  the  Heroic  Century  as  in  the  Unheroic,  knaves  and 
cowards,  and  cunning  greedy  persons  were  not  wanting, — were,  if  you 
will,  extremely  abundant.  But  the  question  always  remains,  Did 
they  lie  chained,  subordinate  in  this  world's  business  ;  coerced  by 
steel-whips,  or  in  whatever  other  effectual  way,  and  sent  whimpering  into 
their  due  subterranean  abodes,  to  beat  hemp  and  repent  ;  a  true 
never-ending  attempt  going  on  to  handcuff,  to  silence  and  suppress 
them  1  Or  did  they  walk  openly  abroad,  the  envy  of  a  general  valet- 
population,  and  bear  sway  ;  professing,  without  universal  anathema, 
almost  with  general  assent,  that  they  were  the  Orthodox  Party,  that 
they,  even  they,  were  such  men  as  you  had  right  to  look  for  ? — 

Reader,  the  Ages  differ  greatly,  even  infinitely,  from  one  another. 
Considerable  tracts  of  Ages  there  have  been,  by  far  the  majority  in- 
deed, wherein  the  men,  unfortunate  mortals,  were  a  set  of  mimetic 
creatures  rather  than  men  ;  without  heart-insight  as  to  this  Universe, 
and  its  Heights  and  its  Abysses  ;  without  conviction  or  belief  of  their 
own  regarding  it,  at  all  ; — who  walked  merely  by  hearsays,  tradition- 
ary cants,  black  and  white  surplices,  and  inane  confusions  ; — whose 
whole  Existence  accordingly  was  a  grimace  :  nothing  original  in  it, 
nothing  genuine  or  sincere  but  this  only,  Their  greediness  of  appetite 
and  their  faculty  of  digestion.  Such  unhappy  Ages,  too  numerous 
here  below,  the  Genius  of  Mankind  indignantly  seizes,  as  disgraceful 
to  the  Family,  and  with  Rhadamanthine  ruthlessness — annihilates  ; 
tumbles  large  masses  of  them  swifdy  into  eternal  Night.  These  are 
the  Unheroic  Ages  ;  which  cannot  serve,  on  the  general  field  of 
Existence,  except  as  dust,  as  inorganic  manure.  The  memory  of 
such  Ages  fades  away  forever  out  of  the  minds  of  all  men.  Why 
should  any  memory  of  the7n  continue  ?  The  fashion  of  them  has 
pa§§ed  away  j  and  as  for  genuine  substance,  they  never  had  any.    Tq 


OF  OLIVER'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES.  65 

no  heart  of  a  man  anymore  can  these  Ages  become  lovely.  What 
melodious  loving  heart  will  search  into  their  records,  will  sing  of 
them,  or  celebrate  them  ?  Even  torpid  Dryasdust  is  forced  to  give 
over  at  last,  all  creatures  declining  to  hear  him  on  that  subject ; 
whereupon  ensues  composure  and  silence,  and  Oblivion  has  her 
own. 

Good  reader,  if  you  be  wise,  search  not  for  the  secret  of  Heroic 
Ages,  which  have  done  great  things  in  this  Earth,  among  their 
falsities,  their  greedy  quackeries  and  //^heroisms  !  It  never  lies  and 
never  will  lie  there.  Knaves  and  quacks, — alas,  we  know  they 
abounded  :  but  the  Age  was  Heroic  even  because  it  had  declared  war 
to  the  death  with  these,  and  would  have  neither  truce  nor  treaty  with 
these  ;  and  went  forth,  flame-crowned,  as  with  bared  sword,  and 
called  the  Most  High  to  witness  that  it  would  not  endure  these  ! — 
But  now  for  the  Letters  of  Cromwell  themselves. 


^■■■r 


VOL.  I. 


CROMWELUS  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART  I. 


TO    THE    BEGINNING    OF    THE    CIVIL    WAR. 
1636-1642* 


69 


LETTER   I. 

St.  Ives,  a  small  Town  of  perhaps  fifteen  hundred  souls,  stands  on 
the  left  or  Northeastern  bank  of  the  River  Ouse,  in  flat  grassy  country, 
and  is  still  noted  as  a  Cattle-market  in  those  parts.  Its  chief  historical 
fame  is  likely  to  rest  on  the  following  one  remaining  Letter  of  Crom- 
well's, written  there  on  the  nth  of  January,  1635-6. 

The  little  Town,  of  somewhat  dingy  aspect,  and  very  quiescent 
except  on  market-days,  runs  from  Northwest  to  Southeast,  parallel  to 
the  shore  of  the  Ouse,  a  short  furlong  in  length  :  it  probably,  in  Crom- 
well's time,  consisted  mainly  of  a  row  of  houses  fronting  the  River  ; 
the  now  opposite  row,  which  has  its  back  to  the  River,  and  still  is 
shorter  than  the  other,  still  defective  at  the  upper  end,  was  probably 
built  since.  In  that  case,  the  locality  we  hear  of  as  the  '  Green*  of  St. 
Ives  would  then  be  space  which  is  now  covered  mainly  with  cattle- 
pens  for  market-business,  and  forms  the  middle  of  the  street.  A 
narrow  steep  old  Bridge,  probably  the  same  which  Cromwell  travelled, 
leads  you  over,  westward,  towards  Godmanchester,  where  you  again 
cross  the  Ouse,  and  get  into  Huntingdon.  Eastward  out  of  St.  Ives, 
your  route  is  towards  Earith,  Ely  and  the  heart  of  the  Fens. 

At  the  upper  or  Northwestern  extremity  of  the  place  stands  the 
Church  ;  Cromwell's  old  fields  being  at  the  opposite  extremity.  The 
Church  from  its  Churchyard  looks  down  into  the  very  River,  which  is 
fenced  from  it  by  a  brick  wall.  The  Ouse  flows  here,  you  cannot 
without  study  tell  in  which  direction,  fringed  with  gross  reedy  herbage 
and  bushes  ;  and  is  of  the  blackness  of  Acheron,  streaked  with  foul 
metallic  glitterings  and  plays  of  colour.  For  a  short  space  downwards 
here,  the  banks  of  it  are  fully  visible  ;  the  western  row  of  houses  being 
somewhat  the  shorter,  as  already  hinted  :  instead  of  houses  here,  you 
have  a  rough  wooden  balustrade,  and  the  black  Acheron  of  an  Ouse 
River  used  as  a  washing-place  or  watering-place  for  cattle.  The  old 
Church,  suitable  for  such  a  population,  stands  yet  as  it  did  in  Crom- 
well's time,  except  perhaps  the  steeple  and  pews  ;  the  flagstones  in 
the  interior  are  worn  deep  with  the  pacing  of  many  generations.  The 
steeple  is  visible  from  several  miles  distance  ;  a  sharp  high  spire, 
piercing  far  up  Irom  amid  the  willow-trees.  The  country  hereabouts 
has  all  a  clammy  look,  clayey  and  boggy  ;  the  produce  of  it,  whether 
bushes  and  trees,  ot  grass  and  crops,  gives  you  the  notion  of  some- 
thing lazy,  dropsical,  gross. — This  is  St.  Ives,  a  most  ancient  Cattle- 
market  by  the  shores  of  the  sable  Ouse,  on  the  edge  of  the  Fen- 
country  ;  where,  among  other  things  that  happened,  Oliver  Cromwell 
passed  five  years  of  his  existence  as  a  Farmer  and  Grazier.  Who  the 
primitive  Ives  himself  was,  remains  problematic  ;  Camden  says  he 


70  BEFOr.E    THE   CIVIL  WAR. 

was  '  Ivo  a  Persian ;' — surely  far  out  of  his  road  here.  The  better 
authorities  designate  him  as  Ives,  or  Yves,  a  worthy  Frenchman, 
liishop  of  Chartres  in  the  time  of  our  Henry  Beauclerk. 

OUver,  as  we  observed,  has  left  hardly  any  memorial  of  himself  at 
St.  Ives.  The  ground  he  farmed  is  still  partly  capable  of  being  speci- 
fied, certain  records  or  leases  being  still  in  existence.  It  lies  at  the 
lower  or  Southeast  end  of  the  Town  ;  a  stagnant  flat  tract  of  land, 
extending  between  the  houses  or  rather  kitchen-gardens  of  St.  Ives  in 
that  quarter,  and  the  banks  of  the  River,  which,  very  tortuous  always, 
has  made  a  new  bend  here.  If  well  drained,  this  land  looks  as  if  it 
would  produce  abundant  grass,  but  naturally  it  must  be  little  other 
than  a  bog.  Tall  bushy  ranges  of  willow-trees  and  the  like,  at  present, 
divide  it  into  fields  ;  the  River,  not  visible  till  you  are  close  on  it, 
bounding  them  all  to  the  South.  At  the  top  of  the  fields  next  to  the 
Town  is  an  ancient  massive  Barn,  still  used  as  such  ;  the  people  call 
it  '  Cromwell's  Barn  :' — and  nobody  can  prove  that  it  was  not  his  !  It 
was  evidently  some  ancient  man's  or  series  of  ancient  men's. 

Quitting  St.  Ives  Fen-ward  or  Eastward,  the  last  house  of  all,  which 
stands  on  your  right  hand  among  gardens,  seemingly  the  best  house 
in  the  place,  and  called  Slepe  Hall,  is  confidently  pointed  out  as 
'  Oliver's  House.'  It  is  indisputably  Slepe-Hall  House,  and  Oliver's 
Farm  was  rented  from  the  estate  of  Slepe-Hall.  It  is  at  present  used 
for  a  Boarding-school  :  the  worthy  inhabitants  believe  it  to  be  Oliver's  ; 
and  even  point  out  his  '  Chapel '  or  secret  Puritan  Sermon-room  in 
the  lower  story  of  the  house  :  no  Sermon-room,  as  you  may  well 
discern,  but  to  appearance  some  sort  of  scullery  or  wash-house  or 
bake-house.  "  It  was  here  he  used  to  preach,"  say  they.  Courtesy 
forbids  you  to  answer,  "  Never  ! "  But  in  fact  there  is  no  likelihood 
that  this  was  Oliver's  House  at  all  :  in  its  present  state  it  does  not 
seem  to  be  a  century  old  ;  *  and  originally,  as  is  like,  it  must  have 
served  as  residence  to  the  Proprietors  of  Slepe-Hall  estate,  not  to 
the  Farmer  of  a  part  thereof.  Tradition  makes  a  sad  blur  of  Oliver's 
memory  in  his  native  country  1  We  know,  and  shall  know,  only  this, 
for  certain  here.  That  Oliver  farmed  part  or  whole  of  these  Slepe- 
Hall  Lands,  over  which  the  human  feet  can  still  walk  v/ith  assurance  ; 
past  which  the  River  Ouse  still  slumberously  rolls,  towards  Earith 
Bulwark  and  the  Fen-country.  Here  of  a  certainty  Oliver  did  walk 
and  look  about  him  habitually,  during  those  five  years  from  1631  to 
1636  ;  a  man  studious  of  many  temporal  and  many  eternal  things. 
His  cattle  grazed  here,  his  ploughs  tilled  here,  the  heavenly  skies 
and  infernal  abysses  overarched  and  underarched  him  here. 

In  fact  there  is,  as  it  w^ere,  nothing  whatever  that  still  decisively  to 
every  eye  attests  his  existence  at  St.  Ives,  except  the  following  old 
Letter,  accidentally  preserved  among  the  Harley  Manuscripts  in  the 
British  Museum.  Noble,  writing  in  1787,  says  the  old  branding- 
irons,  '  O.  C.,'  for  marking  sheep,  were  still  used  by  some  Farmer 
there  ;  but  these  also,  many  years  ago,  are  gone.  In  the  Parish- 
records  of  St  Ives.  Oliver  appears  twice  among  some  fther  ten  or 
twelve  respectable  rate-payers  ;  appointing,  in  1633  and  1634,  for 
'St.  Ives  cum  Slepa'  fit  annual  overseers  for  the  'Highway  and 
*  Noble,  i.  p.  102,  106. 


ST.   I^ES.  71 


Green  :' — one  of  the  Oliver  Signatures  is  now  cut  out.  Fifty  years 
ago,  a  vague  old  Townclerk  had  heard  from  very  A'ague  old  persons, 
that  Mr.  Cromwell  had  been  seen  attending  divine  service  in  the 
Church  with  'a  piece  of  red  flannel  round  his  neck,  being  subject  to 
inflammation.'*  Certain  letters  '  written  in  a  very  kind  style  from 
'  Oliver  Lord  Protector  to  persons  in  St.  Ives,'  do  not  now  exist ;  pro- 
bably never  did.  Swords  '  bearing  the  initials  of  O.  C.,'  swords  sent 
down  in  the  beginning  of  1642,  when  War  was  now  imminent,  and 
weapons  were  yet  scarce, — do  any  such  still  exist  ?  Noble  says  they 
were  numerous  in  1787  ;  but  nobody  is  bound  to  beheve  him.  Walkert 
testifies  that  the  Vicar  of  St.  Ives,  Rev.  Henry  Downet,  was  ejected 
with  his  curate  in  1642  ;  an  act  which  Cromwell  could  have  hindered, 
had  he  been  willing  to  testify  that  they  were  fit  clergymen.  Alas, 
had  he  been  able  !  He  attended  them  in  red  flannel,  but  had  not 
exceedingly  rejoiced  in  them,  it  would  seem. — There  is,  in  short, 
nothing  that  renders  Cromwell's  existence  completely  visible  to  us, 
even  through  the  smallest  chink,  but  this  Letter  alone,  which,  copied 
from  the  Museum  Manuscripts,  worthy  Mr.  HarrisJ  has  printed  for 
all  people.     We  shghtly  rectify  the  spe.Ung  and  reprint. 

To  niy  very  loving  friend  Mr.  Storie,  at  the  Sign  of  the  Dog  in  the 
Royal  Exchange^  Lo7taon  :  Delii'cr  these. 

St.   Ives,   nth  January,  1635. 

Mr.  Storie, 

Amongst  the  catalogue  of  those  good  works  which  your  fellow- 
citizens  and  our  countrymen  have  done,  this  will  not  be  reckoned  for 
the  least.  That  they  have  provided  for  the  feeding  of  souls.  Building 
of  hospitals  provides  for  men's  bodies  ;  to  build  material  temples  is 
judged  a  work  of  piety  ;  but  they  that  procure  spiritual  food,  they 
that  build  up  spiritual  temples,  they  are  the  men  truly  charitable, 
truly  pious.  Such  a  work  as  this  was  your  erecting  the  Lecture  in 
our  Country  ;  in  the  which  you  placed  Dr.  Wells,  a  man  of  goodness 
and  industry,  and  ability  to  do  good  every  way ;  not  short  of  any  I 
know  in  England  :  and  I  am  persuaded  that,  sithence  his  coming, 
the  Lord  hath  by  him  wrought  much  good  aniong  us. 

It  only  remains  now  that  He  who  first  moved  you  to  this,  put  you 
forward  in  the  continuance  thereof :  it  was  the  Lord  ;  and  therefore 
to  Him  lift  we  up  our  hearts  that  He  would  perfect  it.  And  surely, 
Mr.  Storie,  it  were  a  piteous  thing  to  see  a  Lecture  fall,  in  the  hands 
of  so  many  able  and  godly  men,  as  I  am  persuaded  the  founders  of 
this  are  ;  in  these  times,  wherein  we  see  they  are  suppressed,  with  too 
much  haste  and  violence,  by  the  enemies  of  God's  Truth.  Far  be  it 
that  so  much  guilt  should  stick  to  your  hands,  who  live  in  a  City  so 

*  See  Noble  :  his  confused  gleanings  and  speculations  concerning  St.  Ives  are 
to  be  found,  i.  105-6,  and  again,  i.  25'8-6i. 

t  Sufferings  of  the  Clergy. 

t  Life  of  Cromwell  :  a  blind  farrngo,  published  in  1761,  'after  the  manner  of 
Mr.  Bayle,'— a  very  bad  'manner,'  more  especially  when  a  Harris  presides  over 
it  !  Yet  poor  Harris's  Book,  his  three  Books  (on  Cromwell,  Charles  nnd  James  I.) 
have  worth  :  cartloads  of  1  xcerpts  carefully  transcribed,— and  edited,  in  the  way 
known  to  us,  'by  sho\ing  up  the  shafts.'  '  The  increasing  interest  of  the  subject 
brought  even  these  to  a  second  edition  in  1814. 


72  BEFORE   THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


renowned  for  the  clear  shining  light  of  the  Gospel.  You  know,  Mr. 
Storie,  to  withdraw  the  pay  is  to  let  fall  the  Lecture  ;  for  who  goeth 
to  warfare  at  his  own  cost  ?  I  beseech  you  therefore  in  the  bowels  of 
Jesus  Christ,  put  it  forward,  and  let  the  good  man  have  his  pay. 
The  souls  of  God's  children  will  bless  you  for  it  :  and  so  shall  I  ;  and 
ever  rest, 

Your  loving  Friend  in  the  Lord, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

Commend  my  hearty  love  to  Mr.  Busse,  Mr.  Beadly,  and  my  other 
good  friends.  I  would  have  written  to  Mr.  Busse  ;  but  I  was  loath 
to  trouble  him  with  a  long  letter,  and  I  feared  I  should  not  receive  an 
answer  from  him  :  from  you  I  expect  one  so  soon  as  conveniently  you 
may.     Vaie* 

Such  is  Oliver's  first  extant  letter.  The  Royal  Exchange  has  been 
twice  burned  since  this  piece  of  writing  was  left  at  the  Sign  of  the 
Dog  there.  The  Dog  Tavern,  Dog  Landlord,  frequenters  of  the 
Dog,  and  all  their  business  and  concernment  there,  and  the  hardest 
stone  masonry  they  had,  have  vanished  irrecoverable.  Like  a  dream 
of  the  Night  ;  like  that  transient  Sii^?i  or  Effigies  of  the  Talbot  Do<(, 
plastered  on  wood  with  oil  pigments,  which  invited  men  to  liquor  and 
house-room  in  those  days  !  The  personages  of  Oliver's  Letter  may 
well  be  unknown  to  us. 

Of  Mr.  Story,  strangely  enough,  we  have  found  one  other  notice  : 
he  is  amongst  the  Trustees,  pious  and  wealthy  citizens  of  London  for 
most  part,  to  whom  the  sale  of  Bishops'  Lands  is,  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, committed,  with  many  instructions  and  conditions,  on  the  9th 
of  October,  1646. t  'James  Story' is  one  of  these;  their  chief  is 
Alderman  Fowke.  From  Oliver's  expression,  '  our  Country,'  it  may 
be  inferred  or  guessed  that  Story  was  of  Huntingdonshire  :  a  man 
who  had  gone  up  to  London,  and  prospered  in  trade,  and  addicted 
himself  to  Puritanism  ;— much  of  him,  it  is  like,  will  never  be  known  ! 
Of  Busse  and  Beadly  (unless  Busse  be  a  misprint  lor  Bunse,  Alder- 
man Bunce,  another  of  the  above  '  Trustees '),  there  remains  no  ves- 
tige. 

Concerning  the  '  Lecture,'  however,  the  reader  will  recal  what  was 
said  above,  of  Lecturers,  and  of  Laud's  enmity  to  them  ;  ot  the 
Feoffees  who  supported  Lecturers,  and  of  Laud's  final  suppression 
and  ruin  of  those  Feoffees  in  1633.  Mr.  Story's  name  is  not  men- 
tioned in  the  List  of  the  specific  Feoffees  ;  but  it  need  not  be  doubted 
he  was  a  contributor  to  their  fund,  and  probably  a  leading  man 
among  the  subscribers.  By  the  light  of  this  Letter  we  may  dimly 
gather  that  they  still  continued  to  subscribe,  and  to  forward  Lecture- 
sliips  where  possible,  though  now  in  a  less  ostentatious  manner. 

It  appears  there  was  a  Lecture  at  Huntingdon  :  but  his  Grace  of 

*  Harris  (London  1814),  p.  12.  This  Letter,  for  which  Harris,  in  1761,  thanks 
'tlie  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum,'  is  not  now  to  be  found  in  that  estabhsli- 
msnt :  'a  searcli  of  three  hours  through  all  the  Catalogues,  assisted  by  one  of 
tlie  Clerks,'  reports  itself  to  me  as  fruitless. 

f  Scobell's  Acts  and  Ordinances  (London,  1658),  p.  99, 


ST   IVES.  73 


» 


Lambeth,  patiently  assiduous  in  hunting  down  such  objects,  had 
managed  to  get  that  suppressed  in  1633,^=  or  at  least  to  get  the  King's 
consent  for  suppressing  it.  This  in  1633.  So  that '  Mr.  Wells  '  could 
not,  in  1636,  as  my  imbecile  friend  supposes,t  be  'the  Lecturer  in 
Huntingdon,'  wherever  else  he  might  lecture.  Besides  Mr.  Wells  is 
not  in  danger  of  suppression  by  Laud,  but  by  want  of  cash  !  Where 
Mr.  Wells  lectured,  no  mortal  knows,  or  will  ever  know.  Why  not 
at  St.  Ives  on  the  market-da\  s  ?  Or  he  might  be  a  '  Running  Lecturer,' 
not  tied  to  one  locahty  ;  that  is  as  likely  a  guess  as  any. 

Whether  the  call  of  this  Wells  Lecturership  and  Oliver's  Letter 
got  due  return  from  Mr.  Story  we  cannot  now  say  ;  but  judge  that 
the  Lecturership,  —as  Laud's  star  was  rapidly  on  the  ascendant,  and 
Mr.  Story  and  the  Feoffees  had  already  lost  1,800/.  by  the  work,  and 
had  a  fine  in  the  Starchamber  still  hanging  over  their  heads,—  did  in 
fact  come  to  the  ground,  and  trouble  no  Archbishop  or  Market  Cattle- 
dealer  with  God's  Gospel  any  more.  Mr.  Wells,  like  the  others, 
vanishes  from  History,  or  nearly  so.  In  the  chaos  of  the  King's 
Pamphlets  one  seems  to  discern  dimly  that  he  sailed  for  New  England, 
and  that  he  returned  in  better  times.  Dimly  once,  in  1641  or  1642, 
you  catch  a  momentary  glimpse  of  a  '  Mr.  Wells'  in  such  predicament, 
and  hope  it  was  this  Wells,~preaching  for  a  friend,  '  in  the  afternoon/ 
in  a  Church  in  London. J 

Reverend  Mark  Noble  says,  the  above  Letter  is  very  curious,  and 
a  convincing  proof  how  far  gone  Oliver  was,  at  that  time,  in  religious 
enthusiasm. §  Yes,  my  reverend  imbecile  friend,  he  is  clearly  one  of 
those  singular  Christian  enthusiasts,  who  believe  that  they  have  a 
soul  to  be  saved,  even  as  you  do,  my  reverend  imbecile  friend,  that 
you  have  a  stomach  to  be  satisfied,— and  who  likewise,  astonishing  to 
say,  actually  take  some  trouble  about  that.  Far  gone  indeed,  my 
reverend  imbecile  friend  ! 

This  then  is  what  we  know  of  Oliver  at  St.  Ives.  He  wrote  the 
above  Letter  there.  He  had  sold  his  Properties  in  Huntingdon  for 
1,800/.  ;  with  the  whole  or  with  part  of  which  sum  he  stocked  certain 
Grazing-Lands  on  the  Estate  of  Slepe  Hall,  and  farmed  the  same  for 
a  space  of  some  five  years.  How  he  lived  at  St.  Ives  ;  how  he  saluted 
men  on  the  streets  ;  read  Bibles  ;  sold  cattle  ;  and  walked,  with  heavy 
footfall  and  many  thoughts,  through  the  Market  Green  or  old  narrow 
lanes  in  St.  Ives,  by  the  shore  of  the  black  Ouse  River, — shall  be  left 
to  the  reader's  imagination.  There  ic  in  this  man  talent  for  farming  ; 
there  are  thoughts  enough,  thoughts  bounded  by  the  Ouse  River, 
thoughts  that  go  beyond  Eternity, — and  a  great  black  sea  of  things 
that  he  has  never  yet  been  able  to  think. 

I  count  the  children  he  had  at  the  time  :  and  find  them  six  :  Four 
boys  and  two  girls  ;  the  eldest  a  boy  of  fourteen,  the  youngest  a  girl 
of  six:  Robert,  Oliver,  Bridget,  Richard,  Henry,  Elizabeth.  Robert 
and  Oliver,  I  take  it,  are  gone  to  Felsted  School,  near  Bourchier  their 
Grandfather's  in  Essex.  Sir  Thomas  Bourchier  the  worshipful  Knight, 
once  of  London,  lives  at  Felsted  ;  Sir  Will'am  Masham,  another  of 
the  same,  lives  at  Otes,  hard  by,  as  we  shall  see. 

*  Wharton's  Laud  (I^ondon,  1695),   p.  t^zj.  t^obk*.  i.  259. 

X  Old  Pamphlet  :  Title  mislaid  and  forgotten.  §  Noble,  i.  259. 


^4  BEFORE   THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

Cromwell  at  the  time  of  writing  this  Letter  was,  as  he  himself  might 
partly  think  probable,  about  to  quit  St.  Ives.  His  mother's  brother 
Sir  Thomas  Steward,  Knight,  lay  sick  at  Ely  in  those  very  days.  Sir 
Thomas  makes  his  will  in  this  same  month  of  January,  leaving  Oliver 
his  principal  heir  ;  and  on  the  30th  it  was  all  over,  and  he  lay  in  his 
last  home  :  *  Buried  in  the  Cathedral  of  kly,  30  January,  1635-6. 

Worth  noting,  and  curious  to  think  of,  since  it  is  indisputable  :  On 
the  very  day  while  Oliver  Cromwell  was  writing  this  Letter  at  St. 
Ives,  two  obscure  individuals,  '  Peter  Aldridge  and  Thomas  Lane, 
Assessors  of  Shipmoney,'  over  in  Buckinghamshire,  had  assembled  a 
Parish  Meeting  in  the  Church  of  Great  Kimble,  to  assess  and  rate  the 
Shipmoney  of  the  said  Parish  :  there,  in  the  cold  weather,  at  the  foot 
of  the  Chiitern  Hills,  '  11  January,  1635,'  the- Parish  did  attend,  'John 
liampden,  Esquire,'  at  the  head  of  them,  and  by  a  Return  still  ex- 
tant,* refused  to  pay  the  same  or  any  portion  thereof, — witness  the 
above  '  Assessors,'  witness  also  two  '  Parish  Constables  '  whom  we 
remit  from  such  unexpected  celebrity.  John  Hampden's  share  for 
this  Parish  is  thirty-one  shillings  and  sixpence  ;  for  another  Parish 
it  is  twenty  shillings  ;  on  which  latter  sum,  not  on  the  former,  John 
Hampden  was  tried. 


LETTER   II. 

Oliver  removed  to  Ely  very  soon  after  writing  the  foregoing 
Letter.  There  is  a  *  receipt  for  10/.'  signed  by  him  dated  '  Ely, 
10  June,  1636;'!  and  other  evidence  that  he  was  then  resident 
there.  He  succeeded  to  his  Uncle's  Farming  of  the  Tithes  ;  the 
Leases  of  these,  and  new  Leases  of  some  other  small  lands  or  fields 
granted  him,  are  still  in  existence.  He  continued  here  till  the  time'of 
the  Long  Parliament  ;  and  his  Family  still  after  that,  till  some  un- 
ascerta  ned  date,  seemingly  about  164.7,  when  it  became  apparent 
that  the  Long  Parliament  was  not  like  to  rise  for  a  great  wliile  yet, 
and  it  was  judged  expedient  that  the  whole  household  should  remove 
to  London.  His  Mother  appears  to  have  joined  him  in  Ely  ;  she 
quitted  Huntingdon,  returned  to  her  native  place,  an  aged  grand- 
mother,— was  not,  however,  to  end  her  days  there. 

As  Sir  Thomas  Steward,  Oliver's  Uncle,  farmed  the  Tithes  of  Ely, 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  he,  and  Oliver  after  him,  occupied  the 
House  set  apart  for  the  Tithe-Farmer  there  ;  as  Mark  Noble,  out  o 
dim  Tradition,  confidently  testifies.  This  is  '  the  house  occupied  by  Mr. 
Page  ; '  %  under  which  name,  much  better  than  under  that  of  Crom- 
well, the  inhabitants  of  Ely  now  know  it.  The  House,  though  some- 
what in  a  frail  state,  is  still  standing  ;  close  to  St.  Mary's  Churchyard  ; 
at  the  corner  of  the  great  Tithe-barn  of  Ely,  or  great  Square  of  tithe- 

''  Facsimile  Engraving  of  it,  in  Lord  Nugent's  Memorials  of  Hampden  (London. 
1832).  i.  231. 
t  Noble,  i.  107.  X  Noble,  i.  106. 


ELV^ 75 

barns  and  offices, — which  '  is  the  biggest  barn  in  England  but  one, 
say  the  Ely  people.  Of  this  House,  for  Oliver's  sake,  some  Painter 
will  yet  perhaps  take  a  correct  likeness  : — it  is  needless  to  go  to 
Stuntney,  out  on  the  Soham  road,  as  Oliver's  Painters  usually  do  ; 
Oliver  never  lived  there,  but  only  his  Mother's  cousins  !  Two  years 
ago  this  House  in  Ely  stood  empty  ;  closed  finally  up,  deserted  by  all 
the  Pages,  as  '  the  Commutation  of  Tithes '  had  rendered  it  super- 
fluous :  this  year  (1845),  I  ^^^j  it  is  an  A'ehouse,  with  still  some 
chance  of  standing.  It  is  by  no  means  a  sumptuous  mansion  ;  but 
may  have  conveniently  held  a  man  of  three  or  four  hundred  a  year, 
with  his  family,  in  those  simple  times.  Some  quaint  air  of  gentility 
still  looks  through  its  ragged  dilapidation.  It  is  of  two  stories, 
more  properly  of  one  and  a  half ;  has  many  windows,  irregular 
chimneys  and  gables.  Likely  enough  Oliver  lived  here  ;  likely  his 
Grandfather  may  have  lived  here,  his  Mother  have  been  born  here. 
She  was  now  again  resident  here.  The  tomb  of  her  first  husband  and 
child,  Johannes  Lynnc  and  poor  little  Catharina  Lyfine,  is  in  the 
Cathedral  hard  by.  '  Such  are  the  changes  which  fleeting  Time 
procureth.' — 

This  Second  extant  Letter  of  Cromwell's  is  dated  Ely,  October, 
1638.  It  will  be  good  to  introduce,  as  briefly  as  possible,  a  few 
Historical  Dates,  to  remind  the  reader  what  o'clock  on  the  Great 
Horologe  it  is  while  this  small  Letter  is  a-writing.  Last  year  in 
L^mdon  there  had  been  a  very  strange  spectacle  ;  and  in  three  weeks 
after,  another  in  Edinburgh,  of  still  more  significance  in  English 
History. 

On  the  30th  of  June,  1637,  in  Old  Palaceyard,  three  men,  gentlemen 
of  education,  of  good  quality,  a  Barrister,  a  Physician,  and  a  Parish 
Clergyman  of  London  were  set  on  three  Pillories  ;  openly  stood,  as 
the  scum  of  malefactors,  for  certain  hours  there  ;  and  then  had  their 
ears  cut  off, — bare  knives,  hot  branding-irons, — and  their  cheeks 
stamped  'S.L.'  Seditious  Libeller;  in  the  sight  of  a  great  crowd, 
'silent'  mainly,  and  looking  'pale.'"*^  The  men  were  our  old  friend 
William  Prynne, — poor  Prynne,  who  had  got  into  new  trouble,  and 
here  lost  his  ears  a  scco7id  and  final  time,  having  had  them  '  sewed  on 
again  '  before  :  William  Prynne,  Barrister ;  Dr.  John  Bastwick  ;  and 
the  Rev.  Henry  Burton,  Minister  of  Friday-street  Church.  Their  sin 
was  against  Laud  and  his  surplices  at  Allhallow-tide,  not  against  any 
other  man  or  thing.  Prynne,  speaking  to  the  people,  defied  all 
Lambeth,  with  Rome  at  the  back  of  it,  to  argue  with  him,  William 
Prynne  alone,  that  these  practices  were  according  to  the  Law  of 
England  ;  "  and  if  I  fail  to  prove  it,"  said  Prynne,  "  let  them  hang  my 
body  at  the  door  of  that  Prison  there,"  the  Gaie-house  Prison, 
Whereat  the  people  gave  a  great  shout,' — somewliat  of  an  ominous 
one,  I  think.  Bastwick's  wife,  on  the  scaffold,  received  his  ears  in 
her  Jap,  and  kissed  him.f  Prynne's  ears  the  execution  '  rather  sawed 
than  cut '  "  Cut  me,  tear  me,"  cried  Prynne  ;  "  1  fear  thee  not  ;  I 
fear  the  fire  of  Hell,  not  thee  !"      The  June  sun  had  shone  hot  on 

*  State  Trials  (Cobbett's,  London,  1809),  !•'•  74^- 
t  Towers's  British  Biography. 


7^  BRFORE   THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

their  faces.  Burton,  who  had  discoursed  eloquent  rehgion  all  the 
while,  said,  when  they  carried  him,  near  fainting  into  a  house  in  King- 
street,  "  II  is  too  hot  to  last." 

Too  hot  indeed.  For  at  Edinburgh,  on  Sunday  the  23d  of  July 
Tollowing,  Archbishop  Laud  having  now,  with  great  eftort  and  much 
'manipulation,  got  his  Scotch  Liturgy  and  Scotch  Pretended-Bishops 
ready ,"**■  brought  them  fairly  out  to  action, — and  Jenny  Geddes  hurled 
her  stool  at  their  head.  "  Let  us  read  the  Collect  of  the  Day,"  said 
the  Pretended- Bishop  from  amid  his  tippets  ;— '•  De'il  colic  the  wame 
of  thee  !"  answered  Jenny,  hurhng  her  stool  at  his  head  "  Thou  foul 
thief,  wilt  thou  say  viass  at  my  lug?"+  I  thought  we  had  got  done 
with  the  mass  some  time  ago  ;— and  here  it  is  again  !  "A  Pape,  a 
Pape  !''  cried  others  -  '  Stane  him  !";]; — In  fact  the  service  could  not 
go  on  at  all.  This  passed  in  St.  Giles's  Kirk,  Edinburgh,  on  Sunday  23d 
July,  1637.  Scotland  had  endured  much  in  the  bishop-way  for  about 
thirty  years  bygone  and  endeavoured  to  say  nothing,  bitterly  feeling 
a  great  deal.  But  now,  on  small  signal,  the  hour  was  come  All 
Edinburgh,  all  Scotland,  and  behind  that  all  England  and  Ireland, 
rose  into  unappeasable  commotion  on  the  flight  of  this  stool  of 
Jenny's  ;  and  his  Grace  of  Canterbury,  and  King  Charles  himself, 
and  many  others  had  lost  their  heads  before  there  could  be  peace 
again  The  Scotch  People  had  sworn  their  Covenant,  not  without 
'tears,'  and  were  in  these  very  days  of  October,  1638,  while  Oliver 
is  writing  at  Ely  busy  with  their  whole  might  electing  their  General 
Assembly,  to  meet  at  Glasgow  next  month  I  think  the  Tidchan  Ap- 
paratus is  likely  to  be  somewhat  sharply  dealt  with,  the  Cow  having 
become  awake  to  it  !  Great  events  are  in  the  wind  ;  out  of  Scotland 
vague  news,  of  unappeasable  commotion  risen  there. 

In  the  end  of  that  same  year,  too,  there  had  risen  all  over  England 
huge  rumour  concerning  the  Shipmoney  Trial  at  London.  On  the 
6th  of  November,  1637,  this  important  Process  of  Mr.  Hampden's 
began.     Learned  Mr  St.  John,  a  dark  tough  man,  of  the  toughness  of 

*  Rushworth,  ii,  321,  343,  iii.  Appenciix,  153-5;  &c, 

t  —  —  '  No  sooner  was  the  Book  opened  by  the  Dean  of  Edinburgh,  but  a 
'number  of  (he  meaner  sort,  with  clapping  of  their  hands  and  outcries,  made  a 
'  great  uproar  ;  and  one  of  them,  called  Jane  or  Janot  Gaddis  (yet  hving  at  the 
'  writing  of  this  relation),  flung  a  httle  folding-stool,  whereon  she  sat,  at  the 
'  Deans  head,  saying,  "Out  thou  false  thief!  dost  thou  say  the  mass  at  my  lug?" 
'  Which  was  followed  with  so  great  a  noise,  &c.  These  words  are  in  the  Con- 
tinuation of  Bakers  Clwoniclc,  by  Phillips  (Miltons  Nephew);  fifth  edition  of 
Baker  (London,  1670).  p.  478.  Ihey  are  «t;/ m  the  fourth  edition  of  .5a>^^r,  1665, 
which  is  the  first  that  contains  the  Continuation;  they  follow  as  here  in  all  the 
others.  Thought  to  be  the  first  grave  mention  of  Jenny  Geddes  in  Printed  His- 
tory ;  a  heroine  still  familiar  to  Tradition  everywhere  in  Scotland. 

In  a  foolish  Pamphlet,  printed  in  1661,  Q.xi\\\S!tdL  EdjnburgK s,  Joy,  &c.— Joy  for 
the  Blessed  Restoration  and  Annus  Mirabths,—\\i&x&  is  mention  made  of  'the 
immortal  J  enet  Geddis,  whom  the  writer  represents  as  rejoicing  exceedingly  in 
that  miraculous  event;  she  seems  to  be  a  well-known  person  keeping  'a  cabbage- 
stall  at  the  Iron  Kirk,  at  that  date.  Burns,  in  his  Highland  Tour,  named  his 
maie  Jenny  Gedaci.  Helen  of  1  roy,  for  practical  importance  in  Human  His- 
tory is  but  a  small  lieroine  to  Jenny  .  -  but  she  has  been  luckier  in  the  recording  I 
-For  these  bibliographical  notices  I  am  indebted  to  the  friendliness  of  Mr.  D, 
Laing  ot  the  bignet  Library,  Edinburgh. 

J  Rushworth,  Kennet,  balfour. 


ELY.  77 

leather,  spake  with  irrefragable  law-eloquence,  law-logic,  for  three 
days  running,  on  Mr  Hampden's  side  ;  and  learned  Mr  Holborn  for 
three  other  days  ;— preserved  yet  by  Rushworth  in  acres  of  typo- 
graphy, unreadable  now  to  all  mortals,  for  other  learned  gentlemen, 
tough  as  leather,  spoke  on  the  opposite  side  ;  and  learned  judges  an  • 
imadverted  ,— at  endless  length,  amid  the  expectancy  of  men.  With 
brief  pauses,  the  Trial  lasted  for  three  weeks  and  three  days.  Mr. 
Hampden  became  the  most  famous  man  in  England,*— by  accident 
partly.  The  sentence  was  not  delivered  till  April  1638  ;  and  then  it 
went  against  Mr  Hampden  ;  judgment  in  Exchequer  ran  to  this 
effect,  '  Co7isideraturn  est  pet  eosdem  Barones  quod  prcedicius  Johannes 
'Hampden  de  iisdem  viointi  solidis  otieretnr.  He  must  pay  the 
•  Twenty  shillings,  et  inde  satisfaciat:\  No  hope  in  Law- Courts,  then  ; 
Petition  of  Right  and  Tallagio  7ion  concedendo  have  become  an  old 
song.  If  there  be  not  hope  in  Jenny  Geddes's  stool  and  '  De'il  colic 
the  wame  of  thee,'  we  are  in  a  bad  way  !— 

During  which  great  public  Transactions,  there  had  been  in  Crom- 
well's own  Fen-country  a  work  of  immense  local  celebrity  going  on  : 
the  actual  Drainage  of  the  Fens,  so  long  talked  about  ;  the  construc- 
tion, namely,  of  the  great  Bedford  Levels  to  carry  the  Ouse  River 
direct  into  the  s  -a  ;  holding  it  forcibly  aloft  in  strong  embankments, 
for  twenty  straight  miles  or  so  ;  not  leaving  it  to  meander  and  stag- 
nate, and  in  the  wet  season  drown  the  country,  as  heretofore.  This 
grand  work  began,  Dryasdust  in  his  bewildered  manner  knows  not 
when  ;  but  it  'went  on  rapidly,'  and  had  ended  in  1631.];  Or  rather 
had  appeared^  and  strongly  endeavoured^  to  end  in  1637  ;  but  was  not 
yet  by  any  means  settled  and  ended  ;  the  whole  Fen-region  clamour- 
ing that  it  could  not  and  should  not  end  so.  In  which  wide  clamour, 
against  injustice  done  in  high  places,  Oliver  Cromwell,  as  is  well 
known,  though  otherwise  a  most  private  quiet  man,  saw  good  to  inter- 
fere :  to  give  the  universal  inarticulate  clamour  a  voice,  and  gain  a 
remedy  for  it.  He  approved  himself,  as  Sir  Philip  Warwick  will 
testify,§  *  a  man  that  will  set  well  at  the  mark,'  that  took  sure  aim, 
and  had  a  stroke  of  some  weight  in  him.  We  cannot  here  afford 
room  to  disentangle  that  affair  from  the  dark  rubbish-abysses,  old  and 
new,  in  which  it  lies  deep  buried  :  suffice  it  to  assure  the  reader  that 
Oliver  did  by  no  means  '  oppose'  the  Draining  of  the  Fens,  but  was 
and  had  been,  as  his  Father  before  him,  highly  favourable  to  it  ;  that 
he  opposed  the  King  in  Council  wishing  to  do  a  public  injustice  in 
regard  to  the  Draining  of  the  Fens  ;  and  by  a  '  great  meeting  at 
Huntingdon,'  and  other  good  measures,  contrived  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
same.  At  a  time  when,  as  Old  Palaceyard  might  testify,  that  opera- 
tion of  going  in  the  teeth  of  the  royal  will  was  somewhat  more  perilous 
than  it  wguld  be  now  !  This  was  in  1638,  according  to  the  good  testi- 
mony of  Warwick.]]     Cromwell  acquired  by  it  a  great  popularity  in  the 

*  Clarendon. 

t  Rushworth,  iii.  Appendix,   159-216  ;  ib.  ii.  480. 

t  Dugdale's  Hist,  of  Embankments  ;  Colson's,  Wells's,  &c.,  &c.  History  of 
the  Fens. 

§  Warwick's  Memoirs  (London,  1701),  n,  250. 

II   Warwick,  uii  iupru ,  poor  Noble  blunders,  as  he  is  apt  to  Jo. 


'j^,  BEFORE    THE   CIVIL  WAR. 

Fen-country,  acquired  the  name  or  nickname  *  Lord  of  the  Fens  ;  * 
and  what  was  much  more  valuable,  had  done  the  duty  of  a  good 
citizen,  whatever  he  might  acquire  by  it.  The  disastrous  public  Events 
which  soon  followed  put  a  stop  to  all  farther  operations  in  the  Fens 
for  a  good  many  years. 

These  clamours  of  local  grievance  near  at  hand,  these  rumours  of 
universal  grievance  from  the  distance, — they  were  part  of  the  Day's 
noises,  they  were  sounding  in  Cromwell's  mind,  along  with  many 
others  now  silent,  while  the  following  Letter  went  off  towards  '  Sir 
William  Masham's  House  called  Otes  in  Essex,'  in  the  year  1638. — 
Of  Otes  and  the  Mashams  in  Essex,  there  must  likewise,  in  spite  of 
our  strait  limits,  be  a  word  said.  The  Mashams  were  distant  Cousins 
of  Oliver's  ;  this  Sir  William  Masham,  or  Massam  as  he  is  often 
written,  proved  a  conspicuous  busy  man  in  the  Politics  of  his  time  ; 
on  the  Puritan  side  ; — rose  into  Oliver's  Council  of  State  at  last.  The 
Mashams  became  Lords  Masham  in  the  next  generation,  and  so  con- 
tinued for  a  while  ;  one  Lady  Masham  was  a  daughter  of  Philosopher 
Cudworth,  and  is  still  remembered  as  the  friend  of  John  Locke,  whom 
she  tended  in  his  old  days,  who  lies  buried  in  the  Church  of  Otes,  his 
monument  still  shewn  there.  Otes  Church,  near  which  stood  Otes 
Mansion,  is  in  the  neighbourhood  of  High  Lavers,  Essex,  not  far 
from  Harton  Station  on  the  Northeastern  Railway.  The  Mashams 
are  all  extinct,  and  their  Mansion  is  swept  away  as  if  it  had  not  been 
*Some  forty  years  ago,'  says  my  kind  informant, '  a  wealthy  Maltstei 

*  of  Bishop's  Stortford  became  the  proprietor  by  purchase  ;  and  pulled 

*  the  Manorhouse  down  ;  leaving  the  outhouses  as  cottages  to  some 

*  poor  people.'  The  name  Otes,  the  tomb  of  Locke,  and  this  un- 
destroyed  and  now  indestructible  fraction  of  Ragpaper  alone  preserve 
the  memory  of  Mashamdon  in  this  world.  We  modernise  the  spell- 
ing ;  let  the  reader,  for  it  may  be  worth  this  while,  endeavour  to 
modernise  the  sentiment  and  subject  matter. 

There  is  only  this  farther  to  be  premised.  That  St.  John,  the  cele- 
brated Shipmoney  Barrister,  has  married  for  his  second  wife  a  Cousin 
of  Oliver  Cromwell's,  a  Daughter  of  Uncle  Henry's,  whom  we  knew 
at  Upwood  long  ago  ;*  which  Cousin,  and  perhaps  her  learned  hus- 
band reposing  from  his  arduous  law-duties  along  with  her,  is  now  on 
a  Summer  or  Autumn  visit  at  Otes,  and  lias  lately  seen  Oliver  there. 

To  my  beloved  Cousin  Mrs.  St.  John,  at  Sir  Williaw  Masham  his 
House  called  Otes,  in  Essex  :  Present  these. 

Ely,  13th  October,  1638. 

Dear  Cousin, 

I  thankfully  acknowledge  your  love  in  your  kind  remanbrance 
of  me  upon  this  opportunity.  Alas,  you  do  too  highly  prize  my  lines, 
and  my  company.  I  may  be  ashamed  to  own  your  expressions,  con- 
sidering how  unprofitable  I  am,  and  the  mean  improvement  of  my 
talent. 

Yet  to  honour  my  God  by  declaring  what  He  hath  done  for  my 

*  Ante,  p,  26. 


ELY.  79 

soul,  in  this  I  am  confident,  and  I  will  be  so.  Truly,  then,  this  I  find: 
That  He  giveth  springs  in  a  dry  barren  wilderness  where  no  water  is. 
1  live,  you  know  where, — in  Meshec,  which  they  say  signifies  Prolong- 
ing; in  Kedar,  which  signifies  Black7iess:  yet  the  Lord  forsake th  me 
not.  Though  He  do  prolong,  yet  He  will  I  trust  bring  me  to  His 
Tabernacle,  to  His  resting-place.  My  soul  is  with  the  Congregation 
of  the  Firstborn,  my  body  rests  in  hope  :  and  if  here  I  may  honour 
my  God  either  by  doing  or  by  suffering,  I  shall  be  most  glad. 

Truly  no  poor  creature  hath  more  cause  to  put  himself  forth  in  the 
cause  of  his  God  than  I.  I  have  had  plentiful  wages  beforehand ; 
and  I  am  sure  I  shall  never  earn  the  least  mite.  The  Lord  accept  me 
in  His  Son,  and  give  me  to  walk  in  the  light, — and  give  us  to  walk  in 
the  light,  as  He  is  the  light !  He  it  is  that  enlighteneth  our  blackness, 
our  darkness.  I  dare  not  say.  He  hideth  His  face  from  me.  He 
giveth  me  to  see  light  in  His  light.  One  beam  in  a  dark  place  hath 
exceeding  much  refreshment  in  it  : — blessed  be  His  Name  for  shining 
upon  so  dark  a  heart  as  mine  !  You  know  what  my  manner  of  life 
hath  been.  Oh,  I  lived  in  and  loved  darkness,  and  hated  light  ;  I 
was  a  chief,  the  chief  of  sinners.  This  is  true  :  I  hated  godliness, 
yet  God  had  mercy  on  me.  O  the  riches  of  His  mercy  !  Praise 
Him  for  me  ; — pray  for  me,  that  He  who  hath  begun  a  good  work 
would  perfect  it  in  the  day  of  Christ. 

Salute  all  my  friends  in  that  Family  whereof  you  are  yet  a  member. 
I  am  much  bound  unto  them  for  their  love.  I  bless  the  Lord  for 
them  ;  and  that  my  Son,  by  their  procurement,  is  so  well.  Let  Him 
have  your  prayers,  your  counsel  ;  let  me  have  them.* 

Salute  your  Husband  and  Sister  from  me  : — He  is  not  a  man  of  his 
word  !  He  promised  to  write  about  Mr.  Wrath  of  Epping  ;  but  as  yet 
I  receive  no  letters  :— put  him  in  mind  to  do  what  with  conveniency 
may  be  done  for  the  poor  Cousin  I  did  solicit  him  about. 

Once  more  farewell.     The  Lord  be  with  you  :  so  prayeth 

Your  truly  loving  Cousin, 

Oliver  Cromwell."* 

There  are  two  or  perhaps  three  sons  of  Cromwell's  at  Felsted 
School  by  this  time  :  a  likely  enough  guess  is  that  he  might  have 
been  taking  Dick  over  to  Felsted  on  that  occasion  when  he  came 
round  by  Otcs,  and  gave  such  comfort  by  his  speech  to  the  pious 
Mashams,  and  to  the  young  Cousin,  now  on  a  summer  visit  at  Otes. 
What  glimpses  of  long-gone  summers  ;  of  long-gone  human  beings  in 
fringed  trowser-breeches,  in  starched  ruff,  in  hood  and  fardingale  ; — 
alive,  they,  within  their  antiquarian  costumes,  living  men  and  women; 
instructive,  very  interesting  to  one  another  !  Mrs.  St.  John  came 
down  to  breakfast  every  morning  in  that  summer  visit  of  the  year 
1638,  and  Sir  Wilham  said  grave  grace,  and  they  spake  polite  devout 
things  to  one  another  ;  and  they  are  vanished,  they  and  their  things 
and  speeches — all  silent,  like  the  echoes  of  the  old  nightingales 
that  sang  that  season,  like  the  blossoms  of  the  old  roses.  O  Death, 
O  Time  ! — 

For  the  soul's  furniture  ot  these  brave  people  is  grown  not  less  un- 
*  Thurloe's  State  Papers  {London  1742},  i,  1 


So  BEFORE   THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


intelligible,  antiquarian,  than  their  Spanish  boots  and  lappet  caps. 
Reverjend  Mark  Noble,  my  reverend  imbecile  friend,  discovers  in  this 
Letter  clear  evidence  that  Oliver  was  once  a  very  dissolute  man  ;  thai 
Carrion  Heath  spake  truth  in  that  Flagellmn  Balderdash  of  his.  O 
my  reverend  imbecile  friend,  hast  thou  thyself  never  any  moral  life, 
but  only  a  sensitive  and  digestive  ?  Thy  soul  never  longed  towards 
the  serene  heights,  all  hidden  from  thee  ;  and  thirsted  as  the  hart  in 
dry  places  wherein  no  waters  be  ?  It  was  never  a  sorrow  for  thee 
that  the  eternal  pole-star  had  gone  out,  veiled  itself  in  dark  clouds  ; — 
a  sorrow  only  that  this  or  the  other  noble  Patron  forgot  thee  when  a 
living  fell  vacant  ?  I  have  known  Christians,  Moslems,  Methodists, 
— and,  alas,  also,  reverend  irreverent  Apes  by  the  Dead  Sea  ! 

O  modern  reader,  dark  as  this  Letter  may  seem,  I  will  advise  thee 
to  make  an  attempt  towards  understanding  it.  There  is  in  it  a  'tra- 
dition of  humanity  '  worth  all  the  rest.  Indisputable  certificate  that 
man  once  had  a  soul ;  that  man  once  walked  with  God, — his  little 
Life  a  sacred  island  girdled  with  Eternities  and  Godhoods.  Was  it 
not  a  time  for  heroes  1  Heroes  were  then  possible.  I  say,  thou  shalt 
understand  that  Letter  ;  thou  also,  looking  out  into  a  too  brutish 
world,  wilt  then  exclaim  with  Oliver  Cromwell, — with  Hebrew  David, 
as  old  Mr.  Rouse  of  Truro,  and  the  Presbyterian  populations,  still 
sing  him  in  the  Northern  Kirks  : 

Woe's  me  that  I  in  Meshec  am 

A  sojourner  so  long, 
Or  that  I  in  the  tents  do  dwell 

To  Kedar  that  belong ! 

Yes,  there  is  a  tone  in  the  soul  of  this  Oliver  that  holds  of  the  Peren- 
nial. With  a  noble  sorrow,  with  a  noble  patience,  he  longs  towards 
the  mark  of  the  prize  of  the  high  calling.  He,  I  think,  has  chosen 
the  better  part.  The  world  and  its  wild  tumults, — if  they  will  but  let 
him  alone  !  Yet  he  too  will  venture,  will  do  and  suffer  for  God's 
cause,  if  the  call  come.  What  man  with  better  reason  ?  He  hath 
had  plentiful  wages  beforehand  ;  snatched  out  of  darkness  into 
marvellous  light  :  he  will  never  earn  the  least  mite.  Annihilation, 
of  self ;  Selbsttodhmg,  as  Novalis  calls  it  ;  casting  yourself  at  the 
footstool  of  God's  throne,  "  To  live  or  to  die  forever  ;  as  Thou  wilt, 
not  as  I  will,"  Brother,  hadst  thou  never,  in  any  form,  such  moments 
in  thy  history  ?  Thou  knowest  them  not,  even  by  credible  rumour  .>* 
Well,  thy  earthly  path  was  peaceabler,  I  suppose.  But  the  Highest 
was  never  in  thee,  the  Highest  will  never  come  out  of  thee.  Thou 
shalt  at  best  abide  by  the  stuff;  as  cherished  housedog,  guard  the 
stuff, — perhaps  with  enormous  gold-collars  and  provender  :  but  the 
battle,  and  the  hero-death,  and  victory's  fire-chariot  carrying  men  to 
the  Immortals,  shall  never  be  thine.  I  pity  thee  ]  brag  not,  or  I  shall 
have  to  despise  thee. 


TIVO   YEAR^.  8 1 


TWO  YEARS. 

Such  is  Oliver's  one  Letter  from  Ely.  To  guide  us  a  little  through 
the  void  gulf  towards  his  next  Letter,  we  will  here  intercalate  the 
the  following  small  fractions  of  Chronology. 

1639. 

May— July.  The  Scots  at  their  Glasgow  Assembly*  had  rent 
their  Tulchan  Apparatus  in  so  rough  a  way,  and  otherwise  so  ill  com- 
ported themselves,  his  Majesty  saw  good,  in  the  beginning  of  this 
year,  immense  negotiation  and  messaging  to  and  fro  having  proved 
so  futile,  to  chastise  them  with  an  Army.  By  unheard-of  exertions  in 
the  Extra-Parliamentary  way,  his  Majesty  got  an  Army  ready  ; 
marched  with  it  to  Berwick, — is  at  Newcastle,  8th  May,  i639.t  But, 
alas,  the  Scots,  with  a  much  better  Army,  already  lay  encamped  on 
Dunse  Law  ;  every  nobleman  with  his  tenants  there,  as  a  drilled 
regiment,  round  him  ;  old  Fieldmarshal  Lesley  for  their  generalissimo  ; 
at  every  Colonel's  tent  this  pennon  flying.  For  ChrisVs  Crown  and 
Covenattt:  there  was  no  fighting  to  be  thought  oi.X  Neither  could 
the  Pacification  there  patched  up§  be  of  long  continuance.  The  Scots 
disbanded  their  soldiers  ;  but  kept  the  best  officers,  mostly  Gustavus- 
Adolphus  men,  still  within  sight. 

1640. 

His  Majesty  having  burnt  Scotch  paper  Declarations  'by  the  hands 
of  the  common  hangman,'  and  almost  cut  the  Scotch  Chancellor 
Loudon's  head  off",  and  being  again  resolute  to  chastise  the  rebel 
Scots  with  an  Army,  decides  on  summoning  a  Parliament  for  that 
end,  there  being  no  money  attainable  otherwise.  To  the  great  and 
glad  astonishment  of  England  ;  which,  at  one  time,  thought  never 
to  have  seen  another  Parliament  !  Oliver  Cromwell  sat  in  this 
I'arliament  for  Cambridge  ;||  recommended  by  Hampden,  say  some  ; 
not  needing  any  recommendation  in  those  Fen-countries,  think  others. 
Oliver's  Colleague  was  a  Thomas  Meautys,  Esq.  This  Parliament 
met,  13th  April,  1640  :  it  was  by  no  means  prompt  enough  with  sup- 
phes  against  the  rebel  Scots  ;  the  King  dismissed  it  in  a  huff",  5th 
May  ;  after  a  Session  of  three  weeks  :  Historians  call  it  the  Short 
Parliainent.  His  Majesty  decides  on  raising  money  and  an  Army 
'  by  other  methods  ; '  to  which  end,  Wentworth,  now  Earl  Strafford 
and  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  who  had  advised  that  course  in  the 
Council,  did  himself  subscribe  ^20,000.  Archbishop  Laud  had  long 
ago  seen  'a  cloud  rising'  against  the  Four  surplices  at  All-hallow- 

*  Nov.  1638;  Baillie's  Letters  (Edinburgh,  1841),  i.  118-176. 

t  Rusliworth,  lii.  930.  t  lb.  iii.  926-49;   Baillie,  i.  214,  184-221. 

King's  Army  'dismissed,'  24 June  (Rushworth,  iii.  946), 

Brown?  Willis,  p.  225,  ^o;  Rushworth,  iii.  iio^. 


82  BEFORE    THE   CIVIL  WAR, 

tide  ;  and  now  it  is  covering  the  whole  sky  in  a  most  dismal  and 
really  thundery-looking  manner. 

His  Majesty  by  '  other  methods/  commission  of  array,  benevolence, 
forced-loan,  or  how  he  could,  got  a  kind  of  Army  on  foot,"^  and  set 
it  marching  out  of  the  several  Counties  in  the  South  towards  the 
Scotch  Border  :  but  it  was  a  most  hopeless  Army.  The  soldiers 
called  the  affair  a  Bishops'  IVar;  they  mutinied  against  tlieir  officers, 
shot  some  of  their  officers  :  in  various  Towns  on  their  march,  if  the 
Clergyman  were  reputed  Puritan,  they  went  and  gave  him  three 
cheers;  if  of  Surplice-tendency,  they  sometimes  threw  his  furniture 
out  of  window.!  No  fighting  against  poor  Scotch  Gospellers  was  to 
be  hoped  for  from  these  men. — Meanwhile  the  Scots,  not  to  be  behind- 
hand, had  raised  a  good  Army  of  their  own  ;  and  decided  on  going 
into  England  with  it,  this  time,  '  to  present  their  grievances  to  the 
King's  Majesty.'  On  the  20th  of  August,  1640,  they  cross  the  Tweed  at 
Coldstream  ;  Montrose  wading  in  the  van  of  them  all.  They  wore 
uniform  of  hodden  grey,;|;  with  blue  caps  ;  and  each  man  had  mode- 
rate haversack  of  oatmeal  on  his  back. 

August  2%th.  The  Scots  force  their  way  across  the  Tyne,  at  New- 
burn,  some  miles  above  Newcastle  ;  the  King's  Army  making  small 
fight,  most  of  them  no  fight ;  hurrying  from  Newcastle,  and  all  town 
and  country  quarters,  towards  York  again,  where  his  Majesty 
and  Strafford  were.§  The  Bishops'  War  was  at  an  end.  The  Scots, 
striving  to  be  gentle  as  doves  in  their  behaviour,  and  publishing 
boundless  brotherly  Declarations  to  all  the  brethren  that  loved 
Christ's  Gospel  and  God's  Justice  in  England, — took  possession  of 
Newcastle  next  day  ;  took  possession  gradually  of  all  Northumberland 
and  Durham, — and  stayed  there,  in  various  towns  and  villages,  about 
a  year.  The  whole  body  of  English  Puritans  looked  upon  them  as 
their  saviours  ;  some  months  afterwards,  Bobert  Baillie  heard  the 
London  balladsingers,  on  the  streets,  singing  copiously  with  strong 
lungs,  "  Gramercy,  good  Master  Scot"  by  way  of  burden.H 

His  Majesty  and  Strafford,  in  a  fine  frenzy  at  this  turn  of  affairs, 
found  no  refuge  except  to  summon  a  '  Council  of  Peers,'  to  enter 
upon  a  '  Treaty'  with  the  Scots  ;  and  alas,  at  last,  summon  a  New 
Parliament.  Not  to  be  helped  in  any  way.  Twelve  chiefs  Peers 
of  the  summoned  '  Council '  petitioned  for  a  Parliament ;  the  City  of 
London  petitioned  for  a  Parliament,  and  would  not  lend  money 
otherwise.  A  Parliament  was  appointed  for  the  3rd  of  November 
next :— whereupon  London  cheerfully  lent  ^200,000  ;  and  the  Treaty 
with  the  Scots  at  Ripon,  ist  October,  1640,1]  by  and  by  transferred  to 
London,  went  peaceably  on  at  a  very  leisurely  pace.  The  Scotch 
Army  lay  quartered  at  Newcastle,  and  over  Northumberland  and 
Durham,  on  an  allowance  of  ^^850  a-day  ;  an  Army  indispensable  for 
Puritan  objects  ;  no  haste  in  finishing  its  Treaty.  The  English  Army 
lay  across  in  Yorkshire  ;  without  allawance  except  from  the  casualties 
of  the  King's  Exchequer  ;  in  a  dissatisfied  manner,  and  occasionally 
getting  into  'Army-Plots.' 

*  Rushvvorth,  iii.  1241. 

f  Vicar's  Parliamentary  Chronicle  fLond.  1644),  p.  20.  t  Old  Pamphlets. 

§  Rushuprtii,  lii.  1236,  occ.  y  BaiUie'b  Letters.  Ij  kasliuo'-tb    mj    -I'ls, 


A  A  n-EPISCOf'A  c  y. 


83 


This  Parliament  which  met  on  the  3rd  of  November,  1640,  has 
become  very  celebrated  in  History  by  the  name  of  the  Loii^  Parlia^ 
ment.  It  accomplished  and  suffered  very  singular  destinies  ;  suffered 
a  Pride's  Purge,  a  Cromwell's  Ejectment  ;  suffered  Reinstatements, 
Re-ejectments  ;  and  the  Riitnp  or  Fag-end  of  it  did  not  finally  vanish 
till  16th  March,  1659-60.  Oliver  Cromwell  sat  again  in  this  Parlia- 
ment for  Cambridge  Town  ;  Meautys,  his  old  Colleague,  is  now 
changed  for  '  John  Lovvry,  Esquire,'*  probably  a  more  Puritanic 
man.  The  Members  for  Cambridge  University  are  the  same  in  both 
Parliaments. 


LETTER   III. 

To  my  loving  friend^  Mr.  Willingham^  at  his  House  in  SwithirCs 
Lane:   These. 

'  London,  February,  1640. 'f 

Sir, 

I  desire  you  to  send  me  the  Reasons  of  the  Scots  to  enforce 
their  desire  of  Uniformity  in  Religion,  expressed  in  their  8th  Article ; 
I  mean  that  which  I  had  before  of  you.  I  would  peruse  it  against  we 
fall  upon  that  Debate,  which  will  be  speedily.     Yours, 

Oliver  Cromwell.| 

There  is  a  great  quantity  of  intricate  investigation  requisite  to 
date  this  small  undated  Note,  and  make  it  entirely  transparent  ! 
The  Scotch  Treaty,  begun  at  Ripon,  is  going  on,— never  ended  :  the 
agitation  about  abolishing  Bishops  has  just  begun,  in  the  House  and 
out  of  it. 

On  Friday,  nth  December,  1640,  the  Londoners  present  their 
celebrated  'Petition/  signed  by  15,000  hands,  craving  to  have 
Bishops  and  their  Ceremonies  radically  reformed.  Then  on  Saturday, 
23rd  January  1640-1,  comes  the  still  more  celebrated  'Petition  and 
Remonstrance  from  700  Ministers  of  the  Church  of  England,'§  to  the 
like  effect  ;  upon  which  Documents,  especially  upon  the  latter,  ensue 
strenuous  debatings  ;i!  ensues  a  '  Committee  of  Twenty-four  ; '  a  Bill 
to  abolish  Superstition  and  Idolatry  ;  and,  in  a  week  or  two,  a  Bill 
to  take  away  the  Bishops'  Votes  in  Parliament  :  Bills  recommended 
bv  the  said  Committee.  A  diligent  Committee,  which  heard  much 
evidence,  and  theological  debating,  from  Dr.  Burgess  and  others. 
Their  Bishops-Bill  not  without  hot  arguing,  passed  through  the 
Commons  ;  was  rejected  by  the  Lords  ;— took  effect,  however,  in  a 

'  Willis;    Rush  worth,  iv   3. 

t  The  words  within  .single  commas,  here  as  always  in  the  Text  of  Cromwell's 
Letters  are  mine,  not  his;   the  date  In  this  instance  is  conjectural  or  inferential. 

X  Harris,  p.  517.  ^  Commons  journals   ii.  72. 

11  Commons  Journals,  ii.  81  ;  8  and  9  of  February.  See  BaiUie's  Letters,  i.  30e; 
^nd  R'ishwQrth,  iv.  95  and  ij/^. 


84  BEFORE   THE  CIVIL   WAR. 

much  heavier  shape,  within  year  and  day.  Young  Sir  Ralph  Varney, 
son  of  Edmund  the  Standard-bearer,  has  preserved  very  careful 
Notes  of  the  theological  revelations  and  profound  arguments,  heard 
in  this  Committee  from  Dr.  Burgess  and  others  ;  intensely  interesting 
at  that  time  to  all  ingenuous  young  gentlemen  ;  a  mere  torpor  now  to 
all  persons. 

In  faet,  the  whole  world,  as  we  perceive,  in  this  Spring  of  1641,  is 
getting  on  fire  with  episcopal,  anti-episcopal  emotion  ;  and  the  Scotch 
Commissioners,  with  their  Desire  of  Uniformity,  are  naturally  the 
centre  of  the  latter.  Bishop  Hall,  Smectymnuus,  and  one  Mr.  Mi-Iton 
'near  St.  Bride's  Church,'  are  all  getting  their  Pamphlets  ready.— 
The  assiduous  contemporary  individual  who  collected  the  huge  stock 
of  loose  Printing  now  known  as  King's  Pamphlets  in  the  British 
Museum,  usually  writes  the  dates  on  the  title-page  of  each  ;  but  has, 
with  a  curious  infehcity,  omitted  it  in  the  case  of  Milton's  Pamphlets, 
which  accordingly  remain  undateable  except  approximately. 

The  exact  copy  of  the  Scotch  Demands  towards  a  Treaty  I  have 
not  yet  met  with,  though  doubdess  it  is  in  print  amid  the  unsorted 
Rubbish-Mountains  of  the  British  Museum.  Notices  of  it  are  to  be 
seen  in  Baillie,  also  in  Rushworth.^  The  first  Seven  Articles  relate 
to  secularities  ;  payment  of  damages  ;  punishment  of  incendiaries,  and 
so  forth  :  the  Seventh  is  the  'recalling'  of  the  King's  Proclamations 
against  the  Scots  :  'the  Eight,  anent  a  solid  peace  betwixt  the 
Nations,'  involves  this  matter  of  Uniformity  in  Religion,  and  therefore 
is  of  weightier  moment.  BaiUie  says,  '  For  the  Eighth  great  Demand 
some  days  were  spent  in  preparation.'  The  Lords  would  have  made 
no  difficulty  about  dismanthng  Berwick  and  CarHsle,  or  such  like,  but 
they  found  that  the  whole  matter  was  to  involve  the  permanent  rela- 
tions of  England,  therefore  they  delayed  ;  '  we  expect  it  this  very  day,' 
says  Baillie  (28th  February,  1640-1).  Oliver  Cromwell  also  expects 
it  this  very  day,  or  '  speedily,' — and  therefore  writes  to  Mr.  Willing- 
ham  for  a  sight  of  the  Documents  again. 

Whoever  wishes  to  trace  the  emergence,  re-emergence,  slow  am- 
biguous progress,  and  dim  issue  of  this  '  Eighth  Article,'  may  consult 
the  opaque  but  authentic  Commons  Journals,  and  strive  to  elucidate 
the  same  by  poor  old  brown  Pamphlets,  in  the  places  cited  below.f 
It  was  not  finally  voted  in  the  affirmative  till  the  middle  of  May  ;  and 
then  still  it  was  far  from  being  ended.  It  ended,  properly,  in  the  Sum- 
moning of  a  '  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines,'  To  ascertain  for  us 
how  '  the  two  Nations'  may  best  attain  to  '  Uniformity  of  Religion.' 

This  '  Mr.  Willingham  my  loving  friend,'  of  whom  I  have  found  no 
other  vestige  anywhere  in  Nature,  is  presumably  a  London  Puritan 
concerned  in  the  London  Petition  and  other  such  matters,  to  whom 
the  Member  for  Cambridge,  a  man  of  known  zeal,  good  connexion, 
and  growing  weight,  is  worth  convincing. 

Oliver  St.  John  the  Shipmoney  Lawyer,  now  Member  for  Totness, 

*  Baillie,  i.  ^gj  et  atitea  et  postea  ;  Rushvvorth,  iv.  166. 

t  Commons  Journals,  ii.  84,  85;  Diurnal  Occurrences  in  Parliajuent  (Printed 
for  William  Cooke,  London,  1641,— gften  erroneous  as  to  the  day),  10  February, 
7  Ma.rch,  15  May. 


m  THE  LONG  PARTJAMENT.  S$ 

has  lately  been  made  Solicitor-General  ;  on  the  2nd  of  February, 
1640-1,  D'Ewes  says  of  him,  'newly  created  ;'*  a  date  worth  attend- 
ing to.  Strafford's  Trial  is  coming  on  ;  to  begin  on  the  22nd  of 
March  :  Strafford  and  Laud  are  safe  in  the  Tower  long  since  ;  Finch 
and  Windebank,  and  other  Delinquents  in  high  places,  have  fled 
rapidly  beyond  seas. 


IN    THE    LONG    PARLIAMENT. 

That  little  Note,  despatched  by  a  servant  to  Swithin's  Lane  in  the 
Spring  of  1641,  and  still  saved  by  capricious  destiny  while  so  much 
else  has  been  destroyed, — is  all  of  Autographic  that  Ohver  Cromwell 
has  left  us  concerning  his  proceedings  in  the  first  three-and-twenty 
months  of  the  Long  Parliament.  Months  distinguished,  beyond  most 
others  in  History,  by  anxieties  and  endeavours,  by  hope  and  fear  and 
swift  vicissitude,  to  all  England  as  well  as  him  :  distinguished  on  his 
part  by  much  Parliamentary  activity  withal  ;  of  which,  unknown 
hitherto  in  History,  but  still  capable  of  being  known,  let  us  wait  some 
other  opportunity  of  speaking  Two  vague  appearances  of  his  in  that 
scene,  which  are  already  known  to  most  readers,  we  will  set  in  their 
right  date  and  place,  making  them  faintly  visible  at  last ;  and  there- 
with leave  this  part  of  the  subject. 

In  D'Ewes's  Manuscript  above  citedf  are  these  words,  relating  to 
Monday^  ()th  Novnnber,  1640,  the  Sixth  day  of  the  Long  Parliament  : 
*  Mr.  Cromwell  delivered  the  Petition  of  John  Lilburn,' — young  Lil- 
burn,  who  had  once  been  Prynne's  amanuensis,  among  other  things, 
and  whose  '  whipping  with  200  stripes  from  Westminster  to  the  Fleet 
Prison,'  had  already  rendered  him  conspicuous.  This  is  the  record  of 
D'Ewes.  To  which  let  us  now  annex  the  following  well-known 
passage  of  Sir  Philip  Warwick ;  and  if  the  reader  fancy  the  Speeches 
on  the  former  Saturday,;};  and  how  the  '  whole  of  this  Monday  was 
spent  in  hearing  grievances '  of  the  like  sort,  some  dim  image  of  a 
strange  old  scene  may  perhaps  rise  upon  him. 

'  The  first  time  I  ever  took  notice  of  Mr.  Cromwell,'  says  Warwick, 
was  in  the  very  beginning  of  the  Parliament  held  in  November  1640  ; 
when  I,'  Member  for  Radnor,  '  vainly,  thought  myself  a  courtly  young 
gentleman,— for  we  courtiers  valued  ourselves  much  upon  our  good 
clothes  !  I  came  into  the  House  one  morning,'  Monday  morning, 
well  clad  ;  and  perceived  a  gentleman  speaking,  whom  I  knew  not, — 
very  ordinarily  apparelled  ;  for  it  was  a  plain  cloth  suit,  which 
seemed  to  have  been  made  by  an  ill  country-tailor ;  his  linen  was 
plain,  and  not  very  clean  ;  and  I  remember  a  speck  or  two  of  blood 
upon  his  little  band,  which  was  not  much  larger  than  his  collar.  His 
hat  was  without  a  hatband.  His  stature  was  of  a  good  size  ;  his 
sword  stuck  close  to  his  side  ;  his  countenance  swoln  and  reddish, 

*  Sir  Simond  D'Ewes's  Notes  of  the  Long  Parliament  {Harleian  MSS.,  nos, 
162-6),  fol.  189  a;   p.  156  of  Transcript /^//^^  fff^. 
t  D'Ewes,  fol.  4.  X  Rushworth,  iv.  24,  &c 


86  BEFORK  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


'his  voice  sharp  and  untuneable,  and  his  eloquence  full  of  fervour. 
'  For  the  subject  matter  would  not  bear  much  of  reason;  it  bemg  on 
•behalf  of  a  servant  of  Mr.  Prynne's  who  had  dispersed  Libels;' — 
yes,  Libels.,  and  had  come  to  Palaceyard  for  it,  as  we  saw  :  '  1  sin- 
'  cerely  profess,  it   lessened   much   my  reverence  unto    that   Great 

*  Council,  for  this  gentleman  was  very  much  hearkened  unto,'^ — which 
was  strange,  seeing  he  had  no  gold  lace  to  his  coat,  nor  frills  to  his 
band  ;  and  otherwise,  to  me  in  my  poor  featherhead,  seemed  a  some- 
what unhandy  gentlemen  ! 

The  reader  may  take  what  of  these  Warwick  traits  he  can  along 
with  him,  and  also  omit  what  he  cannot  take  ;  for  though  Warwick's 
veracity  is  undoubted,  his  memory  after  many  years,  in  such  an  ele- 
ment as  his  had  been,  may  be  questioned.  The  '  band,'  we  may 
remind  our  readers,  is  a  linen  tippet,  properly  the  shirtcoUar  of 
those  days,  which,  when  the  hair  was  worn  long,  needed  to  fold 
itself  with  a  good  expanse  of  washable  linen  over  the  upperworks 
of   the  coat,  and  defend  these  and  their  velvets  from    harm.     The 

*  specks  of  blood,'  if  not  fabulous,  we,  not  without  general  sympathy, 
attribute  to  bad  razors  :  as  for  the  '  hatband,'  one  remarks  that  men 
did  not  speak  with  their  hats  07i;  and  therefore  will,  with  Sir  Philip's 
leave,  omit  that.  The  '  untuneable  voice,'  or  what  a  poor  young  gentle- 
man in  such  circumstances  would  consider  as  such,  is  very  significant 
to  us. 

Here  is  the  other  vague  appearance  ;  from  Clarendon's  Lite.t  '  He,* 
Mr.  Hyde,  afterwards  Lord  Clarendon, '  was  often  heard  to  mention 
one  private  Committee,  in  which  he  was  put  accidentally  into  the 
chair  ;  upon  an  Enclosure  which  had  been  made  of  great  wastes, 
belonging  to  the  Queen's  Manors,  without  the  consent  of  the  tenants, 
the  benefit  whereof  had  been  given  by  the  Queen  to  a  servant  of  near 
trust,  who  forLhwith  sold  the  lands  enclosed  to  the  Earl  of  Man- 
chester, Lord  Privy  Seal  ;  who  together  with  his  Son  Mandevil  were 
now  most  concerned  to  maintain  the  Enclosure  ;  against  which,  as 
well  the  inhabitants  of  other  manors,  who  claimed  Common  in  those 
wastes,  as  the  Queen's  tenants  of  the  same,  made  loud  complaints,  as 
a  great  oppression,  carried  upon  them  with  a  very  high  hand,  and 
supported  by  power. 

'  The  Committee  sat  in  the  Queen's  Court ;  and  Oliver  Cromwell 
being  one  of  them,  appeared  much  concerned  to  countenance  the 
Petitioners,  who  were  numerous  together  with  their  Witnesses  ;  the 
Lord  Mandevil  being  likewise  present  as  a  party,  and  by  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Comrhittee  sitting  covered.     Cromwell,  who  had  never 
before  been  heard  to  speak  in  the  House  of  Commons,' — at  least  not 
by  vie,  though  he  had  often  spoken,  and  was  very  well  known  there, — 
'  ordered  the  Witnesses  and  Petitioners  in  the  method  of  the  proceed- 
ing ;  and  seconded,  and  enlarged  upon  what  they  said,  with  great 
passion  ;  and  the    Witnesses  and  persons  concerned,  who  were  a 
very  rude  kind  of  people,  interrupted  the  Counsel  and  witnesses  on 
the  other  side,  with  great  clamour,  when  they  said  any  thing  that  did 
not  please  them  ;  so  that  Mr.  Hyde  (whose  office  it  was  to  oblige 
persons  of  all  sorts  to  keep  order)  was  compelled  to  use  some  sharp 
*  Warwick,  p.  247.  \  i.  78  (Oxford,  1761). 


IN   THE  LONC  PARLIAMENT.  87 

*  reproofs,  and  some  threats,  to  reduce  them  to  such  a  temper,  that  the 

*  business  might  be  quietly  heard.     Cromwell,  in  great  fury,  reproached 

*  the  Chairman  for  being  partial,  and  that  he  discountenanced  the 

*  Witnesses  by  threatening  them  :  the  other  appealed  to  the  Com- 
'  mittee  ;  which  justified  him,  and  declared,  that  he  behaved  himself 

*  as  he  ought  to  do  ;  which  more  inflamed  him,'  Cromwell,  *  who  was 
'  already  too  much  angry.  When  upon  any  mention  of  matter-of-fact, 
'  or  of  the  proceeding  before  and  at  the  Enclosure,  the  Lord  Mandevil 
'  desired  to  be  heard,  and  with  great  modesty  related  what  had  been 

*  done,  or  explained  what  had  been  said,  Mr.  Cromwell  did  answer, 

*  and  reply  upon  him  with  so  much  indecency  and  rudeness,  and  in 
'  language  so  contrary  and  offensive,  that  every  man  would  have 
'  thought,  that  as  their  natures  and  their  manners  were  as  opposite  as 
'  it  is  possible,  so  their  interest  could  never  have  been  the  same.     In 

*  the  end,  his  whole  carriage  was  so  tempestuous,  and  his  behaviour 

*  so  insolent,  that  the  Chairman  found  himself  obliged  to  reprehend 

*  him  ;  and  to  tell  him,  That  if  he '  Mr.  Cromwell  '  proceeded  in  the 

*  same  manner,  he'  Mr.    Hyde  '  would  presently  adjourn  the  Com- 

*  mittee,  and  the  next  morning  complain  to  the  House  of  him.     Which 

*  he  never  forgave  ;  and  took  all  occasions  afterwards  to  pursue  him 

*  with  the  utmost  malice  and  revenge,  to  his  death,'— not  Mr.  Hyde's, 
happily,  but  Mr.  Cromwell's,  who  at  length  did  cease  to  cherish  '  malice 
'  and  revenge'  against  Mr.  Hyde  ! 

Tracking  this  matter,  by  faint  indications,  through  various  obscure 
courses,  I  conclude  that  it  related  to  '  the  Soke  of  Somersham  '*  near 
St.  Ives  ;  and  that  the  scene  in  the  Queen's  Court  probably  occurred 
in  the  beginning  of  July  I64I.^  Cromwell  knew  this  Soke  of  Somer- 
sham near  St.  Ives  very  well ;  knew  these  poor  rustics,  and  what 
treatment  they  had  got ;  and  wished,  not  in  the  imperturbablest 
manner  it  would  seem,  to  see  justice  done  them.  Here  too,  sub- 
tracting the  due  subtrahend  from  Mr.  Hyde's  Narrative,  we  have  a 
pleasant  visuality  of  an  old  summer  afternoon  *  in  the  Queen's  Court ' 
two  hundred  years  ago. 

Cromwell's  next  Letters  present  him  to  us,  not  debating,  or  about 
to  debate,  concerning  Parliamentary  Propositions  and  Scotch  *  Eighth 
Articles,'  but  with  his  sword  drawn  to  enforce  them  ;  the  whole  King- 
dom divided  now  into  two  armed  conflicting  masses,  the  argument  to 
be  by  pike  and  bullet  henceforth. 

*  Commons  Journals,  ii.  172. 

t  Ibid.  87;  150;  172;  T92;  215;  218;  219,— the  dates  extend  from  17th. 
February  to  21st  July,  1641. 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART   II. 


TO    THE    END    OF    THE    FIRST    CIVIL    WAR. 

1 64  2- 1 646. 


91 


PRELIMINARY. 

There  is  therefore  a  great  dark  void,  from  February  1641,  to 
January  1643,  through  which  the  reader  is  to  help  himself  from  Letter 
III.  over  to  Letter  IV.,  as  he  best  may.  How  has  pacific  England, 
the  most  solid  pacific  country  in  the  world,  got  all  into  this  armed 
attitude  ;  and  decided  itself  to  argue  henceforth  by  pike  and  bullet  till 
it  get  some  solution  ?  Dryasdust,  if  there  remained  any  shame  in 
him.  ought  to  look  at  those  waggonloads  of  Printed  Volumes,  and 
blush  !  We,  in  great  haste,  offer  the  necessitous  reader  the  following 
hints  and  considerations. 

It  was  mentioned  above  that  Oliver  St.  John,  the  noted  Puritan 
Lawyer,  was  already,  in  the  end  of  January  1641,  made  Solicitor- 
General.  The  reader  may  mark  that  as  a  small  fraction  of  an  event 
shewing  itself  above  ground,  completed  ;  and  indicating  to  him  a 
grand  subterranean  attempt  on  the  part  of  King  Charles  and  the 
Puritan  Leaders,  which  unfortunately  never  could  become  a  fact  or 
event.  Charles,  in  January  last  or  earlier  (for  there  are  no  dates  dis- 
coverable but  this  of  St.  john'si,  perceiving  how  the  current  of  the 
Nation  ran,  and  what  a  humour  men  were  getting  into,  had  decided 
on  trying  to  adopt  the  Puritan  leaders,  Pym,  Hampden,  Holies  and 
others,  as  what  we  should  now  call  his  '  Ministers  :'  these  Puritan 
men,  under  the  Eail  of  Bedford  as  chief,  might  have  hoped  to  become 
what  we  should  now  call  a  '  Majesty's  Ministry,'  and  to  execute  peace- 
ably, with  their  King  presiding  over  them,  what  reforms  had  grown 
inevitable.  A  most  desirable  result,  if  a  possible  one  ;  for  of  all  men 
these  had  the  least  notion  of  revolting,  or  rebelling  against  their 
King! 

This  negotiation  had  been  entered  into,  and  entertained  as  a  possi- 
bility by  both  parties  :  so  much  is  indubitable  ;  so  much  and  nothing 
more,  except  that  it  ended  without  result*  It  would  in  our  days  be 
the  easiest  negotiation  ;  but  it  was  then  an  impossible  one.  For  it 
meant  that  the  King  should  content  himself  with  the  Name  of  King, 
and  see  measures  the  reverse  of  what  he  wished,  and  meant,  take 
effect  by  his  sanction.  Which,  in  sad  truth,  had  become  a  necessity 
for  Charles  I.  in  the  England  of  1641.  His  tendency  and  effort  has 
long  been  the  reverse  of  England's  ;  he  cannot  govern  England,  what- 
ever he  may  govern  !  And  yet  to  have  admitted  this  necessity,— alas, 
was  it  not  to  have  settled  the  whole  Quarrel,  without  the  eight-and- 
forty  years  of  fightmg,  and  confused  bickering  and  oscillation,  which 
proved  to  be   needful  first  ?     The  negotiation  dropped  ;  leaving  for 

*  Whitlocke,  Clarendon ;  seeJForster's  Statesmen,  ii.  1507. 


92  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


visible  result  only  this  appointment  of  St.  John's.  His  Majesty  on 
that  side  saw  no  course  possible  for  him. 

Accordingly  he  tried  it  in  the  opposite  direction,  which  also,  on 
failure  by  this  other,  was  very  natural  for  him.  He  entered  into  secret 
tamperings  with  the  Officers  of  the  English  Army  ;  which,  lying  now 
in  Yorkshire,  ill-paid,  defeated,  and  in  neighbourhood  of  a  Scotch 
Army  victoriously  furnished  with  850/.  a-day,  was  very  apt  for  discon- 
tent. There  arose  a  '  first  Army-Plot '  for  delivering  Strafford  from 
the  Tower ;  then  a  second  Army-Plot  for  some  equally  wild  achieve- 
ment, tending  to  deliver  Majesty  from  thraldom,  and  send  this  factious 
Parliament  about  its  business.  In  which  desperate  schemes,  though 
his  Majesty  strove  not  to  commit  himself  beyond  what  was  necessary, 
it  became  and  still  remains  indubitable  that  he  did  participate  ; — as 
indeed,  the  former  course  of  listening  to  his  Parliament  having  been 
abandoned,  this  other  of  coercing  or  awing  it  by  armed  force  was  the 
only  remaining  one. 

These  Army-Plots,  detected  one  after  another,  and  investigated  and 
commented  upon,  with  boundless  interest,  in  Parhament  and  out  of  it, 
kept  the  Summer  and  Autumn  of  1641  in  continual  alarm  and  agita- 
tion ;  taught  all  Opposition  persons,  and  a  factious  Parliament  in 
general,  what  ground  they  were  standmg  on  ; — and  in  the  factious 
Parliament,  especially,  could  not  but  awaken  the  liveliest  desire  of 
having  the  Military  Force  put  in  such  hands  as  would  be  safe  for 
them.  '  The  Lord-Lieutenants  of  Counties/  this  factious  Parliament 
conceived  an  unappeaseable  desire  of  knowing  who  these  were  to  be  : 
— this  is  what  they  mean  by  '  Power  of  the  Militia  ;'  on  which  point, 
as  his  Majesty  would  not  yield  a  jot,  his  Parliament  and  he, — the 
point  becoming  daily  more  important,  new  offences  daily  accumulating, 
and  the  split  ever  widening, — ultimately  rent  themselves  asunder,  and 
drew  swords  to  decide  it. 

Such  was  the  well-known  consummation ;  which  in  Cromwell's  next 
Letter  we  find  to  have  arrived.  Here  are  a  few  Dates  which  may 
assist  the  reader  to  grope  his  way  thither.  From  '  Mr.  Willingham 
in  Swithin's  Lane '  in  February  1641,  to  the  Royal  Standard  at  Not- 
tingham in  August  1642,  and  *  Mr.  ,  Barnard  at  Huntingdon'  in 
January  1643,  which  is  our  next  stage,  there  is  a  long  vague  road  ; 
and  the  lights  upon  it  are  mostly  a  universal  dance  of  will-o'-wisps, 
and  distracted  fire-flies  in  a  state  of  excitement, — not  good  guidance 
for  the  traveller  ! 

1641. 

Monday,  '^d  May.  Strafford's  Trial  being  ended,  but  no  sentence 
yet  given,  Mr.  Robert  Baillie,  Minister  of  Kilwmning,  who  was  here 
among  the  Scotch  Commissioners  at  present,  saw  in  Palaceyard, 
Westminster,  '  some  thousands  of  Citizens  and  Apprentices'  (Miscel- 
laneous Persons  and  City  Shopmen,  as  we  should  now  call  them),  who 
rolled  about  there  '  all  day,'  bellowing  to  every  Lord  as  he  went  in  or 
came  out,  '  with  a  loud  and  hideous  voice  : '  "  Justice  on  Strafford  I 
Justice  on  Traitors  ! "  * — which  seemed  ominous  to  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Baillie. 

*  Baillie,  i.  351. 


PRELIMINARY. 


93 


Monday  next,  loth  May,  his  Majesty  accordingly  signed  sentence 
on  Strafford  ;  who  was  executed  on  the  Wednesday  following  : — no 
help  for  it.  A  terrible  example  ;  the  one  supremely  able  man  the 
King  had-  On  the  same  Monday,  loth  May,  his  Majesty  signed 
likewise  another  Bill,  That  this  Parliament  should  not  be  dissolved 
without  its  own  consent.  A  Bill  signed  in  order  that  the  City  might 
lend  him  money  on  good  Security  of  Parliament  ;  money  being  most 
pressingly  wanted,  ior  our  couple  of  hungry  Arm.ies  Scotch  and  Eng- 
lish, and  other  necessary  occasions.  A  Bill  which  seemed  of  no 
great  consequence  except  financial  ;  but  which,  to  a  People  reverent 
of  Law,  and  never  in  the  wildest  clash  of  battle-swords  giving  up  its 
religious  respect  ibr  the  constable's  baton,  proved  of  infinite  conse- 
quence. His  Majesty's  hands  are  tied;  he  cannot  dismiss  this  Par- 
liament, as  he  has  done  the  others;— no,  not  without  its  own  con- 
sent. 

August  lofh.  Army-Plotters  having  fled  beyond  seas  ;  the  Bill 
for  Triennial  Parliaments  being  passed  ;  the  Episcopacy-Bill  being 
got  to  sleep,  and  by  the  use  of  royal  varnish  a  kind  of  composure  or 
hope  of  '^omposure  being  introduced  ;  above  all  things,  money  being 
now  borrowed  to  pay  the  Armies  and  disband  them,— his  Majesty  on 
the  loth  of  the  month*  set  out  for  Scotland.  To  hold  a  Parliament, 
and  compose  matters  there,  as  his  Majesty  gave  out.  To  see  what 
old  or  new  elements  of  malign  Royalism  could  still  be  awakened  to 
life  there,  as  the  Parliament  surmised,  who  greatly  opposed  his  going. 
— Mr.  Cromwell  got  home  to  Ely  again,  for  six  weeks,  this  autumn  ; 
there  being  a  recess  from  9th  September  when  the  business  was  got 
gathered  up,  till  20th  October  when  his  Majesty  v.^as  expected  back. 
An  Interim  Committee,  and  Pym  from  his  '  Lodging  at  Chelsea,'  t 
managed  what  of  indispensable  might  turn  up. 

November  \st.  News  came  to  London,  to  the  reassembled  Parlia- 
ment,;]:  that  an  Irish  Rebellion,  already  grown  to  be  an  Irish  Massacre, 
had  broken  out  An  Irish  Catholic  imitation  of  the  late  Scotch  Pres- 
byterian achievements  in  the  way  of  'religious  liberty  ; ' — one  of  the 
best  models,  and  one  of  the  worst  imitations  ever  seen  in  this  world. 
Erasmus's  Ape,  observing  Erasmus  shave  himself,  never  doubted  but 
it  too  could  shave.  One  knows  what  a  hand  the  creature  made  of 
itself,  before  the  edgetool  could  be  wrenched  from  it  again  !  As  this 
poor  Irish  Rebellion  unfortunately  began  in  lies  and  bluster,  and  pro- 
ceeded in  lies  and  bluster,  hoping  to  make  itself  good  that  way,  the 
ringleaders  had  started  by  pretending  or  even  forging  some  warrant 
from  the  King  ;  which  brought  much  undeserved  suspicion  on  his 
Majesty,  and  greatly  complicated  his  affairs  here  for  a  long  while. 

November  22d.  The  Irish  Rebellion  blazing  up  more  and  more 
into  an  Irish  Massacre,  to  the  terror  and  horror  of  all  Anti-papist 
men  ;  and  in  England,  or  even  in  Scotland,  except  by  the  Liberal 
use  of  varnish^  nothing  yet  being  satisfactorily  mended,  nay  all 
things  hanging  now,  as  it  seemed,  in  double  and  treble  jeopardy — the 
Commons  had  decided  on  a  '  Grand  Petition  and  Remonstrance,'  to 
set  forth  what  their  griefs  and  necessities  really  were,  and  would  re- 

*  Wharton's  Laud,  p.  62.         f  His  Report,  Commons  Journals,  ii.  289. 
J  Laud,  6a;    Commons  Journals,  indie. 


94  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


quire  to  have  done  for  them.  The  Debate  upon  it,  very  celebrated 
in  those  times,  came  on  this  day,  Monday,  22d  November."^  The 
longest  Debate  ever  yet  known  in  Parliament  ;  and  the  stormiest, — 
nay,  had  it  not  been  for  Mr.  Hampden's  soft  management,  '  we  had 
like  to  have  sheathed  our  swords  in  each  other's  bowels,'  says  War- 
wick ;  which  I  find  otherwise  to  be  true.  The  Remonstrance  passed 
by  a  small  majority.  It  can  be  read  still  in  Rushworth,t  drawn  up  in 
precise  business  order  ;  the  whole  206  Articles  of  it, — every  line  of 
which  once  thrilled  electrically  into  all  men's  hearts,  as  torpid  as  it 
has  now  grown.  '  The  chimes  of  Margaret's  were  striking  two  in  tho 
'  morning  when  we  came  out' — It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Oliver, 
'coming  down  stairs,'  is  reported  to  have  said.  He  would  have  sold 
all  and  gone  to  New  England,  had  the  Remonstrance  not  passed  •,% — 
a  vague  report,  gathered  over  dining-tables  long  after,  to  which  the 
reader  need  not  pay  more  heed  than  it  merits.  His  Majesty  returned 
from  Scotland  on  the  Thursday  following ;  and  had  from  the  City  a 
thrice-glorious  Civic  Entertainment.  § 

December  loth.  The  Episcopal  business,  attempted  last  Spring 
in  vain,  has  revived  in  December,  kindled  into  life  by  the  Re- 
monstrance ;  and  is  raging  more  fiercely  than  ever ;  crowds  of 
Citizens  petitioning.  Corporation  'going  in  sixty  coaches'  to  petition  || 
the  Apprentices,  or  City  Shopmen,  and  miscellaneous  persons, 
petitioning  : — Bishops  'much  insulted'  in  Palaceyard,  as  they  go  in 
or  out.  Whereupon  hasty  Welsh  WiUiams,  Archbishop  of  York,  once 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  he  with  Eleven  too  hasty  Bishops,  Smectymnuus 
Hall  being  one  of  them,  give  in  a  Protest,  on  this  loth  of  December, If 
That  they  cannot  get  to  their  place  in  Parliament ;  that  all  shall  be 
null  and  void  till  they  do  get  there.  A  rash  step  ;  for  v^hich,  on  the 
30th  of  the  same  month,  they  are,  by  the  Commons,  voted  guilty  of 
Treason  ;  and  '  in  a  cold  evening,'  with  small  ceremony,  are  bundled, 
the  whole  dozen  of  them,  into  the  Tower.  For  there  is  again  rioting, 
again  are  cries  '  loud  and  hideous  ; ' — Colonel  Lunsford,  a  truculent 
one-eyed  man,  having  'drawn  his  sword'  upon  the  Apprentices  in 
Westminster  Hall,  and  truculently  slashed  some  of  them  ;  who  of 
course  responded  in  a  loud  and  hideous  manner,  by  tongue,  by  fist, 
and  singlestick  ;  nay,  on  the  morrow,  28th  December,"^*  they  came 
marching  many  thousands  strong,  with  sword  and  pistol,  out  of  the 
City,  "  Slash  us  now  !  while  we  wait  on  the  Honourable  House  for  an 
answer  to  our  Petition  I  " — and  insulted  his  Majesty's  Guard  at 
Whitehall.  What  a  Christmas  of  that  old  London,  of  that  old  Year  ! 
On  the  6th  of  February  following,  Episcopacy  will  be  voted  down,  with 
blaze  of  '  bonfires  '  and  '  ringing '  of  all  the  bells, — very  audible  to 
poor  old  Dr.  Laud  tf  over  in  the  Tower  yonder. 

1642. 

January  \th.     His  Majesty  seeing  these  extremities  arrive,    and 

♦  Commons  Journals,  indie;  D'Ewes's  MSS.  f.  179  b. 

t  iv.  438-51  ;  see  also  436-7.  %  Clarendon. 

§  Rushworth,  iv.  429.  ||  Vicars,  p.  56. 

^   Rushworth,  iv.  467.  **  Rushworth,  iv.  464. 

If  W  harton's  Laud,  p.  62  ;  see  also  p.  65. 


I'RELIMINARY.  95 


such  a  conflagration  begin  to  blaze,  thought  now  the  time  had  come 
for  snatching  the  main  Hvecoals  away,  and  so  quenching  the  same. 
Such  coals  of  strife  he  counts  to  the  number  of  Five  in  the  Commons 
House,  and  One  in  the  Lords  :  Pym,  Hampden,  Hasehig,  with  Holies 
and  Strode  (who  held  down  the  Speaker  fourteen  years  ago),  these  are 
the  Five  Commons ;  Lord  Kimbolton,  better  known  to  us  as  Man- 
devil,  Olivers  friend,  of  the  Soke  of  Somersham,'  and  Oueen's-Court 
Committee,  he  is  the  Lord.  His  Majesty  flatters  himself  he  has 
gathered  evidence  concerning  these  individual  firebrands.  That  they 
'  in\  ited  the  Scots  to  invade  us '  in  1640:  he  sends  on  Monday  3rd 
January,*  to  demand  that  they  be  given  up  to  him  as  Traitors. 
Deliberate,  slow,  and  as  it  were  evasive  reply.  Whereupon,  on  the 
morrow,  he  rides  down  to  St.  Stephen's  himself,  with  an  armed  very 
miscellaneous  force,  of  500  or  of  300  truculent  braggadocio  persons  at 
his  bnck  ;  enters  the  House  of  Commons,  the  truculent  persons  looking 
in  after  him  from  the  lobby, — with  intent  to  seize  the  said  Five  Mem- 
bers, five  principal  hot  coals  :  and  trample  ihent  out,  for  ore  thing. 
It  was  the  fatallest  step  this  poor  King  ever  took.  The  Five  Members, 
timefully  warned,  were  gone  into  the  City  ;  the  whole  Parliament  re- 
moved itself  into  the  City,  *  to  be  safe  from  armed  violence.'  From 
London  City,  and  from  all  England,  rose  one  loud  voice  of  lamenta- 
tion, condemnation  !  Clean  against  law  !  Paint  an  inch  thick, 
there  is,  was,  or  can  be,  no  shadow  of  law  in  this.  Will  you  grant  us 
the  Militia  now ;  we  seem  to  need  it  now  ! — His  Majesty's  subsequent 
stages  may  be  dated  with  more  brevity. 

January  \oth.  The  King  with  his  Court  quits  Whitehall ;  the  Five 
Members  and  Parliament  purposing  to  return  tomorrow,  with  the 
whole  City  in  arms  round  them.t  He  left  Whitehall  ;  never  saw  it 
again  till  he  came  to  lay  down  his  head  there. 

March  c^th.  The  King  has  sent  away  his  Queen  from  Dover,  'to  be  in 
a  place  of  safety,' — and  also  to  pawn  the  Crown-jewels  in  Holland,  and 
get  him  arms.  He  returns  Northward  again,  avoiding  London.  Many 
messages  between  the  Houses  of  Parliament  and  him  :  "  Will  your 
Majesty  grant  us  Power  of  the  Militia  ;  accept  this  hst  of  Lord- 
Lieutenants  ?"  On  the  9th  of  March,  still  advancing  Northward 
without  affirmative  response,  he  has  got  to  Newmarket  ;  where 
another  Message  overtakes  him,  earnestly  urges  itself  upon  him  : 
Could  not  your  Majesty  please  to  grant  us  Power  of  the  Mihtia  for  a 
limited  time  ?  "  No,  by  God  ! "  answers  his  Majesty,  "  not  for  an 
hour!''+— On  the  19th  of  March  he  is  at  York;  where  his  Hull 
Magazine,  gathered  for  serviceagainst  the  Scots,  is  lying  near  ;  where 
a  great  Earl  of  Newcastle,  and  other  Northern  potentates,  will  help 
him  ;  where  at  least  London  and  its  Puritanism,  now  grown  so  fierce, 
is  far  off. 

There  we  will  leave  him  ;  attempting  Hull  Magazine,  in  vain  ; 
exchanging  messages  with  his  Parliament ;  messages,  missives, 
printed  and  written  Papers  without  limit  : — Law-pleadings  of  both 
parties  before  the  great  tribunal  of  the  English  Nation,  each  party 
Striving  to  prove  itself  right,  and  within  the  verge  o,"  Law  :  preserved 

*  Commons  Journals,  ii.  367. 
Vicars,  p.  64.  If  RusLwoith,  iv.  533. 


96  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


still  in  acres  of  typographj-,  once  thrillingly  alive  in  every  fibre  of 
them  ;  now  a  mere  torpor,  readable  by  few  creatures,  not  remember- 
able  by  any.  It  is  too  clear  his  Majesty  will  have  to  get  himself  an 
army,  by  Commission  of  Array,  by  subscriptions  of  loyal  plate, 
pawning  of  crown-jewels,  or  how  he  can.  The  Parliament  by  all 
methods  is  endeavouring  to  do  the  like.  London  subscribed  '  Horses 
and  Plate,'  every  kind  of  plate,  even  to  women's  thimbles,  to  an  un- 
heard amount  ;*  and  when  it  came  to  actual  enlisting,  in  London 
alone  there  were  '  Four  thousand  enlisted  in  a  day.'t  The  reader 
may  mediate  that  one  fact.  Royal  messages,  Parliamentary  messages  ; 
acres  of  typography  thrillingly  alive  in  every  fibre  of  them, — these  go 
on  slowly  abating,  and  mihtary  preparations  go  on  steadily  increasing 
till  the  23d  of  October  next.  The  King's  'Commission  of  Array  for 
Leicestershire'  came  out  on  the  12th  of  June,  commissions  for  other 
counties  following  as  convenient  ;  the  Parliament's  *  Ordinance  for 
the  Militia,'  rising  cautiously  pulse  after  pulse  towards  clear  emergence, 
had  attained  completion  the  week  before.;]:  The  question  puts  itself 
to  e\  sry  English  soul.  Which  of  these  will  you  obey  } — and  in  all 
quarters  of  English  ground,  with  swords  getting  out  of  their  scabbards, 
and  yet  the  constable's  baton  still  struggling  to  rule  supreme,  there  is 
a  most  confused  solution  of  it  going  on. 

Of  Oliver  in  these  months  we  find  the  following  things  noted  ; 
which  the  imaginative  reader  is  to  spread  out  into  significance  for 
himself  the  best  he  can. 

February  jth.  '  Mr.  Cromwell,'  among  others,  *  ofifer  to  lend  Three 
^hundred  Pounds  for  the  service  of  the  Commonwealth, '§ — towards 
reducing  the  Irish  Rebellion,  and  relieving  the  afflicted  Protestants 
there,  or  here.  Rushworth,  copying  a  List  of  such  subscribers,  of 
date  9th  April  1642,  has  Cromwell's  name  written  down  for  *  5oo/.,'|j 
—  seemingly  the  same  transaction  ;  Mr.  Cromwell  having  now  mended 
his  offer  ;  or  else  Mr.  Rushworth,  who  uses  the  arithmetical  cipher  in 
this  place,  having  misprinted.  Hampden's  subscription  there  is 
1,000/.  In  Mr.  Cromwell  it  is  clear  there  is  no  backwardness,  far 
from  that  ;  his  activity  in  these  months  notably  increases.  In  the 
DFwes  MSSH  he  appears  and  reappears  ;  suggesting  this  and  the 
other  practical  step,  on  behalf  of  Ireland  oftenest ;  in  all  ways 
zealously  urging  the  work. 

July  1 5M.  '  Mr.  Cromwell  moved  that  we  might  make  an  order  to 
'  allow  the  Townsmen  of  Cambridge  to  raise  two  Companies  of 
'  Volunteers  and  to  appoint  Captains  over  them.'**  On  which  same 
day,  15th  July,  the  Commons  Clerk  writes  these  words  :  'Whereas 
'  Mr.  Cromwell  hath  sent  down  arms  into  the  County  of  Cambridge, 
'  for  the  defence  of  that  County,  it  is  this  day  ordered,'tt — that  he  shall 
have  the  '  /,  100'  expended  on  that  service,  repaid  him  by  and  by.  Is 
Mr.  Cromwell  aware  that  there  lies  a  colour  of  high  treason  in  all  this; 

*  Vicars,  pp.  g-',  109;  see  Commons  Journals,  lothjune,  1642. 

f  Wood  s  Athenas,  iii.  193. 

t  Husbands  ihe  Printers  First  Collection  (T.ondon,  1643),  pp.  346,  331, 

§  Commons  Journals,  ii.  408,  ||  Rushworth,  iv.  564. 

•|1   February— July  1642. 

**  P  Ewes's  MSS.  f.  6^8-661.  "W  Commons  Journals,  ii.  6'j^. 


PRELIM  IN  A  RY.  97 


risk  not  of  one's  purse  only,  but  of  one's  head  ?     Mr.  Cromwell  is 
aware  of  it,  and  pauses  not.     The  next  entry  is  still  stranger. 

Atigust  i^th.  *Mr.  Cromwell  in  Cambridgeshire  has  seized  the 
'  Magazine  in  the  Castle  at  Cambridge  ;  and  hath  hindered  the  carry- 
'  ing  of  the  Plate  from  that  University  ;  which,  as  some  report,  was 
'  to  the  value  of  ^20,000  or  thereabouts.'"^  So  does  Sir  Philip  Staple- 
ton,  member  for  Aldborough,  member  also  of  our  new  '  Committee 
for  Defence  of  the  Kingdom,'  report  this  day.  For  which  let  Mr. 
Cromwell  have  indemnity.t — Mr.  Cromwell  has  gone  down  into  Cam- 
bridgeshire in  person,  since  they  began  to  train  there,  and  assumed 
the  chief  management, — to  some  effect,  it  would  appear. 

The  like  was  going  on  in  all  shires  of  England ;  wherever  the  Par- 
liament had  a  zealous  member,  it  sent  him  down  to  his  shire  in  these 
critical  months,  to  take  what  management  he  could  or  durst.  The 
most  confused  months  England  ever  saw.  In  every  shire,  in  every 
parish  ;  in  courthouses,  alehouses,  churches,  markets,  wheresoever 
men  were  gathered  together,  England,  with  sorrowful  confusion  in 
every  fibre,  is  tearing  itself  into  hostile  halves,  to  carry  on  the  voting 
by  pike  and  bullet  henceforth. 

Brevity  is  very  urgent  on  us,  nevertheless  we  must  give  this  other 
extract.  Bramston  the  Shipmoney  Judge,  in  trouble  with  the  Parlia- 
ment and  sequestered  from  his  place,  is  now  likely  to  get  into  trouble 
with  the  King,  who  in  the  last  days  of  July  has  ordered  him  to  come 
to  York  on  business  of  importance.  Judge  Bramston  sends  his  two 
sons,  John  and  Frank,  fresh  young  men,  to  negotiate  some  excuse. 
They  ride  to  York  in  three  days  ;  stay  a  day  at  York  with  his 
Majesty  ;  then  return^  '  on  the  same  horses,'  in  three  days, — to 
Skreens  in  Essex  ;  which  was  good  riding.  John,  one  of  them,  has 
left  a  most  watery  incoherent  Autobiography,  now  printed,  but  not 
edited,  nor  worth  editing,  except  by  Jire  to  ninety-nine  hundredths  of 
it  ;  very  distracting  ;  in  which,  however,  there  is  this  notable  sentence; 
date  about  the  middle  of  August,  not  discoverable  to  a  day.  Having 
been  at  York,  and  riding  back  on  the  same  horses  in  three  days  : 

'In  our  return  on  Sunday,  near  Huntingdon,  between  that  and 
*  Cambridge,  certain  musketeers  start  out  of  the  corn,  and  command 
'  us  to  stand  ;  telling  us  we  must  be  searched,  and  to  that  end  must  go 
'  before  Mr.  Cromwell,  and  give  account  from  whence  we  came  and 
'whither  we  were  going.  I  asked.  Where  Mr.  Cromwell  was?  A 
'  soldier  told  us.  He  was  four  miles  off.  I  said.  It  was  unreasonable 
'  to  carry  us  out  of  our  way  ;  If  Mr.  Cromwell  had  been  there,  I 
'  should  have  wiUingly  given  him  all  the  satisfaction  he  could  desire  ; 
'  — and  putting  my  hand  into  my  pocket,  I  gave  one, of  them  Twelve- 
pence,  who  said  we  might  pass.  By  this  I  saw  plainly  it  would  not 
'  be  possible  for  my  Father  to  get  to  the  King  with  his  coach  ;  '^-r 
neither  did  he  go  at  all,  but  stayed  at  home  till  he  died. 

September  \\th.  Here  is  a  new  phasis  of  the  business.  In  a  List 
of  the  Army  under  the  command  of  the  '  Earl  of  Essex,'§  we  find  that 

*  Commons  Journals,  ii.  720,  f  Ibid.  726. 

X  Autobiography  of  Sir  John  Bramston,  Knight  (Camden  Society,  1845),  p.  86. 

§  King's  Pamphlets,  small  Ato,  no.  7^. 

VOL.  I. 


98  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

Robert  Earl  of  Essex  is  *  Lord  General  for  King  ami  Parliament '  (to 
deliver  the  poor  beloved  King  from  traitors,  who  have  misled  him, 
and  clouded  his  fine  understanding,  and  rendered  him  as  it  were  a 
beloved  Parent  fallen  insane)  ;  that  Robert  Earl  of  Essex,  we  say,  is 
Lord  General  for  King  and  Parliament ;  that  William  the  new  Earl 
of  Bedford  is  General  of  the  Horse,  and  has,  or  is  every  hour  getting 
to  have,  '  seventy-five  troops  of  60  men  each  ; '  in  every  troop  a 
Captain,  a  Lieutenant,  a  Cornet  and  Quartermaster,  whose  names  are 
all  given.  In  Troop  Sixty-Sev.  7t,  the  Captain  is  *  Oliver  Cromwell,' 
— honourable  member  for  Cambridge  ;  many  honourable  members 
having  now  taken  arms  ;  Mr.  Hampden,  for  example,  having  become 
Colonel  Hampden, — busy  drilling  his  men  in  Chalgrove  Field  at  this 
very  time.  But  moreover,  in  Troop  Eight  of  Earl  Bedford's  Horse, 
we  find  another  '  Oliver  Cromwell,  Cornet ;  '—and  with  real  thankful- 
ness for  this  poor  flint-spark  in  the  great  darkness,  recognise  him  for 
our  honourable  member's  Son.  His  eldest  Son  Oliver,*  now  a  stout 
young  man  of  twenty.  "  Thou  too,  Boy  Oliver,  thou  art  fit  to  swing 
"  a  sword.  If  there  ever  was  a  battle  worth  fighting,  and  to  be  called 
"  God's  battle,  it  is  this  ;  thou  too  wilt  come  !  "  How  a  staid,  most 
pacific,  solid  Farmer  of  three-and-forty  decides  on  girding  himself 
with  warlike  iron,  and  fighting,  he  and  his,  against  principalities  and 
powers,  let  readers  who  have  formed  any  notion  of  this  man  conceive 
for  themselves. 

On  Sunday,  2T,rd  October,  was  Edgehill  Battle,  called  also  Keinton 
Fight,  near  Keinton  on  the  south  edge  of  Warwickshire.  In  which 
Battle  Captain  Cromwell  was  present,  and  did  his  duty,  let  angry 
Denzil  say  what  he  will.f  The  Fight  was  indecisive  ;  victory  claimed 
by  both  sides.  Captain  Cromwell  told  Cousin  Hampden,  They  never 
would  get  on  with  a  set  of  poor  tapsters  and  town  apprentice-people 
fighting  against  men  of  honour.  To  cope  with  men  of  honour  they 
must  have  men  of  religion.  '  Mr.  Hampden  answered  me,  It  was  a 
*  good  notion,  if  it  could  be  executed.'  Oliver  himself  set  about  execut- 
ing a  bit  of  it,  his  share  of  it,  by  and  by. 

'  We  all  thought  one  battle  would  decide  it,'  says  Richard  Baxter  ;\ 
— and  we  were  all  much  mistaken  !  This  winter  there  arise  among 
certain  Counties  '  Associations  '  for  mutual  defence,  against  Royalism 
and  plunierous  Rupertism  ;  a  measure  cherished  by  the  Parliament, 
condemned  as  treasonable  by  the  King.  Of  which  'Associations,' 
countable  to  the  number  of  five  or  six,  we  name  only  one,  that  of 
Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Essex,  Cambridge,  Herts  ;  with  Lord  Gray  of  Wark 
for  Commander  ;  where,  and  under  whom,  Oliver  was  now  serving. 
This  'Eastern  Associations'  is  alone  worth  naming.  All  the  other 
Associations,  no  man  of  emphasis  being  in  the  midst  of  them,  fell  in 
few  months  to  pieces  ;  only  this  of  CromwelTs  subsisted,  enlarged 
itself,  grew  famous  ; — and  indeed  kept  its  own  borders  clear  of  inva- 
sion during  the  whole  course  of  the  War.  Oliver,  in  the  beginning  of 
1643,  is  serving  there,  under  the  Lord  Gray  of  Wark.  Besides  his 
military  duties,  Oliver,  as  natural,  was  nominated  of  the  Committee 

*  See  p.  56. 

+  Vicars,  p.  198 ;  Denzil  Holles's  Memoirs  (in  Mazeres's  Tracts,  vol.  i.). 

J  Life  (London,  1696),  Part  i.  p.  43. 


HUNTINGDON.  99 


for  Cambridgeshire  in  this  Association  ;  he  is  also  of  the  Committee 
for  Huntingdonshire,  which  as  yet  belongs  to  another  '  Association.' 
Member  for  the  Committee  of  Huntingdonshire  ;  to  which  also  has 
been  nominated  a  '  Robert  Barnard,  Esquire/*— who,  however,  does 
not  sit,  as  I  have  reason  to  surmise  ! 


LETTER   IV. 

The  reader  recollects  Mr.  Robert  Barnard,  how,  in  1630,  he  got  a 
Commission  of  the  Peace  for  Huntingdon,  along  with  '  Dr.  Beard  and 
Mr.  Oliver  Cromwell,'  to  be  fellow  Justices  there.  Probably  they 
never  sat  much  together,  as  OHver  went  to  St.  Ives  soon  after,  and 
the  two  men  were  of  opposite  politics,  which  in  those  times  meant 
opposite  religions.  But  here  in  twelve  years  space  is  a  change  of 
many  things  ! 

To  my  assured  friend,  Robert  Barnard,  Esquire; 
Present  these. 

'  Huntingdon/  23rcl  January,  1642. 

Mr.  Barnard. 

It's  most  true  my  Lieutenant,  with  some  other  soldiers  of  my 
troop  were  at  your  House.  I  dealt  '  so  '  freely  '  as  '  to  inquire  after 
you  ;  the  reason  was,  I  had  heard  you  reported  active  against  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Parliament,  and  for  those  that  disturb  the  peace  of  this 
Country  and  the  Kingdom,— 7C'zV/?  those  of  this  Country  who  have 
had  meetings  not  a  few,  to  intents  and  purposes  too  too  full  of  sus- 
pect.f 

It's  true.  Sir,  I  know  you  have  been  wary  in  your  carriages  :  be 
not  too  confident  thereof.  Subtility  may  deceive  you  ;  integrity  never 
will.  With  my  heart  I  shall  desire  that  your  judgment  may  alter, 
and  your  practice.  I  come  only  to  hinder  men  from  increasing  the 
rent, — from  doing  hurt ;  but  not  to  hurt  any  man  :  nor  shall  I  you  ;  I 
hope  you  will  give  me  no  cause.  If  you  do,  1  must  be  pardoned 
what  my  relation  to  the  Public  calls  for. 

If  your  good  parts  be  disposed  that  way,  know  me  for  your  ser- 
vant, 

Oliver  Cromwell 

Be  assured  fair  words  from  me  shall  neither  deceive  you  of  your 
houses  nor  of  your  liberty.^; 

My  Copy,  two  Copies,  of  this  Letter  I  owe  to  kind  friends,  who 
have  carefully  transcribed  it  from  the  Original  at  Lord  'Gosford's. 

*  Husbands,  i.  892;  see  for  the  other  particulars,  ii.  183,  327,  804,  809  ;  Com- 
mons Journals,  &c. 

t  Lounlry  is  equiva'ent  to  county  or  reoioti  ;  ioo-too,  in  those  days,  means  little 
more  than  too  ;  siisp  ct  is  suspeciaHlity,  almost  as  proper  as  our  modern  stupicign. 

■^  Original  in  the  Possession  of  Lord  Gosford  at  Worlingham  in  Suffolk. 

E  2 


loo  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

The  present  Lady  Gosford  is  '  grand-daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Barnard,' 
to  whose  Mneal  ancestor  the  Letter  is  addressed.  The  date  of  tin^.e 
is  given  ;  there  never  was  any  date  or  address  of  place, — which  pro- 
bably means  that  it  was  written  in  Huntingdon  and  addressed  to 
Huntingdon,  where  Robert  Barnard,  who  became  Recorder  of  the 
place,  is  known  to  have  resided.  Oliver,  in  the  month  of  January 
1642-3,  is  present  in  the  Fen-country,  and  all  over  the  Eastern 
Association,  with  his  troop  or  troops  ;  looking  after  disaffected  per- 
sons ;  ready  to  disperse  royalist  assemblages,  to  seize  royalist  plate, 
to  keep  down  disturbance,  and  care  in  every  way  that  the  Parliament 
Cause  suffer  no  damage.  A  Lieutenant  and  party  have  gone  to  take 
some  survey  of  Robert  Barnard,  Esquire  ;  Robert  Barnard,  standing 
on  the  right  of  injured  innocence,  innocei.t  till  he  be  proved  guilty, 
protests  ;  Oliver  responds  as  here,  in  a  very  characteristic  way. 

It  was  precisely  in  these  weeks,  that  Oliver  from  Captain  became 
Colonel  :  Colonel  of  a  regiment  of  horse,  raised  on  his  own  prin- 
ciples so  far  as  might  be,  in  that  '  Eastern  Association  ;'  and  is  hence- 
forth knowji  in  the  Newspapers  as  Colonel  Cromwell.  Whether  on 
this  23rd  of  January,  he  was  still  Captain,  or  had  ceased  to  be  so,  no 
extant  accessible  record  apprises  us.  On  the  2nd  March  1642-3,1 
have  found  him  named  as  *  Col.  Cromwell,'*  and  hitherto  not  earlier. 
He  is  getting  'men  of  religion' to  serve  in  this  cause,— or  at  least 
would  fain  get  such  if  he  might. 


LETTER  V. 

The  address  of  this  Letter  is  lost ;  but  the  label  of  the  address 
remains,  from  which  it  can  be  with  certainty  enough  restored.  Un- 
happily the  date  too  is  missing,  which  can  only  be  restored  by  probable 
conjecture.  We  are  in  the  Eastern  Association  still,  and  indeed  for 
above  a  year  to  come. 

'  To  my  assured  friend,  Thomas  Knyvett  Esquire,  at  his  House  of 
Ashwellthorpc :   These.' 

"January,  1642,  Norfolk.' 

Sir, 

I  cannot  pretend  any  interest  in  you  for  anything  I  have  done, 
nor  ask  any  favour  for  any  service  I  may  do  you.  But  because  I  am 
conscious  to  myself  of  a  readiness  to  serve  any  gentleman  in  all  pos- 
sible civilities,  I  am  bold  to  be  beforehand  with  you  to  ask  your 
favour  on  behalf  of  your  honest  poor  neighbours  of  Hapton,  who,  as  I 
am  informed,  are  in  some  trouble,  and  are  likely  to  be  put  to  more, 
by  one  Robert  Browne  your  Tenant,  who,  not  well  pleased  with  the 
way  of  these  men,  seeks  their  disquiet  all  he  may. 

Truly  nothing  moves  me  to  desire  this,  more  than  the  pity  I  bear 
them  in  respect  of  their  honesties,  and  the  trouble  1  hear  they  are 
*  Cromwelliana,  p.  2. 


LOWESTOFF^.  tot 

likely  to  suffer  for  their  consciences,  and  humour  as  the  world  in- 
terprets it.  I  am  not  ashamed  to  solicit  for  such  as  are  anywhere 
under  pressure  of  this  kind  ;  doing  even  as  I  would  be  done  by.  Sir, 
this  is  a  quarrelsome  age  ;  and  the  anger  seems  to  me  to  be  the 
worse,  where  the  ground  is  difference  of  opinion  ; — which  to  cure,  to 
hurt  men  in  their  houses,  persons  or  estates,  will  not  be  found  an  apt 
remedy.  Sir,  it  will  not  repent  you  to  protect  those  poor  men  of 
Hapto'n  from  injury  and  oppression  :  which  that  you  would  is  the 
effect  of  this  Letter.  Sir,  you  will  not  want  the  grateful  acknowledg- 
ment, nor  utmost  endeavours  of  requital  from 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.'^^ 

Knyvett  was  the  ancestor  of   Lord  Bemers.     '  The  Knyvetts  of 

*  Knivetts  of  Ashwellthorpe  are  an  old  family  of  large  property  in 

*  Norfolk  ; '  their  seat,  Ashwellthorpe,  is  still  one  of  Lord  Berners's. 

Hapton  is  a  Parish  and  Hamlet  some  seven  or  eight  miles  south  o\ 
Norwich,  in  the  Hundi:ed  of  Depwade  ;  it  is  within  a  mile  or  two  of 
this  Ashwellthorpe  ;  which  was  Knyvett's  residence  at  that  time. 
What  '  Robert  Browne  your  Tenant '  had  in  hand  ot  view  against 
these  poor  Parishioners  of  Hapton  must,  as  the  adjoining  circum- 
stances are  all  obliterated,  remain  matter  of  conjecture  only.  He 
dimly  shews  himself  in  this  Letter  as  an  Unfriend  to  Puritans,  who 
however  have  now  found  a  Friend.  They  apply  to  Oliver ;  who  is  in 
those  parts,  on  Association  business,  with  a  company  of  devout 
troopers.  This  Letter,  full  of  civility  and  backed  by  devout  horse- 
men with  petronels,  would  doubtless  procure  them  relief.  We  can 
fancy  the  date  of  this  Letter  to  be,  both  in  time  and  place^  adjacent 
to  that  of  the  former.  We  shall  fall  in  with  Mr.  Knyvett,  in  still 
graver  circumstances,  speedily  again. 


LOWESTOFF. 

In  the  end  of  February,  1642-3,  *  Colonel'  Cromwell  is  at  Cam- 
bridge ;  '  great  forces  from  Essex,  Norfolk  and  Suffolk '  having 
joined  him,  and  more  still  coming  in.f  There  has  been  much  alarm 
and  running  to  and  fro,  over  all  those  counties.  Lord  Capel  hanging 
over  them  with  an  evident  intent  to  plunder  Cambridge,  generally  to 
plunder  and  ravage  in  this  region  ;  as  Prince  Rupert  has  cruelly  done 
in  Gloucestershire,  and  is  now  cruelly  doing  in  Wilts  and  Hants 
Colonel  Cromwell,  the  soul  of  the  whole  business,  must  have  had 
some  bestirring  of  himself ;  some  swift  riding  and  resolving,  now 
here,   now  there.     Some  '  12,000  men,'  however,  or  say  even   '  800 

*  Letter  once  in  the  possession  of  Lord  Berners,  at  Didlington  in  Norfolk: 
copied  by  or  for  Mr.  Dawson  Turner  of  Yarmouth,  and  by  him  communicated 
tome  :  the  original,  it  seems,  is  now  lost  or  mislaid.  There  never  was  any  date 
of  time  or  place  on  the  copy,  nor  is  the  address  given  as  verbally  exact,  but  only 
as  substantially  so. 

t  Cromwelliana,  p.  2  ;  Vicars,  p,  273. 


102  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

men  '  (for  rumour  runs  very  high  !)  from  the  Associated  Counties,  are 
now  at  last  got  together  about  Cambridge  ;  and  Lord  Capel  has  seen 
good  to  vanish  again. "^ 

On  Monday  \-ith  March,  1642-3,  Thomas  Conisby,  Esquire,  High 
Sheriff  of  Herts,  appears  visibly  before  the  House  of  Commons,  to 
give  account  of  a  certain  'Pretended  Commission  of  Array,'  which  he 
had  been  attempting  to  execute  one  Market-day  not  long  since  at  St. 
Albans  in  that  county. t  Such  King's  Writ,  or  Pretended  Commission 
of  Array,  the  said  High  Sheriff  had,  with  a  great  Posse  Comitatus 
round  him,  been  executing  one  Market-day  at  St.  Albans  i  date  irre- 
coverably lost),— when  Cromwell's  dragoons  dashed  suddenly  in  upon 
him  ;  laid  him  fast,— not  without  difficulty  •  he  was  first  seized  by  'six 
troopers,'  but  rescued  by  his  royalist  multitude;  then  'twenty 
troopers '  again  seized  him;  'barricadoed  the  inn-yard  ; 'J  conveyed 
him  off  to  London  to  give  what  account  of  the  matter  he  could. 
Here  he  is  giving  account  of  it,— a  very  lame  and  withal  an  '  insolent ' 
one,  as  seems  to  the  Honourable  House  ;  which  accordingly  sends 
him  to  the  1  ower,  where  he  had  to  lie  for  several  years.  Commissions 
of  Array  are  not  handy  to  execute  in  the  Eastern  Association  at 
present  !         ' 

Here  is  another  adventure  of  the  same  kind,  with  a  similar  result. 
The  '  Meeting  at  Laystoff,'  or  Lowestoff  in  Suffolk,  is  mentioned  in 
all  the  old  Books  ;  but  John  Cory,  Merchant  Burgess  of  Norwich, 
shall  first  bring  us  face  to  face  with  it.  Assiduous  Sir  Symonds  got  a 
copy  of  Mr.  Cory's  Letter,§  one  of  the  thousand  Letters  which 
Honourable  Members  listened  to  in  those  mornings  ;  and  here  now  is 
a  copy  of  it  for  the  reader,— news  all  fresh  and  fresh,  after  waiting 
two  hundred  and  two  years.  Old  Norwich  becomes  visible  and 
audible,  the  vanished  moments  buzzing  again  with  old  life, — if  the 
reader  w  11  read  well.  Potts,  we  should  premise,  and  Palgrave,  were 
lately  appointed  Deputy  Lieutenants  of  Norwich  City  ;||  Cory  I 
reckon  to  be  almost  a  kind  of  Ouasi-Mayor,  the  real  Mayor  having 
lately  been  seized  for  Royalism  ;  Knyvett  of  Ashvvellthorpe  is  tran- 
siently known  to  us.  The  other  royalist  gentlemen  are  also  known  to 
antiquaries  of  that  region,  and  what  their  'seats'  and  connexions 
were  :  but  our  reader  here  can  without  damage  consider  merely  that 
they  were  Sons  of  Adam,  not  without  due  seats  and  equipments  ;  and 
read  the  best  he  can  : 

"  To  Sir  J  aim  Potts,  Knight  Baronet,  of  Mannington,  Norfolk  : 

"  These. 

"  Laus  Deo. 

"  Norwich,  17°  Martii,  1642.^ 

"Right  Honourable  and  worthy  Sir, —  I  hope  you  came  in  due 
"  time  to  the  end  of  your  journey  in  health  and  safety  ;  which  I  shall 

*  Vicnrs;    Ntwspapers,  6-15  March  (in  Ciomwelliana,  p.  2). 
f  Con  mons  Journals,  ii.  loco,  i. 

+  \'icnrs,  p.  246;  May's  History  of  the  long  Parliament  (Gi  root's  French 
Translation),  ii.  196. 

§  D'1m\<s's  \i.ss.  f.  TT  9;  Tr.'inscript,  p.  378. 
II  Commons  |onrnals,  lot'i  D'c  (^mber,  1642. 
\  Means  1643  of  our  S  ;.  'e.     1  here  are  yet  seven  days  of  the  Old  Year  to  run. 


LOWESTOFF.  103 

"  rejoice  to  hear.  Sir,  I  might  spare  my  labour  in  now  writing  ;  for  I 
"  suppose  you  are  better  informed  from  other  hands  ;  only  to  testify 
"  my  respects  : 

"  Those  sent  out  on  Monday  morning,  the  13th,  returned  that  night, 
"  with  old  Mr.  Castle  of  Raveningham,  and  some  arms  of  his,  and  of 
"  Mr.  Loudon's  of  Alby,  and  of  Captain  Hamond's.  with  his  leading 
•'  staff-ensign  and  drum.  Mr.  Castle  is  secured  at  Sheriff  Green wod's. 
"  That  night  letters  from  Yarmouth  informed  the  Colonel,*  That  they 
"  had,  that  day,  made  stay  of  Sir  John  Wentworth,  and  of  one  Captain 
"  Allen  from  Lowestoff,  who  had  come  thither  to  change  dollars  : 
"  both  of  whom  are  yet  secured  ; — and  further,  Tha^  the  Town  of 
"  Lowestoff  had  received-in  divers  strangers  and  was  fortifying  itself. 

"  The  Colonel  advised  no  man  might  enter  in  or  out  the  gates  of 
"  '  Norwich,'  that  night.  And  the  next  morning,  between  five  and 
"  six,  with  his  five  troops,  with  Captain  Fountain's,  Captain  Rich's 
"  and  eighty  of  our  Norwich  Volunteers,  he  marched  towards  Lowes- 
"  toff ;  where  he  was  to  meet  with  the  Yarmouth  Volunteers,  who 
"  brought  four  or  five  pieces  of  ordnance.  The  Town  '  of  Lowestoff' 
"  had  blocked  themselves  up  :  all  except  where  they  had  placed  their 
"  ordnance,  which  were  three  pieces  ;  before  which  a  chain  was  drawn 
"  to  keep  off  the  horse. 

"  The  Colonel  summoned  the  Town,  and  demanded.  If  they  would 
"  deliver  up  their  strangers,  the  Town  and  their  army  ? — promising 
"  them  favour,  if  so  ;  if  not,  none.  They  yielded  to  deliver  up  their 
"  strangers,  but  not  to  the  rest.  Whereupon  our  Norwich  dragoons 
"  crept  under  the  chain  before  mentioned ;  and  came  v.ithin  pistol 
"  shot  of  their  ordnance  :  proffering  to  fire  upon  their  cannoneer,— 
•'  who  fled  :  so  they  gained  the  two  pieces  of  ordnance,  and  broke 
"  the  chain  ;  and  they  and  the  horse  entered  the  Town  without 
"  more  resistance.  Where  presently  eighteen  strangers  yielded  them- 
''  selves  ;  among  whom  were,  of  Suffolk  men  :  Sir  T.  Barker,  Sir 
"  John  Pettus  ;— of  Norfolk  :  Mr.  Knyvett  'our  friend'  of  Ashwell- 
"  thorpe,  Mr.  Richard  Catelyn's  son,  some  say  his  Father  too  was 
"  there  in  the  morning  ;  Mr.  F.  Cory,  my  unfortunate  cousin,  who  I 
"  wish  would  have  been  better  persuaded. 

"  Mr,  Brooke,  the  sometime  minister  of  Yarmouth,  and  some  others, 
"  escaped,  over  the  river.  There  was  good  store  of  pistols  and  other 
"  arms  :  I  hear  above  fifty  cases  of  pistols.  The  Colonel  stayed 
"  there  Tuesday  and  Wednesday  night.  I  think  Sir  John  Palgrave 
"  and  Mr.  Smith  went  yesterday  to  Berks.  It  is  rumoured  Sir  Robert 
*'  Kemp  hath  yielded  to  Sir  John  Palgrave  ;  how  true  it  is  I  know 
"  not,  for  I  spoke  not  Sir  John  yesterday  as  he  came  through  Town. 
"  I  did  your  message  to  Captain  Shewood.  Not  to  trouble  you  further, 
"  I  crave  leave  ;  and  am  ever 

"  Your  Worship's  at  command, 

"  John  Cory. 

"  PostscripUnn,  20th  March,  1643.— Right  worthy  Sir,  The  above- 
"  said  on  Friday  was  unhappily  left  behind  ;  for  which  1   am  sorry  : 
"  as  also  that  I  utterly  forgot  to  send  your  plate.     On    Friday  night 
*  'viz.  Cromwell,'  adds  D'Ewes. 


164  Pli^sT  CIVIL  WAR, 


•'  the  Colonel  brought  in  hither  with  him  the  prisoners  taken  at  Lowe- 
"  stoff,  and  Mr.  Trott  of  Beccles.  On  Saturday  night,  with  one  troop, 
"  they  sent  all  the  prisoners  to  Cambridge  '  Castle.'  Sir  John  Went- 
"  worth  is  come  off  with  the  payment  of  looo/.  On  Saturday,  Dr. 
"  Corbett  of  Norwich,  and  Mr.  Henry  Cooke  *  the  Parliament-man, 
"  and  our  old  '  Alderman'  Daniell  were  taken  in  Suffolk.  Last  night, 
"  several  troops  went  out ;  some  to  Lynn-ward,  it's  thought  ;  others  to 
"  Thetford- ward,  it's  supposed, — because  they  had  a  prisoner  with  them. 
"  Sir,  I  am  in  great  haste,  and  remember  nothing  else  at  present. 

"  John  Cory. 

"  Sir  Richard  Berney  sent  to  me,  last  night,  and  shewed  and  gave 
"  me  the  Colonel's  Note  to  testify  he  had  paid  him  the  50/." — a  forced 
contribution  levied  by  the  Association  Committee  upon  poor  Berney, 
who  had  shewn  himself  '  backward  :'  let  him  be  quiet  henceforth,  and 
study  to  conform. 

This  was  the  last  attempt  at  Royalism  in  the  Association  where 
Cromwell  served.  The  other  '  Associations,'  no  man  duly  forward  to 
risk  himself  being  present  in  them,  had  already  fallen,  or  were  fast 
falling,  to  ruin  ;  their  Counties  had  to  undergo  the  chance  of  War  as 
i::  came.  Huntingdon  County  soon  joined  itself  with  this  Eastern 
Association.?  Cromwell's  next  operations,  as  we  shall  perceive,  were 
to  deliver  Lincolnshire,  and  give  it  the  power  of  joining,  which  in 
September  next  took  effect.;];  Lincoln,  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Essex,  Cam- 
bridge, Herts,  Hunts  :  these  are  thenceforth  the  '  Seven  Associated 
Counties,'  called  often  the  '  Association '  simply,  which  make  a  great 
figure  in  the  old  Books, — and  kept  the  War  wholly  out  of  their  own 
borders,  having  had  a  man  of  due  forwardness  among  them. 


LETTER  VI. 

Let  the  following  Letter,  the  first  of  Cromwell's  ever  published  in 
the  Newspapers,  testify  what  progress  he  is  making  towards  delivering 
Lincolnshire  ;  which  is  sadly  overrun  with  the  Marquis  of  Newcastle's 
Northern  '  Popish'  Army  :  an  Army  'full  of  Papists,'  as  is  currently 
reported  ;  officered  by  renegade  Scots,  '  Sir  John  Hendersons,'  and 
the  like  unclean  creatures.  The  Marquis,  in  spite  of  the  Fairfaxes, 
has  overflowed  Yorkshire  ;  has  fortified  himself  in  Newark  over 
Trent,  and  is  a  sore  affliction  to  the  well-affected  of  those  parts. 
'  That  valiant  soldier  Colonel  Cromwell  '  has  written  on  this  occasion 
to  an  official  Person  of  name  not  now  discoverable  : 

*  Corbett  is  or  was  '  Chancellor  of  Norwich  Diocese  ;'  Henry  Cooke  is  Son  of 
Coke  upon  Lyttleton,— has  left  his  place  in  Parliament,  and  got  into  dangerous 
courses. 

t  26th  May,  Husbands'  Second  Collection  (London,  1646),  p.  163. 

:t  lb.  p.  327. 


GkASTHAM.  16$ 


'  To :  These.' 

'Grantham,  13  May,  1643.' 

Sir, 

God  hath  given  us,  this  evening,  a  glorious  victory  over  our 
enemies.  They  were,  as  we  are  informed,  one-and-twenty  colours  of 
horse-troops,  and  three  or  four  of  dragoons. 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  when  we  drew  out  ;  they  came  and  faced 
us  within  two  miles  of  the  town.  So  soon  as  we  had  the  alarm,  we 
drew  out  our  forces,  consisting  of  about  twelve  troops, — whereof  some 

them  so  poor  and  broken,  that  you  shall  seldom  see  worse  :  with 
this  handful  it  pleased  God  to  cast  the  scale.  For  after  we  had  stood 
a  liitle,  above  musket-shot  the  one  body  from  the  other  ;  and  the 
dragooners  had  fired  on  both  sides  for  the  space  of  half  an  hour  or 
more  ;  they  not  advancing  towards  us,  we  agreed  to  charge  them. 
And,  advancing  the  body  after  many  shots  on  both  sides,  we  came  on 
with  our  troops  a  pretty  round  trot  ;  they  standing  firm  to  receive  us  : 
and  our  men  charging  fiercely  upon  them,  by  God's  providence  they 
were  immediately  routed,  and  ran  all  away,  and  we  had  the  execution 
of  them  two  or  three  miles. 

I  believe  some  of  our  soldiers  did  kill  two  or  three  men  apiece  in 
the  pursuit  ;  but  what  the  number  of  dead  is  we  are  not  certain.  We 
took  forty-five  Prisoners,  besides  divers  of  their  horse  and  arms,  and 
rescued  many  Prisoners  whom  they  had  lately  taken  of  ours  ;  and  we 
took  four  or  five  of  their  colours.     '  1  rest ' 

*  *  * 

*  Oliver  Cromwell.'* 

On  inquiry  at  Grantham,  there  is  no  vestige  of  tradition  as  to  the 
scene  of  this  skirmish  ;  which  must  have  been  some  two  miles  out  on 
the  Newark  road.  There  was  in  these  weeks  a  combined  plan,  of 
which  Cromwell  was  an  element,  for  capturing  Newark  ;  there  were 
several  such ;  but  this  and  all  the  rest  proved  abortive,  one  element 
or  another  of  the  combination  always  failing.  Newark  did  not  sur- 
render till  the  end  of  the  War. 

The  King,  at  present,  is  in  Oxford  :  Treaty  of  very  slow  gestation, 
came  to  birth  in  March  last,  and  was  carried  on  there  by  Whitlocke 
and  others  till  the  beginning  of  April ;  but  ended  in  absolute  nothing.f 
The  King  still  continues  in  Oxford,— his  head-quarters  for  three  years 
to  come.  The  Lord  General  Essex  is  lying  scattered  about  Thame, 
and  Brickhill  in  Buckinghamshire,  in  a  very  dormant,  discontented 
condition.ij;  Colonel  Hampden  is  with  him.  There  is  talk  of  making 
Colonel  Hampden  Lord  General.  The  immediate  hopes  of  the  world, 
however,  are  turned  on  '  that  valiant  soldier  and  patriot  of  his  country' 
Sir  William  Waller,  who  has  marched  to  discomfit  the  Malignants  of 
the  West. 

On  the  9th  of  this  May,  Cheapside  Cross,  Charing  Cross,  and  other 

*  Perfect  Diurnal  of  the  Passages  in  Parliament,  22-29  May,  1643 :  completed 
irom  Vicars,  p.  332,  whose  copy,  however,  is  not,  except  as  to  sense  and  facts,  to 
f.e  relied  on. 

t  Whitlocke,  ist  edition,  pp.  63-5;   Husbands,  ii.  48-119. 

X  Rushworth,  v.  290. 


to6  FTRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


Monuments  of  Papist  Idolatry,  were  torn  down  by  authority,  'troops 
of  soldiers  sounding-  their  trumpets,  and  all  the  people  shouting  ;'  the 
Book  of  Sports  also  was  burnt  upon  the  ruins  of  the  same.*  In 
which  days,  too,  all  the  people  are  working  at  the  Fortification  of 
London.f 


LETTER  VII. 

Cromwell's  next  achievement  was  the  raising  of  the  Siege  of 
Croyland  (exact  date  not  discoverable)  ;  concerning  which  there  are 
large  details  in  loud-spoken  Vicars:;];  How  the  reverend  godly  Mr. 
Ram  and  godly  Sergeant  Home,  both  of  Spalding,  were  '  set  upon 
the  walls  to  be  shot  at,'  when  the  Spalding  people  rose  to  deliver 
Croyland  ;  how  'Colonel  Sir  Miles  Hobart'  and  other  Colonels  rose 
also  to  deliver  it— and  at  last  how  'the  valiant  active  Colonel  Cromwell' 
rose,  and  did  actually  deliver  it.§ 

Again,  on  '  Tuesday,  July  27th,  news  reach  London,'  that  he  has 
taken  Stamford.  Whereupon  the  Cavaliers  from  Newark  and  Belvoir 
Castle  came  hovering  about  him  :  he  drove  them  into  Burleigh 
House  ;  and  laid  siege  to  the  same  ;  '  at  three  in  the  morning,' 
battered  it  with  all  his  shot,  and  stormed  it  at  last. 

The  Queen  in  late  months  has  landed  in  these  Northern  parts, 
with  Dutch  ammunition  purchased  by  English  Crown  Jewels  ;  is 
stirring  up  all  manner  of  'Northern  Papists 'to  double  animation  ; 
tempting  Hothams  and  other  waverers  to  meditate  treachery,  for 
which  they  will  pay  dear.  She  marches  Southward,  much  agitat- 
ing the  skirts  of  the  Eastern  Association;  joins  the  King  'on 
Keinton  field'  or  EdgehiU  field,  where  he  fought  last  autumn. 
She  was  impeached  of  treason  by  the  Commons.  She  continued 
in  England  till  the  following  summer  ;  j|  then  quitted  it  for  long 
years. 

Cromwell  has  been  at  Nottingham,  he  has  been  at  Lynn,  he  his 
been  here  and  then  swiftly  there,  encountering  many  things,  all  sum- 
mer ;— take  this  as  a  token,  gathered  still  luminous  from  the  authentic 
but  mostly  inane  opacities  of  the  Coni?no7is  Journals  :^  '21  June, 
1643,  Mr.  Pym  reports  from  the  Committee  of  the  Safety  of  the 
Kingdom,'  our  chief  authority  at  present,  to  this  effect,  That  Captain 
Hotham,  son  of  the  famed  Hull  Hotham,  had,  as  appeared  by 
Letters  from  Lord  Gray  and  Colonel  Cromwell,  now  at  Nottingham, 
been  behaving  very  ill ;  had  plundered  divers  persons  without  regard 
3  the  side  they  were  of;  had,  on  one  occasion,  '  turned  two  pieces  of 

*  Vicars,  p.  327.  f  lb.  p.  331. 

{  '  Thou  that  with  ale,  or  viler  liquors, 

'  Didst  inspire  Withers,  Prynne  and  Vicars.' 

Hudibras,  canto  i.  645. 
§  Vicars,  p.  322-5. 

II  From  February  1642-^5  till  July  1644  (Clarendon,  ii.  195  ;  Rushworth,  v. 
684)-  ^f  iii.  138. 


GATNSBOROUCH.  IC7 


ordnance  against  Colonel  Cromwell  ; '  nay  once,  when  Lord  Gray's 
quartermaster  was  in  some  huff  with  Lord  Gray  '  about  oats,'  had 
privily  offered  to  the  said  quartermaster  that  they  two  should  draw 
out  their  men,  and  have  a  fight  for  it  with  Lord  Gray  ; — not  to  speak 
of  frequent  correspondences  with  Newark,  with  Newcastle,  and  the 
Queen,  now  come  back  from  Holland  :  wherefore  he  is  arrested  there 
in  Nottingham,  and  locked  up  for  trial. 

This  was  on  the  Wednesday,  this  report  of  Pym's  :  and,  alas,  while 
Pym  reads  it,  John  Hampden,  mortally  wounded  four  days  ago  in  i 
skirmish  at  Chalgrove  Field,  lies  dying  at  Thame  ; — died  on  the 
Saturday  following ! — Here  is  Cromwell's  Letter ;  about  Lore 
Willoughby  of  Parham,  and  the  relief  of  Gainsborough  'with  powder 
and  match  :' 

To  the  Committee  of  the  Association  sitting  at  Cam-bridge. 

Huntingdon,  31st  July,  1643. 

Gentlemen, 

It  hath  pleased  the  Lord  to  give  your  servant  and  soldiers  a  nota- 
ble victory  now  at  Gainsborough.  I  marched  after  the  taking  of 
Burleigh  House  upon  Wednesday  to  Grantham,  where  I  met  about 
300  horse  and  dragooners  of  Nottingham.  With  these,  by  agree- 
ment, we  met  the  Lincolneers  at  North  Scarle,  which  is  about  ten 
miles  from  Gainsborough,  upon  Thursday  in  the  evening  where  we 
tarried  until  two  of  the  clock  in  the  morning  ;  and  then  with  our  whole 
body  advanced  towards  Gainsborough. 

About  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  Town,  we  met  a  forlorn-hope  of 
the  enemy  of  near  100  horse.  Our  dragooners  laboured  to  beat  them 
back  ;  but  not  alighting  off  their  horses,  the  enemy  charged  them, 
and  made  them  retire  unto  their  main  body.  We  advanced,  and 
came  to  the  bottom  of  a  steep  hill  :  we  could  not  well  get  up  but  by 
some  tracks  ;  which  our  men  essaying  to  do,  the  body  of  the  enemy 
.  endeavoured  to  hinder  ;  wherein  we  prevailed,  and  got  the  top  of  the 
hill.     This  was  done  by  the  Lincolneers,  who  had  the  vanguard. 

When  we  all  recovered  the  top  of  the  hill,  we  saw  a  great  Body  of 
the  enemy's  horse  facing  us,  at  about  a  mushet-shot  or  less  distance  ; 
and  a  good  Reserve  of  a  full  regiment  of  horse  behind  it.  W'e 
endeavoured  to  put  our  men  into  as  good  order  as  we  could.  The 
enemy  in  the  meantime  advanced  towards  us,  to  take  us  at  disadvan- 
tage :  but  in  such  order  as  we  were,  we  charged  their  great  body,  I 
having  the  right  wing  :  we  came  up  horse  to  horse  ;  where  we  dis- 
puted it  with  our  swords  and  pistols  a  pretty  time  ;  all  keeping  close 
order,  so  that  one  could  not  break  the  other.  At  last,  they  a  little 
shrinking,  our  men  perceiving  it,  pressed  in  upon  them,  and  immedi- 
ately routed  this  whole  body  ;  some  flying  on  one  side  and  others  on 
the  other  of  the  enemy's  Reserve  ;  and  our  men,  pursuing  them,  had 
chase  and  execution  about  five  or  six  miles. 

I  perceiving  this  body  which  was  the  Reserve  standing  still  un- 
broken, kept  back  my  Major,  Whalley,  from  the  chase  ;  and  with  my 
own  troop  and  the  other  of  my  regiment,  in  all  being  three  troops,  we 
got  into  a  body.  In  this  Reserve  stood  General  Cavendish  ;  who  one 
while  faced  me,  another  while  faced  four  of  the  Lincoln  troops,  which 


tb^  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


was  all  of  ours  that  stood  upon  the  place,  the  rest  being  engaged  in 
:he  chase.  At  last  General  Cavendish  charged  the  Lincolneers,  and 
routed  them.  Immediately  I  fell  on  his  rear  with  my  three  troops  ; 
which  did  so  astonish  him,  that  he  did  give  over  the  chase,  and  would 
fain  have  delivered  himself  from  me.  But  1  pressing  on  forceJ 
'  them'  down  a  hill,  having  good  execution  of  them  ;  and  below  the 
hill,  drove  the  General  with  some  of  his  soldiers  into  a  quagmire  ; 
where  my  Captain-lieutenant  slew  him  with  a  thrust  under  his  short 
ribs.  The  rest  of  the  body  was  wholly  routed,  not  one  man  staying 
upon  the  place. 

After  the  defeat  which  was  so  total,  we  relieved  the  Town  with  such 
powder  and  provision  as  we  brought  with  us.  We  had  notice  that  there 
were  six  troops  of  horse  and  300  foot  on  the  other  side  of  the  Town, 
about  a  mile  off  us  :  we  desired  some  foot  of  my  Lord  Willoughby's, 
about  400  ;  and,  with  our  horse  and  these  foot,  marched  towards 
them  :  when  we  came  towards  the  place  where  their  horse  stood,  we 
went  back  with  my  troops  to  follow  two  or  three  troops  of  the  enemy's 
who  retired  into  a  small  village  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill.'  When  we 
recovered  the  hill,  we  saw  in  the  bottom,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  us,  a  regiment  of  foot ;  after  that  another  ;  after  that  the  Mar- 
quis of  Newcastle's  own  regiment  ;  consisting  in  all  of  about  fifty 
foot  colours,  and  a  great  body  of  horse;— which  indeed  was  New- 
castle's Army.  Which,  coming  so  unexpectedly,  put  us  to  new  con- 
sultations. My  Lord  Willoughby  and  I,  being  in  the  Town,  agreed  to 
call  off  our  foot.  I  went  to  bring  them  off :  but  before  I  returned, 
divers  of  the  foot  were  engaged  ;  the  enemy  advancing  with  his  whole 
body.  Our  foot  retreated  in  disorder ;  and  with  some  loss  got  the 
Town  ;  where  they  now  are.  Our  horse  also  came  off  with  some 
trouble  ;  being  wearied  with  the  long  fight,  and  their  horses  tired  ; 
yet  faced  the  enemy's  fresh  horse,  and  by  several  removes  got  off 
without  the  loss  of  one  man ;  the  enemy  following  the  rear  with  a 
great  body. 

The  honour  of  this  retreat  is  due  to  God,  as  also  all  the  rest. 
Ma  or  Whalley  did  in  this  carry  himself  with  all  gallantry  becoming 
a  gentleman  and  a  Christian.  '  Thus  you  have  this  true  relation,  as 
short  as  I  could.  What  you  are  to  do  upon  it,  is  next  to  be  con- 
sidered.    The  Lord  direct  you  what  to  do. 

Gentlemen,  I  am, 

Your  faithful  servant 

Oliver  Cromwell."* 

About  two  miles  south  of  Gainsborough,  on  the  North-Scarle  road, 
stands  the  Hamlet  and  Church  of  Lea  ;  near  which  is  a  '  Hill,'  or  ex- 
panse of  upland,  of  no  great  height,  but  sandy,  covered  with  furze,  and 
full  of  rabbit-holes,  the  ascent  of  which  would  be  difficult  for  horsemen 
in  the  teeth  of  an  enemy.  This  is  understood  to  be  the  '  Hill'  of  the 
Fight  referred  to  here.  Good  part  of  it  is  enclosed,  and  the  ground 
much  altered,  since  that  time  ;  but  one  of  the  fields  is  still  called  'Red- 
coats Field,'  and  another  at  some  distance  nearer  Gainsborough 
*  Ruslnvorlli,  v.  27S. 


WINCEBY  FIGHT.  .  109 

*  Graves  Field  ;'  beyond  which  latter,  '  on  the  other  or  western  face 

*  of  the  Hill,  a  little  over  the  boundary  of  Lea  Parish  with  Gains- 

*  borough  Parish,  on  the  left  hand  (as  you  go  North)  between  the 

*  Road  and  the  River,'  is  a  morass  or  meadow   still   known  by  the 
name  of '  Cavendish's  Bog,'  which  points  out  the  locality.* 

Of  the  '  Hills' and  'Villages'  rather  confusedly  alluded  to  in  the 
second  part  of  the  Letter,  which  probably  lay  across  Trent  Bridge 
on  the  Newark  side  of  the  river,  I  could  obtain  no  elucidation, — 
and  must  leave  them  to  the  guess  of  local  antiquaries  interested  in 
such  things. 

'  General  Cavendish,'  whom  some  confound  with  the  Earl  of  New- 
castle's brother,  was  his  Cousin^  '  the  Earl  of  Devonshire's  second 
son  ;'  an  accomplished  young  man  of  three-and-twenty  ;  for  whom 
there  was  great  lamenting; — indeed  a  general  emotion  about  his 
death,  of  which  we,  in  these  radical  times,  very  irreverent  of  human 
quality  itself,  and  much  more  justly  of  the  dresses  of  human  quality, 
cannot  even  with  effort  form  any  adequate  idea.  This  was  the  first 
action  that  made  Cromwell  to  be  universally  talked  of :  He  dared  to 
kill  this  honourable  person  found  in  arms  against  him  !  '  Colonel 
'  Cromwell  gave  assistance  to  the  Lord  Willoughby,  and  performed 
'  very  gallant  service  against  the  Earl  of  Newcastle's  forces.  This 
'  was  the  beginning  of  his  great  fortunes,  and  now  he  began  to  ap- 

*  pear  m  the  world.'f 

Waller  has  an  Elegy,  not  his  best,  upon  '  Charles  Ca'ndish.'J  It 
must  have  been  written  some  time  afterwards  :  poor  Waller,  in  these 
weeks,  very  narrowly  escapes  Heath  himself,  on  account  of  the  '  Wal- 
ler Plot ;' — makes  an  abject  submission  ;  pays  10,000/.  fine  ;  and  goes 
upon  his  travels  into  foreign  parts  ! — 

Gainsborough  was  directly  taken,  after  this  relief  of  it  ;  Lord 
Willoughby  could  not  resist  the  Newarkers  with  Newcastle  at  their 
head.  Sir  William  Waller,  whom  some  called  William  the  Con- 
queror, has  been  beaten  all  to  pieces  on  Lansdown  Heath,  about  a 
fortnight  ago. 


WINCEBY  FIGHT. 


In  the  very  hours  when  Cromwell  was  storming  the  sand-hill  near 
Gainsborough  '  by  some  tracks,'  honourable  gentlemen  at  St. 
Stephen's  were  voting  him  Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Ely.  Ely  in  the 
heart  of  the  Fens,  a  place  of  great  military  capabilities,  is  much 
traubled  with  '  corrupt  ministers,'  with  '  corrupt  trainbands,'  and  un- 
derstood to  be  in  a  perilous  state ;  wherefore  they  nominate  Cromwell 
to  take  charge  ofit.§  We  understand  his  own  Family  to  be  still 
resident  in  Ely. 

The  Parliament  affairs,  this  Summer,  have   taken  a  bad   course ; 

*  MS.  penes  me. 

t  Whitlonke  (ist  edition,  London,  1682,— as  always,  unless  the  contrary  be 
specified),  p.  68.  J  Fenton's  Waller,  p.  209. 

§  Commons  Journals,  iii.  186  (of  28  July,  1643)  :  ib.  153,  167,  180,  &c.,  10637 
(9  October,  1644). 


no  FIRST  CIVIL  IV A Z 


and  except  it  be  in  the  Eastern  Association,  look  everywhere  declin- 
ing. They  have  lost  Bristol  ;"*  Essex's  Army  has  melted  away,  without 
any  action  of  mark  all  Summer,  except  the /6'i-j- of  Hampden  in  a 
skirmish  :  in  the  beginning  of  August,  the  King  breaks  out  from  Ox- 
ford, very  clearly  superior  in  force  ;  goes  to  settle  Bristol ;  and  might 
thence,  it  was  supposed,  have  marched  direct  to  London,  if  he  had 
liked.  He  decides  on  taking  Gloucester  with  him  before  he  quit  those 
parts.  The  Parliament,  in  much  extremity,  calls  upon  the  Scots  for 
help  ;  who  under  conditions  will  consent. 

In  these  circumstances,  it  was  rather  thought  a  piece  of  heroism  in 
our  old  friend  Lord  Kimbolton.  or  Mandevil,  now  become  Earl  of 
Manchester,  to  accept  the  command  of  the  Eastern  Association  :  he 
is  nominated  'Sergeant-Major  of  the  Associated  Counties,'  loth 
August,  1643;  is  to  raise  new  force,  infantry  and  cavalry;  has  four 
Colonels  of  Horse  under  him  ;  Colonel  Cromwell,  who  soon  became 
his  second  in  command,  is  one  of  them  ;  Colonel  Norton,  whom  we 
shall  meet  afterwards,  is  another. t  '  The  Associated  Counties  are 
busy  listing,'  intimates  the  old  Newspaper  ;  'and  so  soon  as  their  har- 
'  vest  is  over,  which  for  the  present  much  retardeth  them,  the  Earl  of 
'  Manchester  will  have  a  very  brave  and  considerable  Army,  to  be  a 
'  terror  to  the  Northern  Papists,'  Newarkers  and  Newcastles,  'if  they 
'  advance  Southward.'];  When  specially  it  was  that  Cromwell  listed 
celebrated  body  of  Ironsides  is  of  course  not  to  be  dated,  though  some 
do  carelessly  date  it,  as  from  the  very  '  beginning  of  the  War  ;'  and  in 
Bates§  and  others  are  to  be  found  various  romantic  details  on  the 
subject,  which  deserve  no  credit.  Doubtless  Cromwell,  all  along,  in 
the  many  changes  his  body  of  men  underwent,  had  his  eye  upon  this 
object  of  getting  good  soldiers  and  dismissing  bad  ;  and  managed  the 
matter  by  common  practical  vigilance,  not  by  theatrical  claptraps  as 
Dr.  Bates  represents.  Some  months  ago,  it  was  said  in  the  News- 
papers, of  Colonel  Cromwell's  soldiers,  '  not  a  man  swears  but  he 
pays  his  twelve-pence  ;'  no  plundering,  no  drinking,  disorder,  or  im- 
piety allowed.  11  W'e  may  fancy,  in  this  new  levy,  as  Manchester's 
Lieutenant  and  Governor  of  Ely,  when  the  whole  force  was  again 
winnowed  and  sifted,  he  might  complete  the  process,  and  see  his 
Thousand  Troopers  ranked  before  him,  worthy  at  last  of  the  name  of 
Ironsides.  They  were  men  that  had  the  fear  Oi'  God  ;  and  gradually 
lost  all  other  fear.  "  1  ruly  they  were  never  beaten  at  all,"  says  he. — 
Meanwhile  : 

1643. 

August  2isL  The  shops  of  London  are  all  shut  for  certain  days  rlT 
Gloucester  is  in  hot  siege  ;  nothing  but  the  obdurate  valour  of  a  few 
men  there  prevents  the  King,  with  Prince  Rupert,  called  also  Prince 
Robert  and  Prince  Robber,  from  riding  roughshod  over  us."^^  The 
City,  with  much  emotion,  ranks  its  Trained    Bands   under   Essex  ; 

»  22  July.  Rush  worth,  V.  284.  f  Husbands,  ii.  286,276-8. 

X  29  August,  1643,  Cromuelliana,  p.  7.  §  Elenchus  Motuum. 

II  May  1643,  Cromwelliana,   p.  5.  %  Rushworth,   v.  291. 

**  See  Webb's  Bibliothecn  (}lou  estrens'S,  a  Collection,  kc.  (Ciloucester,  1825}, 
or  Corbet's  comemporary  .S'  eoe  of  Gloucester  (Somers  Tracts,  v.  296),  which  forms 
the  main  substance  of  Mr.  Webb  s  Book. 


WINCEBY  FIGHT.  iii 


making  up  an  Army  for  him,  despatches  him  to  relieve  Gloucester 
He  marches  on  the  26th  ;  steadily  along,  in  spite  of  rainy  weather 
and  Prince  Rupert  ;  westward,  westward  :  on  the  night  of  the  tenth 
day,  September  5th,  the  Gloucester  people  see  his  signal-fire  flame 
up.  amid  the  dark  rain,  '  on  the  top  of  Presbury  Hill  ;' — and  under- 
stand that  they  shall  live  and  not  die.  The  King  ^  fired  his  huts,' 
and  marched  off  without  delay.  He  never  again  had  any  real  chance 
of  prevailing  in  this  War.  Essex,  having  relieved  the  West,  returns 
steadily  home  again,  the  King's  forces  hanging  angrily  on  his  rear  ; 
at  Newbury  in  Berkshire,  he  had  to  turn  round,  and  give  them  battle, 
—First  Newbury  Battle,  20th  September,  1643, — wherein  he  came 
off  rather  superior.*  Poor  Lord  Falkland,  in  his  'clean  shirt,'  was 
killed  here.  This  steady  march  to  Gloucester  and  back  again,  by 
Essex,  was  the  chief  feat  he  did  during  the  War  ;  a  considerable  feat, 
and  very  characteristic  of  him,  the  slow-going,  inarticulate,  indignant, 
somewhat  elephantine  man 

September  22nd.  The  House  of  Commons  and  the  Assembly  of 
Divines,  take  the  Covenant,  the  old  Scotch  Covenant,  slightly  modified 
now  into  a  '  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  ; '  in  St.  Margaret's 
Church,  Westminster.t  They  lifted  up  their  hands  seriatim^  and 
then  '  stept  into  the  chancel  to  sign.'  Oliver  Cromwell  signs ;  and 
next  after  him  young  Sir  Henry  Vane.  There  sign  in  all  about  220 
honourable  Members  that  day.  The  whole  Parliamentary  Party, 
down  to  the  lowest  constable  or  drummer  in  their  pay,  gradually 
signed.  It  was  the  condition  of  assistance  from  the  Scotch  ;  who  are 
now  calling  out  '  all  fencible  men  from  sixteen  to  sixty,'  for  a  third 
expedition  into  England.  A  very  solemn  Covenant,  and  Vow  of  all 
the  People  ;  of  the  awfulness  of  which,  we,  in  these  days  of  Custom- 
house oaths  and  loose  regardless  talk,  cannot  form  the  smallest  notion. 
— Duke  Hamilton,  seeing  his  painful  Scotch  diplomacy  end  all  in 
this  way,  flics  to  the  King  at  Oxford,— is  there  '  put  under  arrest,' 
sent  to  Pendennis  Castle  near  the  Land's  End.;]! 

Lincolnshire,  which  has  now  become  one  of  the  Associated  Seven, § 
is  still  much  infested  with  Newarkers  :  Earl  Newcastle,  or  Marquis 
Newcastle,  overflowing  all  the  North,  has  besieged  the  Lord  Fairfax 
in  Hull ;  who  has  been  obliged  to  ship  his  brave  Son,  Sir  Thomas 
Fairfax  with  all  the  horse  as  useless  here,  across  the  Humber  to  do 
service  under  the  Earl  of  Manchester.  Cromwell  and  this  younger 
\  airfax  have  united  about  Boston  ;  here,  after  much  marching  and 
skirmishing,  is  an  account  of  Winceby  Fight,  their  chief  exploit  in 
those  parts,  which  cleared  the  country  of  the  Newarkers  and  renegade 
Sir  John  Hendersons  ;  — as  recorded  by  loud-spoken  Vicars.  In  spite 
of  brevity  we  must  copy  the  Narrative.  Cromwell  himself  was  nearer 
death  in  this  action  than  ever  in  any  other  ;  the  victory  too  made  its 
due  figure,  and  '  appeared  in  the  world.' 

Winceby,  a  small  upland  Hamlet  m  the  Wolds,  not  among  the 
Fens,  of  Lincolnshire,  is  some  five  miles  west  of  Horncastle.     The 

*  Clarendon,  ii.  460;  Whitlocke,  p.  70. 
t  Rushworth,  v.  475  ;  the  Covenant  itself,  i.  p.  478. 
X  Burnet  :  Mcmioirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton. 
§  20  September,  16J3,  Husbands,  ii.  327. 


112  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR, 

confused  memory  of  this  Fight  is  still  fresh  there  ;  the  Lane  along 
which  the  chase  went  bears  ever  since  the  name  of  '  Slash  Lane,' 
and  poor  Tradition  maunders  about  it  as  she  can.  Hear  Vicars,  a 
poor  human  soul  zealously  prophesying  as  if  through  the  organs  of 
an  ass, — in  a  not  mendacious,  yet  loud-spoken,  exaggerative,  more  or 
less  asinine  manner  :  ^ 

■*  *  *  'All  that  night,'  Tuesday  loth  October,  1643,  'we  were 
'  drawing  our  horse  to  the  appointed  rendezvous  ;  and  the  next  morn- 
'  ing,  being  Wednesday,  my  Lord  '  Manchester  *  gave  order  that  the 
'  whole  force,  both  horse  and  foot,  should  be  drawn  up  to  Bolingbroke 
'  Hill,  where  he  would  expect  the  enemy,  being  the  only  convenient 
'  ground  to  fight  with  him.  But  Colonel  Cromwell  was  no  way  satisfied 
'that  we  should  fight  ;  our  horse  being  extremely  wearied  with  hard 
*  duty  two  or  three  days  together. 

'The  enemy  also  drew,  that'  Wednesday  'morning,  their  whole 
"body  of  horse  and  dragooners  into  the  field,  being  74  colours  of 
'horse,  and  21  colours  of  dragoons,  in  all  95  colours  We  had  not 
'  many  more  than  half  so  many  colours  of  horse  and  dragooners  ; 
'but  I  beheve  we  had  as  many  men,— besides  our  foot,  which  indeed 
'  could  not  be  drawn  up  until  it  was  very  late.  The  enemy's  word 
'  was  "  Cavendish  !  "  ' — he  that  was  killed  in  the  Bog  ;  '  and  ours 
'  was  "  Religion."  I  believe  that  as  we  had  no  notice  0/  the  enemy'si 
'  coming  toward  us,  so  they  had  as  little  of  our  preparation  to  fight] 
'  with  them.  It  was  about  twelve  of  the  clock  ere  our  horse  and" 
'  dragooners  were  drawn  up.  After  that  we  marched  about  a  mile 
'  nearer  the  enemy  ;  and  then  we  began  to  descry  him,  by  little  and 
'  little,  coming  toward  us.  Until  this  time  we  did  not  know  we  should 
'  fight  ;  but  so  soon  as  our  men  had  knowledge  of  the  enemy's  coming, 
'they  were  very  full  of  joy  and  resolution,  thinking  it  a  great  mercy 
'  that  they  should  now  fight  with  him.  Our  men  went  on  in  several 
'  bodies,  singing  Psalms.  Quartermaster-General  Vermuyden  with 
'  five  troops  had  the  forlorn  hope,  and  Colonel  Cromwell  the  van, 
'  assisted  with  other  of  my  Lord's  troops,  and  seconded  by  Sir  T. 
'  Fairfax.  Both  armies  met  about  Ixbie,  if  I  mistake  not  the  Town's 
'  name,'— you  do,  mistake,  Mr.  Vicars  ;  it  is  Winceby,  a  mere  hamlet 
and  not  a  town. 

'  Both  they  and  we  had  drawn  up  our  dragooners  ;  who  gave  the 
'  first  charge  ;  and  then  the  horse  fell  in.  Colonel  Cromwell  fell  with 
'  brave  resolution  upon  the  enemy,  immediately  after  their  dragooners 
'  had  given  him  the  first  volley  ;  yet  they  were  so  nimble,  as  that 
*  within  half  pistol-shot,  they  gave  him  another  :  his  horse  was  killed 
'  under  him  at  the  first  charge,  and  fell  down  upon  him  ;  and  as  he 
'  rose  up,  he  was  knocked  down  again  by  the  Gentleman  who  charged 
'  him,  who  'twas  conceived  was  Sir  Ingram  Hopton  :  but  afterwards 
'  he '  the  Colonel  '  recovered  a  poor  horse  in  a  soldier's  hands,  and 
'  bravely  mounted  himself  again.     Truly  this  first  charge  was  so  home- 

*  Third  form  of  Vicars :  God's  Ark  overtopping  the  World's  Waves,  or  the 
Third  Part  of  the  Parliamentary  Chronicle  :  by  John  Vicars  (London,  Printed  by 
M.  Simons  and  J.  Meecock,  1646),  p.  45.  There  are  three  editions  or  successive 
forms  of  this  Book  of  Vicar's  (see  Bliss's  Wood,  in  voce)  :  it  is  always,  unless  tkc 
contrary  be  expressed,  the  second  (of  1644)  that  we  refer  to  here. 


WINCE  BY  FIGHT.  113 

*  given,  and  performed  with  so  much  admirable  courage  and  resolu- 
'  tion  by  our  troops,  that  the  enemy  stood  not  another ;  but  were 

driven  back  upon  their  own  body,  which  was  to  have  seconded  them  ; 
'  and  at  last  put  these-  into  a  plain  disorder  ;  and  thus  in  less  than 
'  half  an  hour's  fight,  they  were  all  quite  routed,  and  ' — driven  along 
Slash  Lane  at  a  terrible  rate,  unnecessary  to  specify.  Sir  Ingram 
Hopton,  who  had  been  so  near  killing  Cromwell,  was  himself  killed, 
'  Above  a  hundred  of  their  men  were  found  drowned  in  ditches,'  in 
quagmires  that  that  would  not  bear  riding  ;  the  'dragooners  now  left 
on  foot'  were  taken  prisoners;  the  chase  lasted  to  llorncastle  or 
beyond  it, — and  Henderson  the  renegade  Scot  was  never  heard  of 
in  those  parts  more.  My  Lord  of  Manchester's  foot  did  not  get  up 
till  the  battle  was  over. 

This  will  suffice  for  Winceby  Fight,  or  Horncastle  Fight,  of  nth 
October,  1643  ;  and  leave  the  reader  to  imagine  that  Lincolnshire  too 
was  now  cleared  of  the  '  Papist  Army,'  as  we  violently  nickname  it, — 
all  but  a  few  Towns  on  the  Western  border,  which  will  be  successfully 
besieged  when  the  Spring  comes. 

1644. 

Friday^  January   i()ih.    The  Scots  enter  England  by   Berwick,- 
21,000  strong  ;  on  Wednesday  they  left  Dunbar  '  up  to  the  knees  in 
snow  ;'  such   a  heart   of  forwardness  was   in  them."^     Old  Lesley, 
now  Earl  of  Leven,  was  their  General,  as  before ;  a  Committee  of 
Parliamenteers  went   with  him.     They   soon  drove  in    Newcastle's 

*  Papist  Army '  within  narrower  quarters  ;  in  May,  got  Manchester 
with  Cromwell  and  Fairfax  brought  across  the  Humber  to  join  them, 
and  besieged  Newcastle  himself  in  York.  Which  brings  us  to 
Marston  Moor,  and  Letter  Eighth. 

Let  us  only  remark  first  that  Oliver  in  the  early  months  of  1644 
had  been  to  Gloucester,  successfully  Convoying  Ammunition  thither, 
and  had  taken  various  strong  houses  by  the  road.f  After  which  the 
due  Sieges  and  successes  in  the  Western  parts  of  Lincolnshire  had 
followed,  till  summer  came,  and  the  Cavaliers  were  all  swept  out  of 
that  county. 

In  these  same  weeks  +  there  is  going  on  a  very  famous  Treaty  once 
more,  *  Treaty  of  Uxbridge  ; '  with  immense  apparatus  of  King's  Com- 
missioners, and  Parhament  and  Scotch  Commissioners  ;  of  which 
however,  as  it  came  to  nothing,  there  need  nothing  here  be  said. 
Mr.  Christopher  Love,  a  young  eloquent  divine,  of  hot  Welsh  blood, 
of  Presbyterian  tendency,  preaching  by  appointment  in  the  place, 
said,  He  saw  no  prospect  of  an  agreement,  he  for  one  ;  "  Heaven 
might  as  well  think  of  agreeing  with  Hell;''§  words  which  were 
remembered  against  Mr.  Christopher.  The  Rmg  will  have  nothing 
to  do  with  Presbyterianism,  will  not  stir  a  step  without  his  Surplices 
at  Allhallowtide  ;  there  remains  only  War  ;  a  supreme  managing 
'  Committee  of  both  Kingdoms  ; '  combined  forces,  and  war.     On  the 

*  Rush  worth,  v.  603-6. 

+  Newspapers,  5  March,  Cromwelliana,  p.  8 ;   Whitlocke,  p.  78. 

%  29  January — 5  March,  Rushworth,  v.  844-946;  Whitlocke,  p.    122-^, 

§  Wood,  ii;.  3$ I ,  Commons  Journals,  &c, 


114  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


other  hand,  his  Mnjesty,  to  counterbalance  the  Scots,  had  agreed  to 
a  '  Cessation  in  Ireland,'  sent  for  his  '  Irish  Army'  to  assist  him  here, 
— and  indeed  already  got  them  as  good  as  ruined,  or  reduced  to  a 
mere  marauding  apparatus/^  A  new '  Papist  or  partly  '  Papist  Army,' 
which  gave  great  scandal  in  this  country.  By  much  the  remarkablest 
man  in  it  was  Colonel  George  Monk  ;  already  taken  at  Nantwich, 
and  lodged  in  the  Tower. 

More  interesting  to  us  :  m  this  same  month  of  January,  22d  day  of 
it,  Colonel  Cromwell  had  transiently  appeared  m  his  place  in  Parlia- 
ment ;  com^jlaining  much  of  my  Lord  Willoughby,  as  of  a  backward 
General,  with  strangely  dissolute  people  about  him,  a  great  sorrow  to 
Lincolnshire  ; t  -and  craving  that  my  lord  Manchester  might  be 
appointed  there  instead  :  which,  as  we  see,  was  done  ;  with  good 
result. 

In  which  same  days  indeed,  end  of  January  1644,  Oliver,  as 
Governor  of  Ely,  had  transiently  appeared  in  Ely  Cathedral  itself : 
for  the  Four  Surplices  were  put  down  by  Act  of  Parliament  ;  and  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Hitch  was  somewhat  too  scrupulous  about  obeying. 
Whereupon  Oliver  ordered  him,  "  Leave  off  your  fooling,  and  come 
down,  Sir  ! "  X—'m  a  voice,  still  audible  to  this  Editor ;  which  Mr. 
Hitch  instantly  gave  ear  to. 


LETTER   VIII. 

In  the  last  days  of  June  1644,  Prince  Rupert,  with  an  army  of 
some  20,000  fierce  men,  came  pouring  over  the  hills  from  Lancashiie, 
where  he  had  left  harsh  traces  of  himself,  to  relieve  the  Marquis  of 
Newcastle,  who  was  now  with  a  force  of  6,000  besieged  in  York,  by 
the  united  forces  of  the  Scots  under  Leven,  the  Yorkshiremen  under 
Lord  Fairfax,  and  the  Associated  Counties  under  Manchester  and 
Cromwell.  On  hearing  of  his  approach,  the  Parliament  Generals 
raised  the  Siege  ;  drew  out  on  the  Moor  of  Long  Marston,  some  four 
miles  off,  to  oppose  his  coming.  He  avoided  them  by  crossing  the 
river  Ouse  ;  relieved  Y^ork,  Monday,  ist  July  ;  and  might  have  re- 
turned successful  ;  but  insisted  on  Newcastle's  joining  him,  and  going 
out  to  fight  the  Roundheads.  The  Battle  of  Marston  Moor,  fought 
on  the  morrow  evening,  Tuesday,  2nd  July,  1644,  from  7  to  10  o'clock, 
was  the  result,— entirely  disastrous  for  him. 

Of  this  Battle,  the  bloodiest  of  the  whole  War,  I  must  leave  the 
reader  to  gather  details  in  the  sources  indicated  below  ;  §  or  to  imagine 

*  Rushworth,  v.  547  (Cessation,  15  September,  1643)  >'  v.  299-303  (Siege  of 
Nantwich,  21  November). 

•j-  D'Ewes's  Mss.  vol.  iv.  f.  280  b. 

X  Walkers  Sufferings  of  the  Clergy,  Part  ii.  p.  23. 

§  King's  Pamphlets,  small  410,  no.  164  (various  accounts  by  eyewitnesses); 
no.  168,  one  by  Simon  A^h.  the  Karl  of  JVlanchester's  Chaplain  ;  no.  167,  ike.  : 
Rushworth,  v.  632:  Carte's  Ormond  Papers  (London,  1739),  i.  56-  Fairfa.x's 
Memorials  (Somers  Tracts,  v.  389).  Modern  accounrs  are  numerous,  but  gf  x\,Q 
value, 


MARS  TON  MOOR.  115 


it  in  general  as  the  most  enormous  hurlyburly,  of  fire  and  smoke,  and 
LjLeel-flashings  and  death-tumult,  ever  seen  in  those  regions  .  the  end 
of  which,  about  ten  at  night,  was  '  Four  thousand  one  hundred  and 
fifty  bodies '  to  be  buried,  and  total  ruin  to  the  King's  alfairs  in  those 
Northern  parts. 

The  armies  were  not  completely  drawn  up  till  after  five  in  the 
evening  ;  there  was  a  ditch  between  them  ;  they  stood  facing  one 
another,  motionless  except  the  exchange  of  a  few  cannon-shots,  for  an 
hour-and-half  Newcastle  thought  there  would  be  no  fighting  till  the 
morrow,  and  had  retired  to  his  carriage  for  the  night.  There  is  some 
shadow  of  surmise  that  the  stray  cannon-shot  which,  as  the  following 
Letter  indicates,  proved  fatal,  to  Oliver's  Nephew,  did  also,  rousing 
Oliver's  humour  to  the  charging  point,  bring  on  the  general  Battle. 

*  The  Prince  of  Plunderers,'  invincible  hitherto,  here  first  tasted  the 
steel  of  Olivers  Ironsides,  and  did  not  in  the  least  like  it.     '  The  Scots 

*  delivered  their  fire  with  such  constancy  and  swiftness,  it  was  as  if 
'  the  whole  air  had  become  an  element  of  fire,' — in  the  summer  gloam- 
ing there. 

To  my  loving  Brother^  Colonel  Valentine  Walt 071 :  The^r. 

'  Leaguer  before  York,   5th  July,  1644. 

Dear  Sir, 

It's  our  duty  to  sympathise  in  all  mercies  ;  and  to  praise  the 
the  Lord  together  in  chastisements  or  trials,  that  so  we  may  sorrow 
together. 

Truly  England  and  the  Church  of  God  hath  had  a  great  favour 
from  the  Lord,  in  this  great  Victory  given  unto  us,  siK:h  as  the  like 
never  was  since  this  War  began.  It  had  all  the  evidences  of  an 
absolute  Victory  obtained  by  the  Lord's  blessing  upon  the  Godly 
Party  principally.  We  never  charged  but  we  routed  the  enemy. 
The  Left  Wing,  which  I  commanded,  being  our  own  horse,  saving  a 
few  Scots  in  our  rear,  beat  all  the  Prince's  horse.  God  made  them 
as  stubble  to  our  swords.  We  charged  their  regiments  of  foot  with 
our  horse,  and  routed  all  we  charged.  The  particulars  I  cannot 
relate  now  ;  but  I  believe,  of  twenty  thousand  the  Prince  hath  not  four 
thousand  left      Give  glory,  all  the  glory,  to  God. — 

Sir,  God  hath  taken  away  your  eldest  Son  by  a  cannon-shot.  It 
brake  his  leg.  We  were  necessitated  to  have  it  cut  off,  whereof  he 
died. 

Sir,  you  know  my  own  trials  this  way  :*  but  the  Lord  supported  me 
with  this.  That  the  Lord  took  him  into  the  hnppiness  we  all  pant 
for  and  live  for.  There  is  your  precious  child  full  of  glory,  never  to 
known  sin  or  sorrow  any  more.  He  was  a  gallant  young  man,  ex- 
ceedingly gracious.  God  give  you  His  comfort.  Before  his  death 
he  was  so  full  of  comfort  that  to  Frank  Russel  and  myself  he  could  not 
express  it,  "  It  was  so  great  above  his  pain."  This  he  said  to  us. 
Indeed  it  was  admirable.  A  little  after,  he  said.  One  thing  lay  upon 
his  spirit.  I  asked  him,  What  that  was  ?  he  told  me  it  was.  That 
God  had   not  suffered  him  to  be  any  more  the  executioner  of  His 

*  I  conclude,  the  poor  Boy  Oliver  has  already  fallen  in  these  Wars,  — none  of  ^^ 
HOQWS  where,  though  his  father  knew  vscU  ! 


Ii6  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

enemies.  At  his  fall,  his  horse  being  killed  with  the  bullet,  and  as 
I  am  informed  three  horses  more,  I  am  told  he  bid  them,  Open  to  the 
right  and  left,  that  he  might  see  the  rogues  run.  Truly  he  was 
exceedingly  beloved  in  the  Army,  of  all  that  knew  him  But  few 
knew  him  ;  for  he  was  a  precious  young  man,  fit  for  God.  You  have 
cause  to  bless  the  Lord.  He  is  a  glorious  Saint  in  Heaven  ;  wherein 
you  ought  exceedingly  to  rejoice.  Let  this  drink  up  your  sorrow  ; 
seeing  these  are  not  feigned  words  to  comfort  you,  but  the  thing  is 
so  real  and  undoubted  a  truth.  You  may  do  all  things  by  the  strength 
of  Christ.  Seek  that,  and  you  shall  easily  bear  your  trial.  Let  this 
public  mercy  to  the  Church  of  God  make  you  to  forget  your  private 
sorrow.     The  Lord  be  your  strength  :  so  prays 

Your  truly  faithful  and  loving  Brother, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

My  love  to  your  Daughter,  and  my  Cousin  Perceval,  Sister  Desbrow 
and  all  friends  with  you.* 

Colonel  Valentine  Walton,  already  a  conspicuous  man,  and  more 
so  afterwards,  is  of  Great-Staughton,  Huntingdonshire,  a  neighbour 
of  the  Earl  of  Manchester's  :  Member  for  his  County,  and  a  Colonel 
since  the  beginning  of  the  War.  There  had  long  been  an  intimacy 
between  the  Cromwell  Family  and  his.  His  Wife,  the  Mother  of  this 
slain  youth,  is  Margaret  Cromwell,  Oliver's  younger  Sister,  next  to 
him  in  the  family  series.  'Frank  Russel'  is  of  Chippenham,  Cam- 
bridgeshire, eldest  Son  of  the  Baronet  there  ;  already  a  Colonel ; 
soon  afterwards  Governor  of  Ely  in  Oliver's  stead. t  It  was  the 
daughter  of  this  Frank  that  Henry  Cromwell,  some  ten  years  hence, 
wedded. — Colonel  Walton,  to  appearance,  is  at  present  in  the  Asso- 
ciation, near  his  own  home.  The  poor  wounded  youth  would  have  to 
lie  on  the  field  at  Marston  while  the  Battle  was  fought  :  the  whole 
Army  had  to  bivouack  there,  next  to  no  food,  hardly  even  water  to  be 
had.  That  of  '  Seeing  the  rogues  run,'  occurs  more  than  once  at 
subsequent  dates  in  these  Wars: J  who  first  said  it,  or  whether  anybody 
ever  said  it,  must  remain  uncertain. 

York  was  now  captured  in  a  few  days  :  Prince  Rupert  had  fled 
across  into  Lancashire,  and  so  '  south  to  Shropshire,  to  recruit  again  ;' 
Marquis  Newcastle  with  '  about  eighty  gentlemen,'  disgusted  at  the 
turn  of  affairs,  had  withdrawn  beyond  seas.  The  Scots  moved  north- 
ward to  attend  the  Siege  of  Newcastle, — ended  it  by  storm  in  October 
next.  On  the  24th  of  which  same  month,  24th  October,  1644,  the 
Parliament  promulgated  its  Rhadamanthine  Ordinance,  To  '  hang 
any  Irish  Papist  taken  in  arms  in  this  country  ;§  a  very  severe 
Ordinance,  but  not  uncalled  for  by  the  nature  of  the  'marauding 
apparatus  '  in  question  there. 

*  Ellis's  Original  Letters  (First  Series), ill.  299.   'Original once  in  the  possessioii 
of  Mr.  Langton  of  Welbeck  Street.' 
f  See  Noble,  ii.  407,  8, — with  vigilance  against  his  blunders. 
I  Ludlow.  §  Rushworth,  v.  783. 


SELF-DENYlNG   ORDINANCE.  117 


THREE  FRAGMENTS  OF  SPEECHES. 

SELF-DENYING  ORDINANCE. 

The  following  Three  small  Fragments  of  Speeches  will  have  to 
represent  for  us  some  six  months  of  occasional  loud  debating,  and 
continual  anxious  gestation  and  manipulation,  in  the  Two  Houses,  in 
the  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms,  and  in  many  other  houses  and 
places  ; — the  ultimate  outcome  of  which  was  the  celebrated  '  Self- 
denying  Ordinance,'  and  '  New  Model '  of  the  Parliament's  Army  ; 
which  indeed  brings  on  an  entirely  New  Epoch  in  the  Parliament's 
Affairs. 

Essex  and  Waller  had.  for  the  third  or  even  the  fourth  time,  chiefly 
by  the  exertions  of  ever-zealous  London,  been  fitted  out  with  Armies  ; 
had  marched  forth  together  to  subdue  the  West  ; — and  ended  in  quite 
other  results  than  that.  The  two  Generals  differed  in  opinion  ;  did 
not  march  long  together  :  Essex,  urged  by  a  subordinate.  Lord 
Roberts,  who  had  estates  in  Cornwall  and  hoped  to  get  some  rents 
out  of  them,*  turned  down  thitherwards  to  the  left ;  Waller  bending 
up  to  the  right, — with  small  issue  either  way.  Waller's  last  action  was 
an  indecisive,  rather  unsuccessful  Fight,  or  day  of  skirmishing,  with  the 
King,  at  Cropredy  Bridge  on  the  border  of  Oxford  and  Northampton 
Shires,f  three  days  before  Marston  Moor.  After  which  both  parties 
separated  :  the  King  to  follow  Essex,  since  there  was  now  no  hope  in 
the  North  ;  Waller  to  wander  London-wards,  and  gradually  'lose  his 
Army  by  desertion,'  as  the  habit  of  him  was.  As  for  the  King,  he 
followed  Essex  into  Cornwall  with  effect  ;  hemmed  him  in  among  the 
hills  there,  about  l^odmin,  Lostwithiel,  Foy,  with  continual  skirmish- 
ing, with  ever-growing  scarcity  of  victual  ;  forced  poor  Essex  to 
escape  to  Plymouth  by  the  Fleet,]:  and  leave  his  Army  to  shift  for 
itself  as  best  might  be  :  the  horse  under  Balfour  to  cut  their  way 
through  ;  the  foot  under  Skippon  to  lay  down  their  arms,  cease  to  be 
soldiers,  and  march  away  '  with  staves  in  their  hands'  in  the  wide 
world.  This  surrender  was  effected  ist  September,  1644,  two  months 
after  Marston  Moor. 

The  Parliament  made  no  complaint  of  Essex ;  with  a  kind  of 
Roman  dignity,  they  rather  thanked  him.  They  proceeded  to  recruit 
Waller  and  him,  summoned  Manchester  with  Cromwell  his  Lieutenant- 
(ieneral  to  join  them  ;  by  which  three  bodies,  making  again  a  con- 
siderable army,  under  the  command  of  Manchester  and  Waller  (for 
Essex  at  London  lay  '  sick,'  or  seeming  to  be  sick),  the  King,  return- 
ing towards  Oxford  from  his  victory,  was  intercepted  at  Newbury ; 
and  there,  on  Sunday,  27th  October,  1644,  fell  out  the  Second  Battle 
of  Newbury. §     Wherein  his  Majesty,  after  four  hours'  confused  fight- 

*  Clarendon.  f  29th  June.  1644,  Clarendon,  ii.  655. 

%  His  own  distinct,  downright,  and  somewhat  sulky  Narrative,  Rushworth,  v, 
701*  §  Clarendon,  ii.'ji/. 


ii8  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

ing,  rather  had  the  worse  ;  yet  contrived  to  march  off,  unmolested, 'by- 
moonlight  at  lo  o'clock,'  towards  Wallingford,  and  got  safe  home, 
Manchester  refused  to  pursue  ;  though  urged  by  Cromwell,  and  again 
urged.  Nay  twelve  days  after,  when  the  King  came  back,  and 
openly  revictualled  Dennington  Castle,  an  important  strongplace  hard 
by, — jManchester,  in  spite  of  Cromwell's  urgency,  still  refused  lo 
interfere. 

They  in  fact  came  to  a  quarrel  here,  these  two  : — and  much  else 
that  was  represented  by  them  came  to  a  quarrel ;  Presbytery  and  In- 
dependency, to  wit.  Manchester  was  reported  to  have  said,  If  they 
lost  this  Army  pursuing  the  King,  they  had  no  other ;  the  King 
'  might  hang  them  all.'  To  Cromwell  and  the  thoroughgoing  party, 
it  had  become  very  clear  that  high  Essexes  and  Manchesters,  of 
limited  notions  and  large  estates  and  anxieties,  who  besides  their  fear 
of  being  themselves  beaten  utterly,  and  forfeited  and  '  hanged,' were 
afraid  of  beating  the  King  too  well,  would  never  end  this  Cause  in  a 
good  way.  Whereupon  ensue  some  six  months  of  very  complex 
manipulation,  and  public  and  private  consultation,  which  these  Three 
Fragments  of  Speeches  are  here  to  represent  for  us. 

I.  I?i  the  House  of  Com?nons,  on  Monday^  2^th  November,  i^44,  Lieu- 
tenant-Ge7ieral  Cromwell  did,  as  ordered  on  the  Saturday  before, 
exhibit  a  charge  against  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  to  this  effect ; 

That  the  said  Earl  hath  always  been  indisposed  and  backward  to 
engagements,  and  the  ending  of  the  War  by  the  sword  ;  and  '  always ' 
/or  such  a  Peace  as  a  '  thorough  '  victory  would  be  a  disadvantage  to  ; 
— and  hath  declared  this  by  principles  express  to  that  purpose,  and 
'  by '  a  continued  series  of  carriage  and  actions  answerable. 

That  since  the  taking  of  York,"^  as  if  the  Parliament  had  now  ad- 
vantage fully  enough,  he  hath  declined  whatsoever  tended  to  farther 
advantage  upon  the  Enemy  ;  'hath'  neglected  and  studiously  shifted 
off  opportunities  to  that  purpose,  as  if  he  thought  the  King  too  low, 
and  the  Parliament  too  high, — especially  at  Dennington  Castle. 

That  he  hath  drawn  the  Army  into,  and  detained  them  in.  such  a 
posture  as  to  give  the  Enemy  fresh  advantages  ;  and  this,  before  his 
conjunction  with  the  other  Armies,+  by  his  own  absolute  will,  against 
or  without  his  Council  of  War,  against  many  commands  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Both  Kingdoms,  and  with  contempt  and  vilifying  of  those 
commands  ; — and,  since  the  conjunction,  sometimes  against  the 
Councils  of  War,  and  sometimes  by  persuading  and  deluding  the 
Council  to  neglect  one  opportunity  with  pretence  of  another,  and  this 
again  of  a  third,  and  at  last  by  persuading  '  them '  that  it  was  not  fit 
to  fight  at  all.J 

To  th-^se  heavy  charges,  Manchester  makes  heavy  answer,  at  great 
length,  about  a  week  after  :  of  which  we  shall  remember  only  this 
piece  of  counter-charge.  How  his  Lordship  had  once  in  those  very 
Newbury  days,  ordered  Cromwell  to  proceed  to  some  rendezvous  with 

*  D'.ectiy  after  Alarston  Moor.  t  Waller's  and  Essex's  at  X^^wbuiy. 

;}:  Rds  iwortli,  v.  732  ;  Commons  Journals,  iii.  703,  5. 


SELF-DENYTNG  ORDINANCE.  li^ 

the  horse,  and  Cromwell,  very  unsuitably  for  a  Lieutenant-General, 
had  answered,  The  horses  were  already  worn  off  their  feet  ;  "  if  your 
Lordship  want  to  have  the  skins  of  the  horses,  this  is  the  way  to  get 
them  !  "—Through  which  small  slit,  one  looks  irto  large  seas  of 
general  discrepancy  in  those  old  months  !  Lieutenant-General  Crom- 
well is  also  reported  to  have  said,  in  a  moment  of  irritation  surely, 
"  There  would  never  be  a  good  time  in  England  till  we  had  done  with 
Lords.""*  But  the  most  appalling  report  that  now  circulates  in  the 
world  is  this,  of  his  saying  once,  "If  he  met  the  King  in  battle,  he 
would  fire  his  pistol  at  the  King  as  at  another  ;" — pistol,  at  our  poor 
semi-divine  misguided  Father  fallen  insane  :  a  thing  hardly  conceiv- 
able to  the  Presbyterian  human  mind  !  f 

11.  In  the  House  of  Commons^  on  Wednesday,  ()th  December,  all  sitting 
in  Grand  Committee,  '  there  was  a  general  silence  for  a  good 
space  of  tijne^  one  looking  upon  the  other  to  see  who  would 
break  the  ice,  in  regard  to  this  delicate  point  of  getting  our 
Essexes  and  Manchesters  softly  ousted  from  the  Army;  a  very 
delicate  point  indeed, — wheti  Lieutenarit-General  Cromwell 
stood  up,  and  spake  shortly  to  this  effect. 

It  is  now  a  time  to  speak,  or  forever  hold  the  tongue.  The  im- 
portant occasion  now,  is  no  less  than  to  save  a  Nation,  out  of  a 
bleeding,  nay  almost  dying  condition  ;  which  the  long  continuance 
of  this  War  hath  already  brought  it  into  ;  so  that  without  a  more 
speedy,  vigorous  and  effectual  prosecution  of  the  War,— casting  off 
all  lingering  proceedings  like  '  those  of '  soldiers-of-fortune  beyond 
sea,  to  spin  out  a  war, — we  shall  make  the  kingdom  weary  of  us,  and 
hate  the  name  of  a  Parliament. 

For  what  do  the  enemy  say  ?  Nay,  what  do  many  say  that  were 
friends  at  the  beginning  of  the  Parliament .?  Even  this.  That  the 
Members  of  both  Houses  have  got  great  places  and  commands,  and 
the  sword  into  their  hands  ;  and,  what  by  interest  in  Parliament,  what 
by  power  in  the  Army,  will  perpetually  continue  themselves  in  gran- 
deur, and  not  permit  the  War  speedily  to  end,  lest  their  own  power 
should  determine  with  it.  This  '  that '  1  speak  here  to  our  own  faces, 
is  but  what  others  do  utter  abroad  behind  our  backs.  I  am  far  from 
reflecting  on  any.  I  know  the  worth  of  those  Commanders,  Members 
of  both  Houses,  who  are  yet  in  power  :  but  if  I  may  speak  my  con- 
science without  reflection  upon  any,  I  do  conceive  if  the  Army  be 
not  put  into  another  method,  and  the  War  more  vigorously  prose- 
cuted, the  People  can  bear  the  W^ar  no  longer,  and  will  enforce  you 
to  a  dishionourable  Peace. 

But  this  I  would  recommend  to  your  prudence.  Not  to  insist  upon 
any  complaint  or  oversight  of  any  Commander-in-chief  upon  any 
occasion  whatsoever  ;  for  as  I  must  acknowledge  myself  guilty  of 
oversights,  so  I  know  they  can  rarely  be  avoided  in  military  affairs. 
Therefore  waving  a  strict  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  these  things,  let 
us  apply  ourselves  to  the  remedy  ;  which  is  most  necessary.  And  I 
hope  we  have  such  true  English  hearts,  and  zealous  affections  towards 

*  Rushworth,  v.  734.  t  Old  Pamphlets  <.ccpi»<;.  onvr.rds  to  1649, 


120  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


the  general  weal  of  our  Mother  Country,  as  no  Members  of  either 
House  will  scruple  to  deny  themselves,  and  their  own  private  in- 
terests, for  the  pubhc  good  ;  nor  account  it  to  be  a  dishonour  done 
to  them,  whatever  the  Parliament  shall  resolve  upon  in  this  weighty 
matter.* 

III.   On  the  satne  day^  seemingly  at  a  subsequent  part  of  the  debate, 
Lie utenaiit- General  Cromwell  said  likewise^  as  J ol lows  : 

Mr.  Speaker, — I  am  not  of  the  mind  that  the  calling  of  the  Mem- 
bers to  sit  in  Parliament  will  break,  or  scatter  our  Armies.  I  can 
speak  this  for  my  own  soldiers,  that  they  look  not  upon  me,  but  upon 
you  ;  and  for  ycu  they  will  fight,  and  live  and  die  in  your  Cause  ; 
and  if  others  be  of  that  mind  that  they  are  of,  you  need  not  fear  them. 
They  do  not  idolise  me,  but  look  upon  the  Cause  they  fight  for.  You 
niay  lay  upon  them  what  commands  you  please,  they  will  obey  your 
commands  in  that  Cau^e  they  fight  for.f 

To  be  brief,  Mr.  Zouch  Tate,  Member  for  Northampton,  moved 
this  day  a  Self-denying  Ordinance  ;  which,  in  a  few  days  more,  was 
passed  in  the  Commons.  It  was  not  so  easily  got  through  the  Lords  ; 
but  there  too  it  had  ultimately  to  pass.  One  of  the  most  important 
clauses  was  this,  introduced  not  without  difficulty,  That  religious  men 
might  serve  without  taking  the  Covenant  as  3.  Jit'st  preliminary, — 
perhaps  they  might  take  it  by  and  by.  This  was  a  great  ease  to 
tender  consciences  ;  and  indicates  a  deep  split,  which  will  grow  wider 
and  wider,  in  our  religious  affairs  The  Scots  Commissioners  have 
sent  for  Whitlockc  and  Maynard  to  the  Lord  General's,  to  ask  in 
judicious  Scotch  dialect.  Whether  there  be  not  ground  to  prosecute 
Cromwell  as  an  '  incendiary ' .''  "  You  ken  varry  weel !  " — The  two 
learned  gentlemen  shook  their  heads.;]; 

This  Self-denying  Ordinance  had  to  pass  ;  it  and  the  New  Model 
wholly  ;  by  the  steps  indicated  below. §  Essex  was  gratified  by  a 
splendid  Pension, — very  little  of  it  ever  actually  paid  ;  for  indeed  he 
died  some  two  years  after  :  Manchester  was  put  on  the  Committee 
of  Both  Kingdoms  :  the  Parliament  had  its  New-Model  Army,  and. 
soon  saw  an  entirely  new  epoch  in  its  affairs. 

*  Rushworth. 

t  C'romwel  liana,  p.  12. 

±  Whitlocke,  iii.  p.  iii  (December,  1644). 

§  Rushworth,  vi,  7,  8  :  Self-denying  Ordnance  passed  in  the  Commons  19th 
December,  and  is  sent  to  the  Lords  ;  Conference  about  it,  7th  January ;  rejected 
by  the  Lords  15th  January, — because  "  v/e  do  not  know  what  shape  the  Army  will 
now  suddenly  take."  Whereupon,  21st  January,  '  Fairfax  is  nominated  General ;' 
and  on  the  19th  February,  the  New  Model  is  completed  and  passed:  "  This  \s 
the  shape  the  Army  is  to  take."  A  second  Self-denying  Ordinance,  now  intro- 
duced, got  itself  finally  passed  3rd  April,  1645. 


SALISBURY.  121 


LETTERS  IX.— XII. 

Before  the  old  Officers  laid  down  their  commissions,  Waller  with 
Cromwell  and  Massey  were  sent  on  an  Expedition  into  the  West 
against  Goring  and  Company  ;  concerning  which  there  is  some  echo 
in  the  old  Books  and  Commons  Journals,  but  no  definite  vestige  of 
it,  except  the  following  Letter,  read  in  the  House  of  Commons,  9th 
April,  1644  ;  which  D'Ewes  happily  had  given  his  Clerk  to  copy. 
Expedition  itself,  which  proved  successful,  is  now  coming  towards  an 
•end.  Fairfax  the  new  General  is  at  Windsor  all  April  :  full  of 
business,  regimenting,  discharging,  enlisting,  new-modelling. 

LETTER  IX. 

For  the  Ri^ht  Honourable  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  General  of  the 
Army:  Haste,  Haste:   These:  At  IVindsor. 

'Salisbury,"  9th  April  (ten  o'clock  at  night),  1645. 

Sir, 

Upon  Sunday  last  we  marched  towards  Bruton  in  Somerset- 
shire, which  was  General  Goring's  head-quarter  :  but  he  would  not 
stand  us ;  but  marched  away,  upon  our  appearance,  to  Wells  and 
Glastonbury.  Whither  we  held  it  unsafe  to  follow  him  ;  lest  we 
should  engage  our  Body  of  Horse  too  far  into  that  enclosed  country, 
not  having  foot  enough  to  stand  by  them  ;  and  partly  because  we 
iOubted  the  advance  of  Prince  Rupert  with  his  force  to  join  with 
Goring  ;  having  some  notice  from  Colonel  Massey  of  the  Prince  his 
<:oming  this  way. 

General  Goring  hath  '  Sir  John '  Greenvil  in  a  near  posture  to  join 
with  him.  He  hath  all  their  Garrisons  in  Devon,  Dorset  and  Somer- 
setshire, to  make  an  addition  to  him.  Whereupon,  Sir  William 
Waller  having  a  very  poor  Infantry  of  about  1600  men, — lest  they, 
being  so  inconsiderable,  should  engage*  our  Horse, — we  came  from 
Shaftesbury  to  Salisbury  to  secure  our  foot ;  to  prevent  our  being 
necessitated  to  a  too  unequal  engagement,  and  to  be  nearer  a  com- 
munication with  our  friends. 

Since  our  coming  hither,  we  hear  Prince  Rupert  is  come  to  Marsh- 
field,  a  market-town  not  far  from  Trowbridge.  If  the  enemy  advance 
altogether,  how  far  we  may  be  endangered, — that  I  humbly  offer  to 
you  ;  entreating  you  to  take  care  of  us,  and  to  send  us  with  all  speed 
such  an  assistance,  to  Salisbury,  as  may  enable  us  to  keep  the  field 
and  repel  the  enemy,  if  God  assist  us  :  at  least  to  secure  and  coun- 
tenance us  so,  as  that  we  be  not  put  to  the  shameand  hazard  of  a  retreat ; 
.vhich  will  lose  the  Parliament  many  friends  in  these  parts,  who  will 
think  themselves  abandoned  on  our  departure  from  them.  Sir,  I 
beseech  you  send  what  Horse  and  Foot  you  can  spare  towards  Salis- 
bury, by  way  of  Kingscleere,  with  what  convenient  expedition  may 
be.  Truly  we  look  to  be  attempted  upon  every  day. 
*  Entangle  or  incumber. 


122  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

These  things  being  humbly  represented  to  your  knowledge  and 
care,  I  subscribe  myself, 

Your  must  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

In  Carte's  Ormond  Papers  (i.  79)  is  a  Letter  of  the  same  date  on 
the  same  subject,  somewhat  illustrative  of  this.  See  also  Commons 
Journal  in  die. 


LETTER   X. 

Prince  Rupert  had  withdrawn  without  fighting  ;  was  now  at 
Worcester  with  a  considerable  force,  and  had  sent  2,000  men  across 
to  Oxford,  to  convoy  his  Majesty  with  the  artillery  thither  to  him.  The 
Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms  order  the  said  convoy  to  be  attacked. 
'  The  charge  of  this  service  they  recommended  particularly  to  General 
'  Cromwell,  who  looking  on  himself  now  as  discharged  of  military 
'  employment  by  the  New  Ordinance,  which  was  to  take  effect  within 
'  few  days,  and  to  have  no  longer  opportunity  to  serve  his  country  in 
'  that  way, — was,  the  night  before,  come  to  Windsor,  from  his  service 
'  in  the  West,  to  kiss  the  General's  hand  and  take  leave  of  him  : 
'  when,  in  the  morning  ere  he  was  come  forth  of  his  chamber,  those 
'  commands,  than  which  he  thought  of  nothing  less  in  all  the  world, 
*  came  to  him  from  the  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms. 'f 

'  The  night  before'  must  mean,  to  all  appearance,  the  22nd  of  April. 
How  Cromwell  instantly  took  horse  ;  plunged  into  Oxfordshire,  and 
on  the  24th,  at  I  slip  Bridge,  attacked  and  routed  this  said  Convoy  ; 
and  the  same  day,  '  merely  by  dragoons '  and  fierce  countenance, 
took  Bletchington  House,  for  which  poor  Colonel  Windebank  was 
shot,  so  angry  were  they  :  how  Cromwell,  sending  off  the  guns  and 
stores  to  Abingdon,  shot  across  westward  to  'Radcot  Bridge'  or 
'  Bampton-in  the-Bush  ; '  and  on  the  26th  gained  a  new  victory  there ; 
and  on  the  whole  made  a  rather  brilliant  sally  of  it  :— all  this  is 
known  from  Clarendon,  or  more  authentically  from  Rushworth];  ;  but 
only  the  concluding  unsuccessful  part  of  it  has  left  any  trace  in  auto- 
graph. 

To  the  Governor  of  the  Garrison  in  Farringdo?i. 

29th  April,  1645. 

Sir,— 

I  summon  you  to  deliver  into  my  hands  the  House  wherein 
you  are,  and  your  Ammunition,  with  all  things  else  there  ;  together 
with  your  persons,  to  be  disposed  of  as  the  Parliament  shall  appoint. 

*  D"Ewes's  MSS,  vol.  v.  p.  189;  p.  445  of  Transcript. 

t  Sprigge's  Anglia  Rediviva  (London,  1647),  p.  10.  Sprigge  was  one  of  Fair- 
fax's Chaplains  ;  his  Book,  a  rather  ornate  work,  gives  florid  but  authentic  and 
sufficient  a  count  of  this  Aew-Model  Army  in  all  its  features  and  operations  by 
which  '  F.ngland"  had  'come  alive  agnin.'  A  little  sparing  in  dates  ;  but  correct 
where  they  are  given.  Nore  of  the  old  Books  is  better  worth  reprinting. — For 
some  glimmer  of  notice  concerning  Joshua  Sprigge  himself,  see  Wood  in  voce, — 
and  disbelieve  altogether  that  'Nat.  Fiennes'  had  anything  to  do  with  this  Book. 

%  vi.  23.  4. 


PARRINGDON.  123 


Which  if  you  refuse  to  do,  you  are  to  expect  the  utmost  extremity  of 
war.     I  rest, 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

This  Governor, '  Roger  Burgess,'  is  not  to  be  terrified  with  fierce 
countenance  and  mere  dragoons  ;  he  refuses.  Cromwell  withdrew 
into  Farringdon  Town,  and  again  summons. 


LETTER   XI. 

To  the  same  J  saine  date. 
Sir, 

I  understand  by  forty  or  fifty  poor  men  whom  you  forced  into 
your  House,  that  you  have  miny  there  whom  you  cannot  arm,  and 
who  are  not  serviceable  to  you.  If  these  men  should  perish  by  your 
means,  it  were  great  inhumanity  surely.  Honour  and  honesty  require 
this.  That  though  you  be  prodig^  of  your  own  lives,  yet  not  to  be  so 
of  theirs.  If  God  give  you  into  my  hands,  1  will  not  spare  a  man  of 
you,  if  you  put  me  to  a  storm. 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

Roger  Burgess,  still  unawed,  refuses  ;  Cromwell  waits  for  infantry 
from  Abingdon  '  till  3  next  morning,'  then  storms  ;  loses  fourteen 
men,  with  a  captain  taken  prisoner ; — and  draws  away,  leaving 
Burgess  to  crow  over  him.  The  Army,  which  rose  from  Windsor 
yesterday,  gets  to  Reading  this  day,  and  he  must  hasten  thither. 

Yesterday,  Wednesday,  Monthly-fast  day,  all  Preachers,  by  Ordi- 
nance of  Parliament,  were  praying  for  '  God's  merciful  assistance  to 
'  this  New  Army  now  on  march,  and  His  blessing  upon  their  endea- 
'  vours,':]:  Consider  it  ;  actually  '  praying  ! '  It  was  a  capability  old 
London  and  its  Preachers  and  Populations  had ;  to  us  the  incredi- 
blest. 


LETTER   XII. 

By  Letter  Twelfth  it  will  be  seen  that  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell 
has  never  yet  resumed  his  Parliamentary  duty.  In  fact,  he  is  in  the 
Associated  Counties  raising  force  ;  'for  protection  of  the  Isle  of  Ely,' 
and  other  purposes.  To  Fairfax  and  his  Officers,  to  the  Parliament, 
to  the  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms,  to  all  persons,  it  is  clear  that 
Cromwell  cannot  be  dispensed  with.  Fairfax  and  the  Officers  peti- 
tion Parliament§  that  he  may  be  appointed  their  Lieutenant-General, 
Commander-in-chief  of  the  Horse.  There  is  a  clear  necessity  in  it. 
Parliament,  the  Commons  somewhat  more  readily  than  the  Lords, 
continue  by  instalments  of  'forty  days,'  of  'three  months,'  his  services 

*  Rushworlh,  vi.  26.  f  Rushworth,  ibid.  X   Rushworth,  vi.  25. 

§  Their  Letter  (Newspapers,  9-16  June),  in  Cromwelliana,  p.  18. 


124  riRSl'  CIVIL  WAR. 


in  the  Army,  and  at  length  grow  to  regard  him  as  a  constant  element 
there.  A  few  others  got  similar  leave  of  absence,  similar  dispensa- 
tion from  the  Self-denying  Ordinance.  Sprigge's  words,  cited  above, 
are  no  doubt  veracious  ;  yet  there  is  trace  of  evidence*  that  Crom- 
well's continuance  in  the  Army  had,  even  by  the  framers  of  the  Self- 
denying  Ordinance,  been  considered  a  thing  possible,  a  thing 
desirable.  As  it  well  might  !  To  Cromwell  himself  there  was  no 
overpowering  felicity  in  getting  out  to  be  shot  at,  except  where 
wanted;  he  very  probably,  as  Sprigge  intimates,  did  let  the  matter  in 
=;ilonce  take  its  own  course. 

*  To  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  General  of  the 
Parliament'' s  Amy  :   These ^ 

Huntingdon,  4  June,  1645. 

Sir, 

I  most  humbly  beseech  you  to  pardon  my  long  silence.  I  am 
v^unscious  of  the  fault,  considering  the  great  obligations  lying  upon 
me.  But  since  my  coming  into  these  parts,  I  have  been  busied  to 
secure  that  part  of  the  Isle  of  Ely  where  I  conceived  most  danger 
to  be. 

Truly  I  found  it  in  a  very  ill  posture  :  and  it  is  yet  but  weak  ; 
without  works,  ammunition  or  men  considerable,^and  of  money 
least  :  and  then,  I  hope,  you  will  easily  conceive  of  the  defence  :  and 
God  has  preserved  us  all  this  while  to  a  miracle.  The  party  under 
Vermuyden  waits  the  King's  Army,  and  is  about  Deeping  ;  has  a 
command  to  join  with  Sir  John  Cell,  if  he  commands  him.  So  'too' 
the  Nottingham  Horse.  I  shall  be  bold  to  present  you  with  intelli- 
gence as  it  comes  to  me. 

I  am  bold  to  present  this  as  my  humble  suit  :  That  you  would  be 
])leased  to  make  Captain  Rawlins,  this  Bearer  a  Captain  of  Horse. 
He  has  been  so  before  ;  was  nominated  to  the  Model  ;  is  a  most 
honest  man.  Colonel  Sidney  leaving  his  regiment,  if  it  please  you  to 
bestow  his  troop  on  him,  I  am  confident  he  will  serve  you  faithfully. 
So,  by  God's  assistance,  will 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

The  '  Vermuyden  '  mentioned  here,  who  became  Colonel  Vermuy- 
^.cn,  is  supposed  to  be  a  son  of  the  Dutch  Engineer  who  drained  the 
1'  ens.  '  Colonel  Sidney  '  is  the  celebrated  Algernon  ;  he  was  nomi- 
nated in  the  '  Model,'  but  is  '  leaving  his  regiment.'  Captain  Rawhns 
does  obtain  a  Company  of  Hcrse  ;  under  '  Colonel  Sir  Robert  Pye.'t 
—  Colonel  Montngue,  afterwards  Earl  of  Sandwich,  has  a  Foot-Regi- 
ment here.     Hugh  Peters  is  '  Chaplain  to  the  Train.' 

The  King  has  got  into  the  Midland  Counties;  'hunting,'  driving 
'  large  herds  of  cattle'  before  him,— uncertain  whitherward  :  and  we 
are  now  within  sight  of  Naseby  Field. 

*  Godwin's  History  of  the  Con  monweallh  (London,  1824),  i.  405. 
f    Rushworth,  vi.  (London,  1701),  p.  37. 
X  Army-List,  in  Sprigge  (p.  330). 


NASEBY.  125 


LETTER  XIII. 

The  old  Hamlet  of  Naseby  stands  yet,  on  its  old  hill-top,  very 
much  as  it  did  in  Saxon  days,  on  the  Northwestern  border  of  North- 
amptonshire ;  some  seven  or  eight  miles  from  Market-Harborough  in 
Leicestershire  ;  nearly  on  a  line,  and  nearly  midway,  between  that 
Town  and  Daventry.  A  peaceable  old  Hamlet,  of  perhaps  five 
hundred  souls  ;  clay  cottages  for  labourers,  but  neatly  thatched  and 
swept  ;  smith's  shop,  saddler's  shop,  beer-shop,  all  in  order ;  forming 
a  kind  of  square,  which  leads  off,  North  and  South,  into  two  long 
streets  :  the  old  Church,  with  its  graves,  stands  in  the  centre,  the 
truncated  spire  finishing  itself  with  a  strange  old  Ball,  held  up  by 
rods  ;  a  '  hollow  copper  Ball,  which  came  from  Boulogne  in  Henry  the 
Eighth's  time,' — which  has,  like  Hudibras's  breeches,  '  been  at  the 
Siege  of  Bullen.'  The  ground  is  upland,  moorland,  though  now 
growing  corn  ;  was  not  enclosed  till  the  last  generation,  and  is  still 
somewhat  bare  of  wood.  It  stands  nearly  in  the  heart  of  England  ; 
gentle  Dulness,  taking  a  turn  at  etymology,  sometimes  derives  it  from 
Navel;  '  Navesby,  quasi  Navelsh'f^  from  being,'  &c.  :  Avon  Well,  the 
distinct  source  of  Shakspeare's  Avon,  is  on  the  Western  slope  of  the 
high  grounds  ;  Nen  and  Welland,  streams  leading  towards  Cromwell's 
Fen-country,  begin  to  gather  themselves  from  boggy  places  on  the 
Eastern  side.  The  grounds,  as  we  say,  lie  high  ;  and  are  still,  in 
their  new  subdivisions,  known  by  the  name  of  'Hills/  '  Rutput  Hill,' 
'  Mill  Hill,'  '  Dust  Hill,'  and  the  like,  precisely  as  in  Rushworth's 
time  :  but  they  are  not  properly  hills  at  all  ;  they  are  broad  blunt 
clayey  masses,  swelling  towards  and  from  each  other,  like  indolent 
waves  of  a  sea,  sometimes  of  miles  in  extent. 

It  was  on  this  high  moor-ground,  in  the  centre  of  England,  that 
King  Charles,  on  the  14th  of  June,  1645,  fought  his  last  Battle  ;  dashed 
fiercely  against  the  New-Model  Army,  which  he  had  despised  till 
then  ;  and  saw  himself  shivered  utterly  to  ruin  thereby.  'Prince 
'  Rupert,  on  the  King's  right  wing,  charged  up  the  hill,  and  carried  all 
'  before  him  ;'  but  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell  charged  downhill  on 
the  other  wing,  likewise  carrying  all  before  him, — and  did  not  gallop 
off  the  field  to  plunder,  he.  Cromwell,  ordered  lliither  by  the  Parlia- 
ment, had  arrived  from  the  Association  two  days  before,  '  amid  shouts 
from  the  whole  Army  :'  he  had  the  ordering  of  the  Horse  this  morn- 
ing. Prince  Rupert,  on  returning  from  his  plunder,  finds  the  King's 
Infantry  a  ruin  ;  prepares  to  charge  again  with  the  rallied  Cavalry; 
but  the  Cavalry  too,  when  it  came  to  the  point,  '  broke  all  asunder,' — 
never  to  reassemble  more.  The  chase  went  through  Harborough ; 
where  the  King  had  already  been  that  morning,  when  in  an  evil  hour 
he  turned  back,  to  revenge  some  '  surprise  of  an  outpost  at  Naseby 
the  night  before,'  and  give  the  Roundheads  battle. 

Ample  details  of  this  Battle,  and  of  the  movements  prior  and  pos- 
terior to  it,  are  to  be  found  in  Sprigge,  or  copied  with  some  abridg^- 


126  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

ment  into  Rushworth  ;  who  has  slIso  copied  a  strange  old  Plan  of  the 
Battle  ;  half  plan,  half  picture,  which  the  Sale-Catalogues  are  very 
chary  of,  in  the  case  of  Sprigge.  By  assiduous  attention,  aided  by 
this  Plan,  as  the  old  names  yet  stick  to  the  localities,  the  Narrative 
can  still  be,  and  has  lately  been,  pretty  accurately  verified,  and  the 
Figure  of  the  old  Battle  dimly  brought  back  again.  The  reader  shall 
imagine  it,  for  the  present. — On  the  crown  of  Naseby  Height  stands 
a  modern  Battle  monument ;  but,  by  an  unlucky  oversight,  it  is 
above  a  mile  to  the  east  of  where  the  Battle  really  was.  There  are 
likewise  two  modern  Books  about  Naseby  and  its  Battle ;  both  of 
them  without  value. 

The  Parhamentary  Army  stood  ranged  on  the  Height  still  partly 
called  'Mill  Hill,'  as  in  Rushworth's  time,  a  mile  and  half  from  Naseby ; 
the  King's  Army,  on  a  parallel  '  Hill,'  its  back  to  Harborough  ;— with 
the  wide  table  of  upland  now  named  Broad  Moor  between  them ; 
where  indeed  the  main  brunt  of  the  action  still  clearly  enough  shews 
itself  to  have  been.  There  are  hollow  spots,  of  a  rank  vegetation, 
scattered  over  that  Broad  Moor  ;  which  are  understood  to  have  once 
been  burial  moimdsj — some  of  which  have  been  (with  more  or  less  of 
sacrilege)  verified  as  such.  A  friend  of  mine  has  in  his  cabinet  two 
ancient  grinder-teeth,  dug  lately  from  that  ground, — and  waits  for  an 
opportunity  to  rebury  them  there.  Sound  effectual  grinders,  one  of 
them  very  large  ;  which  ate  their  breakfast  on  the  fourteenth  morning 
of  June  two  hundred  years  ago,  and,  except  to  be  clenched  once  in 
grim  battle,  had  never  work  to  do  more  in  this  world  ! — '  A  stack  of 
'  dead  bodies,  perhaps  about  loo,  had  been  buried  in  this  Trench; 
'  piled  as  in  a  wall,  a  man's  length  thick  :  the  skeletons  lay  in  courses, 
'  the  heads  of  one  course  to  the  heels  of  the  next  ;— one  figure,  by  the 
'strange  position  of  the  bones,  gave  us  the  hideous  notion  of  its  having 
'been  thrown  in  before  death  !  We  did  not  proceed  far  :— perhaps 
'  some  half-dozen  skeletons.  The  bones  were  treated  with  all  piety  ; 
'  watched  rigorously,  over  Sunday,  till  they  could  be  covered  in  again.'* 
Sweet  friends,  for  Jesus'  sake  forbear  ! — 

At  this  Battle  Mr.  John  Rushworth,  our  Historical  Rushworth,  had, 
unexpectedly,  for  some  instants,  sight  of  a  very  famous  person.  Mr. 
John  is  Secretary  to  Fairfax  ;  and  they  have  placed  him  today  among 
the  Baggage-waggons,  near  Naseby  Hamlet,  above  a  mile  from  the 
fighting,  where  he  waits  in  an  anxious  manner.  It  is  known  how 
Prince  Rupert  broke  our  left  wing,  while  Cromwell  was  breaking 
their  left.  'A  Gentleman  of  Public  Employment  in  the  late  Service 
near  Naseby'  writes  next  day,  'Harborough,  15th  June,  2  in  the 
morning,'  a  rough  graphic  Letter  in  the  News^  apers,t  wherein  is 
this  sentence  : 

■^  ■*  '  A  party  of  theirs  that  broke  through  the  left  wing  of  horse, 
'  came  quite  behind  the  rear  to  our  Train  ;  the  Leader  of  them, 
'  being  a  person  somewhat  in  habit  like  the  General,  in  a  red 
'  montero,  as  the  General   had.     He   came   as    a  friend  ;    our  com- 

*  MS.  penes  me. 

t  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to,  no.  212,  §  26,  p.  2;  the  punctual  contempo- 
raneous Collector  has  named  him  with  his  pen  :  '  Mr.  Rushworth's  Letter,  bein^ 
tli§  Segretarjr  to  his  Excellency.' 


NASEBY.  127 


*mander  of  the  guard  of  the  Train  went  with  his  hat  in  his  hand, 
'and  asked  him,  How  the  day  went?  thinking  it  had  been  the 
'  General  :  the  Cavalier,  who  we  since  heard  was  Rupert,  asked  him 
'and  the  rest,  If  they  would  have  quarter?     They  cried   No;  gave 

*  fire,  and  instantly  beat  them  off.  It  was  a  happy  deliverance,' — 
without  doubt. 

There  were  taken  here  a  good  few  '  ladies  of  quality  in  carriages  ; ' 
— and  above  a  hundred  Irish  ladies  not  of  quality,  tattery  camp- 
followers  'with  long  skean-knives  about  a  foot  in  length,'  which  they 
well  knew  how  to  use  ;  upon  whom  I  fear  the  Ordinance  against 
Papists  pressed  hard  this  day*  The  King's  Carriage  was  also  taken, 
with  a  Cabinet  and  many  Royal  Autographs  in  it.  which  when  printed 
made  a  sad  impression  against  his  Majesty, — gave  in  fact  a  most 
melancholy  view  of  the  veracity  of  his  Majesty,  "  On  the  word  of  a 
King."t     All  was  lost  ! — 

Here  is  Cromwell's  Letter,  w-ritten  from  Harborough,  or  'Haver- 
brow'  as  he  calls  it,  that  same  night  ;  after  the  hot  Battle  and  hot 
chase  were  over.  The  original,  printed  long  since  in  Rushworth,  still 
lies  in  the  British  Museum, — with  'a  strong  steady  signature,'  which 
one  could  look  at  with  interest.     'The  Letter  consists  of  two  leaves  ; 

*  much  worn,  and  now  supported  by  pasting  ;  red  seal  much  defaced  ; 
'  is  addresssd  on  the  second  leaf  :' 

For  the  Honourable  Williafn  Lenthali,  Speaker  of  the  Comjnons 
House  of  Parliament :   These. 

Harborough,  14th  June,  1645. 

Sir, 

Being  commanded  by  you  to  this  service,  I  think  myself  bound 
to  acquaint  you  with  the  good  hand  of  God  towards  you  and  us. 

We  marched  yesterday  after  the  King,  who  went  before  us  from 
Daventry  to  Harborough  ;  and  quartered  about  six  miles  from  him. 
This  day  we  marched  towards  him.  He  drew  out  to  meet  us  ;  both 
armies  engaged.  We,  after  three  hours  fight  very  doubtful,  at  last 
routed  his  army  ;  killed  and  took  about  5,000, — very  many  officers, 
but  of  what  quality  we  yet  know  not.  We  took  also  about  200 
carriages,  all  he  had  ;  and  all  his  guns,  oeing  12  in  number,  whereof 
two  were  demi-cannon,  two  demi-culverins,  and  I  think  the  rest 
sackers.  We  pursued  the  enemy  from  three  miles  short  of  Har- 
borough to  nine  beyond,  even  to  the  sight  of  Leicester,  whither  the 
King  fled. 

Sir,  this  is  none  other  but  the  hand  of  God  ;  and  to  Him  alone 
belongs  the  glory,  wherein  none  are  to  share  with  Him.  The  General 
served  you  with  all  faithfulness  and  honour:  and  the  best  commenda- 
tion I  can  give  him  is,  That  I  daresay  he  attributes  all  to  God,  and 
would  rather  perish  than  assume  to  himself  Which  is  an  honest  and 
a  thriving  way  : — and  yet  as  much  for  bravery  may  be  given  to  him, 
in  this  action,  as  to  a  man.     Honest  men  served  you  faithfully  in  this 

*  Whitlocke. 

t  The  King's  Cabinet  opened  ;  or  Letters  taken  in  tlie  Cabinet  at  Xaseby  Fiel4 
(Lgndon,  1645)  • — reprinted  in  Harleiqn  Miscellany  (London,  1810;,  v.  ^i^, 


128  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


action.  Sir,  they  are  trusty  ;  I  beseech  you,  in  the  name  of  God,  not 
to  discourage  them.  I  wish  this  action  may  beget  thankfulness  and 
humihty  in  all  that  are  concerned  in  it.  He  that  ventures  his  life  for 
the  liberty  of  his  country,  I  wish  he  trust  God  for  the  liberty  of  his 
conscience,  and  you  for  the  liberty  he  fights  for.  In  this  he  rests, 
who  is 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

John  Bunyan,  I  believe,  is  this  night  in  Leicester, — not  yet  writing 
his  Pili(riin's  Progress  on  paper,  but  acting  it  on  the  face  of  the  Earth, 
with  a  brown  matchlock  on  his  shoulder.  Or  rather,  without  the 
matchlock,  just  at  present  ;  Leicester  and  he  having  been  taken  the 
other  day.  '  Harborough  Church  '  is  getting  '  filled  with  prisoners* 
while  Oliver  writes,— and  an  immense  contemporaneous  tumult  every- 
where going  on  ! 

The  '  honest  men  who  served  you  faithfully  on  this  occasion '  are 
the  considerable  portion  of  the  Army  who  have  not  yet  succeeded  in 
bringing  themselves  to  take  the  Covenant.  Whom  the  Presbyterian 
Party,  rigorous  for  their  own  formula,  call  '  Schismatics,'  '  Sectaries,' 
'  Anabaptists,'  and  other  Jiard  names  ;  whom  Cromwell,  here  and 
elsewhere,  earnestly  pleads  for.  To  Cromwell,  perhaps  as  much  as 
to  another,  order  was  lovely,  and  disorder  hateful  ;  but  he  discerned 
better  than  some  others  what  order  and  disorder  really  were.  The 
forest-trees  are  not  in  '  order'  because  they  are  all  chpt  into  the  same 
shape  of  Dutch  dragons,  and  forced  to  die  or  grow  in  that  way  ;  but 
because  in  each  of  them  there  is  the  same  genuine  unity  of  life,  from 
the  inmost  pith  to  the  outmost  leaf,  and  they  do  grow  according  to 
that ! — Cromwell  naturally  became  the  head  of  this  Schismatic 
Party,  intent  to  grow  not  as  Dutch  dragons,  but  as  real  trees ;  a  Party 
which  naturally  increased  with  the  increasing  earnestness  of  events 
and  of  men. — 

The  King  stayed  but  a  few  hours  in  Leicester;  he  had  taken 
Leicester,  some  days  before,  and  it  was  retaken  from  him  some  days 
after  : — he  stayed  but  a  few  hours  here  ;  rode  on,  that  same  night,  to 
Ashby  de  la  Zouch,  which  he  reached  '  at  daybreak,' — poor  wearied 
King  1 — then  again  swiftly  Westward,  to  Wales,  to  Ragland  Castle, 
to  this  place  and  that  ;  in  the  hope  of  raising  some  force,  and  coming 
to  fight  again ;  which  however  he  could  never  do.f  Some  ten  months 
more  of  roaming,  and  he,  '  disguised  as  a  groom,'  will  be  riding  with 
Parson  Hudson  towards  the  Scots  at  Newcastle. 

The  New-Model  Army  marched  into  the  Southwest ;  very  soon 
^  relieved  Colonel  Robert  Blake'  (Admiral  Blake),  and  many  others  ; 
—marched  to  ever  new  exploits  and  victories,  which  excite  the  pious 

*  Harl.  Mss.  no.  7502,  art.  5,  p.  7 ;   Rushworth,  vi.  45, 

t  Iter  Caroliiimn  ;  being  a  succinct  Relation  of  the  necessitated  Marches,  Re- 
treats and  Sufferings  of  his  Majesty  Charles  the  First,  from  10  Janueiry  1641  till 
the  time  of  his  Death,  1648  :  Collected  hy  a  daily  Attendant  upon  his  Sacred 
Majesty  during  all  the  said  time.  London,  1660.— It  is  reprinted  in  Somers  Tracts 
(v.  263),  but,  as  usual  there,  without  any  editing  except  a  norpinal  one,  though  it 
sgrnewhat  needed  uigr^. 


THE   CLUBMEN.  129 


'admiration  of  Joshua  Sprigge  ;  and  very  soon  swept  all  its  enemies 
from  the  field,  and  brought  this  War  to  a  close.* 

The  following  Letters  exhibit  part  of  Cromwell's  share  in  that  busi- 
ness, and  may  be  read  with  little  commentary. 


LETTER  XIV. 

THE  CLUBMEN. 

The  victorious  Army,  driving  all  before  it  in  the  Southwest,  where 
alone  the  King  had  still  any  conFiderable  fj-jhting  force,  found  itself 
opposed  by  a  very  unexpected  enemy,  famed  in  the  old  Pamphlets  by 
the  name  of  Clubmen.  The  design  was  at  bottom  Royalist  ;  but  the 
country  people  in  those  regions  had  been  worked  upon  by  the  Royalist 
Genlry  and  Clergy,  on  the  somewhat  plausible  ground  of  taking  up 
arms  to  defend  themselves  against  the  plunder  and  harassment  of 
both  Armies.  The  great  mass  of  them  were  Neutrals  ;  there  even 
appeared  by  and  by  various  transient  bodies  of  '  Clubmen '  on  the 
Parliament  side,  whom  Fairfax  entertained  occasionally  to  assist  hitn 
in  pioneering  and  other  such  services.  They  were  called  Clubmen, 
not,  as  M.  Villemain  supposes,*  be'cause  they  united  in  Clubs,  but 
because  they  were  armed  with  rough  country  weapons,  mere  bludgeons 
if  no  other  could  be  had.  Sufficient  understanding  of  them  may 
be  gained  from  tl?e  following  Letter  of  Cromwell,  prefaced  by  some 
Excerpts. 

From  Rushworth  :  '  Thursday,  July  3rd,  Fairfax  marched  from 
Blandford  to  Dorchester,  12  miles;  a  very  hot  day  Where  Colonel 
Sidenham,  Governor  of  Weymouth,  gave  him  information  of  the 
condition  of  those  parts  ;  and  of  the  great  danger  from  the  Club- 
risers  ;'  a  set  of  men  '  who  would  not  suffer  either  contribution  or 
victuals  to  be  carried  to  the  Parliament's  garrisons.  And  the  same 
night  Mr.  Hollis  of  Dorsetshire,  the  chief  leader  of  the  Clubmen, 
with  some  others  of  their  principal  men,  came  to  Fairfax  :  and  Mr. 
Hollis  owned  himself  to  be  one  of  their  Leaders  ;  affirming  that  it 
was  fit  the  people  should  shew  their  grievances  and  their  strength. 
Fairfax  treated  them  civilly,  and  promised  they  should  have  an 
answer  the  next  morning.  For  they  were  so  strong  at  that  time, 
that  it  was  held  a  point  of  prudence  to  be  fair  in  demeanour  towards 
them  for  a  while ;  for  if  he  should  engage  with  General  Goring,  and 
be  put  to  the  worst,  these  Clubmen  would  knock  them  on  the  head 
as  they  should  fly  for  safety. — That  which  they  desired  from  him 
was  a  safe-conduct  for  certain  persons  to  go  to  the  King  and  Par- 

*  A  Journal  of  every  days  March  ot  the  Army  under  his  Excellency-  Sir  Thomas 
Fairfax  (in  Sprigge,  p.  331). 

t  Our  French  ii lends  ought  to  be  informed  that  M.  V)ilemain's  Book  on  Crom- 
well is,  unluckily,  a  rather  ignorant  and  shallow  one.— Of  M.  Guizot,  on  the  other 
.hand,  we  are  to  say  that  his  Two  Volumes,  so  far  as  they  go,  are  the  fruit  of  real 
ability  and  solid  studies  applied  to  those  Transactions. 
/OL.  I. 


I30  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


*  liament  with  petitions  :'*  which  Fairfax  in  a  very  mild  but  resolute 
manner  refused. 

From  Sprigge,t  copied  also  into  Rushworth  with  some  inaccu- 
racies :  *  On  Monday,  August  4th,  Lieutenant- General  Cromwell 
'  having  intelligence  of  some  of  their  places  of  rendezvous  for  their 
several  divisions,  went  forth'  from  Sherborne  '  with  a  party  of  Horse 
to  meet  these  Clubmen ;  being  well  satisfied  of  the  danger  of  their 
design.  As  he  was  marching  towards  Shaftesbury  with  the  party, 
they  discovered  some  colours  upon  the  top  of  a  high  Hill,  full  of 
wood  and  almost  inaccessible.  A  Lieutenant  with  a  small  party 
was  sent  to  them  to  know  their  meaning,  and  to  acquaint  them  that 
the  Lieutenant- General  of  the  Army  was  there  ;  whereupon  Mr. 
Newman,  one  of  their  leaders,  thought  fit  to  come  down,  and  told 
us.  The  intent  was  to  desire  to  know  why  the  gentlemen  were  taken 
at  Shaftesbury  on  Saturday?  The  Lieutenant-General  returned  him 
this  answer  :  That  he  held  himself  not  bound  to  give  him  or  them 
an  account ;  what  was  done  was  by  authority  ;  and  they  that  did  it 
were  not  responsible  to  them  that  had  none  :  but  not  to  leave  them 
wholly  unsatisfied,  he  told  him,  Those  persons  so  met  had  been  the 
occasion  and  stirrers  of  many  tumultuous  and  unlawful  meetings  ; 
for  which  they  were  to  be  tried  by  law  ;  which  trial  ought  not  by 
them  to  be  questioned  or  interrupted.  Mr.  Newman  desired  to  go 
up  to  return  the  answer  ;  the  Lieutenant-General  with  a  small  party 
went  with  him  ;  and  had  some  conference  with  the  people  ;  to  this 
purpose  :  That  whereas  they  pretended  to  meet  there  to  save  their 
goods,  they  took  a  very  ill  course  for  that  :  to  leave  their  houses  was 
the  way  to  lose  their  goods ;  and  it  was  offered  them,  That  justice 
should  be  done  upon  any  who  offered  them  violence  ;  and  as  for  the 
gentlemen  taken  at  Shaftesbury,  it  was  only  to  answer  some  things 
they  were  accused  of,  which  they  had  done  contrary  to  law  and  the 
peace  of  the  Kingdom. — Herewith  they  seeming  to  be  well  satisfied, 
promised  to  return  to  their  houses  ;  and  accordingly  did  so. 
'  These  being  thus  quietly  sent  home,  the  Lieutenant-General 
advanced  further,  to  a  meeting  of  a  greater  number,  of  about  4,000, 
who  betook  themselves  to  Hambledon  Hill,  near  Shrawton.  Atthe 
bottom  of  the  Hill  ours  met  a  man  with  a  musket,  and  asked, 
Whither  he  was  going  ?  he  said  to  the  Club  Army  ;  ours  asked, 
What  he  meant  to  do  ?  he  asked,  What  they  had  to  do  with  that  ? 
Being  required  to  lay  down  his  arms,  he  said  he  would  first  lose  his 
fife  ;  but  was  not  so  good  as  his  word,  for  though  he  cocked,  and 
presented  his  musket,  he  was  prevented,  disarmed,  and  wounded,  but 
not ' — Here  however  is  Cromwell's  own  Narrative  : 

To  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  Commander  in  Chief 
of  the  Parliaments  Forces^   *  at  Sherborne:  These. ^ 

'  Shaftesbury,'  4th  August,  1645. 

Sir, 

I  marched  this  morning  towards  Shaftesbury.     In  my  way  I 
found  a  party  of  Clubmen  gathered  together,  about  two  miles  on   this 
side  of  the  Town,  towards  you  ;  and  one  Mr.  Newman  in  the  head  of 
*  Rushworth,  vi.  52.  f  pp.  78,  9. 


THE   CLUBMEN.  131 


them, — who  was  one  of  those  that  did  attend  you  at  Dorchester,  with 
Mr.  HoUis.  I  sent  to  them  to  know  the  cause  of  their  meeting  : 
Mr.  Newman  came  to  me  ;  and  told  me,  That  the  Clubmen  in 
Dorset  and  Wilts,  to  the  number  of  ten  thousand,  were  to  meet  about 
their  men  who  were  taken  away  at  Shaftesbury,  and  that  their  intend- 
ment was  to  secure  themselves  from  plundering.  To  the  first  I  told 
them.  That  although  no  account  was  due  to  them,  yet  1  knew  the  men 
were  taken  by  your  authority,  to  be  tried  judicially  for  raising  a  Third 
Party  in  the  Kingdom  ;  and  if  they  should  be  found  guilty,  they  must 
suffer  according  to  the  nature  of  their  otTence  ;  if  innocent,  I  assured 
them  you  would  acquit  them.  Upon  this  they  said,  If  they  have 
deserved  punishment,  they  would  not  have  anything  to  do  with  them  ; 
and  so  were  quieted  as  to  that  point  For  the  other  '  point,'  I  assured 
them,  That  it  was  your  great  care,  not  to  suffer  them  in  the  least  to 
be  plundered,  and  that  they  should  defend  themselves  from  violence, 
and  bring  to  your  Army  such  as  did  them  any  wrong,  where  they  should 
be  punished  with  all  severity  :  upon  this,  very  quietly  and  peaceably 
they  marched  away  to  their  houses,  being  very  well  satisfied  and 
contented. 

We  marched  on  to  Shaftesbury,  where  we  heard  a  great  body  of 
them  was  drawn  together  about  Hambledon  Hill  ; — where  indeed  near 
two  thousand  were  gathered.  I  sent  '  up '  a  folorn-hope  of  about 
fifty  Horse  ;  who  coming  very  civilly  to  them,  they  fired  upon  them  ; 
and  ours  desiring  some  of  them  to  come  to  me,  were  reluscd  With 
disdain.  They  were  drawn  into  one  of  the  old  Camps,"^  upon  a  very 
high  Hill  :  I  sent  one  Mr.  Leef  to  them,  To  certify  the  peaceableness 
of  my  intentions,  and  To  desire  them  to  peaceableness,  and  to  submit 
to  the  Parliament.  They  refused,  and  fired  at  us.  I  sent  him  a 
second  time.  To  let  ihem  know,  that  if  they  would  lay  down  their 
arms,  no  wrong  should  be  done  them.  They  still  (through  the  ani- 
mation of  their  leaders,  and  especially  two  vile  ministers)  refused  ;  I 
commanded  your  Captain-Lieutenant  to  draw  up  to  them,  to  be  in 
readiness  to  charge  ;  and  if  upon  his  falling-on,  they  would  lay  down 
arms,  to  accept  them  and  spare  them.  When  we  came  near,  they 
refused  his  offer,  and  let  fly  at  him  ;  killed- about  two  of  his  men.  and 
at  least  four  horses.  The  passage  not  being  for  above  three  abreast, 
kept  us  out  :  whereupon  Major  Desbrow  wheeled  about ;  got  m  the 
rear  of  them,  beat  them  from  the  work,  and  did  some  small  execution 
upon  them  ;— I  believe  killed  not  twelve  of  them,  but  cut  very  many, 
'  and  put  them  all  to  flight.'  We  have  taken  about  300  ;  many  of 
which  are  poor  silly  creatures,  whom  if  you  please  to  let  me  send 
home,  they  promise  to  be  very  dutiful  for  time  to  come,  and  will  be 
hanged  before  they  come  out  again. 

The  ringleaders  which  we  have,  I  intend  to  bring  to  you.  They 
had  taken  divers  of  the  Parhament  soldiers  prisoners,  besides  Colonel 
Fiennes  his  men  ;  and  used  them  most  barbarously  ;  bragging,  They 
hoped  to  see  my  Lord  Hopton,  and  that  he  is  to  command  them. 
They  expected  from  Wilts  great  store  ;  and  gave  out  they  meant  to 

"""  Roman  Camps  (Cough's  Camden,  i.  52). 

t   '  One  Mr.  Lee  who,  upon  the  approach   of  ours,  had  come  from  them.! 
,(Sprigge,  p.  79.) 

F  3 


132  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


raise  the  siege  at  Sherborne,  when  '  once '  they  were  all  met.  We 
have  gotten  great  store  of  their  arms,  and  they  carried  few  or  none 
home.  We  quarter  about  ten  miles  off,  and  purpose  to  draw  our 
quarters  near  to  you  to-morrow. 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*  On  Tuesday  at  night,  August  5th,  the  Lieutenant-General ' 
Cromwell  '  with  his  party  returned  to  Sherborne,' v  here  the  General 
and  the  rest  were  very  busy  besieging  the  inexpugnable  Sir  Lewis 
Dives. 

'  This  work,'  which  the  Lieutenant-General  had  now  been  upon, 
continues  Sprigge  *  though  unhappy,  was  very  necessary. 'f  No  mes- 
senger could  be  sent  out  but  he  was  picked  up  by  these  Clubmen  ; 
these  once  dispersed,  '  a  man  might  ride  very  quietly  from  Sherborne 
to  Salisbury.'  The  inexpugnable  Sir  Lewis  Dives  (a  thrasonical 
person  known  to  the  readers  of  Evelyn),  after  due  battering,  was  now 
soon  storm.ed  :  whereupon,  by  Letters  found  on  him,  it  became 
apparent  how  deeply  Royalist  this  scheme  of  Clubmen  had  been  : 
'  Commissions  for  raising  Regiments  of  Clubmen  ; '  the  design  to  be 
extended  over  England  at  large,  'yea  into  the  Associated  Counties  :' 
however,  it  has  now  come  to  nothing  ;  and  the  Army  turns  up  to  the 
Siege  of  Bristol,  where  Prince  Rupert  is  doing  all  he  can  to  entrench 
himself. 


LETTER  XV. 

STORM    OF    BRISTOL. 

*  On  the  Lord's  Day,  September  21,  according  to  Order  of  Parlia- 
'  ment,  Lieutenant-General  Ciom well's  Letter  on  the  taking  of  Bristol 
'  was  read  in  '  the  '  several  Congregations  about  London,  and  thanks 

*  returned  to  Almighty  God  for  the  admirable  and  wonderful  reducing 
'  of  that  city.     The  Letter  of  the  renowned  Commander  is  well  worth 

*  observation.';];  For  the  Siege  itself  and  what  preceded  and  followed 
it,  see  besides  this  Letter,  Rupert's  own  account, §  and  the  ample 
details  of  Sprigge  copied  with  abridgment  by  Rushworth  ;  Sayer's 
History  of  Brtsfol  gives  Plans,  and  all  manner  of  local  details,  though 
in  a  rather  vague  way. 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Commons 
House  of  Parliament :  These. 

Bristol,  14th  September,  1645. 

Sir, 

It  has  pleased  the  General  to  give  me  in  charge  to  represent 

*  Newspapers  (C'rcmweirana,  p.  20).     Also  Sprigi.e,  pp.  112,118. 

t  Sprigge,  p.  81. 

X  Newspapers,  Cromwelliana,  p.  24.  §  Rushworth,  vi.  69,  &c. 


STORM  OF  BRISTOL  13:5 

unto  you  a  particular  account  of  the  taking  of  Bristol  ;  the  which  I 
gladly  undertake. 

After  the  finishing  of  that  service  at  SherbDrn2,  it  was  disputed  at  a 
council  of  war,  Whether  W2  should  march  into  the  West  o^  to  Bristol  ? 
Amongst  other  arguments,  the  leaving  so  considerable  an  enemy  at 
our  backs,  to  march  into  the  heart  of  the  Kingdom,  the  undoing  of 
the  country  about  Bristol,  which  was  '  already'  exceedingly  harassed 
by  the  Prince  his  being  thereabouts  but  a  lortnight  ;  the  correspon- 
dency he  might  hold  in  Wales  ;  the  possibility  of  uniting  the  Enemy's 
forces  where  they  pleased,  and  especially  of  drawing  to  an  head  the 
disaffected  Clubmen  of  Somerset,  Wilts  and  Dorset,  when  once  our 
backs  were  toward  them  :  these  consideraticms,  together  with  '  the 
hope  of  taking  so  important  a  place,  so  advantageous  for  the  opening 
of  trade  to  London, — did  sway  the  balance,  and  beget  that  c  )nclusion. 

When  we  came  within  four  miles  of  the  City,  we  had  a  new  debate, 
Whether  we  should  endeavour  to  block  it  up,  or  make  a  regular 
siege  ?  The  latter  being  overruled,  Colonel  W^eiden  with  his  brigade 
marched  to  Pile  Hill,  on  the  South  side  of  the  City,  bjing  within 
musket-shot  thereof; — where  in  a  few  days  they  made  a  good  quarter, 
overlooking  the  City.  Upon  our  advance,  the  enemy  fired  Bed- 
minster,  Clifton,  and  some  other  villages  lying  near  to  the  City  ;  and 
would  have  fired  more,  if  our  unexpected  coming  had  not  hindered. 
The  General  caused  some  horse  and  Dragoons  under  Commissary- 
General  Ireton  to  advance  over  Avon,  to  keep-in  the  enemy  on  the 
North  side  of  the  Town,  till  the  foot  could  come  up  :  and  after  a  day, 
the  General,  with  Colonel  Montague's  and  Colonel  Rainsborough's 
brigades,  marched  over  at  Kensham  to  Stapleton,  where  he  quartered 
that  night.  The  next  day,  Colonel  Montague,  having  this  post 
assigned  with  his  brigade.  To  secure  all  between  the  Rivers  P>oom 
and  Avon  ;  he  came  up  to  Lawford's  Gate,*  within  musket-shot 
thereof.  Colonel  Rainsboi-ough's  post  was  near  to  Durdam  Down, 
whereof  the  Dragoons  and  three  regiments  of  Horse  made  good  a  post 
upon  the  Down,  between  him  and  the  River  Avon,  on  his  right  hand. 
And  from  Colonel  Rainsborough's  quarters  to  Froom  Ri\er,  on  his 
left,  a  part  of  Colonel  Birch's,  and  '  the  whole  of  General  Skippon's 
regiment  were  to  maintain  that  post. 

These  posts  thus  settled,  our  Horse  were  forced  to  be  upon  exceed- 
ing great  duty  ;  to  stand  by  the  Foot,  lest  the  Foot,  being  so  weak  in 
all  their  posts,  might  receive  an  affront  And  truly  herein  we  were 
very  happy,  that  we  should  receive  so  litde  loss  by  sallies  ;  consider- 
ing the  paucity  of  our  men  to  make  good  the  posts,  and  strength  of 
the  enemy  within.  By  sallies  (which  were  three  or  four)  I  know  not 
that  we  lost  thirty  men  in  all  the  time  of  our  siege.  Of  officers  of 
quality,  only  Colonel  Okey  was  taken  by  mistake  (going  '  of  himself 
to  the  enemy,  thinking  they  had  been  friends),  and  Captain  Guil- 
liams  slain  in  a  charge.  We  took  Sir  Bernard  Astley  ;  and  killed  Sir 
Richard  Crane,— one  very  considerable  with  the  Prince. 

We  had  a  council  of  war  concerning  the  storming  of  the  Towm, 
about  eight  da)S  before  we  took  it  ;  and  in  that  there  appeared  great 
unwillingness  to  the  work,  through  the  unseasonableness  of  the 
One  of  the  Bristol  Gates. 


m  PIRST  CIVIL  IVAi^. 

weather,  and  other  apparent  difficulties.  Some  inducement  to  bring 
us  thither  had  been  the  report  of  the  good  affection  of  the  Townsmen 
to  us  ;  but  that  did  not  answer  expectation.  Upon  a  second  con- 
sideration, it  was  overruled  for  a  storm.  And  all  things  seemed  to 
favour  the  design  ; — and  truly  there  hath  been  seldom  the  hke  cheer- 
fulness to  any  work  hke  to  this,  after  it  was  once  resolved  upon.  The 
day  and  hour  of  our  storm  was  appointed  to  be  on  Wednesday 
morning,  the  Tenth  of  September,  about  one  of  the  clock.  We  chose 
to  act  it  so  early  because  we  hoped  thereby  to  surprise  the  hnemy. 
With  this  resolution  also,  to  avoid  confusion  and  falling  foul  one  upon 
another.  That  when  '  once '  we  had  recovered*  the  Line,  and  Forts 
upon  it,  we  should  not  advance  further  till  day.  The  General's  signal 
unto  a  storm,  was  to  be,  The  firing  of  straw,  and  discharging  four 
pieces  of  cannon  at  Pryor's  Hill  Fort. 

The  signal  was  very  well  perceived  of  all ; — and  truly  the  men  went 
on  with  great  resolution  ;  and  very  presently  recovered  the  Line, 
making  way  for  the  Horse  to  enter.  Colonel  Montague  and  Colonel 
Pickering,  who  stormed  at  Lawford's  Gate,  where  was  a  double  work, 
well  filled  with  men  and  cannon,  presently  entered  ;  and  with  great 
resolution  beat  the  enemy  from  their  works,  and  possessed  their  can- 
non. Their  expedition  was  such  that  they  forced  the  enemy  from 
their  advantages,  without  any  considerable  loss  to  themselves.  They 
laid  down  the  bridges  for  the  Horse  to  enter  ; — Major  Desbrow,  com- 
manding the  Horse  ;  who  very  gallantly  seconded  the  Foot.  Then 
our  Foot  advanced  to  the  City  Walls  ;  where  they  possessed  the 
Gate  against  the  Castle  Street  :  whereinto  were  put  loo  men  ;  who 
made  it  good.  Sir  Hardress  Waller  with  his  own  and  the  General's 
regiment,  with  no  less  resolution,  entered  on  the  other  side  of  Law- 
ford's  Gate,  towards  Avon  River ;  and  put  themselves  into  immediate 
conjunction  with  the  rest  of  the  brigade. 

During  this,  Colonel  Rainsborough  and  Colonel  Hammond 
attempted  Pryor's  Hill  Fort,  and  the  Line  downwards  towards 
Froom  ;  and  the  Major-General's  regiment  being  to  storm  towards 
Froom  River,  Colonel  Hammond  possessed  the  Line  immediately, 
and  beating  the  enemy  from  it,  made  way  for  the  Horse  to  enter. 
Colonel  Rainsborough,  who  had  the  hardest  task  of  all  at  Pryor's 
Hill  Fort  attempted  it  ;  and  fought  near  three  hours  for  it.  And 
indeed  there  was  great  despair  of  carrying  the  place  ;  it  being  exceed- 
ing high,  a  ladder  of  thirty  rounds  scarcely  reaching  the  top  thereof ; 
but  his  resolution  was  such  that,  notwithstanding  the  inaccessibleness 
and  difficulty,  he  would  not  give  it  over.  The  enemy  had  four  pieces 
of  cannon  upon  it,  which  they  plied  with  round  and  case  shot  upon 
our  men  :  his  Lieutenant-Colonel  Bowen,  and  others,  were  two  hours 
at  push  of  pike,  standing  upon  the  palisadoes,  but  could  not  enter. 
'But  now'  Colonel  Hammond  being  entered  the  Line  (and 'here' 
Captain  Iretonf  with  a  forlorn  of  Colonel  Rich's  regiment  interpos- 
ing with  his  Horse  between  the  Enemy's   Horse  and  Colonel  Ham- 

*  recovered  means  '  taken,'  '  got  possession  of  : '  the  Line  is  a  new  earthen  work 
outside  the  wails  ;  very  deficient  in  height  according  to  Ruperfs  account. 

f  This  is  n  )t  the  famous  Ireton ;  this  is  his  Brother.  '  Commissary-General 
Ireton,'  as  we  ha\  e  seen,  is  also  here ;  he  is  not  wedded  yet. 


STORM  OF  BRISTOL.  135; 

mond,  received  a  shot  with  two  pistol-bullets,  which  broke  his  arm), 
— by  means  of  this  entrance  of  Colonel  Hammond  they  did  storm  the 
Fort  on  that  part  which  was  inward  ;  '  and  so '  Colonel  Rainsborough's 
and  Colonel  Hammond's  men  entered  the  Fort,  and  immediately  put 
almost  all  the  men  in  it  to  the  sword. 

And  as  this  was  the  place  of  most  difficulty,  so  '  it  was '  of  most  loss 
to  us  on  that  side, — and  of  very  great  honour  to  the  undertaker.  The 
Horse  'too'  did  second  them  with  great  resolution:  both  these 
Colonels  do  acknowledge  that  M^'/r  interposition  between  the  enemy's 
Horse  and  their  Foot,  was  a  great  means  of  obtaining  of  this  strong 
Fort.  Without  which  all  the  rest  of  the  Line  to  Froom  River  would 
have  done  us  little  good  :  and  indeed  neither  Horse  nor  Foot  could 
have  stood  in  all  that  way,  in  any  manner  of  security,  had  not  the 
Fort  been  taken. — Major  Bethel's  were  the  first  Horse  that  entered 
the  Line  ;  who  did  behave  himself  gallantly  ;  and  was  shot  in  the 
thigh,  had  one  or  two  shot  more,  and  had  his  horse  shot  under  him. 
Colonel  Birch  with  his  men,  and  the  Major-General's  regiment,  en- 
tered with  very  good  resolution  where  their  post  was  ;  possessing  the 
enemy's  guns,  and  turning  them  upon  them. 

By  this,  all  the  Line  from  Pryor's  Hill  Fort  to  Avon  (which  was  a 
full  mile),  with  all  the  forts,  ordnance  and  bulwarks,  were  possessed 
by  us  ; — save  one,  wherein  were  about  Two  hundred  and  twenty  men 
of  the  Enemy  ;  which  the  General  summoned,  and  all  the  men  sub- 
mitted. 

The  success  on  Colonel  Welden's  side  did  not  answer  with  this. 
And  although  the  Colonels,  and  other  the  officers  and  soldiers  both 
Horse  and  Foot,  testified  as  much  resolution  as  could  be  expected, — 
Colonel  Welden,  Colonel  Ingoldsby,  Colonel  Herbert,  and  the  rest  of 
the  Colonels  and  officers,  both  of  Horse  and  Foot,  doing  what  could 
be  well  looked  for  from  men  of  honour, — yet  what  by  reason  of  the 
height  of  the  works,  which  proved  higher  than  report  made  them, 
and  the  shortness  of  the  ladders,  they  were  repulsed  with  the  loss  of 
about  One  hundred  men.  Colonel  Fortescue's  Lieutenant-Colonel 
was  killed,  and  Major  Cromwell*  dangerously  shot;  and  two  of 
Colonel  Ingoldsby's  brothers  hurt;  with  some  officers. 

Being  possessed  of  thus  much  as  hath  been  related,  the  Town  was 
fired  in  three  places  by  the  Enemy  ;  which  we  could  not  put  out. 
Which  begat  a  great  trouble  in  the  General,  and  us  all;  fearing  to  see 
so  famous  a  City  burnt  to  ashes  before  our  faces.  Whilst  we  were 
viewing  so  sad  a  spectacle,  and  consulting  which  way  to  make  further 
advantage  of  our  success,  the  Prince  sent  a  trumpet  to  the  General 
to  desire  a  treaty  for  the  surrender  of  the  Town.  To  which  the 
General  agreed  ;  and  deputed  Colonel  Montague,  Colonel  Rains- 
borough,  and  Colonel  Pickering  for  that  service  ;  authorising  them 
with  instructions  to  treat  and  conclude  the  Articles, — which  '  accord- 
ingly' are  these  enclosed.  For  performance  whereof  hostages  were 
mutually  giver. 

On  Thursday  about  two  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  Prince 
inarched  out ;  having  a  convoy  of  two  regiments  of  Horse  from  us ; 

*  A  roil. sin. 


136  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

and  making  election  of  Oxford  for  the  place  he  would  go  to,  which  he 
had  liberty  to  do  by  his  Articles. 

The  cannon  which  we  have  taken  are  about  One  hundred  and  forty 
mounted  ;  about  One  hundred  barrels  of  powder  already  come  to  our 
hands,  with  a  good  quantity  of  shot,  ammunition,  and  arms.  We  have 
found  already  between  Two  and  Three  thousand  muskets.  The 
Royal  Fort  had  victual  in  it  for  One  hundred  and  fifty  men,  for  Three 
hundred  and  twenty  days  ;  the  Castle  victualled  for  nearly  half  so 
long. ,  The  Prince  had  in  Foot  of  the  Garrison,  as  the  Mayor  of  the 
City  informed  me.  Two  thousand  five  hundred,  and  about  One  thou- 
sand Horse,  besides  the  Trained  Bands  of  the  Town,  and  Auxiliaries 
One  thousand,  some  say  One  thousand  five  hundred. —  I  hear  but  of 
one  man  that  hath  died  of  the  plague  in  all  our  Army,  although  we 
have  quartered  amongst  and  in  the  midst  of  infected  persons  and 
places.  We  had  not  killed  of  ours  in  the  Storm,  nor  in  all  this  Siege, 
Two  hundred  men. 

Thus  I  have  given  you  a  true,  but  not  a  full  account  of  this  great 
business  ;  wherein  he  that  runs  may  read,  That  all  this  is  none  other 
than  the  work  of  God.  He  must  be  a  very  Atheist  that  doth  not 
acknowledge  it. 

It  may  be  thought  that  some  praises  are  due  to  those  gallant  men, 
of  whose  valour  so  much  mention  is  made  : — their  humble  suit  to  you 
and  all  that  have  an  interest  in  this  blessing,  is,  1  hat  in  the  remem- 
brance of  God's  praises  they  be  forgotten.  It's  their  joy  that  ihey  are 
instruments  of  God's  glory,  and  their  country's  good.  It's  their 
honour  that  God  vouchsafes  to  use  them.  Sir,  they  that  have  been 
employed  in  this  service  know,  that  faith  and  prayer  obtained  this 
City  for  you  :  I  do  not  say  ours  only,  but  of  the  people  of  God  with 
you  and  all  England  over,  who  have  wrestled  with  God  for  a  blessing 
in  this  very  thing.  Our  desires  are  that  God  may  be  glorified  by  the 
same  spirit  of  faith  by  which  we  ask  all  our  sufficiency,  and  have  re- 
ceived it.  It  is  meet  that  He  have  all  the  praise.  Presbyterians, 
Independents,  all  have  here  the  same  spirit  of  faith  and  prayer;  the 
same  presence  and  answer  ;  they  agree  here,  have  no  names  of  differ- 
ence :  pity  it  is  it  should  be  otherwise  anywhere  !  All  that  be- 
lieve, have  the  real  unity,  which  is  most  glorious  ;  because  inward, 
and  spiritual,  in  the  Bod)',  and  to  the  Head,*  For  being  united 
in  forms,  commonly  called  Uniformity,  every  Christian  will  for  peace- 
sake  study  and  do,  as  far  as  conscience  will  permit  And  for 
brethren,  in  things  of  the  mind  we  look  for  no  compulsion,  but  that 
of  light  and  reason.  In  other  things,  God  hath  put  the  sword  in 
the  Parliament's  hands, — for  the  terror  of  evil-doers  and  the  praise  of 
them  that  do  well.  If  any  plead  exemption  from  that, — he  knowi 
not  the  Gospel  :  if  any  would  wring  that  out  of  your  hands,  or  steal 
it  from  you  under  what  pretence  soever,  I  hope  they  shall  do  it  with- 
out effect.  That  God  may  maintain  it  in  your  hands,  and  direct  you 
in  the  use  thereof,  is  the  prayer  of 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. f 

*  '  Head'  means  Christ ;  'Body'  is  True  Church  of  Christ. 
t  Rushworth.  vi.  85. 


Winchester.  ryj 


These  last  paragraphs  are,  as  the  old  Newspapers  say,  'very 
remarkable.'  If  modern  readers  suppose  them  to  be  '  cant,'  it  will 
turn  out  an  entire  mistake.  I  advise  all  modern  readers  not  only 
to  believe  that  Cromwell  here  means  what  he  says  ;  but  even  to  try 
how  they,  each  for  himself  in  a  new  dialect,  could  mean  the  like  or 
something  better  ! — 

Prince  Rupert  rode  out  of  Bristol  amid  seas  of  angry  human  faces 
glooming  unutterable  things  upon  him  ;  growling  audibly,  in  spite  of 
his  escort,  "  Why  not  hang  hi?n  !  "  For  indeed  the  poor  Prince  had 
been  necessitated  to  much  plunder ;  commanding  '  the  elixir  of  the 
'  Blackguardism  of  the  three  Kingdoms,'  with  very  insufficient  funds 
for  most  part  ! — He  begged  a  thousand  muskets  from  Fairfax  on  this 
occasion,  to  assist  his  escort  in  protecting  him  across  the  country  to 
Oxford  ;  promising  on  his  honour  to  return  them  after  that  service. 
Fairfax  lent  the  muskets  ;  the  Prince  did  honourably  return  them, 
whart  he  had  of  them, — honourably  apologising  that  so  many  had 
'  deserted '  on  the  road,  of  whom  neither  man  nor  musket  were 
recoverable  at  present. 


LETTERS     XVL— XVIII. 

From  Bristol  the  Army  turned  Southward  again,  to  deal  with  the  yet 
remaining  force  of  Royalism  in  that  quarter.  Sir  Ralph  Hopton,  with 
Goring  and  others  under  him,  made  stubborn  resistance ;  but  were 
constantly  worsted,  at  Langport,  at  Torrington,  wheresoever  they 
rallied  and  made  a  new  attempt.  The  Parliament  Army  went 
steadily  and  rapidly  on  ;  storming  Bridgwater,  storming  all  manner  of 
Towns  and  Castles  ;  clearing  the  ground  before  them  :  till  Sir  Ralph 
was  driven  into  Cornwall  ;  and,  without  resource  or  escape,  saw  him- 
self obliged  next  spring*  to  surrender,  and  go  beyond  seas.  A  brave 
and  honourable  man  ;  respected  on  both  sides  ;  and  of  all  the  King's 
Generals  the  most  deserving  respect.  He  lived  in  retirement  abroad  ; 
taking  no  part  in  Charles  Second's  businesses  ;  and  died  in  honour- 
able poverty  before  the  Restoration, 

The  following  Three  Letters  are  what  remain  to  us  concerning 
Cromwell's  share  in  that  course  of  victories.  He  was  present  in 
various  general  or  partial  Fights  from  Langport  to  Bovey  Tracey ; 
became  especially  renowned  by  his  Sieges,  and  took  many  Strong 
Places  besides  those  mentioned  here. 

LETTER    XVL 

*  Tj  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Commons 
House  of  Parliament:    These  ^ 

'  Winchester,  6th  October,  1645.' 

Sir, 

I  came  to  Winchester  on  the  Lord's  day,  the  28th  of  Septem- 
ber ;  with  Colonel  Pickering, — commanding  his  own.  Colonel  Mon- 
Truro,  14th  March,  1646  (Ku-h worth,  vi.  iioV 


I3S  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


tague's,  and  Sir  Hardress  Waller's  regiments.  After  some  dispute 
with  the  Governor,  we  entered  the  Town.  I  summoned  the  Castle  ; 
was  denied  ;  whereupon  we  fell  to  prepare  batteries, — which  we  could 
not  perfect  (some  of  our  guns  being  out  of  order)  until  Friday  fol- 
lowing. Our  battery  was  six  guns  ;  which  being  finished, — after  firing 
one  round,  I  sent  in  a  second  summons  for  a  treaty  ;  which  they 
refused.  Whereupon  we  went  on  with  our  work,  and  made  a  breach 
in  the  wall  near  the  Black  Tower  ;  which,  after  about  200  shot,  we 
thought  stormable  ;  and  purposed  on  Monday  morning  to  attempt  it. 
On  Sunday  night,  about  ten  of  the  clock,  the  Governor  beat  a  parley, 
desiring  to  treat.  I  agreed  unto  it  ;  and  sent  Colonel  Hammond  and 
Major  Harrison  in  to  him,  who  agreed  upon  these  enclosed  Articles. 

Sir,  this  is  the  addition  of  another  mercy.  You  see  God  is  not 
weary  in  doing  you  good  :  I  confess,  Sir,  His  favour  to  you  is  as 
visible,  when  He  comes  by  His  power  upon  the  hearts  of  your  enemies, 
making  them  quit  places  of  strength  to  you,  as  when  He  gives  courage 
to  your  soldiers  to  attempt  hard  things.  His  goodness  in  this  is  much 
to  be  acknowledged  :  for  the  Castle  was  well  manned  with  680  horse 
and  foot,  there  being  near  200  gentlemen,  officers,  and  their  servants  ; 
well  victualled  with  1 5,000  weight  of  cheese  ;  very  great  store  of  wheat 
and  beer  ;  near  twenty  barrels  of  powder,  seven  pieces  of  cannon  ;  the 
works  were  exceeding  good  and  strong.  It's  very  likely  it  would  have 
cost  much  blood  to  have  gained  it  by  storm.  We  have  not  lost  twelve 
men :  this  is  repeated  to  you,  that  God  may  have  all  the  praise,  for 
it's  all  His  due. 

Sir,  I  r^st, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell's  Secretary,'  who  brings  this  Letter, 
gets  £'^0  for  his  good  news.t  By  Sprigge's  account,^  he  appears  to 
have  been  *  Mr.  Hugh  Peters,'  this  '  Secretary.'  Peters  there  makes  a 
verbal  Narrative  of  the  affair,  to  Mr,  Speaker  and  the  Commons, 
which,  were  not  room  so  scanty,  we  should  be  glad  to  insert. 

It  was  at  this  surrender  of  Winchester  that  certain  of  the  captive 
enemies  having  complained  of  being  plundered  contrary  to  Articles, 
Cromwell  had  the  accused  parties,  six  of  his  own  soldiers,  tried  :  being 
all  found  guilty,  one  of  them  by  lot  was  hanged,  and  the  other  five 
were  marched  off  to  Oxford,  to  be  there  disposed  of  as  the  Governor 
saw  fit.  The  Oxford  Governor  politely  returned  the  five  prisoners, 
'with  an  acknowledgment  of  the  Lieutenant- General's  nobleness.§ 


LETTER    XVII. 

Basing  House,  Pawlet  Marquis  of  Winchester's  Mansion,  stood,  as 
the  ruined  heaps  still  testify,  at  a  small  distance  from  Basingstoke  in 
Hampshire.     It  had  long  infested  the  Parliament  in  those  quarters; 

*  Sprigge,  p.  128.  and  Newspapers  (in  C romwelliana,  p.  25). 
t  Commons  Journals,  7th  Ociober,  1645.  J  p.  129. 

§  Sprigge,  p,  133. 


BASING  HOUSE.  139 


and  been  especially  a  great  eyesorrow  to  the  '  Trade  of  London  with 
the  Western  Parts.'  With  Dennington  Castle  at  Newbury,  and  this 
Basing  House  at  Basingstoke,  there  was  no  travelling  the  western 
roads,  except  with  escort,  or  on  sufferance.  The  two  places  had  often 
been  attempted^  but  always  in  vain.  Basing  House  especially  had 
stood  siege  after  siege,  for  four  years  :  ruining  poor  Colonel  This  and 
then  poor  Colonel  That  :  the  jubilant  Royalists  had  given  it  the  name 
of  Basil  fig  House  ;  there  was,  on  the  Parliament  side,  a  kind  of 
passion  to  have  Basing  House  taken.  The  Lieutenant-General, 
gathering  all  the  artillery  he  can  lay  hold  of;  firing  about  200  or  500 
shot  at  some  given  point  till  he  sees  a  hole  made  ;  and  then  storming 
like  a  fireflood  :— he  perhaps  may  manage  it. 

To  the  Honourable  William  Le?tthall,  Speaker  of  the  Co7nmons 
House  of  Parliament :  These. 

Basingstoke,  14th  October,  1645. 

Sir, 

I  thank  God,  I  can  give  you  a  good  account  of  Basing.  After 
our  batteries  placed,  we  settled  the  several  posts  for  the  storm  : 
Colonel  Dalbier  was  to  be  on  the  north  side  of  the  House  next  the 
Grange ;  Colonel  Pickering  on  his  left  hand,  and  Sir  Hardress 
Waller's  and  Colonel  Montague's  regiments  next  him.  We  stormed 
this  morning  after  six  of  the  clock  ;  the  signal  for  falling  on  was  the 
firing  four  of  our  cannon,  which  being  done,  our  men  fell  on  with 
great  resolution  and  cheerfulness  ;  we  Took  the  two  Houses  without 
any  considerable  loss  to  ourselves.  Colonel  Pickering  stormed  the 
New  House,  passed  through,  and  got  the  gate  of  the  Old  House, 
whereupon  they  summoned  a  parley,  which  our  men  would  not  hear. 

In  the  mean  time  Colonel  Montague's  and  Sir  Hardress  Waller's 
regiments  assaulted  the  strongest  work,  where  the  Enemy  kept  his 
Court  of  Guard  ; — which,  with  great  resolution,  they  recovered  ;  beat- 
ing the  Enemy  from  a  whole  culverin,  and  from  that  work  :  which 
having  done,  they  drew  their  ladders  after  them,  and  got  over  another 
work,  and  the  house-wall,  before  they  could  eater.  In  this  Sir 
Hadress  Waller  performed  his  duty  with  honour  and  diligence  ;  was 
shot  on  the  arm,  but  not  dangerously. 

We  have  had  little  loss  :  many  of  the  enemies  our  men  put  to  the 
sword,  and  some  officers  of  quality  ;  most  of  the  rest  we  have  pri- 
soners, amongst  whom  the  Marquis  *  of  Winchester  himself  and  Sir 
Robert  Peak,  with  divers  other  officers,  whom  I  have  ordered  to  be 
sent  up  to  you.  We  have  taken  about  ten  pieces  of  ordnance,  with 
much  ammunition,  and  our  soldiers  a  good  encouragement. 

I  humbly  offer  to  you,  to  have  this  place  utterly  slighted,  for  these 
following  reasons  :  It  will  ask  about  eight  hundred  men  to  manage  it; 
it  is  no  frontier  ;  the  country  is  poor  about  it ;  the  place  exceedingly 
ruined  by  our  batteries  and  mortar  pieces,  and  by  a  fire  which  fell 
upon  the  place  since  our  taking  it.  If  you  please  to  take  the  garrison 
at  Farnham,  some  out  of  Chichester,  and  a  good  part  of  the  foot 
which  were  here  under  Dalbier,  and  to  make  a  strong  quarter  at 
Newbury  with  three  or  four  troops  of  horse, — I  dare  be  confident  it 
would  not  only  be  a  curb  to  Dennington,  but  a  security  and  a  frontier 


140  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


to  all  these  parts  ;  inasmuch  as  Newbury  lies  upon  the  River,  and 
will  prevent  any  incursion  from  Dennington,  Wallingford,  or  Farring- 
don  into  these  parts  ;  and  by  lying  there,  will  make  the  trade  most 
secure  between  Bristol  and  London  for  all  carriages.  And  I  believe 
the  gentlemen  of  Sussex  and  Hampshire  will  with  more  cheerfulness 
contribute  to  maintain  a  garrison  on  the  frontier,  than  in  their  bowels, 
which  will  have  less  safety  in  it. 

Sir,  I  hope  not  to  delay,  but  to  march  towards  the  West  tomorrow  : 
and  to  be  as  diligent  as  I  may  in  my  expedition  thither.  I  must 
speak  my  judgment  to  you.  That  if  you  intend  to  have  your  work 
carried  on,  recruits  of  Foot  must  be  had,  and  a  course  taken  to  pay 
your  Army  ;  else,  believe  me.  Sir,  it  may  not  be  able  to  answer  the 
work  you  have  for  it  to  do. 

I  entrusted  Colonel  Hammond  to  wait  upon  you,  who  was  taken  by 
a  mistake  whilst  we  lay  before  this  Garrison,  whom  God  safely 
delivered  to  us,  to  our  great  joy  ;  but  to  his  loss  of  almost  all  he  had, 
which  the  Enemy  took  from  him.  The  Lord  grant  that  these  mercies 
may  be  acknowledged  with  all  thankfulness;  God  exceedingly  abounds 
in  His  goodness  to  us,  and  will  not  be  weary  until  righteousness  and 
peace  meet  ;  and  until  He  hath  brought  forth  a  glorious  work  for  the 
happiness  of  this  poor  Kingdom.  Wherein  desires  to  serve  God  and 
you,  with  a  faithful  hand, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

Colonel  Hammond,  whom  we  shall  by  and  by  see  again,  brought 
this  good  news  to  London,  and  had  his  reward  ;t  Mr.  Peters  also, 
being  requested  '  to  make  a  relation  to  the  House  of  Commons,  spake 
as  follows.'  The  reader  will  like  to  hear  Mr.  Peters  for  once,  a  man 
concerning  whom  he  has  heard  so  many  falsehoods  and  to  see  an  old 
grim  scene  through  his  eyes.     Mr.  Peters  related  : 

"  That  he  came  into  Basing  House  some  time  after  the  storm,"  on 
Tuesday  14th  of  October,  1645  I — "  ^.nd  took  a  view  first  of  the  works; 
"  which  were  many,  the  circumvallation  being  above  a  mile  in  com- 
"  pass.  The  Old  House  had  stood  (as  it  is  reported)  two  or  three 
"hundred  years,  a  nest  of  Idolatry  ;  the  New  House  surpassing  that, 
"  in  beauty  and  stateliness  ;  and  either  of  them  fit  to  make  an 
"  Emperor's  court. 

"  The  rooms  before  the  storm  (it  seems),  in  both  Houses,  were  all 
"  completely  furnished  ;  provisions  for  some  years  rather  than  months: 
"  400  quarters  of  wheat  ;  bacon  divers  rooms-full,  containing  hundreds 
"  of  flitches  ;  cheese  proportionable  ;  with  oatmeal,  beef,  pork  ;  beei 
"  divers  cellars- full,  and  that  very  good,"— Mr.  Peters  having  taken  a 
draught  of  the  same. 

"A  bed  in  one  room,  furnished,  which  cost  ^1,300.  Popish  books 
"many,  with  copes,  and  such  utensils.  In  truth,  the  House  stood  in 
"  its  full  pride  ;  and  the  Enemy  was  persuaded  that  it  would  be  the 
"  last  piece  of  ground  that  would  be  taken  by  the  Parliament,  because 
"  they  had  so  often  foiled  our  forces  which  had  formerly  appeared 

*  ^P'igge,  p.  139;  and  the  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  27). 
f  Commons  Journal?,  iv.  309. 


BASING  HOUSE.  141 


"  before  it.  In  the  several  rooms  and  about  the  House,  there  were 
"  slain  74,  and  only  one  woman,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Griffith,  who  by 
"  her  railing,"  poor  lady,  "  provoked  our  soldiers  (then  in  heat)  into  a 
"  further  passion.  There  lay  dead  upon  the  ground.  Major  Cuffle  ; — 
"  a  man  of  great  account  amongst  them,  and  a  notor.ious  Papist ; 
"  slain  by  the  hands  of  Major  Harrison,  that  godly  and  gallant  gentle- 
"  man," — all  men  know  him  ;  "  and  Robinson  the  Player,  who  a  little 
"before  the  storm  was  known  to  be  mocking  and  scorning  the  Par- 
"  liament,  and  our  Army.  Eight  or  nine  gentlewomen  of  rank,  run- 
"  ning  forth  together,  were  entertciined  by  the  common  soldiers  some- 
"  what  coarsely  ; — yet  not  uncivilly,  considering  the  action  in  hand. 

"  The  plunder  of  the  soldiers  continued  till  Tuesday  night  :  one 
"soldier  had  120  Pieces  in  gold  for  his  share;  others  plate,  others 
"jewels; — among  the  rest,  one  got  three  bags  of  silver,  which  (he 
"  being  not  able  to  keep  his  own  counsel)  grew  to  be  common  pillage 
"amongst  the  rest,  and  the  fellow  had  but  one  hali-crown  left  for 
"  himself  at  last. — The  soldiers  sold  the  wheat  to  country  people  ; 
"  which  they  held  up  at  good  rates  a  while  ;  but  afterwards  the  market 
"fell,  and  there  were  some  abatements  for  haste.  After  that,  they 
"sold  the  household  stuff;  whereof  there  was  good  store,  and  the 
"  country  loaded  away  many  carts  ;  and  they  continued  a  great  while, 
"fetching  out  all  manner  of  household  stuff,  till  they  had  fetched  out 
"  all  the  stools,  chairs,  and  other  lumber,  all  which  they  sold  to  the 
"  country  people  by  piecemeal. 

"  In  all  these  great  buildings,  there  was  not  one  iron  bar  left  in  all 
"the  windows  isave  only  what  were  on  fire),  before  night.  And  the 
"  last  work  of  all  was  the  lead  ;  and  by  Wednesday  morning,  they 
"had  hardly  left  one  gutter  about  the  House.  And  what  the  soldiers 
"left,  the  fire  took  hold  on  ;  which  made  more  than  ordinary  haste  ; 
"  leaving  nothing  but  bare  walls  and  chimneys  in  less  than  twenty 
"  hours  ; — being  occasioned  by  the  neglect  of  the  Enemy  in  quench- 
"  ing  a  fire-ball  of  ours  at  first." — What  a  scene  ! 

"  We  know  not  how  to  give  a  just  account  of  the  number  of  persons 
"  that  were  within.  For  we  have  not  quite  three  hundred  prisoners  ; 
"and  it  may  be,  have  found  an  hundred  slain,— whose  bodies,  some 
"being  covered  with  rubbish,  came  not  at  once  to  our  view.  Only, 
"riding  to  the  House  on  Tuesday  night,  we  heard  divers  crying  in 
"vaults  for  quarter;  but  our  men  could  neither  come  to  them,  nor 
"they  to  us.  Amongst  those  that  we  saw  slain,  one  of  their  Officers 
"  lying  on  the  ground,  seeming  so  exceeding  tall,  was  measured  ;  and 
"  from  his  great  toe  to  his  crown  was  9  feet  in  length"  {sk). 

"The  Marquis  being  pressed,  by  Mr.  Peters  arguing  with  him," 
urging  him  to  yield  before  it  came  to  storm,  "broke  out  and  said, 
"'That  if  the  King  had  no  more  ground  in  England  but  Basing 
"  House,  he  would  adventure  as  he  did,  and  so  maintain  it  to  the 
"uttermost;' — meaning  with  these  Papists;  comforting  himself  in 
"  his  disasters.  That  Basing  House  was  called  Loyalty.  But  he  was 
"soon  silenced  in  the  question  concerning  the  King  and  Parliament ; 
"  and  could  only  hope  '  That  the  King  might  have  a  day  again.'— And 
"thus  the  Lord  was  pleased  in  a  few  hours  to  shew  us  what  mortal 
"  seed  all  earthly  glory  grows  upon  ;  and  how  just  and  righteous  the 


142  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 

"  ways  of  God  are,  who  takes  sinners  in  their  own  snares,  and  hfteth 
"up  the  hands  of  His  dispised  people. 

"  This  is  now  the  Twentieth  garrison  that  hath  been  taken  in  this 
"  Summer  by  this  Army  : — and,  I  beUeve  most  of  them  the  answers  of 
"  the  prayers,  and  trophies  of  the  faith,  of  some  of  God's  servants. 
"The  Commander  of  this  Brigade,"  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell, 
"  had  spent  much  time  with  God  in  prayer  the  night  before  the 
"  storm  ; — and  seldom  fights  without  some  Text  of  Scripture  to  sup- 
"  port  him.  This  time  he  rested  upon  that  blessed  word  of  God, 
"  written  in  the  Hundred-and-fifteenth  Psalm,  eighth  verse,  They  that 
"  make  thejn  are  like  itnto  themj  so  is  every  ojie  that  trust eth  in  the7n. 
"  Which,  with  some  verses  going  before,  was  now  accomplished."* 

'  Mr.  Peters  presented  the  Marquis's  own  Colours,  which  he  brought 
'from  Basing  ;  the  Motto  of  which  was.  Donee  pax  redeat  terrisj  the 

*  very  same  as  King  Charles  gave  upon  his  Coronation-money,  when 
'he  came  to  the  Crown. 'f — So   Mr.  Peters  ;  and  then  withdrew, — 

*  getting  by  and  by  ^200  a  year  settled  on  him.| 

This  letter  was  read  in  all  Pulpits  next  Sunday,  with  thanks 
rendered  to  Heaven,  by  order  of  Parliament.  Basing  House  is  to 
be  carted  away  ;  '  whoever  will  come  for  brick  or  stone  shall  freely 
have  the  same  for  his  pains.'§ 

Among  the  names  of  the  Prisoners  taken  here  one  reads  that  of 
Inif^o  Jo7tes, — unfortunate  old  Inigo.  Vertue,  on  what  evidence  I 
know  not,  asserts  farther  that  Wenceslaus  Hollar,  with  his  graving- 
tools,  and  unrivalled  graving-talent,  was  taken  here.||  The  Marquis 
of  Winchester  had  been  addicted  to  the  Arts, — to  the  Upholsteries 
perhaps  still  more.  A  magnificent  kind  of  man  :  whose  '  best  bed,' 
now  laid  bare  to  general  inspection,  excited  the  wonder  of  the  world. 


LETTER    XVI I L 

Fairfax  with  the  Army  is  in  Devonshire ;  the  following  Letter 
will  find  him  at  Tiverton  ;  Cromwell  marching  that  way,  having  now 
ended  Basing.  It  is  ordered  in  the  Commons  House  that  Cromwell 
be  thanked  ;  moreover  that  he  now  attack  Dennington  Castle,1T  of 
which  we  heard  already  at  Newbury.  These  Messages  overtake 
him  on  the  road.  This  fraction  of  old  Museum  Manuscript  is  now 
legible  : — 

*  '  Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  Name  give  glory ;  for  thy 
'  mercy  and  for  thy  truth's  sake.  Wherefore  should  the  Heathen  say.  Where  is 
'  now  their  God  ?  Our  God  is  in  the  heavens  :  he  hath  done  whatsoever  he  hath 
'  pleased?— Their  Idols  are  silver  and  gold;  the  work  of  men's  hands.  They 
'  have  mouths,  but  they  speak  not;  eyes  have  they,  but  they  see  not  :  they  have 
•  ears,  but  they  hear  not  ;  noses  have  they,  but  they  smell  not  :  they  have  hands, 
'  but  they  handle  not ;  feet  have  they,  but  they  walk  not  :  neither  speak  they 
'  through  their  throat !  They  that  make  them  are  like  unto  them  ;  so  is  everyone 
'  that  trusteth  in  them." — These  words,  awful  as  the  words  of  very  God,  were  in 
Oliver  Cromwell's  heart  that  night. 

t  Sprigge,  pp.  139-41.  +  Whitlocke.  §  Commons  Jour.  iv.  309. 

II  Life  of  Hollar.  \  Commons  Journals,  15  October,  1645. 


WALLOP.  143 


To  the  Right  Honourable  Sif  Thomas  Fairfax,  General  of  the 
Parliainenfs  Army."*  Haste:  These. 

Wallop,  14th  [error  for  i6th]  October,  1645. 

Sir, 

In  to-day's  march  I  came  to  Wallop,  twenty  miles  from  Basing, 
towards  you.  That  night  I  received  this  enclosed  from  the  House  of 
Commons  ;  which  I  thought  fit  to  send  you  ;  and  to  which  I  returned 
an  answer,  a  copy  whereof  I  have  also  sent  enclosed  to  you, 

I  perceive  that  it's  their  desire  to  have  the  placet  taken  in.  But 
truly  I  could  not  do  other  than  let  them  know  what  the  condition  of 
affairs  in  the  West  is,  and  submit  the  business  to  them  and  you.  I 
shall  be  at  Langford  to-morrow  night,  if  God  please.  I  hope  the 
work  will  not  be  long.  If  it  should,  I  will  rather  leave  a  small  part  of 
the  Foot  (if  Horse  -vill  not  be  sufficient  to  take  it  in),  than  be  detained 
from  obeying  such  commands  as  I  shall  receive.  I  humbly  beseech 
you  to  be  confident  that  no  man  hath  a  more  faithful  heart  to  serve 
you  than  myself,  nor  shall  be  more  strict  to  obey  your  commands 
than 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

Sir,  I  beseech  you  to  let  me  know  your  resolution  in  this  business 
with  all  the  possible  speed  that  may  be  ;  because  whatsoever  I  be 
designed  to,  I  wish  I  may  speedily  endeavour  it,  time  being  so  precious 
for  action  in  this  season. | 

The  date  '14th'  is  evidently  an  erroi;.  Basing,  as  we  have  just 
seen,  was  taken  on  the  14th  ;  news  of  it  are  read  in  the  House  on 
Wednesday  the  15th,  and  'a  Letter  ordered  to  be  written,'  which 
naturally  arrives,  on  the  road  from  Basing  to  Langford,  on  the  i6th  ; 
and  is  here  forwarded  from  Wallop  in  haste  that  same  evening. 
Langford  House,  whither  Oliver  is  now  bound,  hoping  to  arrive  next 
night,  is  near  Salisbury.  He  did  arrive  accordingly  ;  drew  out  part 
of  his  brigade,  and  summoned  the  place  :  place  surrenders  ;  '  to  march 
forth  to-morrow  at  twelve  of  the  clock,  being  the  i8th  instant. '§ 

Colonel  Dalbier,  a  man  of  Dutch  birth,  well  known  to  readers  of 
the  old  Books,  is  with  Cromwell  at  present  ;  his  Second  in  command. 
It  was  from  Dalbier  that  Cromwell  first  of  all  learned  the  mechanical 
part  of  soldiering  ;  he  had  Dalbier  to  help  him  in  drilling  his  Iron- 
sides ;  so  says  Heath,  credible  on  such  a  point.  Dennington  Castle 
was  net  besieged  at  present  ;  it  surrendered  next  Spring  to  Dalbier.|| 
Cromwell  returned  to  Fairfax  ;  served  through  Winter  with  him  in 
the  West,  till  all  ended  there. 

About  a  month    before  the  date   of  this    Letter,  the   King  had 

*  Marching  from  CoUumpton  to  Tiverton,  while  Cromwell  writes  (Sprigge,  p. 
334-) 

t  Dennington  Castle. 

X  Sloane  M3S.  1519,  fol.  61 :— only  the  signature  is  in  Oliver's  hand, 

§  Sprigge  p.  145. 

II  J  April,  1646  (Rushworth,  vi.  252). 


144  FIRST  CIVIL  WAR. 


appeared  again  with  some  remnant  of  force,  got  together  in  Wales  ; 
with  intent  to  reheve  Chester,  which  was  his  key  to  Ireland  :  but  this 
force  too  he  saw  shattered  to  pieces  on  Rowton  Heath,  near  that 
city.*  He  had  also  had  an  eye  towards  the  great  Montrose  in  Scot- 
land, who  in  these  weeks  was  blazing  at  his  highest  there  :  but  him 
too  David  Lesley  with  dragoons,  emerging  from  the  mist  of  the 
Autumn  morning  on  Philpshaugh  near  Selkirk,  had,' in  one  fell  hour, 
trampled  utterly  out.  The  King  had  to  retire  to  Wales  again  ;  to 
Oxford  and  obscurity  again. 

On  the  14th  of  next  March,  as  we  said,  Sir  Ralph  Hopton  sur- 
rendered himself  in  Cornwall.t  On  the  22nd  of  the  same  month  Sir 
Jacob  Astley,  another  distinguished  Royalist  General,  the  last  of  them 
all, —  coming  towards  Oxford  with  some  small  force  he  had  gathered, 
— was  beaten  and  captured  at  Stow  among  the  Wolds  of  Gloucester- 
shire X  surrendering  himself,  the  brave  veteran  said,  or  is  reported  to 
have  said,  "  You  have  now  done  your  work,  and  may  go  to  play, — 
"  unless  you  will  fall  out  among  yourselves." 

On  Monday  night,  towards  twelve  of  the  clock,  27th  April  1646, 
the  King  in  disguise  rode  out  of  Oxford,  somewhat  uncertain  whither- 
ward,— at  length  towards  Newark  and  the  Scots  Army.§  On  the 
Wednesday  before,  Oliver  Cromwell  had  returned  to  his  place  in 
Parliament.il  Some  detached  Castles  and  Towns  still  held  out,  Rag- 
land  Castle  even  till  the  next  August  ;  but  the  First  Civ.l  War,  we 
may  say,  has  now  ended. 

The  Parliament,  in  these  circumstances,  was  now  getting  itself 
'recruited,' — its  vacancies  filled  up  again.  The  Royalist  Members 
who  had  deserted  three  years  ago,  had  been,  without  much  difficulty, 
successively  '  disabled,'  as  their  crime  came  to  light  :  but  to  issue  new 
writs  for  new  elections,  while  the  quarrel  with  the  King  still  lasted, 
was  a  matter  of  more  delicacy  ;  this  too,  however,  was  at  length 
resolved  upon,  the  Parliament  Cause  now  looking  so  decidedly  pros- 
perous, in  the  Autumn  of  1645.  Gradually,  in  the  following  months, 
the  new  Members  were  elected,  above  Two  hundred  and  thirty  of 
them  in  all.  These  new  Members,  '  Recruiters,'  as  Anthony  Wood 
and  the  Royalist  world  reproachfully  call  them,  M^ere  by  the  very  fact 
of  their  standing  candidates  in  such  circumstances,  decided  Puritans 
all,— Independents  many  of  them.  Colonel,  afterwards  Admiral 
Blake  (for  Taunton),  Ludlow,  Ireton  (for  Appleby),  Algernon  Sidney, 
Hutchinson  known  by  his  Wife's  Memoirs,  were  among  these  new 
Members.  Fairfax,  on  his  father's  death  some  two  years  hence,  like- 
wise came  in.U 

*  24  September,    1645   (Rushworth,    vi.    117;    Lord  Digby's  Account  of    it, 
Ormond  Papers,  ii.  90). 
f  Hopton's  own  account  of  it,  Ormond  Papers,  ii.  109-26. 
:J:  Rushworth,  vi.  139-41. 

§  Rushworth,  vi.  267  ;  Iter  Carolinum.  |j  Croniwelliana. 

%  The  Writ  is  issued  i6  March,  1647-8  (Commons  Journals). 


ROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART  III 


BETWEEN  THE  TWO    CiVlI   WARS. 
1 646-1 648. 


147 


LETTERS   XIX.— XXIV. 

The  conquering  of  the  King  had  been  a  difficult  operation  ;  but  to 
make  a  Treaty  with  him  now  when  he  was  conquered,  proved  an 
impossible  one.  The  wScots,  to  whom  he  had  fled,  entreated  him,  at 
last  '  with  tears '  and  '  on  their  knees,'  to  take  the  Covenant,  and 
sanction  the  Presbyterian  worship,  if  he  could  not  adopt  it  :  on  that 
condition  they  would  tight  to  the  last  man  for  him  ;  on  no  other 
condition  durst  or  would  a  man  of  them  fight  for  him.  The  English 
Presbyterians,  as  yet  the  dominant  party,  earnestly  entreated  to  the 
same  effect.  In  vain,  both  of  them  The  King  had  other  schemes  : 
the  King  writing  privately  to  Digby,  before  quitting  Oxford,  when  he 
had  some  mind  to  venture  privately  on  London,  as  he  ultimately  did 
on  the  Scotch  Camp,  to  raise  Treaties  and  Caballings  there,  had  said, 
"  —  endeavouring  to  get  to  London  ;  being  not  without  hope  that  I 
"  shall  be  able  so  to  draw  either  the  Presbyterians  or  the  Independents 
"  to  side  with  me  for  extirpating  one  another,  that  I  shall  be  really 
"King  again."*  Such  a  man  is  not  easy  to  make  a  Treaty  with, — 
on  the  word  of  a  King  !  In  fact  his  Majesty,  though  a  belligerent 
party  who  had  not  now  one  soldier  on  foot,  considered  himself  still  a 
tower  of  strength  ;  as  indeed  he  was  ;  all  men  having  a  to  us  incon- 
ceivable reverence  for  him,  till  bitter  Necessity  and  he  together  drove 
them  away  from  it.  Equivocations,  spasmodic  obstinacies,  and  blind- 
ness to  the  real  state  of  facts,  must  have  an  end. — 

The  following  Six  Letters,  of  little  or  no  significance  for  illustrating 
public  affairs,  are  to  carry  us  over  a  period  of  most  intricate  negotia- 
tion :  negotiation  with  the  Scots,  managed  manfully  on  both  sides, 
otherwise  it  had  ended  in  quarrel  ;  negotiations  with  the  King  ; 
infinite  public  and  private  negotiations  ; — which  issue  at  last  in  the 
Scots  marching  home  with  ^200,000  as  '  a  fair  instalment  of  their 
arrears,'  in  their  pocket  ;  and  the  King  marching,  under  escort  of 
Parliamentary  Commissioners,  to  Holmby  House  in  Northampton- 
shire, to  continue  in  strict  though  very  stately  seclusion,  '  on  ^50  a- 
day,'f  and  await  the  destinies  there. 

LETTER  XIX. 

*  To  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax^  General  of  the 

ParliamenVs  Army  :%  These. ^ 

'London,'  31st July,  1646. 

Sir, 

I  was  desired  to  write  a  Letter  to  you  by  Adjutant  Flemming. 

*  Oxford,  26  March,  1646-7 ;  Carte's  Life  of  Ormond,  iii.  (London,  1735),  p. 
452  f  Whitlocke,  p.  244. 

X  At  Ragland,  or  about  leaving  Bath  for  the  purpose  of  concluding  Raglan^ 
Siege  (Rushworth,  vi.  29^. 


148  BETWEEN  THE   CIVIL  WARS. 


The  end  of  it  is,  To  desire  your  Letter  in  bis  commendation.  He 
will  acquaint  you  with  the  sum  thereof,  more  particularly  what  the 
business  is.  I  most  humbly  submit  to  your  better  judgment,  when 
you  have  it  from  him. 

Craving  pardon  for  my  boldness  in  putting  you  to  this  trouble, 

I  rest, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

Adjutant  Flemming  is  in  Sprigge's  Army-List.  I  suppose  him  to 
be  the  Flemming  who,  as  Colonel  Flemming,  in  Spring  1648,  had 
rough  service  in  South  Wales  two  years  afterwards  ;  and  was  finally 
defeated,— attempting  to  '  seize  a  Pass 'near  Pembroke  Castle,  then 
in  revolt  under  Poyer  ;  was  driven  into  a  Church,  and  there  slain, — 
some  say,  slew  himself.f 

Of  Flemming's  present  'business'  with  Fairfax,  whether  it  were  to 
solicit  promotion  here,  or  continued  employment  in  Ireland,  nothing 
can  be  known.  The  War,  which  proved  to  be  but  the  '  First  War,'  is 
now,  as  we  said,  to  all  real  intents,  ended  :  Ragland  Castle,  the  last 
that  held  out  for  Charles,  has  been  under  siege  for  some  weeks  ;  and 
Fairfax,  who  had  been  '  at  the  Bath  for  his  health,'  was  now  come  or 
coming  into  those  parts  for  the  peremptory  reduction  of  it.J  There 
have  begun  now  to  be  discussions  and  speculations  about  sending 
men  to  Ireland  ;  §  about  sending  Massey  (famed  Governor  of 
Gloucester)  to  Ireland  with  men,  and  then  also  about  disbanding 
Massey's  men. 

Exactly  a  week  before,  24th  July,  1646,  the  United  Scots  and  Par- 
liamentary Commissioners  have  presented  their  '  Propositions '  to 
his  Majesty  at  Newcastle  :||  Yes  or  No,  is  all  the  answer  they  can 
take.  They  are  most  zealous  that  he  should  say  Yes.  Chancellor 
Loudon  implores  and  prophesies  in  a  very  remarkable  manner  :  "  All 
England  will  rise  against  you  ;  they,"  these  Sectarian  Parties,  "  wiil 
process  and  depose  you,  and  set  up  another  Government,"  unless  you 
close  with  the  Propositions.  His  Majesty,  on  the  ist  of  August 
(writing  at  Newcastle,  in  the  same  hours  while  Cromwell  writes  this 
in  London),  answers  in  a  haughty  way,  No. 


LETTER  XX. 

August  loth.  The  Parliamentary  Commissioners  have  returned, 
and  three  of  the  leading  Scots  with  them,— to  see  what  is  now  to  be 
done.  Fairfax  is  at  Bath  ;  and  '  the  Solicitor,'  St.  John  the  Ship- 
money  Lawyer,  is  there  with  him. 

*  Sloane  MSS.  1519,  fol.  70. 

t  Rushworth,  vii.  1097,  38  :— a  little  'before'  27  March,  1648. 
X  Rushworth,  vi.  293;— Fairfax's  first   Letter   from   Ragland  is  of  7  August; 
14  August  he  dates  from  Usk  :   and  Ragland  is  suirtndered  on  the  17th, 
§  Cromwelliana,  April  1646,  p.  31.  y  RushwQrth,  vi.  319, 


LONDOJSt.  U9 


^To  the  Right  Honourable  Sir   Thoinas   Fairfax,    General  of  the 
Parliament's  Army^  at  the  Bath  :  These. ^ 

'London,"  loth  August,  1646. 

Sir, 

Hearing  you  were  returned  from  Ragland  to  the  Bath,  I  take 
the  boldness  to  make  this  address  to  you. 

Our  Commissioners  sent  to  the  King  came  this  night  to  London.* 
I  have  spoken  with  two  of  them,  and  can  only  learn  these  generals, 
That  there  appears  a  good  inclination  in  the  Scots  to  the  rendition 
of  our  Towns,  and  to  their  march  out  of  the  Kingdom.  When  they 
bring  in  their  Papers  we  shall  know  more.  Argyle,  and  the  Chan- 
cellor,t  and  Dunfermline  are  come  up.  Duke  of  Hamilton  is  gone 
from  the  King  into  Scotland.  I  hear  that  Montrose's  men  are  not 
disbanded.  The  King  gave  a  very  general  answer  :  things  are  not 
well  in  Scotland  ; — would  they  were  in  England  !  We  are  full  of 
faction  and  worse. 

I  hear  for  certain  that  Ormond  has  concluded  a  Peace  with  the 
Rebels.  Sir,  I  beseech  you  command  the  Solicitor  to  come  away  to 
us.  His  help  would  be  welcome. — Sir,  I  hope  you  have  not  cast  me 
off  Truly  I  may  say,  none  more  affectionately  honours  nor  loves 
you.  You  and  yours  are  in  my  daily  prayers.  You  have  done  enough 
to  command  the  uttermost  of, 

Your  faithful  and  most  obedient  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.! 

*  P.S.'  I  beseech  you  my  humble  service  may  be  presented  to  your 
Lady. 

*  P.S.  2nd.'§  The  money  for  disbanding  Massey's  men  is  gotten, 
and  you  will  speedily  have  directions  about  them  from  the  Commons 
House. 

The  Commissioners  to  Charles  at  Newcastle  were  :  Earls  Pembroke 
and  Suffolk,  from  the  Peers  ;  from  the  Commons,  Sir  Walter  Earle 
(Weymouth),  Sir  John  Hippesley  (Cockermouth),  Robert  Goodwin 
(East  Grinstead,  Sussex),  Luke  Robinson  (Scarborough). || 

'  Duke  of  Hamilton  :'  the  Parliamentary  Army  found  him  in  Pen- 
dennis  Castle, — no,  in  St.  Michael's  Mount  Castle, — when  they  took 
these  places  in  Cornwall  lately.  The  Parliament  has  let  him  loose 
again  ; — he  has  begun  a  course  of  new  diplomacies,  which  will  end 
still  more  tragically  for  him. 

Ormond  is,  on  application  from  the  Parliament,  ostensibly  ordered 
by  his  Majesty  not  to  make  peace  with  the  outlaw  Irish  rebels  ;  detes- 
table to  all  men  : — but  he  of  course  follows  his  own  judgment  of  the 
necessities  of  the  case,  being  now  nearly  over  with  it  himself,  and  the 
King  under  restraint  unable  to  give  any  real  '  orders.'  The  truth  was, 
Ormond's  Peace,  odious  to  all  English  Protestants,  had  been  signed 

*  Commons  Journals.  f  Loudon.  J  Sloane  MSS.  1519,  fol.  63. 

§  This  second  Postscript  has  been  squeezed-m  above  the  other,  and  is  evidently 
written  after  it. 

\  Ruslaworth,  vi.  309,  where  the  proposals  are  also  given. 


1 56  BETlVEEN  THE    CIVIL  WARS. 


and  finished  in  March  last  ;  with  this  condition  among  others,  That 
an  Army  of  10,000  Irish  were  to  come  over  and  help  his  Majesty  : 
which  truth  is  now  beginning  to  ooze  out.  It  would  be  a  comtort  to 
understand  farther,  what  the  fact  soon  proves,  that  this  Peace  will  not 
hold  ;  the  Irish  Priests  and  Pope's  Nuncio's  disapproving  of  it.  Even 
while  Oliver  writes,  an  Excommunication  or  some  such  Document  is 
coming  out,  signed  "  Prater  O'Farrel,"  "  Abbas  OTeague,"  and  the 
like  names  :  poor  Ormond  going  to  Kilkenny,  to  join  forces  with  the 
Irish  rebels,  is  treacherously  set  upon,  and  narrowly  escapes  death  by 
them,* 

Concerning  '  the  business  of  Massey's  men,'  there  are  some  notices 
in  Ludlow.f  The  Commons  had  ordered  Fairfax  to  disband  them, 
and  sent  the  money,  as  we  see  here  ;  whereupon  the  Lords  ordered 
him.  Not.  Fairfax  obeyed  the  Commons  ;  apologised  to  the  Lords, — 
who  had  to  submit,  as  their  habit  was.  Massey's  Brigade  was  of  no 
particular  religion  ;  Massey's  Miscellany,— '  someof  them  will  require 
passes  to  Ethiopia,'  says  ancient  wit.  But  Massey  himself  was  strong 
for  Presbyterianism,  for  strict  Drill-sergeantcy  and  Anti-heresy  of 
every  kind  :  the  Lords  thought  his  Miscellany  and  he  might  have  been 
useful. 


LETTER   XXL 

His  Excellency,  in  the  following  Letter,  is  Fairfax  ;  John  Rush- 
worth,  worthy  John,  we  already  know  !  Fairfax  has  returned  to  the 
Bath,  still  for  his  health  ;  Ragland  being  taken,  and  the  War  ended. 

For  John  Riishworth,  Esquire,  Secretary  to  his  Excellency,  at  the 
Bath  :   These. 

'London,'  26th  August,  1646. 

Mr.  Rushworth, 

I  must  needs  entreat  a  favour  on  the  behalf  of  Major  Lilburn  ; 
who  hns  a  long  time  wanted  employment,  and  by  reason  good  his 
necessities  may  grow  upon  him. 

You  should  do  very  well  to  move  the  General  to  take  him  into 
favourable  thoughts.  I  know,  a  reasonable  employment  will  content 
him.  As  for  his  honesty  and  courage,  I  need  not  speak  much  of 
*  that,'  seeing  he  is  so  well  known  bnth  to  the  General  and  yourself 

I  desire  you  answer  my  expectation  herein  so  far  as  you  may.  You 
shall  very  much  oblige, 

Sir, 
Your  real  friend  and  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.J 

This  is  not  *  Freeborn  John  ;'  not  the  Lilburn  whom  Cromwell 
spoke  for,  when  Sir  Philip  Warwick  took  note  of  him  ;  the  John 
Lilburn  '  who  could  not  live  without  a  quarrel ;  who  if  he  were  left 

*  Rushworth,  vi.  416;   Carte's  Life  of  Ormond. 

f  Memoirs  of  Edmund  Ludiow  (London,  1722),  ii.  iSr. 

j  Sloane  Mss.  1519  fol.  71 ; — Signature  alone  is  Oliver's 


II     iiir 


LONDON.  iSt 


'  alone  in  the  world  would  have  to  divide  himself  in  two,  and  set  the 
'  John  to  fight  with  Lilbiirn,  and  the  Lilburn  with  John  ! '  Freeborn 
John  is  already  a  Lieutenant-Colonel  by  title ;  was  not  in  the  New 
Model  at  all ;  is  already  deep  in  quarrels, — lying  in  limbo  since 
August  last,  for  abuse  of  his  old  master  Prynne  *  He  has  quarrelled 
or  is  quarrelling  with  Cromwell  too  ;  calls  the  Assembly  of  Divines  an 
Assembly  of  Dry-vines; — will  have  little  else  but  quarrelling  hence- 
forth.— This  is  the  Brother  of  Freeborn  John  ;  one  of  his  two  Brothers. 
Not  Robert,  who  already  is  or  soon  becomes  a  Colonel  in  the  New 
Model,  and  does  not  '  want  employment.'  This  is  Henry  Lilburn  : 
appointed,  probably  in  consequence  of  this  application.  Governor  of 
Tynemouth  Castle  :  revolting  to  the  Royalists,  his  own  soldiers  slew 
him  there,  in  1648.     These  Lilburns  were  from  Durham  County. 


LETTER   XXIL 


*  Delinquents,'  conquered  Royalists,  are  now  getting  themselves 
fined,  according  to  rigorous  proportions,  by  a  Parliament  Committee, 
which  sits,  and  will  sit  long,  at  Goldsmith's  Hall,  making  that  locality 
very  memorable  to  Royalist  gentlemen. f 

The  Staffordshire  Committee  have  sent  a  Deputation  up  to  Town. 
They  bring  a  Petition  ;  very  anxious  to  have  ;^2,ooo  out  of  their  Staf- 
fordshire Delinquents  from  Goldsmiths'  Hall,  or  even  ^4,000,— to  pay 
off  their  forces,  and  send  them  to  Ireland  ;  which  lie  heavy  on  the 
County  at  present. 

'  To  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  General  of  the 
Parliainenfs  Army  ;  These.' 

•  London,'  6th  October,  1646. 

Sir, 

I  would  be  loath  to  trouble  you  with  anything ;  but  indeed  the 
Staffordshire  Gentlemen  came  to  me  this  day,  and  with  more  than 
ordinary  impetuosity  did  press  me  to  give  their  desires  furtherance  to 
you.  Their  Letter  will  shew  what  they  entreat  of  you.  Truly,  Sir, 
it  may  not  be  amiss  to  give  them  what  ease  may  well  be  afforded,  and 
the  sooner  the  becter,  especially  at  this  time.^ 

I  have  no  more  at  present,  but  to  let  you  know  the  business  of  your 
Army  is  like  to  come  on  tomorrow.  You  shall  have  account  of  that 
business  so  soon  as  I  am  able  to  give  it.  I  humbly  take  leave,  and 
rest, 

Your  Excellency's  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.§ 

*  Wood,  iii.  353. 

t  The  proceedings  of  it,  all  now  in  very  superior  order,  still  lie  in  the  State- 
Paper  Office. 

t  '  And  the  sooner,'  &c :  these  words  are  inserted  above  the  line  by  way  of  care  f 
and  afterthought. 

§  Sloane  MSS.  1519,  fol.  72  : — OHver's  own  hand. — Note,  his  signature  seems 
always  to  be  Oliver  Cromwell,  not  O.  Cromw  ell ;  to  which  practice  we  shall 
accordingly  conform,  when  the  copy  may  be  doubtful. 


152  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WAkS. 

The  Commons  cannot  grant  the  prayer  of  this  Petition  *  Stafford- 
shire will  have  to  rest  as  it  is  for  some  time.  '  The  business  of  your 
Army '  did  come  on  '  tomorrow  ; '  and  assessments  for  a  new  six- 
months  were  duly  voted  for  it,  and  other  proper  arrangements  made.t 


LETTER   XXI I L 

Colonel  Ireton,  now  Commissary-General  Ireton,  was  wedded 
to  Bridget  Cromwell  on  the  1 5th  of  January  last.  A  valiant  man. 
Once  B.A.  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  and  Student  of  the  Middle 
Temple  ;  then  a  gentleman  trooper  in  my  Lord  General  Essex's 
Lifeguard  ;  now  Colonel  of  Horse,  soon  Member  of  Parliament ; 
rapidly  rising.  A  Nottinghamshire  man  ;  has  known  the  Lieutenant- 
General  ever  since  the  Eastern-Association  times.  Cornbury,  not 
now  conspicuous  on  the  maps,  is  in  the  West,  near  the  Devizes,  at 
which  latter  town  Fairfax  and  Ireton  have  just  been,  disbanding 
Masscy's  Brigade.     The  following  letter  \\'\\\  require  no  commentary. 

For  my  beloved  Daughter,  Bridget  Ireton  at  Cornbury^  the  Generals 
Quarters:  These. 

'  London,'  2Sth  October,  1646. 

Dear  Daughter, 

I  write  not  to  thy  Husband  ;  partly  to  avoid  trouble,  for  one 
line  of  mine  begets  many  of  his,  which  I  doubt  makes  him  sit  up  too 
late  ;  partly  because  I  am  myself  indisposed^  at  this  time,  having 
some  other  considerations. 

Your  friends  at  Ely  are  well  :  your  Sister  Claypole  is,  I  trust  in 
mercy,  exercised  with  some  perplexed  thoughts.  She  sees  her  own 
vanity  and  carnal  mind  :  bewailing  it  :  she  seeks  after  (as  I  hope 
also)  what  will  satisfy.  And  thus  to  be  a  seeker  is  to  be  of  the  best 
sect  next  to  a  finder  ;  and  such  an  one  shall  every  faithful  humble 
seeker  be  at  the  end.  Happy  seeker,  happy  finder  !  Who  ever 
tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gracious,  without  some  sense  of  self,  vanity, 
and  badness  ?  Who  ever  tasted  that  graciousness  of  His,  and  could 
go  less§  in  desire, — less  than  pressing  after  full  enjoyment  ?  Dear 
Heart,  press  on  ;  let  not  Husband,  let  not  anything  cool  thy  affections 
after  Christ.  I  hope  he||  will  be  an  occasion  to  inflame  them.  That 
which  is  best  worthy  of  love  in  thy  Husband  is  that  of  the  image  of 
Christ  he  bears.  Look  on  that,  and  love  it  best,  and  all  the  rest  for 
'hat.     I  pray  for  thee  and  him  ;  do  so  for  me. 

My  service  and  dear  affections  to  the  General  and  Generaless.  I 
hear  she  is  very  kind  to  thee  ;  it  adds  to  all  other  obligations.     I  am 

Thy  dear  Father, 

Oliver  Cromwell. IT 

*  7  December,  1646,  Commons  Journals,  iv.  3. 

t  7  October,  1646,  Commons  Journals,  iv.  687. 

X  Not  in  the  mood  at  this  time,  having  other  matters  in  view. 

§  Less  is  an  adjective  ;  to  ^o.  in  such  case,  signifies  to  become, 

II  Thy  Husband. 

^  '  A  copy  of  Oliver  Cromwell's  Letter  to  his  Daughter  Ireton,  exactly  taken 


LONDOM.  i^^ 


Bridget  Ireton  is  now  Twenty-two.  Her  Sister  Claypole  (Elizabeth 
Cromwell)  is  five  years  younger.  They  were  both  wedded  last  Spring. 
*  Your  Friends  at  Ely '  may  indicate  that  the  Cromwell  Family  was 
still  resident  in  that  City  ;  though,  I  think,  they  not  long  afterwards 
removed  to  London.  Their  first  residence  here  was  King-street, 
Westminster  ;*  Oliver  for  the  present  lodges  in  Drury  Lane  :  fashion- 
able quarters  both,  in  those  times. 

General  Fairfax  had  been  in  Town  only  three  days  before,  attend- 
ing poor  Essex's  Funeral  ;  a  mournful  pageant,  consisting  of  '  both 
'  the  Houses,  Fairfax  and  all  the  Civil  and  Military  Officers  then  in 
'  Town,  the  Forces  of  the  City,  a  very  great  number  of  coaches  and 
'  multitudes  of  people  ; '  with  Mr.  Vines  to  preach  ; — regardless  of 
expense,  ^5,000  being  allowed  for  itf 


LETTER  XXIV. 

The  intricate  Scotch  negotiations  have  at  last  ended.  The  paying 
of  the  Scots  their  first  instalment,  and  getting  them  to  march  away 
in  peace,  and  leave  the  King  to  our  disposal,  is  the  great  affair  that 
has  occupied  Parliament  ever  since  his  Majesty  refused  the  Proposi- 
tions. Not  till  Monday  the  21st  December  could  it  be  got  'perfected' 
or  *  almost  perfected.'  After  a  busy  day  spent  in  the  Commons 
House  on  that  affair,^  Oliver  writes  the  following  Letter  to  Fairfax. 
The  '  Major-General '  is  Skippon.  Fairfax,  '  since  he  left  Town,'  is 
most  likely  about  Nottingham,  the  head-quarters  of  his  Army,  which 
had  been  drawing  rather  Northward,  ever  since  the  King  appeared 
among  the  Scots.  Fairfax  came  to  Town  12th  November,  with  great 
splendour  of  reception  ;  left  it  again  '  i8th  December.' 

On  the  morrow  after  that,  19th  December,  1646,  the  Londoners  pre- 
sented their  Petition,  not  without  tumult ;  complaining  of  heavy  ex- 
penses and  other  great  grievances  from  the  Army  ;  and  craving  that 
the  same  might  be,  so  soon  as  possible,  disbanded,  and  a  good  Peace 
with  his  Majesty  made.§  The  first  note  of  a  very  loud  controversy 
which  arose  between  the  City  and  the  Army,  between  the  Presbyte- 
rians and  the  Independents,  on  that  matter.  Indeed  the  humour  of 
the  City  seems  to  be  getting  high  ;  impatient  for  '  a  just  peace '  now 
that  the  King  is  reduced.  On  Saturday,  6th  December,  it  was  ordered 
that  the  Lord  Mayor  be  apprised  of  tumultuous  assemblages  which 
there  are,  '  to  the  disturbance  of  the  peace  ;'  and  be  desired  to  quench 
them, — if  he  can. 

'  from  the  Original."    Harleian  MSS.  no.  6988,  fol.  224  (not  mentioned  in  Harleian 
Catalogue). — In  another  Copy  sent  me.  which  exactly  corresponds,  is  this  Note  : 

•  Memo  :  The  above  Lettr.  of  Ohver  Cromwell  J  no,  Caswell  Mercht.  of  London. 

*  had  from  his  Mother  Linington,  who  had  it  from  old  Mrs.  Warner,  who  liv'd 

'  with  Oliver  Cromwell's  Daughter. And   was   Copied   from   the   Original 

'  Letter,  which   is  in   the   hands  of  John   Warner  Esqr.  of  Swanzey,  by  Chas. 
'  Norris,  25th  Mar  :  1749.' 

*  CromweUiana,  p.  60. 

t  Rushworth,  vi.  239  ;  Whillocke,  p.  230. 

X  Commons  Journals,  v.  22,  3. 

§  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to,  no.  290  (cited  by  Godwin,  ii.  269). 


1^4-  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 

'  To  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  General  of  the  Par- 
lia)nent''s  A  rmy  ;  Jhese. ' 

'  London,'  21st  December,  1646. 

Sir, 

Having  this  opportunity  by  the  Major-General  to  present  a  few 
lines  unto  you,  I  take  the  boldness  to  let  you  know  how  our  affairs  go 
on  since  you  left  Town. 

We  have  had  a  very  long  Petition  from  the  City  :  how  it  strikes  at 
the  Army,  and  what  other  aims  it  has,  you  will  see  by  the  contents  of 
it  ;  as  also  what  is  the  prevailing  temper  at  this  present,  and  what  is 
to  be  expected  from  men.  But  this  is  our  comfort,  God  is  in  Heaven, 
and  He  doth  what  pleases  Him  ;  His  and  only  His  counsel  shall 
stand,  whatsoever  the  designs  of  men,  and  the  fury  of  the  people 
be. 

We  have  now,  I  believe,  almost  "^  perfected  all  our  business  for 
Scotland.  I  believe  Commissioners  will  speedily  be  sent  down  to  see 
agreements  performed  ;  it's  intended  that  Major-General  Skipponhave 
authority  and  instructions  from  your  Excellency  to  command  the  Nor- 
thern Forces,  as  occasion  shall  be,  and  that  he  have  a  Conimission  of 
Martial  Law.  Truly  I  hope  that  the  having  the  Major-General  to 
commandf  this  Party  will  appear  to  be  a  good  thing,  every  day  more 
and  more. 

Here  has  been  a  design  to  steal  away  the  Duke  of  York  from  my 
Lord  of  Northumberland  :  one  of  his  own  servants,  whom  he  preferred 
to  wait  on  the  Duke,  is  guilty  of  it ;  the  Duke  himsdlf  confessed  so. 
I  believe  you  will  suddenly  hear  more  of  it. 

I  have  no  more  to  trouble  you  '  with  ;'  but  praying  for  you,  rest, 
Your  Excellency's  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

Skippon,  as  is  well  known,  carried  up  the  cash  ^200,000  to  New- 
castle, successfu  ly  in  a  proper  number  of  waggons  ;  got  it  all  counted 
*here,  'bags  of  ^100,  chests  of  ^1,000  (5-i6th  January,  1646-7),  after 
which  the  Scots  marched  peaceably  away. 

The  little  Duke  of  York,  entertained  in  a  pet-captive  fashion  at  St. 
James's,  did  not  get  away  at  this  time  ;  but  managed  it,  by  and  by, 
with  help  of  a  certain  diligent  intriguer  and  turncoat,  called  Colonel 
Bamfield§ — of  whom  we  may  hear  farther. 

On  Thursday,  nth  February  1646-7,  on  the  road  between  Mansfield 
and  Nottingham, — road  between  Newcastle  and  Holmby  House, — 
'  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  went  and  met  the  King  ;  who  stopped  his  horse: 

*  '  almost'  is  inserted  with  a  cai-et. 

t  At  this  point,  the  bottom  of  the  page  being  reached,  OHver  takes  to  the  broad 
margin,  and  writes  the  remainder  there  lengthwise,  continuing  till  there  is  barely 
room  for  his  signature,  on  the  utmost  verge  of  the  sheet  ;  which,  as  we  remarked 
already,  is  a  common  practice  with  him  in  writing  Letters  :— he  is  loath  always  to 
turn  the  page; — having  no  blotfim^-papef  at  that  epoch;  having  only  sand  to  dry 
his  ink  with,  and  a  natural  indisposition  to  pause  till  he  finish  ! 

;t;  Sloane  MSS.  1519,  fol.  78,  p.  147. 

§  Clarendon,  iii.  188, 


IdNDOM.  ts5 


*  Sir  Thomas  alighted,  and  kissed  the  King's  hand  ;  and  afterwards 

*  mounted,  and  discoursed  with  the  King  as  they  passed  towards  Not- 
'tingham.'*  The  King  had  left  Newcastle  on  the  3rd  of  the  month  ; 
got  to  Holmby,  or  Holdenby,  on  the  13th  ; — and  '  there,'  says  the  poor 
Iter  Carolinum^  '  during  pleasure.' 


LETTERS  XXV,  XXVI. 

Before  reading  these  two  following  Letters,  read  this  Extract 
from  a  work  still  in  Manuscript,  and  not  very  sure  of  ever  getting 
printed  : — 

'  The  Presbyterian  "  Platform"  of  Church  Government,  as  recom- 

*  mended  by  the  Assembly  of  Divines  or  "  Dry-Vines,"  has  at  length, 

*  after  unspeakable  debatings,  passings  and  repassings  through  both 

*  Houses,  and  soul's-travail  not  a  little,  about  " rulmg-elders,"  "power 
*of  the  keys,"  and  such  like, — been   go\  finally  passed,  though  not 

*  without  some  melancholy  shades  of  Erastianism,  or  "  the  Voluntary 
'  Principle,"  as  the  new  phrase  runs.  The  Presbyterian  Platform  is 
'  passed  by  Law  ;  and  London  and  other  places,  busy  "  electing  their 
'  ruling-elders,"  are  just  about  ready  to  set  it  actually  on  foot.  And 
'  now  it  is  hoped  there  will  be  some  *'  uniformity "  as  to  that  high 

*  matter. 

*  Uniformity  of  free-growing  healthy  forest- trees  is  good;  uniformity 

*  of  dipt  Dutch  dragons  is  not  so  good  !     The  question,  Which  of  the 

*  two  ?  is  by  no  means  settled, — though  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  and 
'majorities  of  both  Houses,  would  fain  think  it  so.  The  general  Eng- 
'  lish  mind,  which,  loving  good  order  in  all  things,  loves  regularity 
'  even  at  a  high  price,  could  be  content  with  this  Presbyterian  scheme, 

*  which  we  call  the  Dutch-dragon  one  ;  but  a  deeper  portion  of  the 
'  English  mind  inclines  decisively  to  growing  in  the  forest-tree  way,— 
'  and  indeed  will  shoot  out  into  very  singular  excrescences,  Quakerisms 
'and  what  not,  in  the  coming  years.     Nay  already  we  have  Anabap 

'  tists,  Brownists,  Sectaries  and  Schismatics  springing  up  very  rife: 
'already  there  is  a  Paul  Best,  brought  before  the  House  of  Commons 
'  for  Socinianism  ;  nay  we  hear  of  another  distracted  individual  who 
'  seemed  to  maintain,  in  confidential  argument,  that  "  God  was  mere 

*  Reason."t  There  is  like  to  be  need  of  garden-shears,  at  this  rate  ! 
'The  devout  House  of  Commons,  viewing  these  things  with  a  horror 

*  inconceivable  in  our  loose  days,  knows  not  well  what  to  do.  London 
'  City  cries,  "Apply  the  shears  !" — the  Army  answers,  "Apply  them 
''gently ,  cut  off  nothing  that  is  sound  !"     The  question  of  garden- 

*  shears,  and  how  far  you  are  to  apply  them,  is  really  difficult  — the 

*  settling  of  it  will  lead  to  very  unexpected  results.  London  City 
'  knows  with  pain,  that  there  are  "  many  persons  in  the  Army  who 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  242,  Her  Carolmum  (in  Somers  Tracts  vi.  274)  2  Whitlockes 
aaie^  as  usual,  is  inexact.  f  Whitlocke, 


156  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 

'  have  never  yet  taken  the  Covenant ;"  the  Army  begins  to  consider 
'  it  unhkely  that  certain  of  them  will  ever  take  it  ! ' — 

These  things  premised,  we  have  only  to  remark  farther,  that  the 
House  of  Commons,  meanwhile,  struck  with  devout  horror,  has,  with 
the  world  generally,  spent  Wednesday,  the  loth  of  March,  1646-7,  as 
a  Day  of  Fasting  and  Humiliation  for  Blasphemies  and  Heresies.* 
Cromwell's  Letter,  somewhat  remarkable  for  the  grieved  mind  it  indi- 
cates, was  written  next  day.  P^airfax  with  the  Army  is  at  Saffron 
Walden  in  Essex  ;  there  is  an  Order  this  dayt  that  he  is  to  quarter 
where  he  sees  best.  There  are  many  Officers  about  Town  ;  soliciting 
payments,  attending  private  businesses  ;  their  tendency  to  Schism, 
to  Anabaptistry  and  Heresy,  or  at  least  to  undue  tolerance  for  all 
that,  is  well  known.  This  Fast-day,  it  would  seem,  is  regarded  as  a 
kind  of  covert  rebuke  to  them.  Fast-day  was  Wednesday  ;  this  is 
Thursday  evening  : 

LETTER   XXV. 

For  his  Excellency  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  General  of  the  P arliamenf  s 
Army^  '  at  Saffron  H  aMen  : '  These. 

'  London,  nth  March,  1646.' 

Sir, 

Your  Letters  about  your  head-quarters,  directed  to  the 
Houses,!  came  seasonably,  and  were  to  very  good  purpose.  There 
want  not  in  all  places  men  who  have  so  much  malice  against  the 
Army  as  besots  them  :  the  late  Petition,  which  suggested  a  dangerous 
design  against  the  Parhament  in  'your' coming  to  those  quarters§ 
doth  sufficiently  evidence  the  same  :  but  they  got  nothing  by  it,  for 
the  Houses  did  assoil  the  Army  from  all  suspicion,  and  have  left  you 
to  quarter  where  you  please.|l 

Never  were  the  spirits  of  men  more  embittered  than  now.  Surely 
the  Devil  hath  but  a  short  time.  Sir,  it's  good  the  heart  be  fixed 
against  all  this.  The  naked  simplicity  of  Christ,  with  that  wisdom 
He  is  pleased  to  give,  and  patience,  will  overcome  all  this.  That 
God  would  keep  your  heart  as  He  has  done  hitherto,  is  the  prayer  of 
Your  Excellency's  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

'  P.S.'^  Adjutant  Allen  desires  Colonel  Baxter,  sometime  Governor 
of  Reading,  may  be  remembered  I  humbly  desire  Colonel  Overton 
may  not  be  out  of  your  remembrance.     Fie  is  a  deserving  man,  and 

presents  his  humble  service  to  you. Upon  the  Fast-day,  divers 

soldiers  were  raised  (as  I  heard),  both  horse  and  foot,  near  200  in 
Covent  Garden,  To  prevent  us  soldiers  from  cutting  the  Presbyte- 
rians' throats  !     These  are  fine  tricks  to  mock  God  with.*"* 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  243.  f  Commons  Journals,  v.  no. 

J  Ibid.  II  March,  1646  (Letter  is  dated  Saffron  Walden,  9  March). 
§  Saffron  Walden,  Eastern  Association ;   Manchester's  deliverance  about  it  is 
in  Commons  Journals. 

II  Commons  Journals,  v.  no,  11  March,  1646. 

%  Written  across  on  the  margin,  accordingto  custom. 

**  Sloane  MSS.  1519,  fol.  62. 


LONDON.  157 


This  flagrant  insult  to '  us  soldiers,'  in  Covent  Garden  and  doubtless 
elsewhere,  as  if  the  zealous  Presbyterian  Preacher  were  not  safe  from 
violence  in  bewailing  Schism,— is  very  significant.  The  Lieutenant- 
General  might  himself  have  seen  as  well  as  '  heard  '  it. — for  he  lived 
hard  by,  in  Drury  Lane  I  think  ;  but  was  of  course  at  his  own 
Church,  bewaiUng  Schism  too,  though  not  in  so  strait-laced  a 
manner. — 

Oliver's  Sister  Anna,  Mrs.  Sewster,  of  Wistow,  Huntingdonshire, 
had  died  in  these  months,  ist  November,  1646.*  This  Letter  lies 
contiguous  to  Letter  XVI 11.  in  the  Sloane  Volume  :  Letter  XVIII.  is 
sealed  conspicuously  with  red  wax  ;  Letter  XXV.  with  black.  The 
Cromwell  crest, '  lion  with  ring  on  his  fore-gamb,'— the  same  big  seal, 
— is  on  both. 


LETTER  XXVI. 

Commons  Journals,  17th  March,  1646  :  '  Ordered,  That  the 
Committee  of  the  Army  do  write  unto  the  General,  and  acquaint  him 
that  this  House  takes  notice  of  his  care  in  ordering  that  none  of  the 
Forces  under  his  Command  should  quarter  nearer  than  Five-and- 
twenty  Miles  of  this  City  :  That  notwithstanding  his  care  and  direc- 
tions therein,  the  House  is  informed  that  some  of  his  Forces  are 
quartered  much  nearer  than  that ;  and  To  desire  him  to  take  course 
that  his  former  Orders,  touching  the  quartering  of  his  Forces  no 
nearer  than  Twenty-five  Miles,  may  be  observed.' 

*  To  his  Excellency  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  General  of  the  Parliamenfs 

Army:  These. ^ 

'  London,'  19th  March,  1646. 

Sir, 

This  enclosed  Order  I  received  ;  but,  I  suppose.  Letters  from 
the  Committee  of  the  Army  to  the  effect  of  this  are  come  to  your 
hands  before  this  time.  I  think  it  were  very  good  that  the  distance 
of  Twenty-five  Miles  be  very  strictly  observed  ;  and  they  are  to  blame 
that  have  exceeded  the  distance,  contrary  to  your  former  appoint- 
ment. This  Letter  I  received  this  evening  from  Sir  William  Massam,t 
a  Member  of  the  House  of  Commons  ;  which  I  thought  fit  to  send 
you  ;  his  House  being  much  within  that  distance  of  Twenty-five 
Miles  of  London.  I  have  sent  the  Officers  down,  as  many  as  I  could 
well  light  of. 

Not  having  more  at  present,  I  rest, 

Your  Excellency's  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

The  troubles  of  the  Parliament  and  Army  are  just  beginning.  The 
order  for  quartering  beyond  twenty-five  miles  from  London,  and  many 
other  *  orders '  were  sadly  violated  in  the  course  of  this  season  ! — '  Sir 
W.  Massam's  House,'  '  Otes  in  Essex,'  is  a  place  known  to  us  since 
the  beginning  of  these  Letters. 

*  See  antea,  p.  23  ;  and  Noble,  i.  89.  -j-  Masba^ji, 

I  Sloane  MSS.  15 19,  fol.  74. 


158  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS, 


The  Officers  ought  really  to  go  down  to  their  quarters  in  the 
Eastern  Counties  ;  Oliver  has  sent  them  off,  as  many  of  them  as  he 
*  could  well  light  of 

The  Presbyterian  System  is  now  fast  getting  into  action  :  on  the 
2oth  May,  1647,  the  Synod  of  London,  with  due  Prolocutor  or 
Moderator,  met  in  St.  Paul's*  In  Lancashire  too  the  System  is 
fairly  on  foot ;  but  I  think  in  other  Enghsh  Counties  it  was  some- 
what lazy  to  move,  and  never  came  rightly  into  action,  owing  to 
impediments. — Poor  old  Laud  is  condemned  of  treason,  and  be- 
headed, years  ago  ;  the  Scots,  after  Marston  Fight,  pressing  heavy  on 
him  ;  Prynne  too  being  very  ungrateful.  That  '  performance'  of  the 
Service  to  the  Hyperborean  populations  in  so  exquisite  a  way,  has 
cost  the  Artist  dear  !  He  died  very  gently  ;  his  last  scene  much  the 
best,  for  himself  and  for  us.     The   two  Hothams  also,   and  other 


traitors,  have  died. 


ARMY  MANIFESTO. 

Our  next  entirely  authentic  letter  is  at  six  months  distance  :  a 
hiatus  not  urffrequent  in  this  Series  ;  but  here  most  especially  to  be 
regretted  ;  such  a  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  Oliver  and  of  England  trans- 
acting itself  in  the  interim.  The  Quarrel  between  City  and  Army, 
which  we  here  see  begun  ;  the  split  of  the  Parliament  into  two  clearly 
hostile  Parties  of  Presbyterians  and  Independents,  represented  by 
City  and  Army  ;  the  deadly  wrestle  of  these  two  Parties,  with  victory 
to  the  latter,  and  the  former  flung  on  its  back,  and  its  'Eleven 
Members'  sent  beyond  Seas  :  all  this  transacts  itself  in  the  interim, 
without  autograph  note  or  indisputably  authentic  utterance  of  Olivei-'s 
to  elucidate  it  for  us.  We  part  with  him  labouring  to  get  the  Officers 
sent  down  to  Saffron  Walden  ;  sorrowful  on  the  Spring  Fast-day  in 
Covent  Garden  :  we  find  him  a^ain  at  Putney  in  Autumn  ;  the  in- 
sulted Party  now  dominant,  and  he  the  most  important  man  in  it. 
One  Paper  which  I  find  among  the  many  published  on  that  occasion, 
and  judge  pretty  confidently,  by  internal  evidence,  to  be  of  his  writing, 
is  here  introduced  ;  and  there  is  no  other  that  I  know  of. 

How  this  Quarrel  between  City  and  Army,  no  agreement  with  the 
King  being  for  the  present  possible,  went  on  waxing  ;  developing 
itself  more  and  more  visibly  into  a  Quarrel  between  Presbyterianism 
and  Independency  ;  attracting  to  the  respective  sides  of  it  the  two 
great  Parties  in  Parliament  and  in  England  generally  :  all  this  the 
reader  must  endeavour  to  imagine  for  himself, — very  dimly,  as  matters 
yet  stand.  In  books,  in  Narratives  old  or  new,  he  will  find  little  satis- 
faction in  regard  to  it.  The  old  Narratives,  written  all  by  baffled 
enemies  of  Cromwell,"^  are  full  of  mere  blind  rage,  distraction  and 

*  Rushworth,  vi.  489;   Whitlocke  (242)  dates  wrong. 

t  Holles's  Memoirs  ;  Waller's  Vindication  of  his  Character ;  Qemen^  Walkefs 
History  of  Independency,  &c.,  &:q» 


ARMY  MANIFESTO.     '  159 

darkness  ;  the  new  Narratives,  believing  only  in  *  Machiavelism/ 
&c.,  disfigure  the  matter  still  more.  Common  History,  old  and  new, 
represents  Cromwell  as  having  underhand,— in  a  most  skilful  and  in- 
deed prophetic  manner, — fomented  or  originated  all  this  commotion 
of  the  elements  ;  steered  his  way  through  it  by  '  hypocrisy,'  by '  master- 
strokes of  duplicity,'  and  such  like.  As  is  the  habit  hitherto  of  History. 
'  The  fact  is,'  says  a  Manuscript  already  cited  from,  'poor  History, 
contemporaneous  and  subsequent,  has  treated  this  matter  in  a  very 
sad  way.  Mistakes,  misdates ;  exaggerations,  unveracities,  dis- 
tractions ;  all  manner  of  misseeings  and  misnotings  in  regard  to  it, 
abound.  How  many  grave  historical  statements  still  circulate  in  the 
world,  accredited  by  Bishop  Burnet  and  the  like,  which  on  examina- 
tion you  will  find  melt  away  into  after-dinner  rumours,— gathered 
from  ancient  red-nosed  Presbyterian  gentlemen,  Harbottle  Grimston 
and  Company,  sitting  over  claret  under  a  Blessed  Restoration,  and 
talking  to  the  loosely  recipient  Bishop  in  a  very  loose  way  !  State- 
ments generally  with  some  grain  of  harmless  truth,  misinterpreted 
by  those  red-nosed  honourable  persons  ;  frothed  up  into  huge  bulk 
by  the  loquacious  Bishop  above  mentioned,  and  so  set  floating  on 
Time's  stream.  Not  very  lovely  to  us,  they,  nor  the  red-noses  they 
proceeded  from  !  I  do  not  cite  them  here  ;  I  have  examined  most 
of  them  ;  found  not  one  of  them  fairly  believable  ; — wondered  to  see 
how  already,  in  one  generation,  earnest  Puritanism  being  hung  on 
the  gallows  or  thrown  out  in  St.  Margaret's  Churchyard,  the  whole 
History  of  it  had  grown  jiiythical^  and  men  were  ready  to  swallow 
all  manner  of  nonsense  concerning  it.  Ask  for  dates,  ask  for  proofs  : 
Who  saw  it,  heard  it  ;  when  was  it,  where  ?  A  misdate  of  itself, 
will  do  much.  So  accurate  a  man  as  Mr.  Godwin,  generally  very 
accurate  in  such  matters,  makes  "a  master-stroke  of  duplicity" 
merely  by  mistake  of  dating  :*  the  thing  when  Oliver  did  say  it, 
was  a  credible  truth,  and  no  master-stroke  or  stroke  of  any  kind  ! 
'  "  Master-strokes  of  duphcity  ;"  "  false  protestations  ;"  "fomenting 
of  the  Army  discontents  :"  alas,  alas  !  It  was  not  Cromwell  that 
raised  these  discontents  ;  not  he,  but  the  elemental  Powers  !  Neither 
was  it,  I  think,  "by  master-strokes  of  duphcity"  that  Cromwell 
steered  himself  victoriously  across  such  a  devouring  chaos  ;  no,  but 
by  continuances  of  noble  manful  j-/;«plicity  I  rather  think,— by 
meaning  one  thing  before  God,  and  meaning  the  same  before  men 
as  a  strong  man  does.  By  conscientious  resolution  ;  by  sagacity 
and  silent  wariness  and  promptitude ;  by  religious  valour  and 
veracity,— which,  however  it  may  fare  ^\\}i\  foxes ^  are  really  after  all 

the  grand  source  of  clearness  for  a  i7ian  in  this  world  ! ' We  here 

close  our  Manuscript. 

Modern  readers  ought  to  believe  that  there  was  a  real  impulse  of 
heavenly  Faith  at  work  in  this  controversy  ;  that  on  both  sides,  more 
especially  on  the  Army's  side,  here  lay  the  central  element  of  all  ; 
modifying  all  other  elements  and  passions  ; — that  this  Controversy 
was,  in  several  respects,  very  different  from  the  common  wrestling  of 
Greek  with  Greek  for  what  are  called  '  Political  objects  !' — Modern 
readers,  mindful  of  the  French  Revolution,  will  perhaps  compare  these 
*  Godwin,  ii.  390 ;  citing  Walker,  p,  jt  (should  be  p.  33). 


i6o  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 

Presbyterians  and  Independents  to  the  Gironde  and  the  Mountain. 
And  there  is  an  analogy  ;  yet  with  differences,  With  a  great  differ- 
ence in  the  situations  ;  with  the  difference,  too,  between  Enghshmen 
and  Frenchmen,  which  is  ahvays  considerable ;  and  then  with  the 
difference  between  believers  in  Jesus  Christ  and  believers  in  Jean 
Jacques,  which  is  still  more  considerable  ! 

A  few  dates,  and  chief  summits  of  events,  are  all  that  can  be  indi- 
cated here,  to  make  our  '  Maifesto '  legible. 

Fiom  the  beginnings  of  this  year  1647  and  earlier,  there  had  often 
been  question  as  to  what  should  be  done  with  the  Army.  The  expense 
of  such  an  Army,  between  twenty  and  thirty  thousand  men,  was  great ; 
the  need  of  it,  Royahsm  being  now  subdued,  seemed  small  ;  besides 
it  was  known  that  there  were  many  in  it  who  '  had  never  taken  the 
Covenant,'  and  were  never  hkely  to  take  it.  This  latter  point,  at  a 
time  when  Heresy  seemed  rising  like  a  hydra,  *  and  the  Spiritualism 
of  England  was  developing  itself  in  really  strange  ways,  became  very- 
important  too; — became  gradually  most  of  all  important,  and  the  soul 
of  the  whole  Controversy. 

Early  in  March,  after  much  debating,  it  had  been  got  settled  that 
there  should  be  Twelve  thousand  men  employed  in  Ireland,!  which 
was  now  in  sad  need  of  soldiers.  The  rest  were  in  some  good  way  to 
be  disbanded.  The  '  way,'  however,  and  whether  it  might  really  be  a 
good  way,  gave  rise  to  considerations. — Without  entering  into  a  sea  of 
troubles,  we  may  state  here  in  general  that  the  things  this  Army 
demanded  were  strictly  their  just  right  :  arrears  of  pay,  '  three-and- 
forty  weeks '  of  hard-earned  pay  ;  indemnity  for  acts  done  in  War  ; 
and  clear  discharge  according  to  contract,  not  service  in  Ireland 
except  under  known  Commanders  and  conditions, — *  our  old  Com- 
manders'  for  example.  It  is  also  apparent  that  the  Presbyterian 
party  in  Parhament,  the  leaders  of  whom  were,  several  of  them, 
Colonels  of  the  6>/<r/ Model,  did  not  love  this  victorious  Army;  that 
indeed  they  disliked  and  grew  to  hate  it,  useful  as  it  had  been  to  them. 
Denzil  Holies,  Sir  William  Waller,  Harley,  Stapleton,  these  men,  all 
strong  for  Presbyteriainsm,  were  old  unsuccessful  Colonels  or  Generals 
under  Essex  ;  and  for  very  obvious  reasons  looked  askance  on  this 
Army,  and  wished  to  be  so  soon  as  possible  rid  of  it.  The  first 
rumour  of  a  demur  or  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Army,  rumour  of  some 
Petition  to  Fairfax  by  his  Officers  as  to  the  '  way'  of  their  disbanding, 
was  by  these  Old-Military  Parliament  men  very  angrily  repressed  : 
nay,  in  a  moment  of  fervour,  they  proceeded  to  decree  that  whoever 
had,  or  might  have,  a  hand  in  promoting  such  Petition  in  the  Army 
Avas  an  '  Enemy  to  the  State,  and  a  Disturber  of  the  Public  Peace,' — 
and  sent  forth  the  same  in  a  '  Declaration  of  the  30th  of  March,' 
which  became  very  celebrated  afterwards.  This  unlucky  '  Declara- 
tion,' Waller  says,  was  due  to  Holies,  who  smuggled  it  one  evening 
through  a  thin  House.  "  Enemies  to  the  State,  Disturbers  of  the 
Peace  : "  it  was  a  severe  and  too  proud  rebuke  ;  felt  to  be  unjust,  and 
looked  upon  as  '  a  blot  of  ignominy  ; '  not  to  be  forgotten  nor  easily 

*  See  Edward's  GangrcEiui  (London  1646)  for  many  furious  details  of  it. 
f  6  March,  Commons  Journals,  v.  107. 


ARMV  MANIFESTO.  i6i 

forgiven,  by  the  parties  it  was  addressed  to.     So  stood  matters  at  the 
end  of  March. 

At  the  end  of  April  they  stand  somewhat  thus.  Two  Parliament 
Deputations,  Sir  William  Waller  at  the  head  of  them,  have  been  at 
Saffron  Walden,  producing  no  agreement  :*  five  dignitaries  of  the 
Army,  '  Lieutenant-General  Hammond,  Colonel  Hammond,  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Pride,'  and  two  others,  have  been  summoned  to  the 
bar  ;t  some  subalterns  given  into  custody;  Ireton  himself  'ordered 
to  be  examined  ;* — and  no  '  satisfaction  to  the  just  desires  of  the 
Army  ;'  on  the  contrary,  the  "  blot  of  ignominy '  fixed  deeper  on  it  than 
before.  We  can  conceive  a  univ^ersal  sorrow  and  anger,  and  all 
manner  of  dim  schemes  and  consultations  going  on  at  Saffron  Walden 
and  the  other  Army-quarters,  in  those  days.  Here  is  a  scene  from 
Whitlocke,  worth  looking  at,  which  takes  place  in  the  Honourable 
House  itself;  date  30th  April  1647  :; 

'  Debate  upon  the  Petition  and  Vindication  of  the  Army.  Major- 
General  Skippon,  in  the  House,  produced  a  Letter  presented  to  him 
the  day  before  by  some  troopers,  in  behalf  of  Eight  Regiments  of 
the  Army  of  Horse.  Wherein  they  expressed  some  reasons,  Why 
they  could  not  engage  in  the  service  of  Ireland  under  the  present 
Conduct,'  under  the  proposed  Commandership,  by  Skippon  and 
Massey  ;  'and  complained.  Of  the  many  scandals  and  false  suggest- 
'  ions  which  were  of  late  raised  against  the  Army  and  their  pro- 
ceedings :  That  they  were  taken  as  enemies  ;  That  they  saw  designs 
upon  them,  and  upon  many  of  the  Godly  Party  in  the  Kingdom  ; 
That  they  could  not  engage  for  Ireland  4:ill  they  were  satisfied  in 
their  expectations,  and  their  just  desires  granted. — Three  Troopers, 
Edward  Sexby,  William  Allen,  Thomas  Sheppard,  who  brought  this 
Letter,  were  examined  in  the  House,  touching  the  drawing  and  sub- 
scribing of  it ;  and,  Whether  their  Officers  were  engaged  in  it  or 
not  ?  They  affirmed.  That  it  was  drawn  up  at  a  Rendezvous  of 
several  of  those  Eight  Regiments  ;  and  afterwards  at  several  meet- 
ings by  Agents  or  Agitators,  for  each  Regiment ;  and  that  few  of 
their  Officers  knew  or  took  notice  of  it. 
'  Those  Troopers  being  demanded,  Whether  they  had  not  been 
Cavaliers  ?— it  was  attested  by  Skippon,  that  they  had  constantly 
served  the  Parliament,  and  some  of  them  from  the  beginning  of  the 
War.  Being  asked  concerning  the  meaning  of  some  expressions 
in  the  Petition,'  especially  concerning  "  certain  men  aiming  at  a 
Sovereignty^'' — '  they  answered,  That  the  Letter  being  a  joint  act  of 
'  those  Regiments,  they  could  not  give  a  punctual  answer,  being  only 
Agents  ;  but  if  they  might  have  the  queries  in  writing,  they  would 
send  or  carry  them  to  those  Regiments,  and  return  their  own  and 
their  answers. — They  were  ordered  to  attend  the  House  upon  sum- 
mons.' 

Three  sturdy  fellows,  fit  for  management  of  business ;  let  the 
reader  note  them.  They  are  '  Agents  '  to  the  Army  :  a  class  of  func- 
tionaries   called    likewise   '  Adjutators  '  and    misspelt  '  Agitators  ; ' 

*  Waller,  pp.  42-85.  f  Commons  Journals,  v.  129. 

X  Whitlocke,  p.  249  ;  Common  Journals  m  die ,  and  a  fuller  account  in  Rush- 
wood,  vi.  474, 

VOL.   1.  G 


i62  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 

elected  by  the  common  men  of  the  Army,  to  keep  the  ranks  in  unison 
with  the  Officers  in  the  present  crisis  of  their  affairs.  This  is  their 
first  distinct  appearance  in  the  eye  of  History  ;  in  which,  during  these 
months,  they  play  a  great  part.  Evidently  the  settlement  with  the 
Army  will  be  a  harder  task  than  was  supposed. 

During  these  same  months  some  languid  negotiation  Avith  the 
King  is  going  on  ;  Scots  Commissioners  come  up  to  help  in  treating 
with  him  ;  but  as  he  will  not  hear  of  Covenant  or  Presbytery,  there 
can  no  result  follow.  It  was  an  ugly  aggravation  of  the  blot  of 
ignominy  which  the  Army  smarts  under, — the  report  raised  against  it, 
That  some  of  the  Leaders  had  said,  "If  the  King  would  come  to 
"  thein^  they  would  put  the  crown  on  his  head  again." — Cromwell, 
from  his  place  in  Parliament,  earnestly  watches  these  occurrences  ; 
waits  what  the  great  '  birth  of  Providence '  in  them  may  be  ; — 
'carries  himself  with  much  wariness; '  is  more  and  more  looked  up  to 
by  the  Independent  Party  for  his  interest  with  the  Soldiers.  One  day, 
noticing  the  '  high  carriages' of  Holies  and  Company,  he  whispers 
Edmund  Ludlow  who  sat  by  him,  "  These  men  will  never  leave  till 
the  Army  pull  them  out  by  the  ears  !  "*  Holies  and  Company,  who 
at  present  rule  in  Parliament,  pass  a  New  Militia-Ordinance  for 
London  ;  put  the  Armed  Force  of  London  into  hands  more  strictly 
Presbyterian. t  There  have  been  two  London  Petitions  against  the 
Army,  and  two  London  Petitions  covertly  in  favour  of  it  ;  the 
Managers  of  the  latter,  we  observe,  have  been  put  in  prison. 

May  Zth.  A  new  and  more  promising  Deputation,  Cromwell  at 
the  head  of  it.  '  Cromwsll,  Ireton,  Fleetwood,  Skippon,'  proceed 
again  to  Saftron  Walden  ;  investigate  the  claims  and  grievances  of 
the  Army  ;  engage,  as  they  had  authority  to  do,  that  real  justice  shall 
be  done  them  ;  and  in  a  fortnight  return  with  what  seems  an  agree- 
ment and  settlement ;  for  which  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell  re- 
ceives the  thanks  of  the  House.:|:  The  House  votes  what  //  con- 
ceives to  be  justice,  '  eight  weeks  of  pay  '  in  ready  money,  bonds  for 
the  rest, — and  so  forth.  Congratulations  hereupon  ;  a  Committee  of 
Lords  and  Commons  are  ordered  to  go  down  to  Saffron  Walden  to 
see  the  Army  disbanded. 

May  2%th.  On  arriving  at  Saffron  Walden,  they  find  that  their 
notions  of  what  is  justice  and  the  Army's  notions  differ  widely.  "  Eight 
"  weeks  of  pay,"  say  the  Army  :  "  we  want  nearer  eight  times  eight  ! " 
Disturbances  in  several  of  the  quarters  : — at  Oxford  the  men  seize 
the  disbanding-money  as  pari  of  payment,  and  will  not  disband  till 
they  get  the  whole.  A  meeting  of  Adjutators,  by  authority  of  Fairfax, 
convenes  at  Bury  St.  Edmund's,— a  regular  Parliament  of  soldiers, 
'  each  common  man  paying  fourpence  to  meet  the  expense  ;'  it  is 
agreed  that  the  Army's  quarters  shall  be  '  contracted,'  brought  closer 
together  ;  that  on  Friday  next,  4th  of  June,  there  shall  be  a  Rendez- 
vous, or  General  Assembly  of  all  the  Soldiers,  there  to  decide  on  what 
they  will  do  § 

*  Ludlow,  i.  189  ;  see  Whitlocke,  p.  252. 

t  4  May,  1647,  Commons  Journals,  v.  160, — 'Thirty-one  Persons,'  theirnames 
given, 

X  May  21,  Commons  Journals,  v.  181.  §  Rushworth,  pp.  496-510. 


AI^3fV  MANIFESTO.  163 

/u^e  \th  and  ^th.  The  Newmarket  Rendezvous,  'on  Kentford 
Heath,'  a  httle  east  of  Newmarket,  is  held  ;  a  kind  of  Covenant  is 
entered  into  and  other  important  things  are  done  : — but  elsewhere  in 
the  interim  a  thing  still  more  important  had  been  done.  On  Wednes- 
day. June  2nd,  Cornet  Joyce, — once  a  London  tailor  they  say,  evidently 
a  very  handy  active  man, — he,  and  Five  hundred  common  troopers,  a 
Volunteer  P.irty,  not  expressly  commanded  by  anybody,  but  doing 
what  they  know  the  whole  Army  wishes  to  be  done,  sally  out  of  Oxford, 
where  things  are  somewhat  disturbed  ;  proceed  to  Holmby  House; 
and,  after  two  days  of  talking,  bring  '  the  King's  Person  '  otf  with 
them.  To  the  horror  and  despair  of  the  Parliament  Commissioners 
in  attendance  there  ;  but  clearly  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  Majesty, 
— who  hopes,  in  this  new  shuffle  and  deal,  some  good  card  will 
turn  up  for  him  :  hopes,  with  some  ground,  '  the  Presbyterians  and 
Independents  jnay  now  be  got  to  extirpate  one  another.'  His  Majesty 
rides  willingly  :  the  Parliament  Commissioners  accompany,  wringing 
their  hands  : — to  Hinchinbrook,  that  same  Friday  night  ;  where 
Colonel  Montague  receives  them  with  all  hospitality,  entertains  them 
for  two  days.  Colonel  Whalley  with  a  strong  party,  deputed  by 
Fairfax,  had  met  his  Majesty  ;  offered  to  deliver  him  from  Joyce, 
back  to  Holmby  and  the  Parliament  ;  but  his  Majesty  positively  de- 
clined — Captain  Titus,  quasi  Tighthose,  very  well  known  afterwards, 
arrives  at  St.  Stephens  with  the  news  ;  has  ^50  voted  him  '  to  buy  a 
horse,'  for  his  great  service  ;  and  fills  all  men  with  terror  and  amaze- 
ment. The  Honourable  Houses  agree  '  to  sit  on  the  Lord's  day  ;' 
have  Stephen  Marshall  to  pray  for  them  ; — never  were  in  such  a 
plight  before.  The  Controversy,  at  this  point,  has  risen  from  Econo- 
mical into  Political  :  Army  Parliament  in  the  Eastern  Counties, 
against  Civil  Parliament  in  Westminster  :  and.  How  '  the  Nation 
shall  be  settled '  between  them  ;  whether  its  growth  shall  be  in  the 
forest-tree  fashion,  or  in  the  dipt  Dutch-dragon  fashion  ? — 

Monday,  June  yth.  All  Officers  in  the  House  are  ordered  forthwith 
to  go  down  to  their  regiments.  Cromwell,  without  order,  not  without 
danger  of  detention,  say  some, — has  already  gone  :  this  same  day, 
'  General  Fairfax,  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell  and  the  chief  men  of 
the  Army,'  have  an  interview  with  the  King,  '  at  Chi'derley  House 
between  Huntingdon  and  Cambridge  :'  his  Majesty  will  not  go  back 
to  Holmby  :  much  prefers  'the  air'  of  these  parts,  the  air  of  New- 
market for  instance  ;  and  will  continue  with  the  Army."^  Parliament 
Commissioners,  with  new  Votes  of  Parliament,  are  coming  down  ;  the 
Army  must  have  a  new  Rendezvous,  to  meet  them.  New  Rendezvous 
at  Royston,  more  properly  on  Triploe  Heath  near  Cambridge,  is  ap- 
pointed for  Thursday  ;  and  in  the  interim  a  '  Day  of  Fasting  and 
Humiliation '  is  held, — a  real  Day  of  Prayer  (very  inconceivable  in 
these  days),  For  God's  enlightenment  as  to  what  should  now  be 
done. 

Here  is  Whitlocke's  account  of  the  celebrated  Rendezvous  itself, — 
somewhat  abridged  from  Rushworth,  and  dim  enough;  wherein,  how- 
ever, by  good  eyes  a  strange  old  Historical  scene  may  be  discerned. 
The  new  Votes  of  Parliament  do  not  appear  still  to  meet  '  the  just' 
*  Rushworth,  vi.  549. 

G   2 


l64  BETWEEN   THE  CIVIL  WARS. 


desires  of  the  Army  ;    meanwhile,   let  all  things   be  done  decently 
and  in  order. 

'The  General   had  ordered  a  Rendez\ous  at  Royston  ;'  properly 
on  Triploe  Heath,  as  we  said  ;  on  Thursday,    icth  June,    1647  :  the 
Force  assembled   was  about  Twenty-one  thousand  men,  the  remark- 
ablest  Army  that   ever  wore  steel  in  this  world.     '  The  General  and 
the  Commissioners  rode  to  each  Regiment.     They  first  acquainted 
the    General's    Regiment   with    the  Votes  of  the    Parliament  ;  and 
Skippon,'  one  of  the  Commissioners,  '  spake  to  them  to  persuade  a 
compliance.     An   Officer  of  the  Regiment  made  answer.  That  the 
Regiment  did  desire  that  their  answer  might  be  returned  after  perusal 
of  the  Votes  by  some  select  Officers  and  Agitators,  whom   the  Regi- 
ment had  chosen  ;  and  said.  This  wds  the  motion  of  the  Regiment. 
'  He  desired  the  General  and  Commissioners  to  give  him  leave   to 
ask  the  whole    Regiment   if  this   was  their  answer      Leave  being 
given,  they  cried,  "  All."     Then  he  put   the  question,  If  any  man 
were  of  a  contrary  opinion  he  should  say,  No  ; — and   not  one  man 
gave  his  "  No." — The  Agitators  in  behalf  of  the  soldiers  pressed  to 
have  the  question  put  '  at  once,  '  Whether  the  Regiment  did  acquiesce 
and  were  satisfied  with  the  Votes  ?'     The  Agitators  knew  well  what 
the  answer  would  have  been  ! — '  But    in    regard  the  other  way  wa^ 
more  orderly,  and  they  might  after  perusal  proceed  more  deliberately, 
that  question  was  laid  aside. 

'  The  like  was  done   in  the   other  Regiments  ;  and  all  were  very 
unanimous  ;  and'  always  '  after  the  Commissioners  liad  done  reading 
the  Votes,  and   speaking  to  each  Regiment,  and  had  received  their 
answer,  all  of  them  cried  out,  "  Justice,  Justice  !  "—not  a  very  musical 
sound  to  the  Commissioners. 
'  A  Petition  was  delivered  in  the  field  to  the  General,  in  the  name 
of  "many  well-affected  people  in  Essex  ;  "  desiring.  That  the  Army 
might  not  be  disbanded  ;  in  regard   the    Ccmmonwealth  had  many 
enemies,  who  watched    for  such    an  occasion  to  destroy  the  good 
people.'* 
Such,  and  still  dimmer,  is  the  jotting   of  dull  authentic  Bulstrode — 
drowning  in  official  oil,  and  somnolent  natural  pedantry  and  fat,  one 
of  the  remarkablest  scenes   our  History  ever  had ,:  An  Armed  Par- 
liament, extra-official,  yet  not  without  a  kind   of  sacredness,  and  an 
Oliver  Cromwell  at  the   head  of  it  ;   demanding  with  one  voice,  as 
deep  as  ever  spake  in  England,  "Justice,  Justice  !"  under  the  vault 
of  Heaven. 

That  same  afternoon,  the  Army  moved  on  to  St.  Albans,  nearer  to 
London  ;  and  from  the  Rendezvous  itself,  a  joint  Letter  was  de- 
spatched to  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  which  the  reader  is  now 
at  last  to  see  I  judge  it,  pretty  confidently,  by  evidence  of  style 
alone,  to  be  of  Cromwell's  own  writing.  It  difiers  totally  in  this  re- 
spect from  any  other  of  those  multitudinous  Army- Papers  ;  which  were 
understood,  says  Whitlocke,  to  be  drawn  up  mostly  by  Ireton,  'who 
had  a  subtle  working  brain  ; '  or  by  Lambert,  who  also  had  got  scn.e 
tincture  of  Law  and  other  learning,  and  did  not  want  Icr  brain. 
They  are  very  able  Papers,  though  now  very  dull  ones.  This  is  in 
*  Whiilocke,  p.  255. 


ARMY  MANIFESTO.  165 

a  far  different  style  ;  in  Oliver's  worst  style  ;  his  style  when  he  writes 
in  haste,— and  not  in  haste  of  the  pen  merely,  for  that  seems  always 
to  have  been  a  most  rapid  business  with  him  ;  but  in  haste  before 
the  matter  had  matured  itself  for  him,  and  the  real  kernels  of  it  got 
parted  from  the  husks.  A  style  of  composition  like  the  structure  of 
a  block  of  oak-root, — as  tortuous,  unwedgeable,  and  as  strong  !  Read 
attentively,  this  Letter  can  be  understood,  can  be  believed  :  the  tone 
of  it,  the  '  voice '  of  it,  reminds  us  of  what  Sir  Philip  Warwick  heard  ; 
the  voice  of  a  man  risen  justly  into  a  kind  of  chaimt, — very  dangerous 
for  the  City  of  London  at  present. 

To  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  Mayor,  Alderjnen,  and  Common 
Cotmcil  of  the  city  of  London  :  These. 

Royston,  loth  June,  1647. 

Right  Honourable  and  Worthy  Friends, 

Having,  by  our  Letters  and  other  Addresses  presented  by  our 
General  to  the  Honourable  House  of  Commons,  endeavoured  to  give 
satisfaction  of  the  clearness  of  our  just  Demands  ;  and  '  having  '  also,  in 
Papers  published  by  us,  remonstrated  the  grounds  of  our  proceedings 
in  prosecution  thereof ; — all  which  being  published  in  print,  we  are 
confident  '  they '  have  come  to  your  hands,  and  received  at  least  a 
charitable  construction  from  you. 

The  sum  of  all  these  our  Desires  as  Soldiers  is  no  other  than  this : 
Satisfaction  to  our  undoubted  Claims  as  Soldiers  ;  and  reparation 
upon  those  who  have,  to  the  utmost,  improved  all  opportunities  and 
advantages,  by  false  suggestions,  misrepresentations  and  otherwise, 
for  the  destruction  of  this  Army  with  a  perpetual  blot  of  ignominy 
upon  it.  Which  *  injury  '  we  should  not  value,  if  it  singly  concerned 
our  own  particular  '  persons  ; '  being  ready  to  deny  ourselves  in  this, 
as  we  have  done  in  other  cases,  for  the  Kingdom's  good  :  but  under 
this  pretence,  we  find,  no  less  is  involved  than  the  overthrow  of  the 
privileges  both  of  Parliament  and  People  ; — and  that  rather  than  they"*^ 
shall  fail  in  their  designs,  or  we  receive  what  in  the  eyes  of  all  good 
men  is  '  our '  just  right,  the  Kingdom  is  endeavoured  to  be  engaged 
in  a  new  War.  '  In  a  new  War,'  and  this  singly  by  those  who,  when 
the  truth  of  these  things  shall  be  made  to  appear,  will  be  found  to 
be  the  authors  of  those  'said'  evils  that  are  feared  ; — and  who  have 
no  other  way  to  protect  themselves  from  question  and  punishment 
but  by  putting  the  Kingdom  into  blood,  under  the  pretence  of  their 
honour  of  and  their  love  to  the  ParHament.  As  if  that  were  dearer 
to  them  than  to  us  ;  or  as  if  they  had  given  greater  proof  of  their 
faithfulness  to  it  than  we. 

But  we  perceive  that,  under  these  veils  and  pretences,  they  seek  to 
interest  in  their  design  the  City  of  London  :— as  if  that  City  ought 
to  make  good  their  miscarriages,  and  should  prefer  a  few  self-seeking 
men  before  the  welfare  of  the  Public.  And  indeed  we  have  found 
these  men  so  active  to  accomphsh  their  designs,  and  to  have  such 
apt  instruments  for  their  turn  in   that  City,  that  we  have  cause  to 

*  The  Presbyterian  leaders  in  Parliament,  Holies,  Stapleton,  Harley,  Waller, 
&c. 


l66  BETWEEN  THE  CtViL  WAR^. 

suspect  they  may  engage  many  therein  upon  mistakes, — which  are 
easily  swallowed,  in  .times  of  such  prejudice  against  them^  that 
have  given  (we  may  speak  it  without  vanity)  the  most  pubhc 
testimony  of  their  good  affections  to  the  Public,  and  to  that  City  in 
particular. 

'  As  '  for  the  thing  we  insist  upon  as  Englishmen, — and  surely  our 
being  Soldiers  hath  not  stript  us  of  that  interest,  although  our  malicious 
enemies  would  hath  it  so, — we  desire  a  Settlement  of  the  Peace  of 
the  Kingdom  and  of  the  Liberties  of  the  Subject,  according  to  the 
Votes  and  Declarations  of  Parliament,  which,  before  we  took  arms, 
were,  by  the  Parliament,  used  as  arguments  and  inducements  to 
invite  us  and  divers  of  our  dear  friends  out;  some  of  whom  have 
lost  their  Hves  in  this  War.  Which  being  now,  by  God's  blessing, 
finished, — we  think  we  have  as  much  right  to  demand,  and  desire 
to  see,  a  happy  Settlement,  as  we  have  to  our  money  and  'to'  the 
other  common  interest  of  Soldiers  which  we  have  insisted  upon.  We 
find  also  the  ingenuous  and  honest  people,  in  almost  all  parts  of  the 
Kingdom  where  we  come,  full  of  the  sense  of  ruin  and  misery  if  the 
Army  should  be  disbanded  before  the  Peace  of  the  Kingdom,  and 
those  other  things  before  mentioned,  have  a  full  and  perfect  Settle- 
ment. 

We  have  said  before,  and  profess  it  now.  We  desire  no  alteration 
of  the  Civil  Government.  As  little  do  we  desire  to  interrupt,  or  in 
the  least  to  intermeddle  with,  the  settling  of  the  Presbyterial  Govern- 
ment. Nor  did  we  seek  to  open  a  way  for  licentious  liberty,  under 
pretence  of  obtaining  ease  for  tender  consciences.  We  profess,  as 
ever  in  these  things,  W'hen  once  the  State  has  made  a  Settlement, 
we  have  nothing  to  say  but  to  submit  or  suffer.  Only  we  could  wish 
that  every  good  citizen,  and  every  man  who  walks  peaceably  in  a 
blameless  conversation,  and  is  beneficial  to  the  Commonwealth,  might 
have  liberty  and  encouragement  ;  this  being  according  to  the  true 
policy  of  all  States,  and  even  to  justice  itself. 

These  in  brief  are  our  Desires,  and  the  things  for  which  we  stand  ; 
beyond  which  we  shall  not  go.  And  for  the  obtaining  of  these  things,! 
we  are  drawing  near  your  City  ; — professing  sincerely  from  our  hearts, 
'  That '  we  intend  not  evil  towards  you  ;  declaring,  with  all  confidence 
and  assurance,  That  if  you  appear  not  against  us  in  these  our  just 
desires,  to  assist  that  wicked  Party  which  would  embroil  us  and  the 
Kingdom,  neither  we  nor  our  Soldiers  shall  give  you  the  least  offence. 
We  come  not  to  do  any  act  to  prejudice  the  being  of  Parliaments,  or 
to  the  hurt  of  this  '  Parliament '  in  order  to  the  present  Settlement  of 
the  Kingdom.  We  seek  the  good  of  all.  And  we  shall  wait  here,  or 
remove  to  a  farther  distance  to  abide  there,  if  once  we  be  assured  that 
a  speedy  Settlement  of  things  is  in  hand, — until  it  be  accomplished. 
Which  done,  we  shall  be  most  ready,  either  all  of  us,  or  so  many  of 
the  Army  as  the  Parliament  shall  think  fit, — to  disband,  or  to  go  for 
Ireland. 

And  although  you  may  suppose  that  a  rich  City  may  seem  an 
en|icing  bait  to  i  oor  hungry  Soldiers  to  venture  far  to  gain  the  wealth 
V       *  Oblique  for  'us.  f  Here  is  the  remarkable  point ! 


ARMY  MANIFESTO.  167 

thereof, — yet,  if  not  provoked  by  you,  we  do  profess,  Rather  than  any 
such  evil  should  fall  out,  the  soldiers  shall  make  their  way  through  our 
blood  to  effect  it.  And  we  can  say  this  for  most  of  them,  for  your  better 
assurance,  That  they  so  little  value  their  pay  in  comparison  of  higher 
concernments  to  a  Public  Good,  that  rather  than  they  will  be  unrighted 
in  the  matter  of  their  honesty  and  integrity  (which  hath  suffered  by  the 
Men  they  aim  at  and  desire  justice  upon),  or  want  the  settlement  of  the 
Kingdom's  Peace,  and  their  '  own '  and  their  fellow-subjects'  Liberties, 
— they  will  lose  all.  Which  may  be  a  strong  assurance  to  you  that  it's 
not  your  wealth  they  seek,  but  the  things  tending  in  common  to  your 
and  their  welfare.  That  they  may  attain  '  these,'  you  shall  do  like 
Fellow- Subjects  and  Brethren  if  you  solicit  the  Parliament  for  them, 
on  their  behalf 

If  after  all  this,  you,  or  a  considerable  part  of  you,  be  seduced  to  take 
up  arms  in  opposition  to,  or  hindrance  of,  these  our  just  undertakings, 
— we  hope  we  have,  by  this  brotherly  premonition,  to  the  sincerity  of 
which  we  call  God  to  witness,  freed  ourselves  from  all  that  ruin  which 
may  befal  that  great  and  populous  City  ;  having  thereby  washed  our 
hands  thereof     We  rest, 

Your  affectionate  friends  to  serve  you, 

Thomas  Fairfax.  Henry  Ireton. 

Oliver  Cromwell.  Robert  Lilburn. 

Robert  Hammond.  John  Desborow. 

Thomas  Hammond.  Thomas  Rainsborow. 

Hardress  Waller.  John  Lambert. 

Nathaniel  Rich.  Thomas  Harrison.* 
Thomas  Pride. 

This  letter  was  read  next  day  in  the  Commons  House,t — not  without 
emotion.  Most  respectful  answer  went  from  the  Guildhall  '  m  three 
coaches  with  the  due  number  of  outriders.' 

On  June  i6th,  the  Army,  still  at  St.  Albans,  accuses  of  treason 
Eleven  Members  of  the  Commons  House  by  name,  as  chief  authors  of 
all  these  troubles  ;  whom  the  Honourable  House  is  respectfully  required 
to  put  upon  their  trial,  and  prevent  from  voting  in  the  interim.  These 
are  the  famed  Eleven  Members  ;  Holies,  Waller,  Stapleton,  Massey 
are  known  to  us  ;  the  whole  List,  for  benefit  of  historical  readers,  we 
subjoin  in  a  Note,  |  They  demurred  ;  withdrew  ;  again  returned  ;  in 
fine,  had  to  '  ask  leave  to  retire  for  six  months,'  on  account  of  their 
health,  we  suppose.  They  retired  swiftly  in  the  end  ;  to  France  ;  to 
deep  concealment, — to  the  Tower  otherwise. 

The  history  of  these  six  weeks,  till  they  did  retire  and  the  Army 

*  Rushworth,  vi.  554.  f  Corrimons  Journals,  v.  208. 

X  Denzil  Holies  Member  for  Dorchester),  Sir  Philip  Stapleton  ( Boroughbridge), 
Sir  "William  Waller  (Andover),  Sir  William  Lewis  (Petersfield),  Sir  John  Clot- 
worthy  (Maiden),  Recorder  Glynn  (Westminster),  Mr.  Anthony  Nichols  (Bodmin)  ; 
these  seven  are  old  Members,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Parliament ;  the  other 
Four  are  'recruiters,'  elected  since  1645:  Major-General  Massey  (Wooton  Basset), 
Colonel  Walter  Long  (Ludgershall),  Colonel  Edward  Harely  (Herefordshire),  Sir 
John  Maynard  (Lestwithiel). 


i68  BETWEEN   THE  CIVIL  WARS. 


had  its  way,  we  must  request  the  reader  to  imagine  for  himself.  Long 
able  Papers,  drawn  by  men  of  subtle  brain  and  strong  sincere  heart  : 
the  Army  retiring  always  to  a  safe  distance  when  tHeir  Demands  are 
agreed  to  ;  straightway  advancing  if  otherwise, — which  rapidly  pro- 
duces an  agreement.  A  most  remarkable  Negotiation  :  conducted 
with  a  method,  a  gravity  and  decorous  regularity  beyond  example  in 
such  cases.  The  '  shops '  of  London  were  more  than  once  '  shut  ; ' 
tremor  occupying  all  hearts  : — but  no  harm  was  done.  The  Parlia- 
ment regularly  paid  the  Army  ;  the  Army  lay  coiled  round  London 
and  the  Parhament,  now  advancing,  now  receding ;  saying  in  the 
most  respectful  emblematic  way,  "  Settlement  with  us  and  the  Godly 

People,  or  I  " — The  King,  still  with  the  Army,  and  treated  like 

a  King,  endeavoured  to  play  his  game,  '  in  meetings  at  Woburn  '  and 
elsewhere  ;  but  the  two  Parties  could  not  be  brought  to  extirpate  one 
another  for  his  benefit. 

Towards  the  end  of  July,  matters  seem  as  good  as  settled  :  the 
Holies  '  Declaration,'  that  '  blot  of  ignominy,'  being  now  expunged 
from  the  Journals  ;  *  the  Eleven  being  out  ;  and  now  at  last,  the  New 
Militia  Ordinance  for  London  (Presbyterian  Ordinance  brought  in  by 
Holies  on  the  4th  of  May)  being  revoked,  and  matters  in  that  quarter 
set  on  their  old  footing  again.  The  two  Parties  in  Parliament  seem 
pretty  equal  in  numbers  ;  the  Presbyterian  Party,  shorn  of  its  Eleven, 
is  cowed  down  to  the  due  pitch  ;  and  there  is  now  prospect  of  fair 
treatm.ent  for  all  the  Godly  Interest,  and  such  a  Settlement  wiih  his 
Majesty  as  may  be  the  best  for  that.  Towards  the  end  of  July  how- 
ever, London  City,  torn  by  factions,  but  Presbyterian  by  the  great 
majority,  rallies  again  in  a  very  extraordinary  way.  Take  these 
glimpses  from  contemporaneous  Whitlocke  :  and  rouse  them  from 
their  fat  somnolency  a  little. 

July  26th.  Many  young  men  and  Apprentices  of  London  came  to 
the  House,  in  a  most  rude  and  tumultuous  manner  ;  and  presented 
some  particular  Desires.  Desires,  That  the  Eleven  may  comeback; 
that  the  Presbyterian  Militia  Ordinance  be  7tot  revoked, — that  the 
Revocation  of  it  be  revoked.  Desire,  in  short.  That  there  be  no  peace 
made  with  Sectaries,  but  that  the  London  Mihtia  may  have  a  fair 
chance  to  fight  them  ! — Drowsy  Whitlocke  continues  ;  almost  as  if 
he  were  in  Paris  in  the  eighteenth  century  :  '  The  Apprentices,  and 
'many  other  rude  boys  and  mean  fellows  among  them,  came  into 
'  the  House  of  Commons  ;  and  kept  the  Door  open  and  their  hats 
'on  ;  and  called  out  as  they  stood,  "Vote,  Vote  !"— and  in  this  arro- 
*  gant  posture,  stood  till  the  votes  passed  in  that  way.  To  repeal  the 
'  Ordinance  for  change  of  the  Militia,  to'  &c.  '  In  the  evening  about 
'  7  o'clock,  some  of  the  Common  Council  came  down  to  the  House  : ' 
but  finding  the  Parliament  and  Speaker  already  hadhttn  forced,  they, 
astute  Common  Council-men,  ordered  their  Apprentices  to  go  home 
again,  the  work  they  had  set  them  upon  being  now  finished.*  This 
disastrous  scene  fell  out  on  Monday,  26th  July,  1647  :  the  Houses, 
on  the  morrow  morning,  without  farther  sitting,  adjourn  till  Friday 
next. 

*  Asterisks  still  in  the  place  of  it,  Commons  Journals,  29th  March,  1646-7. 
f  Whitlocke,  p.  263. 


A/^A/y  MAiSlIFESTO,  169 

On  Friday  next,— behold,  the  Two  Speakers,  '  with  the  Mace,'  and 
many  Members  of  both  Houses,  have  withdrawn  ;  and  the  Army, 
lately  at  Bedford,  is  on  quick  march  towards  London  !  Alarming 
pause.  '  About  noon,'  however,  the  Remainders  of  the  Two  Houses, 
reinforced  by  the  Eleven  who  reappear  for  the  last  time,  proceed  to 
elect  new  Speakers,  '  get  the  City  M'ace  ; '  order,  above  all,  that  there 
be  a  vigorous  enlistment  of  forces,  under  General  Massey,  General 
Poyntz,  and  others.  'St.  James's  Fields '  were  most  busy  all  Satur- 
day, all  Monday  ;  shops  all  shut  ;  drums  beating  in  all  quarters  ;  a 
most  vigorous  enlistment  going  on.  Presbyterianism  will  die  with 
harness  on  its  back.  Alas,  news  comes  that  the  Army  is  at  Colne- 
brook,  advancing  towards  Hounslow;  news  come  that  they  have  ren- 
dezvoused at  Hounslow,  and  received  the  Speakers  and  fugitive  Lords 
and  Commons  with  shouts.  Tuesday,  3d  August,  1647,  was  such  a 
day  as  London  and  the  Guildhall  never  saw  before  or  since  !  South- 
wark  declares  that  it  will  not  fight  ;  sends  to  Fairfax  for  Peace  and  a 

*  sweet  composure  ; '  comes  to  the  Guildhall  in  great  crowds  petition- 
ing for  Peace  ; — at  which  sight.  General  Poyntz,  pressing  through  for 
orders  about* his  enlistments,  loses  his  last  drop  of  human  patience  ; 
'  draws  his  sword '  on  the  whining  multitudes,  '  slashes  several  per- 
sons, whereof  some  died.'  The  game  is  nearly  up.  Look  into  the 
old  Guildhall  on  that  old  Tuesday  night ;  the  palpitation,  tremulous 
expectation  ;  wooden  Gog  and  Magog  themselves  almost  sweating  cold 
with  terror  : 

'  General  Massey  sent  out  scouts  to  Brentford  :  but  Ten  men  of 

*  the  Army  beat  Thirty  of  his  ;  and  took  a  flag  from  a  Party  of  the 
'  City.     The  City  Militia  and  Common  Council  s;it  late  ;  and  a  great 

*  number  of  people  attended  at  Guildhall.     When  a   scout  came  in 

*  and   brought   news,   That   the  Army  made  a  halt  ;  or  other  good 

*  intelligence,— they   cry,   "  One   and   all  !  "     But   if   the   scouts    re- 

*  ported  that  the  Army  was  advancing  nearer  them,  then  they  would 

*  cry  as  loud,   "  Treat,   treat,  treat  ! "     So   they  spent  most  part  of 

*  the  night.  At  last  they  resolved  to  send  the  General  an  humble 
'Letter,  beseeching  him  that  there  might  be  a  way  of  compo- 
'  sure.'* 

On  Friday  morning,  was  '  a  meeting  at  the  Earl  of  Holland's  House 
in  Kensington '  (the  Holland  House  that  yet  stands),  and  prostrate 
submission  by  the  Civic  Authorities  and  Parliamentary  Remainders  ; 
after  which  the  Army  marched  'three  deep  by  Hyde  Park  '  into  the 
heart  of  the  City,  '  with  boughs  of  laurel  in  their  hats  ; ' — and  it  was 
all  ended.  Fair  treatment  for  all  the  Honest  Party ;  and  the  Spiritual- 
ism of  England  shall  not  be  forced  to  grow  in  the  Presbyterian 
fashion,  however  it  may  grow.  Here  is  another  entry  from  somnolent 
Bulstrode.  The  Army  soon  changes  its  head-quarters  to  Putney  ;  f 
one  of  its  outer  posts  is  Hampton  Court,  where  his  Majesty,  obstinate 
still,  but  somewhat  despondent  now  of  getting  the  two  parties  to  ex- 
tirpate one  another,  is  lodged. 

Saturday,^ Septei7tber  \Zth.  After  a  Sermon  in  Putney  Church, 
*the    General,  many  great  Officers,  Field-Officers,  inferior  Officers 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  265.  \  28  August,  Rushworth,  vii.  791. 


170  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL   WARS. 

'•  and  Adjutators,  met  in  the  Church  ;  debated  the  Proposals  of  the 
'Army"'  towards  a  Settlement  of  this  bleeding  Nation  ;  'altered  some 

*  things  in  them  ; — and  were  very  full  of  the  Sermon,  which  had  been 

*  preached  by  Mr,  Peters.'*" 


LETTERS  XXVIL— XXXVII. 

These  Eleven  Letters,  touching  slightly  on  public  affairs,  with  one 
or  two  glimpses  into  private,  must  carry  us,  without  commentary,  in 
a  very  dim  way,  across  to  the  next  stage  in  Oliver's  History  and  Eng- 
land's :  the  Flight  of  the  King  from  Hampton  Court  and  the 
Army,  soon  followed  by  the  actual  breaking  out  of  the  Second  Civil 
War. 

LETTER  XXVIL 

The  Marquis  of  Ormond,  a  man  of  distinguished  integrity,  patience, 
activity  and  talent,  had  done  his  utmost  for  the  King  in  Ireland,  so 
long  as  there  remained  any  shadow  of  hope  there.  His  last  service, 
as  we  saw,  was  to  venture  secretly  on  a  Peace  with  the  Irish  Catholics, 
— Papists,  men  of  the  Massacre  of  1641,  men  of  many  other  mas- 
sacres, falsities,  mad  blusterings  and  confusions,— whom  all  parties 
considered  as  sanguinary  Rebels,  and  regarded  with  abhorrence. 
Which  Peace,  we  saw  farther,  Abbas  O'Teague  and  others  threaten- 
ing to  produce  excommunication  on  it,  the  '  Council  of  Kilkenny ' 
broke  away  from, — not  in  the  handsomest  manner.  Ormond,  in  this 
Spring  of  1647,  finding  himself  reduced  to  'seven  barrels  of  gun- 
powder'and  other  extremities,  without  prospect  of  help  or  trustworthy 
bargain  on  the  Irish  side, — agreed  to  surrender  Dublin,  and  what  else 
he  had  left,  rather  to  the  Parliament  than  to  the  Rebels  ;  his  Ma- 
jesty, from  England,  secretly  and  publicly  advising  that  course.  The 
Treaty  was  completed  :  '  Colonel  Michael  Jones,'  lately  Governor  of 
Chester,  arrived  with  some  Parhamentary  Regiments,  with  certain 
Parliamentary  Commissioners,  on  the  7th  of  June  :!  the  surrender 
was  duly  effected,  and  Ormond  withdrew  to  England. 

A  great  English  force  had  been  anticipated  ;  but  the  late  quarrel 
with  the  Army  had  rendered  that  impossible.  Jones,  with  such  in- 
adequate force  as  he  had,  made  head  against  the  Rebels  ;  gained  '  a 
great  victory'  over  them  on  the  8th  of  August,  at  a  place  called  Dun- 
gan  Hill,  not  far  from  Trim  \\  '  the  most  signal  victory  we  had  yet 
gained  ;'  for  which  there  was  thankfulness  enough  — Four  days  before 
that  Sermon  by  Hugh  Peters,  followed  by  the  military  conclave  in 
Putney  Church,  Cromwell  had  addressed  this  small  Letter  of  Congra- 
tulation to  Jones,  whom,  by  the  tone  of  it,  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
personally  known  : 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  272.  t  Carte's  Ormond,  i.  603. 

X  Rushworth,  vii.  779;    Carte,  ii.  5. 


PUTNEY.  171 


For  the  Honourable  Colonel  Jones,  Governor  of  Diibli7i,  and  Coni- 
ma?ider-i?i-Chief  0/ all  the  Forces  in  Leinster:  These. 

'  Putney,'  14th  September,  1647. 

Sir, 

The  mutual  interest  and  agreement  we  have  in  the  same  Cause* 
give  me  occasion,  as  to  congratulate,  so  'likewise'  abundantly  to 
rejoice  in  God's  gracious  Dispensation  unto  you  and  by  you.  We 
have,  both  in  England  and  Ireland,  found  the  immediate  presence 
and  assistance  of  God,  in  guiding  and  succeeding  our  endeavours 
hitherto  ;  and  therefore  ought,  as  I  doubt  not  both  you  and  we  desire, 
to  ascribe  the  glories  of  all  to  Him,  and  to  improve  all  we  receive 
from  Him  unto  Him  alone. 

Though,  it  may  be,  for  the  present  a  cloud  may  lie  over  our  actions 
to  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  grounds  of  them  ;  yet  we 
doubt  not  but  God  will  clear*  our  integrity  and  innocency  from  any 
other  ends  we  aim  at  but  His  glory  and  the  Pubhc  Good.  And  as  you 
are  an  instrument  herein,  so  we  shall,  as  becometh  us,  upon  all  occa- 
sions, give  you  your  due  honour.  For  my  own  particular,  —wherein 
I  may  have  your  commands  to  serve  you,  you  shall  find  none  more 
ready  than  he  that  sincerely  desires  to  approve  himself, 

Your  affectionate  friend  and  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

Michael  Jones  is  the  name  of  this  Colonel  ;  there  are  several 
Colonel  Joneses  ;  difficult  to  distinguish.  One  of  them,  Colonel  John 
Jones,  Member  for  Merionethshire,  and  known  too  in  Ireland,  became 
afterwards  the  Brother-in-law  of  Cromwell  ;  and  ended  tragically  as 
a  Regicide  in  1661.  Colonel  Michael  gained  other  signal  successes  in 
Ireland  ;  welcomed  Ohver  into  it  in  1649  ;  and  died  there  soon  after 
of  a  fever. 

One  of  the  remarkablest  circumstances  of  this  new  Irish  Campaign 
is,  that  Colonel  Monk,  George  Monk,  is  again  in  it.  He  was  taken 
prisoner,  fresh  from  Ireland,  at  Nantwich,  three  years  ago.  After 
lying  three  years  in  the  Tower,  seeing  his  Majesty's  affairs  now  des- 
perate, he  has  consented  to  take  the  Covenant,  embark  with  the  Par- 
liament ;  and  is  now  doing  good  service  in  Ulster. 


LETTER  XXVIII. 

*  To  his  Excellency  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  General  of  the  Parliamenfs 
Army :    These' 

'  Putney,'  13th  October,  1647. 

Sir, 

The  case  concerning  Captain  Middleton  hears^  ill  ;  inasmuch 
as  it  is  delayed,  upon  pretences,  from  coming  to  a  trial.     It  is  not,  I 

*  Word  uncertain  to  the  Copyist ;  sense  not  doubtful. 

t  Ms.  Volume  of  Letters  in  Trinity-Colles^e  Library,  Dublin  (marked  :  F.  3. 
18),  fol.  62.  Autograph;  docketed  by  Jones  himself,  of  whom  the  Volume  con- 
tains other  memorials.  J  sounds. 


172  BETWEEN  THE  CI^/L  WARS. 


humbly  conceive,  fit  that  it  should  stay  any  longer.  The  Soldiers 
complain  thereof,  and  their  witnesses  have  been  examined.  Captain 
Middleton,  and  some  others  for  him,  have  made  stay  thereof  hitherto. 
I  beseech  your  Excellency  to  give  order  it  may  be  tried  on  Fri- 
day, or  Saturday  at  farthest,  if  you  please  ;  and  that  so  much  may  be 
signified  to  the  Advocate. 

Sir,  I  pray  excuse  my  not  attendance  upon  you.  I  feared  '  to '  miss 
the  House  a  day,  where  it's  very  necessary  for  me  to  be.  I  hope 
your  Excellency  will  be  at  the  Head-quarter  to-morrow,  where,  if  God 
be  pleased,  I  shall  wait  upon  you. 

I  rest, 
Your  Excellency's  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell."^ 

Captain  Middleton  and  his  case  have  vanished  completely  out  of 
the  records  ;  whether  it  was  tried  on  Saturday,  and  how  decided,  will 
never  now  be  known.  Doubtless  Fairfax  '  signified  '  somewhat  to  the 
Advocate  about  it,  but  let  us  not  ask  what.  'The  Advocate'  is 
called  '  John  Mills,  Esquire,  Judge- Advocate  ;'|-  whose  military  Law- 
labours  have  mostly  become  silent  now.  The  former  Advocate  was 
Dr.  DorisJaus  ;  of  whom  also  a  word.  Dr.  Dorislaus,  by  birth  Dutch  ; 
appointed  Judge- Advocate  at  the  beginning  of  Essex's  campaignings  ; 
known  afterwards  on  the  King's  Trial  ;  and  finally,  for  that  latter 
service,  assassinated  at  the  Hague,  one  evening,  by  certain  highflying 
Royalist  cutthroats,  Scotch  several  of  them.  The  Portraits  represent 
him  as  a  man  of  heavy,  deep-wrinkled,  elephantine  countenance, 
pressed  down  with  the  labours  of  life  and  law  ;  the  good  ugly  man 
here  found  his  quietus. 

The  business  in  the  House,  '  where  it's  necessary  for  me  to  be ' 
without  miss  of  a  sitting,  is  really  important,  or  at  least  critical,  in 
these  October  days  :  Settlement  of  Army  arrears,  duties  and  nrrange- 
ments  ;  Tonnage  and  Poundage  ;  business  of  the  London  Violence 
upon  the  Parliament  (pardoned  for  the  most  part) ;  business  of  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel John  Lilburn,  now  growing  very  noisy  ;— above  all 
things,  final  Settlement  with  the  King,  if  that  by  any  method  could 
be  possible.  The  Army-Parliament  too  still  sits  ;  '  Council  of  War' 
with  its  Adjutator  meeting  frequently  at  Putney.}  In  the  House,  and 
out  of  the  House,  Lieutenant- (General  Cromwell  is  busy  enough. 

This  very  day,  '  Wednesday,  13th  October,  1647,'  we  find  him  deep 
in  debate  '  On  the  farther  establishment  of  the  Presbyterial  Govern- 
ment '  (for  the  law  is  still  loose,  the  Platform  except  in  London  never 
fairly  on  foot) ;  and  Teller  on  no  fewer  than  three  divisions.  First, 
shall  the  Presbyterian  Government  be  limited  to  three  years  ?  Crom- 
well answers  Fm,  in  a  House  of  'j'})  ;  is  beaten  by  a  majority  of  3. 
Second,  Shall  there  be  a  limit  of  time  to  it  ?  Cromwell  again  answers 
Yea  ;  beats,  this  time,  by  a  majority  of  14,  in  a  House  now  of  74 
(some  individual  having  dropt  in).  Third,  Shall  the  limit  be  seven 
years  ?     Cromwell  answers  Yea;  and  in  a  House  still  of  74  is  beaten 

*  SloaneMss.  15 19,  fol.  80.  f  Springe,  p.  326. 

X  Rushworth,  vii.  849,  &c. 


(«ia^..w^: 


PUTNEY  173 


by  8.  It  is  finally  got  settled  that  the  limit  of  time  shall  be  '  to  the 
'  end  of  the  next  Session  of  Parliament  after  the  end  of  this  Present 
'  Session/ — a  very  vague  Period,  '  this  present  session  '  having  itself 
already  proved  rather  long !  Note,  too,  this  is  not  yet  a  Law  ;  it 
is  only  a  Proposal  to  be  made  to  the  King,  if  his  Majesty  will  concur, 
which  seems  doubtful.  Debating  enough  ! — Saturday  last  there  was 
a  call  of  the  House,  and  great  quantities  of  absent  Members  ;  '  cegro- 
tantes^  a  good  many  of  them, — sickness  being  somewhat  prevalent  in 
those  days  of  waiting  upon  Providence.* 


LETTER  XXIX. 

*  To  his  Excellency  Sir  Thomas  Fair/ax,  General  of  the  Parlia- 
ment's Army  :  These  J 

'  Putney,  226.  October,  1647.' 

Sir, 

Hearing  the  Garrison  of  Hull  is  most  distracted  in  the  present 
government,  and  that  the  most  faithful  and  honest  Officers  have  no 
disposition  to  serve  there  any  longer  under  the  present  Governor  ; 
and  that  it  is  their  earnest  desires,  with  all  the  trusty  and  faithful 
inhabitants  of  the  Town,  to  have  Colonel  Overton  sent  to  them  to  be 
your  Excellency's  Deputy  over  them, — I  do  humbly  offer  to  your 
Excellency,  Whether  it  might  not  be  convenient  that  Colonel  Over- 
ton be  speedily  sent  down  ;  that  so  that  Garrison  may  be  settled  in 
safe  hands.  And  that  your  Excellency  would  be  pleased  to  send  for 
Colonel  Overton,  and  confer  with  him  about  it.  That  either  the 
Regiment  '  now '  in  the  Town  may  be  so  regulated  as  your  Excel- 
lency may  be  confident  that  the  Garrison  may  be  secured  by  them  ; 
or  otherwise  it  may  be  drawn  out,  and  his  own  Regiment  in  the  Army 
be  sent  down  thither  with  him. — But  I  conceive,  if  the  Regiment  in 
Hull  can  be  made  serviceable  to  your  Excellency,  and  included  in 
the  Establishment,  it  will  be  better  to  continue  it  there,  than  to  bury 
a  Regiment  of  your  Army  in  the  Garrison. 

Sir,  the  expedient  will  be  very  necessary,  in  regard  of  the 
present  distractions  here.  This  I  thought  fit  to  offer  to  your 
Excellency's  consideration.  I  shall  humbly  take  leave  to  subscribe 
myself 

Your  Excellency's 

Humble  '  and  faithful  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.'! 

After  Hotham's  defection  and  execution,  the  Lord  Ferdinando 
Fairfax,  who  had  valiantly  defended  the  place,  was  appointed  Gover- 
nor of  Hull  ;  which  office  had  subsequently  been  conferred  on  the 
Generahssimo  Sir  Thomas,  his  Son  ;  and  was  continued  to  him,  on 

*  Commons  Journals,  v.  329;   ifi.  332. 

t  Sloane  Mss.  1519,  fol.  82  : — Signature,  and  all  after  '  humble,'  is  torn  off. 
The  Letter  is  not  an  autograph  ;  it  has  been  dictated,  apparently  in  great 
haste. 


174  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL   WARS. 

the  readjustment  of  all  Garrisons  in  the  spring  of  this  same  year.''*" 
Sir  Thomas  therefore  was  express  Governor  of  Hull  at  this  time. 
Who  the  Substitute  or  Deputy  under  him  was,  I  do  not  know. 
Some  Presbyterian  man  ;  unfit  for  the  stringent  times  that  had 
arrived,  when  no  algebraic  formula,  but  only  direct  vision  of  the  rela- 
tions of  things  would  suffice  a  man. 

Colonel  Overton  was  actually  appointed  Governor  of  Hull  •  there 
is  a  long  Letter  from  the  Hull  people  about  Colonel  Overton's  laying 
free  billet  upon  them,  a  Complaint  to  Fairfax  on  the  subject,  next 
year.t  He  continued  long  in  that  capacity  ;  zealously  loyal  to  Crom- 
well and  his  cause, J  till  the  Protectorship  came  on.  His  troubles 
afterwards,  and  confused  destinies,  may  again  concern  us  a  little. 

This  Letter  is  written  only  three  weeks  before  the  King  took  his 
flight  from  Hampton  Court.  One  spark  illuminating  (very  faintly) 
that  huge  dark  world,  big  with  such  results,  in  the  Army's  quarters 
about  Putney,  and  elsewhere  I 


LETTER  XXX. 

The  immeasurable  Negotiations  with  the  King,  *  Proposals  of  the 
Army,'  '  Proposals  of  the  Adjutators  of  the  Army,'  still  occupying 
tons  of  printed  paper,  the  subject  of  intense  debatings  and  con- 
siderations in  Westminster,  in  Putney  Church,  and  in  every  house 
and  hut  of  England,  for  many  months  past, — suddenly  contract 
themselves  for  us,  like  a  universe  of  gaseous  vapour,  into  one  small 
point  :  the  issue  of  them  all  is  failure.  The  Army  Council,  the  Army 
Adjutators,  and  serious  England  at  large,  were  in  earnest  about  one 
thing  ;  the  King  was  not  in  earnest,  except  about  another  thing  : 
there  could  be  no  bargain  with  the  King. 

Cromwell  and  the  Chief  Officers  have  for  some  time  past  ceased 
frequenting  his  Majesty  or  Hampton  Court ;  such  visits  being  looked 
upon  askance  by  a  party  in  the  Army  :  they  have  left  the  matter  to 
Parliament  ;  only  Colonel  Whalley,  with  due  guard,  and  Parliament 
Commissioners,  keep  watch  'for  the  security  of  his  Majesty.'  In  the 
Army,  his  Majesty's  real  purpose  becoming  now  apparent,  there  has 
arisen  a  very  terrible  '  Levelling  Party  ; '  a  class  of  men  demanding 
punishment  not  only  of  Delinquents,  and  Deceptive  Persons  who 
have  involved  this  Nation  in  blood,  but  of  the  '  Chief  Delinquent  : ' 
minor  Delinquents  getting  punished,  how  should  the  Chief  Delinquent 
go  free.?  A  class  of  men  dreadfully  in  earnest ;— to  whom  a  King's 
Cloak  is  no  impenetrable  screen ;  who  within  the  King's  Cloak 
discern  that  there  is  a  Man  accountable  to  a  God  !  The  Chief 
Officers,  except  when  officially  called,  keep  distant :  hints  have  fallen 

*  13  March,  1646-7  (Commons  Journals,  v.  m). 

f  4  March,  1647-8  (Rushworth,  vii.  1020). 

X  Sir  James  Turner's  Memoirs.  Milton  State-Papers  (London,  1743),  pp.  10, 
24,  161, — where  the  Editor  calls  him  Colonel  Richard  Overton  :  his  name  was 
Robert :  '  Richard  Overton  is  a  '  Leveller,'  uncoonected  with  him,  '  Colonel 
Richard  Overton '  is  a  non-existence. 


HAMPTON  COURT.  175 

that  his  Majesty  is  not  out  of  danger. — In  the  Commons  Journals  this 
is  what  we  read  : 

^Friday,  \2th  November^  1647.  A  Letter  from  Lieutenant- 
'  General  Cromwell,  of  nth  November,  twelve  at  night,  was  read; 
'  signifying  the  escape  of  the  King  ;  who  went  away  about  9  o'clock 
'  yesterday.'* 

Cromwell,  we  suppose,  lodging  in  head-quarters  about  Putney,  had 
been  roused  on  Thursday  Night  by  express  That  the  King  was 
gone  ;  had  hastened  off  to  Hampton  Court  ;  and  there  about  '  twelve 
at  night'  despatched  a  Letter  to  Speaker  Lenthall.  The  Letter, 
which  I  have  some  confused  recollection  of  having,  somewhere  in  the 
Pamphletary  Chaos,  seen  in  full,  refuses  to  disclose  itself  at  present 
except  as  a  Fragment  : 

*  For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall^  Speaker  of  the 

House  of  Com?tions  :  These. ^ 

'  Hampton  Court,  Twelve  at  night, 
nth  November,  1647.' 
'SIR,' 

*    *    -x-    *    Majesty    "*    *    withdrawn    himself    *    *    at 
nine  o'clock. 

The  manner  is  variously  reported  ;  and  we  will  say  little  of  it  at 
present,  but  That  his  Majesty  was  expected  at  supper,  when  the 
Commissioners  and  Colonel  Whalley  missed  him  ;  upon  which  they 
entered  the  Room  : — they  found  his  Majesty  had  left  his  cloak  behind 
him  in  the  Gallery  in  the  Private  Way.  He  passed  by  the  back-stairs 
and  vault  towards  the  Water-side. 

He  left  some  Letters  upon  the  table  in  his  withdrawing-room,  of 
his  own  handwriting  ;  whereof  one  was  to  the  Commissioners  of 
Parliament  attending  him,  to  be  communicated  to  both  Houses,  '  and 
is  here  enclosed.' 

*  -x-  * 

'  Oliver  Cromwell. 't 

We  do  not  give  his  Majesty's  Letter  '  here  enclosed  : '  it  is  that 
well-known  one  where  he  speaks,  in  very  royal  style,  still  every  inch 
a  King,  Of  the  restraints  and  slights  put  upon  him, — men's  obedience 
to  their  King  seeming  much  abated  of  late.  So  soon  as  they  return 
to  a  just  temper,  "  I  shall  instantly  break  through  this  cloud  of  retire- 
"ment,  and  shew  myself  ready  to  be  Pater  Patrice^' — as  I  have 
hitherto  dene. 

The  ports  are  all  ordered  to  be  shut  ;  embargo  laid  on  ships.  Read 
in  the  Commons  Journal  again  :  '  Saturday,  i^th  November.  Colonel 
'  Whalley  was  called  in  ;  and  made  a  particular  Relation  of  all  the  cir- 
'  cumstances  concerning  the  King's  going  away  from  Hampton  Court. 
'  He  did  likewise  deliver-in  a  Letter  directed  unto  him  from 
'  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell,  concerning  some  rumours  and  reports 

*  of  some  design  of  danger  to  the  person  and  life  of  the  King  ;  The 

*  which  was  read.     Ordered.,  That  Colonel  Whalley  do  put  in  writing 

*  Commons  Journals,  v.  356.  f  Rushworth,  vii.  S^** 


176  BETWEEN  THE   CIVIL  WARS. 

*  the  said  Relation,  and  set  his  hand   to  it ;  and  That  he  do  leave  a 

*  Copy  of  the  said  Letter  from  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell.'* 

Colonel  Wh.illey's  Relation  exists  ;  and  a  much  fuller  Relation  and 
pair  of  Relations  concerning  this  Flight  and  what  preceded  and 
followed  it,  as  viewed  from  the  Royalist  side,  by  two  parties  to  the 
business,  exist  :t  none  of  which  shall  concern  us  here.  Lieutenant- 
General  Cromwell's  Letter  to  Whalley  also  exists  ;  a  short  insignifi- 
cant Note  :  here  it  is,  fished  from  the  Dust-Abysses,  which  refuse  to 
disclose  the  other.  Whalley  is  '  Cousin  Whalley,'  as  we  may  re- 
member ;  Aunt  Frances's  and  the  Squire  of  Kerton's  Son, — a 
Nottinghamshire  man.;]; 

LETTER  XXXL 

*  For  7Jiy  beloved  Cousin^  Colonel  Whalley,  at  Hampton 
Court:  These.'' 

'  Putney,  November  1647.' 

Dear  Cos.  Whalley, 

There  are  rumours  abroad  of  some  intended  attempt  on  his 
Majesty's  person.  Therefore  I  pray  have  a  care  of  your  guards.  If 
any  such  thing  should  be  done,  it  would  be  accounted  a  most  horrid 
act.         *    ^    * 

Yours, 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

See,  among  the  Old  Pamphlets,  Letters  to  the  like  effect  from 
Royalist  Parties  :  also  a  Letter  of  thanks  from  the  King  to  Whalley  ; 
— ending  with  a  desire, '  to  send  the  black-grey  bitch  to  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,'  on  the  part  of  His  Majesty  :  Letters  from  &c.,  Letters  to 
&c.,  in  great  quantities.||  For  us  here  this  brief  notice  of  one  Letter 
shall  suffice  : 

'•  Mofiaay  \^th  November,  1647.  Letter  from  Colonel  Robert 
'  Hammond,  Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  Cowes  \'^  Novembris, 
'  signifying  that  the  King  is  come  into  the  Isle  of  Wight. IT  The  King 
after  a  night  and  a  day  of  riding,  saw  not  well  whither  else  to  go.  He 
delivered  himself  to  Robert  Hammond  ;**  came  into  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  Robert  Hammond  is  ordered  to  keep  him  strictly  within 
Carisbrook  Castle  and  the  adjoining  grounds,  in  a  vigilant  though 
altogether  respectful  manner. 

This  same  '  Monday '  when  Hammond's  Letter  arrives  in  London 
is  the  day  of  the  mutinous  Rendezvous  '  in  Corkbush  Field,  between 
Hertford  and  Ware  ;'tt  where  Cromwell  and  the  General  Officers  had 
to  front  the  Levelling  Principle,  in  a  most  dangerous  manner,  and 

*  Commons  Journals,  v.  358. 

f  Berkley's  Memoirs  (printed,  London,  1699)  ;  Ashburnham's  Narrative 
(printed,  London,  1830) ; —which  require  to  be  sifted,  and  contrasted  with  each 
other  and  with  third  parties,  by  whoeqer  is  still  curious  on  this  matter;  each  of 
these  Narratives  being  properly  a  Pleading,  intended  to  clear  the  Writer  of  all 
blame,  in  the  first  place. 

X  See  antca,  p.  27,  Note. 

§  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to;  no  337,  §  15,  P-  7- 

II  Parliamentary  History,  xvi.  324-30.  \\  Commons  Journals,  z«  flTz*. 

**  Berkley's  apd  A^hburnham  s  Narratives.  1t  Kushworih..  vii.  875. 


LONDON.  177 


trample  it  out  or  be  trampled  out  by  it  on  the  spot.  Eleven  Mutineers 
are  ordered  from  the  ranks  ;  tried  by  Court  Martial  on  the  Field  ; 
three  of  them  condemned  to  be  shot  ; — throw  dice  for  their  life,  and 
one  is  shot,  there  and  then.  The  name  of  him  is  Arnald  ;  long 
memorable  among  the  Levellers.  A  very  dangerous  Review  service  ! 
— Head-quarters  now  change  to  Windsor. 


I 


LETTER  XXXIL 

Robert  Hammond,  Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  who  has  for 
the  present  become  so  important  to  England,  is  a  young  man  '  of 
good  parts  and  principles  : '  a  Colonel  of  Foot ;  served  formerly  as 
Captain  under  Massey  in  Gloucester, — where,  in  October  1644,  he 
had  the  misfortune  to  kill  a  brother  Officer,  one  Major  Gray,  in 
sudden  duel,  '  for  giving  him  the  lie  ; '  he  was  tried,  but  acquitted, 
the  provocation  being  great.  He  has  since  risen  to  be  Colonel, 
and  become  well  known.  Originally  of  Chertsey,  Surrey  ;  his 
Grandfather,  and  perhaps  his  Father,  a  Physician  there.  His  Uucle, 
Thomas  Hammond,  is  now  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Ordnance  ;  a 
man  whom,  with  this  Robert,  we  saw  busy  in  the  Army  Troubles  last 
year.  The  Lieutenant-General,  Thomas  Hammond,  persists  in  his 
democratic  course  ;  patron  at  this  time  of  the  Adjutator  speculations  ; 
sits  afterwards  as  a  King's- Judge. 

In  strong  contrast  with  whom  is  another  Uncle,  Dr.  Henry 
Hammond,  a  pattern-flower  of  loyalty,  one  of  his  Majesty's  favourite 
Chaplains.  It  was  Uncle  Thomas  that  first  got  this  young  Robert  a 
Commission  in  the  Army  :  but  Uncle  Henry  had,  in  late  months, 
introduced  him  to  his  Majesty  at  Hampton  Court,  as  an  ingenuous 
youth,  repentant,  or  at  least  sympathetic  and  not  without  loyalty. 
Which  circumstance,  it  is  supposed,  had  turned  the  King's  thoughts, 
in  that  bewildered  Flight  of  his,  towards  Colonel  Robert  and  the  Isle 
of  Wight. 

Colonel  Robert,  it  would  seem,  had  rather  disliked  the  high  course 
things  were  sometimes  threatening  to  take,  in  the  Putney  Council  of 
War  ;  and  had  been  glad  to  get  out  of  it  for  a  quiet  Governorship  at 
a  distance.  But  it  now  turns  out,  he  has  got  into  still  deeper 
difficulties  thereby.  His  'temptation'  when  the  King  announced 
himself  as  in  the  neighbourhood,  had  been  great :  Shall  he  obey  the 
King  in  this  crisis  ;  conduct  the  King  whitherward  his  Majesty  wishes  ? 
Or  be  true  to  his  trust  and  the  Parliament?  He  '  grew  suddenly 
pale  ; ' — he  decided  as  we  saw. 

The  Isle  of  Wight,  holding  so  important  a  deposit,  is  put  under 
ths.  Derby-House  Committee,  old  '  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms,' 
some  additions  being  made  thereto,  and  some  exclusions.  Oliver  is 
of  it,  and  Philip  Lord  Wharton,  among  others.  Lord  Wharton,  a 
conspicuous  Puritan  and  intimate  of  Oliver's  ;  of  whom  we  shall  after- 
wards have  occasion  to  say  somewhat. 

This  Committee  of  Derby  House  was,  of  course,  in  continual  comr 
munication  with  Robert  Hammond.  Certain  of  their  Letters  to  him 
bad,  after  various  fortune,  come  into  the  hands  of  th§  Honourable  Mr, 


178  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 

Yorke  (Lord  Hardwicke)  ;  and  were  lying  in  his  house,  when  it  and 
they  were,  in  1752,  accidentally  burnt.  A  Dr.  Joseph  Litherland  had, 
by  good  luck,  taken  copies  ;  Thomas  Birch,  lest  fire  should  again 
intervene,  printed  the  Collection,— a  very  thin  Octavo,  London,  1764. 
He  has  given  some  introductory  Account  of  Robert  Hammond  ;  copy- 
ing, as  we  do  mainly  here,  from  Wood's  AthoicE  ■*  and  has  committed 
— as  who  does  not, — several  errors.  His  Annotations  are  sedulous 
but  ineffectual.  What  of  the  Letters  are  from  Oliver  we  extract  with 
thanks. 

A  former  Letter,  of  which  Oliver  was  '  the  penner,'  is  now  lost. 
'  Our  brethren  '  in  the  following  Letter  are  the  Scots,  now  all  excluded 
from  Derby-House  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms.  The  'Recorder' 
is  Glyn,  one  of  the  vanished  Eleven,  Stapleton  being  another ;  for 
both  of  whom  it  has  been  necessary  to  appoint  substitutes  in  the  said 
Committee. 

For    Colonel  Robert  HarAjnond,   Governor   of  the  Isle  of    Wight : 
These,  for  the  Service  of  the  Kingdom.     Haste:  Post  Haste. 

'London,'  3rd  January,  1647. 
(My  Lord  Wharton's,  near  ten  at  night.) 

Dear  Robin, 

Now,  blessed  be  God,  I  can  write  and  thou  receive  freely.  I 
never  in  my  life  saw  more  deep  sense,  and  less  will  to  shew  it  unchris- 
tianly,  than  in  that  which  thou  didst  write  to  us  when  we  were  at 
Windsor^  and  thou  in  the  midst  of  thy  temptation, — which  indeed,  by 
what  we  understood  of  it,  was  a  great  one,  and  occasionedf  the 
greater  by  the  Letter  the  General  sent  thee  ;  of  which  thou  wast  not 
mistaken  when  thou  didst  challenge  me  to  be  the  penner. 

How  good  has  God  been  to  dispose  all  to  mercy  !  And  although 
it  was  trouble  for  the  present,  yet  glory  has  come  out  of  it  ;  for  which 
we  praise  the  Lord  with  thee  and  for  thee.  And  truly  thy  carriage 
has  been  such  as  occasions  much  honour  to  the  name  of  God  and  to 
religion.  Go  on  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord  ;  and  the  Lord  be  still 
with  thee. 

But,  dear  Robin,  this  business  hath  been,  I  trust,  a  mighty  provi- 
dence to  this  poor  Kingdom  and  to  us  all.  The  House  of  Commons 
is  very  sensible  of  the  King's  dealings,  and  of  our  brethren's,]:  in 
this  late  transaction.  You  should  do  well,  if  you  have  anything  that 
may  discover  juggling,  to  search  it  out,  and  let  us  know  it.  It  may 
be  of  admirable  use  at  this  time  ;  because  we  shall,  I  hope,  instantly 
go  upon  business  in  relation  to  them,*  tending  to  prevent  danger. 

The  House  of  Commons  has  this  day  voted  as  follows  :  ist.  They 
will  make  no  more  Addresses  to  the  King  ;  2nd,  None  shall  apply  to 
him  without  leave  of  the  Two  Houses,  upon  pain  of  being  guilty  of 
high  treason  ;  3rd,  They  will  receive  nothing  from  the  King,  nor  shall 
any  other  bring  anything  to  them  from  him,  nor  receive  anything 
from  the  King  ;  lastly,  the  Members  of  both  Houses  who  were  of  the 
Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms  are  established  in  all  that  power  in 
themselves,  for  England  and  Ireland,  which  they  '  formerly  ■  had  to 
act  with  England  and  Scotland  ;  and  Sir  John  Evelyn  of  Wilts  is 

*  jii.  500.  f  rendered.  :}:  the  Scots, 


LONDON.  '    179  ^ 


added  in  the  room  of  Mr.  Recorder  ;  and  Nathaniel  Fiennes  in  the 
room  of  Sir  PhiHp  Stapleton,  and  my  Lord  of  Kent  in  the  room  of 
the  Earl  of  Essex.*  I  thinic  it  good  you  take  notice  of  this,  the  sooner 
the  better. 

Let  us  know  how  it  is  with  you  in  point  of  strength,  and  what  you 
need  from  us.  Some  of  us  think  the  King  well  with  you,  and  that  it 
concerns  us  to  keep  that  Island  in  great  security,  because  of  the 
French,  &c.  :  and  if  so,t  where  can  the  King  be  better?  If  you 
have  more  force  '  sent,'  you  will  be  sure  of  full  provision  for  them. 
The  Lord  bless  thee.     Pray  for 

Thy  dear  friend  and  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.;]: 

In  these  same  days  noisy  Lilburn  has  accused  Cromwell  of  mean- 
ing or  having  meant  to  make  his  own  bargain  with  the  King,  and  be 
Earl  of  Essex  and  a  great  man.  Noisy  John  thinks  all  great  men, 
especially  all  Lords,  ought  to  be  brought  low.  The  Commons  have 
him  at  their  bar  in  this  month. S 


LETTER  XXXIIL 


Here,  by  will  of  the  Destinies  preserving  certain  bits  of  paper  and 
destroying  others,  there  introduces  itself  a  little  piece  of  Domesticity  ; 
a  small  family-transaction,  curiously  enough  peering  through  by  its 
own  peculiar  rent,  amid  these  great  world-transactions  :  Marriage- 
treaty  for  Richard  Cromwell  the  Lieutenant-General's  eldest  son. 

What  Richard  has  been  doing  hitherto  no  Biographer  knows.  In 
spite  of  Noble,  I  incline  to  think  he  too  had  been  in  the  Army  ;  in 
October  last  there  are  two  sons  mentioned  expressly  as  being  officers 
there  :  '  One  of  his  Sons,  Captain  of  the  General's  Lifeguard  ;  his 
'other  Son,  Captain  of  a  troop  in  Colonel  Harrison's  Regiment,' — so 
greedy  is  he  of  the  Public  Money  to  his  own  family  !;!  Richard  is 
now  heir-apparent ;  our  poor  Boy  Oliver  therefore,  '  Cornet  Oliver,' 
we  know  not  in  the  least  where,  must  have  died.  "  It  went  to  my 
"  heart  like  a  dagger  ;  indeed  it  did  ! "  The  phrase  of  the  Pamphlet 
itself,  we  observe,  is  '  his  other  son,'  not  '  one  of  his  other  Sons,'  as 
if  there  were  now  bu^  two  left.  If  Richard  was  ever  in  the  Army, 
which  these  probabilities  may  dimly  intimate,  the  Lifeguard,  a  place 
for  persons  of  consequence,  was  the  likeliest  for  him.  The  Captain 
in  Harrison's  Regiment  will  in  that  case  be  Henry. — The  Cromwell 
family,  as  we  laboriously  guess  and  gather,  has  about  this  time  re- 
moved to  London.     Richard,  if  ever  in  the  Lifeguard,  has  now  quitted 

*  Essex  is  dead  ;  Stapleton,  one  of  the  Eleven  who  went  to  France,  is  dead ; 
Recorder  Glyn,  another  of  them,  is  in  the  Tower.  For  the  '  Votes,'  see  Com- 
mons Journals,  v.  415  (3  January,  1647-8). 

t  if  we  do  secure  and  fortify  it. 

Ijl  Birch's  Hammond  Letters,  p.   23.     Given  also  in  Harris,  p.  497. 

^   19  January,  Commons  Journals,  v.  437. 

II  5  October,  1647  (RoyaUst  Newspaper,  citing  a  Pamphlet  of  Lilburn's),  Crorn- 
\Yelljana,  p.  56. 


i8o  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 

it  :  an  idle  fellow,  who  could  never  relish  soldiering  in  such  an  Army  ; 
he  now  wishes  to  retire  to  Arcadian  felicity  and  wedded  life  in  the 
country. 

The  '  Mr.  M.'  of  this  Letter  is  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire,  of  Hursley, 
Hants,*  the  young  lady's  father.  Hursley,  not  far  from  Winchester, 
is  still  a  manorhouse,  but  no  representative  of  Richard  Mayor's  has 
now  place  there  or  elsewhere.  The  treaty,  after  difficulties,  did  take 
effect.  Mayor,  written  also  Major  and  Maijor,  a  pious  prudent  man, 
becomes  better  known  to  Oliver,  to  the  world  and  to  us  in  the  sequel. 
Richard  Norton,  Member  for  Hants  since  1645,  is  his  neighbour  ;  an 
old  fellow-soldier  under  Manchester,  Fellow-Colonel  in  the  Eastern 
Association,  seemingly  very  familiar  with  Oliver,  he  is  appHed  to  on 
this  delicate  occasion. 

For  my  noble  friend^  Colonel  Richard  Norton :   These. 

'  London,'  25th  February,  1647. 

Dear  Norton, 

I  have  sent  my  Son  over  to  thee,  being  willing  to  answer  Pro- 
vidence ;  and  although  I  had  an  offer  of  a  very  great  proposition, 
from  a  father,  of  his  daughter,  yet  I  rather  incline  to  this  in  my 
thoughts  ;  because,  though  the  other  be  very  far  greater,  yet  I  see 
different  ties,  and  not  that  assurance  of  godliness, — though  indeed  of 
fairness.  I  confess  that  which  is  told  me  concerning  the  estate  of 
Mr.  M.  is  more  than  I  can  look  for,  as  things  now  stand. 

If  God  please  to  bring  it  about,  the  consideration  of  piety  in  the 
Parents,  and  such  hopes  of  the  Gentlewoman  in  that  respect,  make 
the  business  to  me  a  great  mercy  ;  concerning  which  I  desire  to  wait 
upon  God. 

I  am  confident  of  thy  love ;  and  desire  things  may  be  carried  with 
privacy.  The  Lord  do  His  will  :  that's  best ; — to  which  submitting, 
I  rest, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL-f 

What  other  Father  it  was  that  made  '  the  offer  of  a  very  great 
'  proposition  to  Oliver,'  in  the  shape  of  his  Daughter  as  Wife  to 
Oliver's  Son,  must  remain  totally  uncertain.  There  were  '  other  ties' 
which  Oliver  did  not  entirely  like  ;  there  was  not  an  assurance  of 
'  godliness '  in  the  house,  though  there  was  of  '  fairness  '  and  natural 
integrity ;  in  short,  Oliver  will  prefer  Mayor,  at  least  will  try  him, — 
and  wishes  it  carried  ^ith  privacy. 

The  Commons,  now  dealing  with  Delinquents,  do  not  forget  to 
reward  good  Servants,  to  'conciliate  the  Grandees,'  as  splenetic 
Walker  calls  it.  For  above  two  years  past,  ever  since  the  War 
ended,  there  has  been  talk  and  debate  about  settling  ^2,500  a-year 
on  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell ;  but  difficulties  have  arisen.  First 
they  tried  Basing-House  Lands,  the  Marquis  of  Winchester's,  whom 
Cromwell  had  demolished  ;  but  the  Marquis's  affairs  were  in  disorder  : 

*  Noble,  ii.  436-42,  f  Harris,  p.  501, 


LONDON.  iSl 


it  was  gradually  found  the  Marquis  had  for  most  part  only  a  Life-rent 
there  : — only  '  Abbotston  and  Itchin '  in  that  quarter  could  be  realized. 
Order  thereupon  to  settle  '  Lands  of  Papists  and  Delinquents'  to  the 
requisite  amount,  wheresoever  convenient.  To  settle  especially  what 
Lands  the  Marquis  of  Worcester  had  in  that  '  County  of  Southamp- 
ton ; '  which  was  done, — though  still  with  insufficient  result."^  Then 
came  the  Army  Quarrels,  and  an  end  of  such  business.  But  now  in 
the  Commons  Journals,  7th  March,  the  very  day  of  Oliver's  next 
Letter,  this  is  what  we  read  :t  '  An  Ordinance  for  passing  unto  Oliver 
'Cromwell,  Esquire,  Lieutenant-General,  certain  Lands  and  Manors 
'  in  the  Counties  of  Gloucester,  Monmouth,  and  Glamorgan,  late  the 
'  Earl  of  Worcester's,  was  this  day  read  the  third  time  and  upon  the 

*  question,  passed  ;  and  ordered  to  be  sent  unto  the  Lords  for  their 
'concurrence.'  Oliver  himself,  as  we  shall  find,  has  been  dangerously 
sick.  This  is  what  Clement  Walker,  the  splenetic  Presbyterian,  '  an 
'elderly  gentleman  of  low  stature,  in  a  grey  suit,  with  a  little  stick  in 

*  his  hand,'  reports  upon  the  matter  of  the  Grant  : 

'  The  7th  of  March,  an  ordinance  to  settle  ^2,500  a  year  of  Land, 

*  out  of  the  Marquis  of  Worcester's  Estate,'— old  Marquis  of  Wor- 
cester at  Ragland,  father  of  my  Lord  Glamorgan,  who  in  his  turn 
became  Marquis  of  Worcester  and  wrote  the  Century  of  Inventions, 
— ^^2,500  a  year  out  of  this  old  Marquis's  Estate  'upon  Lieutenant- 
*■  General  Cromwell !     I  have  heard  some  gentlemen  that  know  the 

*  Manor  of  Chepstow  and  the  other  Lands  affirm  '  that  in  reality  they 
are  worth  / 5,000  or  even  ^6,000  a-year  ; — which  is  far  from  the  fact, 
my  little  elderly  friend  !  '  You  see,'  continues  he,  'though  they  have 
'not  made  King  Charles  "a  Glorious  King,"'  as  they  sometimes 
undertook,   '  they  have  settled  a  Crown- Revenue  upon  Oliver,  and 

*  have  made  him  as  glorious  a  King  as  ever  John  of  Leyden  was  !  % 

A  very   splenetic   old   gentleman    in    grey  ; — verging    towards 

Pride's  Purge,  and  lodgement  in  the  Tower,  I  think  !  He  is  from 
the  West ;  known  long  since  in  Gloucester  Siege  ;  Member  now 
for  Wells  ; — but  terminates  in  the  Tower,  with  ink,  and  abundant 
gall  in  it,  to  write  the  History  of  Independency  there. 


LETTER  XXXIV. 

*  To  his  Excellency  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  General  of  the  Parliament's 
Aj'jjiy,  at  Windsor:   These.^ 
Sir,  '  London,  7th  March,  1647. 

It  hath  pleased  God  to  raise  me  out  of  a  dangerous  sickness  ; 

*  Commons  Journals,  iv.  416  {23  January,  1645-6,  the  Marquis  of  Worcester  s 
Hampshire  Lands).  lb.  426,  a  week  afterwards  ('  Abb^rston  and  Itche//,'  mean- 
ing Abbotston  and  Itchin,  Marquis  of  Winchesters  there).  Commons  Journals, 
^.  36,  about  a  year  afterwards,  7  January  1646-7  ('remainder  of  the  ;^2,5oo" 
from  Marquis  of  Winchester's  Lands  in  general ;  which  in  a  fortnight  more  is 
found  to  be  impossible  :  whereupon  '  Lands  of  Delinquents  and  Papists,*  as  in 
the  Text).  None  of  these  Hampshire  Lands,  except  Abbotston  and  Itchen, 
are  named.  Noble  says,  '  Fawley  Park '  in  the  same  County  ;  which  is  possible 
enough.  f  V.  482. 

\  History  of  Independency  (London,  1648),  Part  i.  83  and  55. 


BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 


and  I  do  most  willingly  acknowledge  that  the  Lord  hath,  in  this 
visitation,  exercised  the  bowels  of  a  P^ather  towards  me.  I  received 
in  myself  the  sentence  of  death,  that  I  might  learn  to  trust  in  Him 
that  raiseth  from  the  dead,  and  have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh.  It's 
a  blessed  thing  to  die  daily.  For  what  is  there  in  this  world  to  be 
accounted  of !  The  best  men  according  to  the  flesh,  and  things,  are 
lighter  than  vanity.  I  find  this  only  good.  To  love  the  Lord  and  His 
poor  despised  people,  to  do  for  them,  and  to  be  ready  to  suffer  with 
them  : — and  he  that  is  found  worthy  of  this  hath  obtained  great 
favour  from  the  Lord  ;  and  he  that  is  established  in  this  shall  (being 
confirmed  to  Christ  and  the  rest  of  the  Body*)  participate  in  the 
glory  of  a  Resurrection  which  will  answer  all.f 

Sir,  I  must  thankfully  confess  your  favour  in  your  last  Letter.  I 
see  I  am  not  forgotten  ;  and  truly,  to  be  kept  in  your  remembrance  is 
very  great  satisfaction  to  me  ;  for  I  can  say  in  the  simplicity  of  my 
heart,  I  put  a  high  and  true  value  upon  your  love, — which  when  I 
forget  I  shall  cease  to  be  a  grateful  and  an  honest  man. 

I  most  humbly  beg  my  service  may  be  presented  to  your  Lady,  to 
whom  I  wish  all  happiness,  and  estabhshment  in  the  truth.  Sir,  my 
prayers  are  for  you,  as  becomes 

Your  Excellency's 

Most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

*P.S.'  Sir,  Mr.  Rushworth  will  write  to  you  about  the  Quartering, 
and'  the  Letter  lately  sent  ;  and  therefore  I  forbear. J 


FREE    OFFER. 

From  the  Committee  of  the  Lords  and  Commons  sitting  at  Derby- 
House,  Sir  John  Evelyn  reports  a  certain  offer  from  Lieutenant- 
General  Cromwell ;  which  is  read  in  the  words  following  : 

'  To  the  Honon7'able  the  Committee  of  Lords  and  Commons  for  the 
A^airs  of  Ireland,  sitting  at  Derby  House  :  The  offer  of  Lien- 
tenant-General  Cro7nwelt  for  the  Service  of  Ireland.' 

21°  Martii,  1647. 

The  two  Houses  of  Parliament  having  lately  bestowed  / 1,680  per 
annum  upon  me  and  my  heirs,  out  of  the  Earl  of  Worcester's  Estate  ; 
the  necessity  of  affairs  requiring  assistance,  I  do  hereby  offer  One 
thousand  pounds  annuafly  to  be  paid  out  of  the  rents  of  the  said 
lands  ;  that  is  to  say,  /500  out  of  the  next  Michaelmas  rent,  and  so 
on,  by  the  half  year,  for  the  space  of  five  years,  if  the  War  in  Ireland 
shall  so  long  continue,  or  that  I  live  so  long  ;  to  be  employed  for  the 
service  of  Ireland,  as   the   Parliament  shall  please  to  appomt  ;  pro- 

*  Christ  s  Body,  his  Church. 

f  Turns  now  io  the  margin  of  the  sheet,  lengthwise. 

j  Sloane  Mss.  1519,  fol.  79. 


Parnham.  d^ 


vided  the  said  yearly  rent  of  ^i,68o  become  not  to  be  suspended  by 
war  or  other  accident. 

And  whereas  there  is  an  arrear  of  Pay  due  unto  me  whilst  I  was 
Lieutenant-General  unto  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  of  about  ^1,500, 
audited  and  stated  ;  as  also  a  great  arrear  due  for  about  Two  Years' 
being  Governor  ot  the  Isle  of  Ely  :  I  do  hereby  discharge  the  State 
for  all  or  any  claim  to  be  made  by  me  thereunto. 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*  Ordered,  That  the  House  doth  accept  the  Free  Offer  of  Lieutenant- 
General  Cromwell,  testifying  his  zeal  and  good  affection.'  My 
splenetic  little  gentleman  in  grey,  with  the  little  stick  in  his  hand, 
takes  no  notice  of  this  ;  which  modifies  materially  what  the  Chepstow 
Connoisseurs  and  '  their  five  or  six  thousand  a-year '  reported  lately  ! 


LETTER   XXXV. 

Here  is  Norton  and  the  Marriage  again.  Here  are  news  out  of 
Scotland  that  the  Malignant  Party,  the  Duke  of  Hamilton's  Faction, 
are  taking  the  lead  there  ;  and  about  getting  up  an  Army  to  attack 
us,  and  deliver  the  King  from  Sectaries  :t  Reverend  Stephen  Mar- 
shall reports  the  news.     Let  us  read  : 

for  my  noble  friend^  Colonel  Richard  Norton :  These. 

Farnham,  28th  March,  1648. 

Dear  Dick, 

It  had  been  a  favour  indeed  to  have  met  you  here  at  Farnham. 
But  I  hear  you  are  a  man  of  great  business  ;  therefore  I  say  no 
more  ; — if  it  be  a  favour  to  the  House  of  Commons  to  enjoy  you, 
what  is  it  to  me  !  But,  in  good  earnest,  when  will  you  and  your 
Brother  Russel  be  a  little  honest,  and  attend  your  charge  there? 
Surely  some  expect  it ;  especially  the  good  fellows  who  chose 
you  ! — 

I  have  met  with  Mr.  Mayor  ;  we  spent  two  or  three  hours  together 
last  night.  I  perceive  the  gentleman  is  very  wise  and  honest ;  and 
indeed  much  to  be  valued.  Some  things  of  common  famet  did  a 
little  stick  :  I  gladly  heard  his  doubts,  and  gave  such  answer  as  was 
next  at  hand, — I  believe,  to  some  satisfaction.  Nevertheless  I  ex- 
ceedingly liked  the  gentlemnn's  plainness  and  free  dealing  with  me. 
1  know  God  has  been  above  all  ill  reports,  and  will  in  His  own  time 
vindicate  me  ;  I  have  no  cause  to  complain.  I  see  nothing  but  that 
this  particular  business  between  him  and  me  may  go  on.  The  Lord's 
will  Idc  done. 

For  news  out  of  the  North  there  is  little  ;  only  the  Malignant 
Party  is  prevailing  in  the  Parliament  of  Scotland.  They  are  earnest 
for  a  w?r  ;  the  Ministers§  oppose  as  yet.  Mr.  Marshall  is  returned, 
who  says  so.     And  so  do  many  of  our  Letters.     Their  great  Com- 

*  Commons  Journals,  v.  513.  f  Rushworth,  vii.  1040,  &c. 

X  against  myself.  §  Clergy. 


i84  BETWEEN  THE   CIVIL   WAR^. 


mittee  of  Danger  have  two  Malignants  for  one  right.  It's  said  they 
have  voted  an  Army  of  40,000  in  ParHament  ;  so  say  some  of  Yester- 
day's Letters.  But  I  account  my  news  ill  bestowed,  because  upon  an 
idle  person. 

I  shall  take  speedy  course  in  the  business  concerning  my  Tenants  ; 
for  which,  thanks.     My  service  to  your  Lady.     I  am  really 

Your  affectionate  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

Had  Cromwell  come  out  to  Farnham  on  military  business?  Kent 
is  in  a  ticklish  state;  it  broke  out  some  weeks  hence  in  open  insurrec- 
tion,!—as  did  many  other  places,  when  once  the  '  Scotch  Army  of 
40,000 '  became  a  certainty. 

'  The  business  concerning  my  Tenants '  will  indicate  that  in  Hamp- 
shire, within  ken  of  Norton,  in  Fawley  Park,  in  Itchin,  Abbotston,  or 
elsewhere,  •  my  Tenants '  are  felling  wood,  cutting  copses,  or  other- 
wise not  behaving  to  perfection  :  but  they  shall  be  looked  to. 

For  the  rest,  Norton  really  ought  to  attend  his  duties  in  Parlia- 
ment!  In  earnest  'an  idle  fellow,'  as  Oliver  in  sport  calls  him. 
Given  to  Presbyterian  notions  ;  was  purged  out  by  Pride  ;  dwindled 
subsequently  into  Royalism.  '  Brother  Russel '  means  only  brother 
Member.  He  is  the  Frank  Russel  of  the  Letter  on  Marston  Moor. 
Now  Sir  Francis  ;  and  sits  for  Cambridgeshire.  A  comrade  of  Nor- 
ton's ;  seemingly  now  in  his  neighbourhood,  possibly  on  a  visit  to  him. 

The  attendance  on  the  House  in  these  months  is  extremely  thin  ; 
the  divisions  range  from  200  to  as  low  as  70.  Nothing  going  on  but 
Delinquents'  fines,  and  abstruse  negotiations  with  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
languid  Members  prefer  the  country  till  some  result  arrive. 


LETTER  XXXVI. 


Here  is  a  new  phasis  of  the  Wedding-treaty  ;  which,  as  seems, 
*  doth  now  a  little  stick.'  Prudent  Mr.  Mayor  insists  on  his  advan- 
tages;  nor  is  the  Lieutenant-General  behindhand.  What  'lands'  all 
these  of  Oliver's  are,  in  Cambridgeshire,  Norfolk,  Hampshire,  no 
Biographer  now  knows.  Portions  of  the  Parliamentary  Grants  above 
alluded  to  ;  perhaps  '  Purchases  by  Debentures,'  some  of  them. 
Soldiers  could  seldom  get  their  Pay  in  money  :  with  their  '  Deben- 
tures'  they  had  to  purchase  Forfeited  Lands  ; — a  somewhat  uncertain 
investment  of  an  uncertain  currency. 

The  Mr.  Robinson  mentioned  in  this  Letter  is  a  pious  Preacher  at 
Southampton.;]:  '  My  two  little  Wenches'  are  Mary  and  Frances; 
Mary  aged  now  near  twelve  ;  Frances  ten, 

*  For  my  noble  friend  Colonel  Richard  Norton  :  These  J 

*  London,'  3d  April,  1648. 

Dear  Norton, 

I  could  not  in  my  last  give  you  a  perfect  account  of  what 

*  Harris,  p.  502.  f  24  or  25  May,  1648  (Rushworth,  vii.  1128}. 

J  Harris  p,  504.  §  See  anUa,  p'  56. 


LONDON.  185 

jDassed  between  me  and  Mr.  Mayor ;  because  we  were  to  have  a 
conclusion  of  our  speed  that  morning  after  I  wrote  my  Letter  to  you.* 
Which  we  had  ;  and  having  had  a  full  view  of  one  another's  minds, 
we  parted  with  this  :  That  both  would  consider  with  our  relations, 
and  according  to  satisfactions  given  there,  acquaint  one  another  with 
our  minds. 

I  cannot  tell  better  how  to  do,  'in  order'  to  give  or  receive  satis- 
faction, than  by  you  :  who,  as  I  remember,  in  your  last,  said  That,  if 
things  did  stick  between  us,  you  would  use  your  endeavour  towards 
a  close. 

The  things  insisted  upon  were  these,  as  I  take  it  :  Mr.  Mayor 
desired  £\oo  per  annum  of  Inheritance,  lying  in  Cambridgeshire  and 
Norfolk,  to  be  presently  settled,t  and  to  be  for  maintenance  ;  wherein 
I  desired  to  be  advised  by  my  Wife.  I  offered  the  Land  in  Hamp- 
shire for  present  maintenance  ;  which  I  dare  say,  with  copses  and 
ordinary  fells,^  will  be,  commit7iibiis  annis^  /!^5oo  per  annum  :  *  and ' 
besides  'this,'  £^00 per  annum  in  Tenants'  hands  holding  but  for 
one  life  ;  and  about  ^^300  per  annum,  some  for  two  lives,  some  for 
three  lives. — But  as  to  this,  if  the  latter  offer  be  not  liked  of,  I  shall 
be  willing  a  farther  conference  be  held  in  '  regard  to '  the  first. 

In  point  of  jointure  1  shall  give  satisfaction.  And  as  to  the  settle- 
ment of  lands  given  me  by  the  Parliament,  satisfaction  to  be  given  in 
like  manner,  according  as  we  discoursed.  'And'  in  what  else  was 
demanded  of  me,  I  am  willing,  so  far  as  I  remember  any  demand  was, 
to  give  satisfaction.  Only,  I  having  been  informed  by  Mr.  Robinson 
that  Mr.  Mayor  did,  upon  a  former  match,  offer  to  settle  the  Manor 
wheren  he  lived,  and  to  give  ^2,000  in  money,  I  did  insist  upon  that ; 
and  do  desire  it  may  not  be  with  difficulty.  The  money  I  shall  need 
for  my  two  little  Wenches  ;  and  thereby  I  shall  free  my  Son  from 
being  charged  with  them.  Mr.  Mayor  parts  with  nothing  at  present 
but  that  money  ;  except  the  board  '  of  the  young  Pair,'  which  I 
should  not  be  unwilling  to  give  them,  to  enjoy  the  comfort  of  their 
society  ; — which  it's  reason  he  smart  for,  if  he  will  rob  me  altogether 
of  them. 

Truly  the  land  to  be  settled, — both  what  the  Parliament  gives  me, 
and  my  own,  is  very  little  less  than  ^3,000  per  a7tnum,  all  things 
considered,  if  I  be  rightly  informed.  And  a  Lawyer  of  Lincoln's  Inn, 
having  searched  all  the  Marquis  of  Worcester's  writings,  which  were 
taken  at  Ragland  and  sent  for  by  the  Parliament,  and  this  Gentleman 
appointed  by  the  Committee  to  search  the  said  writings, — assures  me 
there  is  no  scruple  concerning  the  title.  And  it  so  fell  out  that  this 
Gentleman  who  searched  was  my  own  Lawyer,  a  very  godly  able 
man,  and  my  dear  friend  ;  which  I  reckon  no  small  mercy.  He  is 
also  possessed  of  the  writings  for  me.§ 

I  thought  fit  to  give  you  this  account  ;  desiring  you  to  make  such 
use  of  it  as  God  shall  direct  you  :  and  I  doubt  not  but  you  will  do  the 
part  of  a  friend  between  two  friends.  I  account  myself  one  ;  and  I 
have  heard  you  say  Mr.   Mayor  was  entirely  so  to  you.     What  the 

*  Letter  XXXIII.  f  on  the  Future  Pair. 

%  fellings.  §  holds  these  Ragland  Documents  on  my  behalf. 


186  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS, 

good  pleasure  of  God  is  I  shall  wait ;  there  'alone'  is  rest.     Present 
my  service  to  your  Lady,  to  Mr.  Mayor.  &c.     I  rest, 

Your  affectionate,  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

*P.S.'  I  desire  you  to  carry  this  business  with  all  privacy.  I 
beseech  you  to  do  so,  as  you  love  me.  Let  me  entreat  you  not  to  lose 
a  day  herein,  that  I  may  know  Mr.  Mayor's  mind  ;  for  I  think  I  may 
be  at  Leisure  for  a  week  to  attend  this  business,  to  give  and  take 
satisfaction  ;  from  which  perhaps  I  may  be  shut  up  afterwards  by 
employment.*  I  know  thou  art  an  idle  fellow  :  but  prithee  neglect 
me  not  now  ;  delay  may  be  very  inconvenient  to  me  ;  I  much  rely 
upon  you.  Let  me  hear  from  you  in  two  or  three  days.  1  confess 
the  principal  consideration  as  to  me,  is  the  absolute  settlement  '  by 
Mr.  Mayor '  of  the  Manor  where  he  lives  ;  which  he  would  not  do 
but  conditionally,  in  case  they  have  a  son,  and  but  ;^3,ooo  in  case  they 
have  no  son.  But  as  to  this,  I  hope  farther  reason  may  work  him  to 
more.t 

Of  '  my  two  little  Wenches,'  Mary,  we  may  repeat,  became  Lady 
Fauconberg  :  Frances  was  wedded  to  the  Honourable  Mr.  Rich  ;  then 
to  Sir  John  Russell.  Elizabeth  and  Bridget  are  already  Mrs.  Clay- 
pole  and  Mrs.  Ireton.  Elizabeth,  the  younger,  was  first  married. 
They  were  all  married  very  young  ;  Elizabeth  at  her  wedding,  was 
little  turned  of  sixteen. 


LETTER  XXXVn. 
For  Colonel  R.  Hammond. 

'  London,'  6th  April,  1648. 

Dear  Robin, 

Your  business  is  done  in  the  House  :  your  ^10  by  the  week  is 
made  ;^20  ;  ;^  1,000  given  you  ;  and  Order  to  Mr.  Lisle  to  draw  up 
an  Ordinance  for  ^500  per  annum  to  be  settled  upon  you  and  your 
heirs.  This  was  done  with  smoothness  ;  your  friends  were  not  want- 
ing to  you.  I  know  thy  burden  ;  this  is  an  addition  to  it  :  the  Lord 
direct  and  sustain  thee. 

Intelligence  came  to  the  hands  of  a  very  considerable  Person,  That 
the  King  attempted  to  get  out  of  his  window  ;  and  that  he  had  a  cord 
of  silk  with  him  whereby  to  slip  down,  but  his  breast  was  so  big  the 
bar  would  not  give  him  passage.  This  was  done  in  one  of  the  dark 
nights  about  a  fortnight  ago,  A  Gentleman  with  you  led  him  the 
way,  and  slipped  down.  The  Guard,  that  night,  had  some  quantity 
of  wine  with  them.  The  same  party  assures  that  there  is  aquafortis 
gone  down  from  London,  to  remove  that  obstacle  which  hindered  ; 
and  that  the  same  design  is  to  be  put  in  execution  in  the  next  dark 
nights.  He  saith  that  Captain  Titus,  and  some  others  about  the  King 
are  not  to  be  trusted.  He  is  a  very  considerable  Person  of  the  Par- 
*  Went  to  Wales  in  May.  +  Harris,  p.  502. 


PR  A  VER-MEE  TING.  1 87 

liament  who  gave  this  intelHgence,  and  desired  it  should  be  speeded 
to  you. 

The  Gentleman  that  came  out  of  the  window  was  Master  Fire- 
brace  ;  the  Gentlemen  doubted  are  Cresset,  liurrowes,  and  Titus  ; 
the  time  when  this  attempt  of  escape  was,  the  20th  of  March. 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

Henry  Firebrace  is  known  to  Birch,  and  his  Narrative  is  known. 

*  He  became  Clerk  of  the  Kitchen  to  Charles  II.' — The  old  Books 
are  full  of  King's  Plots  for  escape,  by  aquafortis  and  otherwise.f  His 
Majesty  could  make  no  agreement  with  the  Parliament,  and  began 
now  to  smell  War  in  the  wind.  His  presence  in  this  or  the  other 
locality  might  have  been  of  clear  advantage.  But  Hammond  was  too 
watchful.  Titus,  with  or  without  his  new  horse,  attends  upon  his 
Majesty  ;  James  Harrington  also  (afterwards  author  of  Oceana)  ;  and 

*  the  Honourable  Thomas  Herbert,'  who  has  left  a  pleasing  Narratuie 
concerning  that  affair.  These,  though  appointed  by  the  Parliament, 
are  all  somewhat  in  favour  with  the  King.  Hammond  s  Uncle  the 
Chaplain,  as  too  favourable,  was  ordered  out  of  the  Island  about 
Christmas  last. 


PRAYER-MEETING. 


The  Scotch  Army  of  Forty-thousand,  '  to  deliver  the  King  from 
Sectaries,'  is  not  a  fable  but  a  fact.  Scotland  is  distracted  by  dim 
disastrous  factions,  very  uncertain  what  it  will  do  with  the  King  when 
he  is  delivered  ;  but  in  the  meanwhile  Hamilton  has  got  a  majority 
in  the  Scotch  Parliament  ;  and  drums  are  beating  in  that  country  : 
the  '  Army  of  Forty-thousand,  certainly  coming,'  hangs  over  England 
like  a  flaming  comet,  England  itself  being  all  very  combustible  too. 
In  few  weeks  hence,  discontented  Wales,  the  Presbyterian  Colonels 
declaring  now  for  Royalism,  will  be  in  a  blaze  ;  large  sections  of 
England,  all  England  very  ready  to  follow,  will  shortly  after  be  in  a 
blaze. 

The  small  Governing  Party  in  England,  during  those  early  months 
of  1648,  are  in  a  position  which  might  fill  the  bravest  mind  with  mis- 
givings. Elements  of  destruction  everywhere  under  and  around  them; 
their  lot  either  to  conquer,  or  ignominiously  to  die.  A  King  not  to 
be  bargained  with  ;  kept  in  Carisbrook,  the  centre  of  all  factious 
hopes,  of  world-wide  intrigues  :  that  is  one  element.  A  great  Royalist 
Party,  subdued  with  difficulty,  and  ready  at  all  moments  to  rise  again: 
that  is  another.  A  great  Presbyterian  Party,  at  the  head  of  which  is 
London  City,  'the  Purse-bearer  of  the  Cause,'  highly  dissatisfied  at 
the  course  things  had  taken,  and  looking  desperately  round  for  new 
combinations  and  a  new  struggle  :  reckon  that  for  a  third  element. 
Add  lastly  a  headlong  Mutineer,  Republican,  or  Levelling  Party  ;  and 
consider  that  there  is  a  working  House  of  Commons  which  counts 

■*  Birch,  p.  41.     The  Original  in  cipher, 
t  Lilly "s  Life  ;  Wood  §  Hammond-  &c.,  &c. 


lS8  ^ETWE^N  TH£  CiViL  WARS. 


about  Seventy,  divided  in  pretty  equal  halves  too, — the  rest  waiting 
what  will  come  of  it.  Come  of  //,  and  of  the  Scotch  Army  advancing 
towards  it  ! — 

Cromwell,  it  appears,  deeply  sensible  of  all  this,  does  in  these  weeks 
make  strenuous  repeated  attempts  towards  at  least  a  union  among 
the  friends  of  the  Cause  themselves,  whose  aim  is  one,  whose  peril  is 
one.  But  to  little  effect.  Ludlow,  with  visible  satisfactioh,  reports 
how  ill  the  Lieutenant- General  sped,  when  he  brought  the  Army 
Grandees  and  Parliament  Grandees  '  to  a  dinner  *  at  his  own  house 
Mn  King  Street,'  and  urged  a  coTdial  agreement:  they  would  not  draw 
together  at  all.*  Parliament  would  not  agree  with  Army  ;  hardly 
Parliament  with  itself:  as  little,  still  less,  would  Parhament  and  City 
agree.  At  a  Common  Council  in  the  City,  prior  or  posterior  to  this 
Dinner,  his  success,  as  angry  little  Walker  intimates,  was  the  same. 
'Saturday,  8th  April,  1648,'  having  prepared  the  ground  beforehand, 
Ciomwell  with  another  leader  or  two,  attended  a  Common  Council; 
Spake,  as  we  may  fancy,  of  the  corr.mon  dangers,  of  the  gulfs  now 
yawning  on  every  side  :  'but  the  City,'  duckies  my  little  gentleman 
in  grey,  with  a  very  shrill  kind  ol  laughter  in  the  throat  of  him,  'were 
now  wiser  than  our  First  Parents  ;  and  rejected  the  Serpent  and  his 
subtleties.'  +  In  fact,  the  City  wishes  well  to  Hamilton  and  his  Forty- 
thousand  Scots  ;  the  City  has,  for  some  time,  needed  regiments 
quartered  in  it,  to  keep  down  open  Royalist-Presbyterian  insurrec- 
tion. It  was  precisely  on  the  morrow  after  this  visit  of  Cromwell's 
that  there  rose,  from  small  cause,  huge  Apprentice-riot  in  the  City : 
discomfiture  of  Train-bands,  seizure  of  arms,  seizure  of  City  Gates, 
Ludgate,  Newgate,  loud  wide  cry  of  ''  God  and  King  Charles  !  " — riot 
not  to  be  appeased  but  by  '  desperate  charge  of  cavalry,'  after  it  had 
lasted  forty  hours.;}:  Such  are  the  aspects  of  affairs,  near  and 
far. 

Before  quitting  Part  Third,  I  will  request  the  reader  to  undertake 
a  small  piece  of  very  ci;ll  reading  ;  in  which  however,  if  he  look  till 
it  become  credible  and  intelligible  to  him,  a  strarge  thing,  much  elu- 
cidative of  the  heart  of  this  matter,  will  disclose  itself.  At  Windsor, 
one  of  these  days,  unknown  now  which,  there  a  Meeting  of  Army 
Leaders.  Adjutant- General  Allen,  a  most  authentic  earnest  man, 
whom  we  shall  know  better  afterwards,  reports  what  they  did.  En- 
tirely amazing  to  us.  These  are  the  longest  heads  and  the  strongest 
hearts  in  England  ;  and  this  ib  the  thing  they  are  doing  ;  this  is  the 
way  they,  for  their  part,  begin  despatch  of  business.  The  reader,  if 
he  is  an  earnest  man,  may  look  at  it  with  very  many  thoughts,  for 
which  there  is  no  word  at  present. 

'  In  the  year  Forty-seven,  you  may  remember,'  says  Adjutant  Allen, 
*  we  in  the  Army  were  engageel  in  actions  of  a  very  high  nature  ;  lead- 
'  ing  us  to  very  untrodden  paths, — both  in  our  Contests  with  the  then 
'  Parliament,  as  also  Conferences  with  the  King.  In  which  great 
'  works, — wanting  a  spirit  of  faith,  and  also  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and 
'  also   being  unduly  surprised  with  the  fear  of  man,  which  always 

*  Ludlow,  i,  238.  t  History  of  Independency,  part  i.  85. 

X  Rushworth,  vii.  1051. 


PRAYER-MEETING,  189 

bring  a  snare,  we,  to  make  haste,  as  we  thought,  out  of  such  per- 
plexities, measuring  our  way  by  a  wisdom  of  our  own,  fell  into  Trea- 
ties with  the  King  and  his  Party  :  which  proved  such  a  snare  to  us, 
and  led  into  such  labyrinths  by  the  end  of  that  year,  that  the  very 
things  we  thought  to  avoid,  by  the  means  we  used  of  our  own  de- 
vising, were  all,  with  many  more  of  a  far  worse  and  more  perplexing 
nature,  brought  back  upon  us.  To  the  overwhelming  of  our  spirits, 
weakening  of  our  hands  and  hearts  ;  filling  us  with  divisions,  con- 
fusions, tumults,  and  every  evil  work  ;  and  thereby  endangering  the 
ruin  of  that  blessed  Cause  we  had,  with  such  success,  been  pros- 
pered in  till  that  time. 

'  For  now  the  King  and  his  Party,  seeing  us  not  answer  their  ends, 
began  to  provide  for  themselves,  by  a  Treaty  with  the  then  Parlia- 
ment, set  on  foot  about  the  beginning  of  Forty-eight.  The  Parlia- 
ment also  was,  at  the  same  time,  highly  displeased  with  us  for  what 
we  had  done,  both  as  to  the  King  and  themselves.  The  good  people 
likewise,  even  our  most  cordial  friends  in  the  Nation,  beholding  our 
turning  aside  from  that  path  of  simplicity  we  had  formerly  walked 
in,  and  been  blessed  in,  and  thereby  much  endeared  to  their  hearts, 
began  now  to  fear,  and  withdraw  their  affections  from  us,  in  this 
politic  path  which  we  had  stepped  into,  and  walked  in  to  our  hurt, 
the  year  before.  And  as  a  farther  fruit  of  the  wages  of  our  back- 
sliding hearts,  we  were  also  filled  with  a  spirit  of  great  jealousy  and 
divisions  amongst  ourselves  ;  having  left  that  Wisdom  of  the  Word, 
which  is  first  pure  and  then  peaceable  ;  so  that  we  were  now  fit  for 
little  but  to  tear  and  rend  one  another,  and  thereby  prepare  our- 
selves, and  the  work  in  our  hands,  to  be  ruined  by  our  common 
enemies.  Enemies  that  were  ready  to  say,  as  many  others  of  like 
spirit  in  this  day  do,*  of  the  like  sad  occasions  amongst  us,  "  Lo 
this  is  the  day  we  looked  for."  The  King  and  his  Party  prepare 
accordingly  to  ruin  all ;  by  sudden  Insurrections  in  most  parts  of 
the  Nation  :  the  Scot,  concurring  with  the  same  designs,  comes  in 
with  a  potent  Army  under  Duke  Hamilton.  We  in  the  Army,  in  a 
low,  weak,  divided,  perplexed  condition  in  all  respects,  as  aforesaid: 
— some  of  us  judging  it  a  duty  to  lay  down  our  arms,  to  quit  our 
stations,  and  put  ourselves  into  the  capacities  of  private  men, — since 
what  we  had  done,  and  what  was  yet  in  our  hearts  to  do,  tending  as 
we  judged  to  the  good  of  these  poor  Nations,  was  not  accepted  by 
them. 

*  Some  also  even  encouraged  themselves  and  us  to  such  a  thing,  by 
urging  for  such  a  practice  the  example  of  our  Lord  Jesus  ;  who, 
when  he  had  borne  an  eminent  testimony  to  the  pleasure  of  his 
Father  in  a  active  way,  sealed  it  at  last  by  his  sufferings  ;  which  was 
presented  to  us  as  our  pattern  for  imitation.  Others  of  us,  however, 
were  different-minded  ;  thinking  something  of  another  nature  might 
yet  be  farther  our  duty  ; — and  these  therefore  were,  by  joint  advice, 
by  a  good  hand  of  the  Lord,  led  to  this  result  ;  viz..  To  go  solemnly 
to  search  out  our  own  iniquities,  and  humble  our  souls  before  the 
Lord  in  the  sense  of  the  same  ;  which,  we  were  persuaded,  had  pro- 

*  1659 ;  Allen's  Pamphlet  is  written  as  a  Monition  and  Example  to  Fleetwood 
ftQci  the  others,  now  in  fi  similar  peril,  but  wUh  no  Oliver  now  among  then^, 


I90  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  WARS, 


voked  the  Lord  against  us,  to  bring  such  sad  perplexities  upon  us  at 
that  day.  Out  of  which  we  saw  no  way  else  to  extricate  ourselves. 
*  Accordingly  we  did  agree  to  meet  at  Windsor  Castle  about  the 
beginning  of  Forty-eight.  And  there  we  spent  one  day  together  in 
prayer  ;  inquiring  into  the  cause  of  that  sad  dispensation,' — let  all 
men  consider  it  ;  '  coming  to  no  farther  result  that  day  ;  but  that  it 
was  still  our  duty  to  seek.  And  on  the  morrow  we  met  again  in  the 
morning  ;  where  many  spake  from  the  Word,  and  prayed  ;  and  the 
then  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell,' — unintelligible  to  Posterity,  but 
extremely  intelligible  to  himself,  to  these  men,  and  to  the  Maker  of 
him  and  them,— 'did  press  very  earnestly  on  all  there  present,  to  a 
thorough  consideration  of  our  actions  as  an  Army,  and  of  our  ways 
particularly  as  private  Christians  ;  to  see  if  any  iniquity  could  be 
found  in  them  ;  and  what  it  was  ;  that  if  possible  we  might  find  it 
out^  and  so  remove  the  cause  of  such  sad  rebukes  as  were  upon  us 
(by  reason  of  our  iniquities,  as  we  judged)  at  that  time.  And  the  way 
more  particularly  the  Lord  led  us  to  herein  was  this  :  To  look  back 
and  consider  what  time  it  was  when  with  joint  satisfaction  we  could 
last  say  to  the  best  of  our  judgments,  The  presence  of  the  Lord  was 
amongst  us,  and  rebukes  and  judgments  were  not  as  then  upon 
us.  Which  time  the  Lord  led  us  jointly  to  find  out  and  agree  in ; 
and  having  done  so,  to  proceed,  as  we  then  judged  it  our  duty,  to 
search  into  all  our  public  actions  as  an  Army,  afterwards.  Duly 
weighing  (as  the  Lord  helped  us)  each  of  them,  with  their  grounds, 
rules,  and  ends,  as  near  as  we  could.  And  so  we  concluded  this 
second  day,  with  agreeing  to  meet  again  on  the  morrow.  Which 
accordingly  we  did  upon  the  same  occasion,  reassuming  the  con- 
sideration of  our  debates  the  day  before,  and  reviewing  our  actions 
again. 

'  By  which  means  we  were,  by  a  gracious  hand  of  the  Lord,  led  to 
find  out  the  very  steps  (as  we  were  all  then  jointly  convinced)  by 
which  we  had  departed  from  the  Lord,  and  provoked  Him  to  depart 
from  us.  Which  we  found  to  be  those  cursed  carnal  Conferences 
our  own  conceited  wisdom,  our  fears,  and  want  of  faith  had  prompted 
us,  the  year  before,-  to  entertain  with  the  King  and  his  Party.  And 
at  this  time,  and  on  this  occasion,  did  the  then  Major  Goffe  (as  I 
remember  was  his  title)  make  use  of  that  good  Word,  Proverbs 
First  and  Twenty -third.  Turn  you  at  my  reproof :  behold  I  will  pour 
out  my  Spirit  unto  you,  I  will  make  known  my  words  unto  you. 
Which,  we  having  found  out  our  sin,  he  urged  as  our  duty  from  those 
words.  And  the  Lord  so  accompanied  by  His  Spirit,  that  it  had  a 
kindly  effect,  like  a  word  of  His,  upon  most  of  our  hearts  that  were 
then  present  ;  which  begot  in  us  a  great  sense,  a  shame  and  loath- 
ing of  ourselves  for  our  iniquities,  and  a  justifying  of  the  Lord  as 
righteous  in  His  proceedings  against  us. 

'  And  in  this  path  the  Lord  led  us,  not  only  to  see  our  sin,  but  also 

our  duty ;  and  this  so  unanimously  set  with  weight  upon  each  heart, 

that  none  was  able  hardly  to  speak  a  word  to  each  other  for  bitter 

weeping,' — does  the  modern  reader  mark  it  ;  this  weeping,  and  who 

thsy  are  that  weep  !     Weeping  '  partly  in  the  sense  and  shame  of 

'  our  inic^uities  ;  of  our  unbelief^  base  fear  of  men,  and  carnal  consul- 


PRAYER-MEETING.  19T 

'  tations  (as  the  fruit  thereof)  with  our  own  wisdoms,  and  not  with  the 
'  Word  of  the  Lord, — which  only  is  a  way  of  wisdom,  strength,  and 
''  safety,  and  all  besides  it  are  ways  of  snares.     And  yet  we  were  also 

*  helped,  with  fear  and  trembling,  to  rejoice  in  the  Lord  ;  whose  faith- 
'  fulness  and  loving-kindness,  we  were  made  to  see,  yet  failed  us  not ; 
'  — who  remembered  us  still,  even  in  our  low  estate,  because  His  mercy 

*  endures  for  ever.     Who  no  sooner  brought  us  to  His  feet,  acknow- 

*  Jedging  Him  in  that  way  of  His  (viz.  searching  for,  being  ashamed 

*  of,  and  willing  to  turn  from,  our  iniquities),  but  He  did  direct  our 

*  steps  ;  and  presently  we  were  led  and  helped  to  a  clear  agreement 

*  amongst  ourselves,  not  any  dissenting.  That  it  was  the  duty  of  our 
'  day,  with  the  forces  we  had,  to  go  out  and  fight  against  those  potent 

*  enemies,  which  that  year  in  all  places  appeared  against  us.* 
Courage  I     '  With  an  humble  confidence,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 

*  only,  that  we  should   destroy  them.     And   we   were   also   enabled 

*  then,  after  serious  seeking   His  face,  to  come  to  a  very  clear  and 

*  joint  resolution,  on  many  grounds  at  large  there  debated  amongst 
'  us.  That  it  was  our  duty,  if  ev^er  the  Lord  brought  us  back  again  in 

*  peace,  to  call  Charles  Stuart,  that  man  of  blood,  to  an  account  for 

*  that  blood  he  had  shed,  and  mischief  he  had  done  to  his  utmost, 

*  against  the  Lord's  Cause  and  People  in  these  poor  Nations.'  Mark 
that  also  ! 

'And  how  the  Lord  led  and  prospered  us  in  all  our  undertakings 
'that  year,  in  this  way;  cutting  His  work  short,  in  righteousness; 

*  making  it  a  year  of  mercy,  equal  if  not  transcendent  to  any  since 
'  these  \Vars    began  ;    and   making  it   worthy  of  remembrance   by 

*  every  gracious   soul,  who  was  wise  to  observe  the  Lord,  and  the 

*  operations  of  His  hands, — I  wish  may  never  be  forgotten.'  Let 
Fleetwood,  if  he  have  the  same  heart,  go  and  do  likewise.* 

Abysses,  black  chaotic  whirlwinds  : — does  the  reader  look  upon  it 
all  as  Madness  ?  Madness  lies  close  by  ;  as  Madness  does  to  the 
Highest  Wisdom,  in  man's  life  always :  but  this  is  not  mad  !  This 
dark  element,  it  is  the  mother  of  the  lightnings  and  the  splendours  ; 
it  is  very  sane  this  ! — 

*  A  faithful  Memorial  of  that  remarkable  Meetin^^  of  many  Officers  of  the  Army 
in  England  at  Wiadsor  Castle,  in  the  Year  1648,  &c.  &c.  (in  Somers  Tracts, 
vi.  499-501-) 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART  IV 


SECOND    CIVIL    WAR 
1648. 


195 


LETTERS   XXXVIII,  XXXIX. 

About  the  beginning  of  May  1648,  the  general  Presbyterian- 
RoyaHst  discontent  announces  itself  by  tumults  in  Kent,  tumults  at; 
Colchester,  tumults  and  rumours  of  tumult  far  and  near  ;  portending, 
on  all  sides,  that  a  new  Civil  War  is  at  hand.  The  Scotch  Army  or 
Forty-thousand  is  certainly  voted  :  certainly  the  King  is  still  prisoner 
at  Carisbrook  ;  factious  men  have  yet  made  no  bargain  with  him  : 
certainly  there  will  and  should  be  a  new  War  ?  So  reasons  Presby- 
terian Royalism  everywhere.  Headlong  discontented  Wales  in  this 
matter  took  the  lead. 

Wales  has  been  full  of  confused  discontent  all  Spring  ;  this  or  the 
other  confused  Colonel  Poyer,  full  of  brandy  and  Presbyterian  texts 
of  Scripture,  refusing  to  disband  till  his  arrears  be  better  paid,  or 
indeed  till  the  King  be  better  treated.  To  whom  other  confused 
Welsh  Colonels,  as  Colonel  Powel,  Major-General  Laughern,  join 
themselves.  There  have  been  tumults  at  Cardiff,  tumults  here  and 
also  there  ;  open  shooting  and  fighting.  Drunken  Colonel  Poyer,  a 
good  while  ago,  in  March  last,  seized  Pembroke  ;  flatly  refuses  to 
obey  the  Parliament's  Order  when  Colonel  Hemming  presents  the 
same. — Poor  Flemming,  whom  we  saw  some  time  ago  soliciting  pro- 
motion :*  he  here,  attempting  to  defeat  some  insurrectionary  party  of 
this  Foyer's  '  at  a  Pass '  (name  of  the  pass  not  given),  is  himself 
defeated,  forced  into  a  church  and  killed.f  Drunken  Poyer,  in  Pem- 
broke strong  Castle,  defies  the  Parliament  and  the  world :  new 
Colonels,  Parliamentary  and  Presbyterian-Royalist,  hastening  towards 
him,  for  and  against.  Wales,  smoking  with  confused  discontent  all 
Spring,  has  now,  by  influence  of  the  flaming  Scotch  comet  or  Army  of 
Forty-thousand,  burst  into  a  general  blaze.  '  The  gentry  are  all  for 
'the  King;  the  common  people  understand  nothing,  and  follow  the 
'  gentry.'  Chepstow  Castle  has  too  been  taken  '  by  a  stratagem.'  The 
country  is  all  up  or  rising  :  '  the  smiths  have  all  fled,  cutting  their 
bellows  before  they  went ;'  impossible  to  get  a  horse  shod, — never  saw 
such  a  country  \X  On  the  whole  Cromwell  will  have  to  go.  Cromwell, 
leave  being  asked  of  Fairfax,  is  on  the  ist  of  May  ordered  to  go  ; 
marches  on  Wednesday  the  3rd.     Let  him  march  swiftly  ! 

Horton,  one  of  the  Parliamentary  Colonels,  has  already,  while 
Cromwell  is  on  the  march,  somewhat  tamed  the  W'elsh  humour,  by 
a  good  beating  at  St.  Pagan's  :  St.  Pagan's  Fight,  near  Cardiff,  on 
the  8th  of  May,  where  Laughern,  hastening  towards  Poyer  and  Pem- 
broke is  broken  in   pieces.      Cromwell    marches  by  Monmouth,  by 

*  Letter  XIX.  p.  147.  f  Rushworth,  vii.  1097,  J  Ibid. 

a  2 


196  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 

Chepstow  (nth  May)  :  takes  Chepstow  Town  ;  attacks  the  Castle, 
Castle  will  not  surrender, — he  leaves  Colonel  Ewer  to  do  the  Castle  : 
who,  after  four  weeks,  does  it.  Cromwell,  by  Swansea  and  Carmar- 
then, advances  towards  Pembroke  ;  quelling  disturbance,  rallying 
force,  as  he  goes  ;  arrives  at  Pembroke  in  some  ten  days  more  ;  and, 
for  want  of  artillery,  is  like  to  have  a  tedious  siege  of  it.*  He  has 
been  before  Pembroke  some  three  weeks,  when  the  fMlowing  Letter 
to  Major  Saunders  goes  off. 

Of  this  Major,  afterwards  Colonel,  Thomas  S  unders,  now  lying  at 
Brecknock,  there  need  little  be  said  beyond  what  the  Letter  itself 
says.  He  is  '  of  Derbyshire,'  it  seems  ;  sat  afterwards  as  a  King's- 
Judge,  or  at  least  was  nominated  to  sit  ;  continued  true  to  the  Cause, 
in  a  'lim  way,  till  the  very  Restoration  ;  and  withdrew  then  into  total 
darkness. 

This  Letter  is  endorsed  in  Saunders's  own  hand,  '  The  Lord  Gene- 
*  ral's  order  for  taking  Sir  Trevor  Williams,  and  Mr.  Morgan  Sheriff 
'  of  Monmouthshire.'  Of  which  two  Welsh  individuals,  except  that 
Williams  had  been  appointed  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Parlia- 
ment's forces  in  Monmouthshire  some  time  ago,  and  Morgan  High 
Sheriff  there,t  both  of  whom  had  now  revolted,  we  know  nothing. 
and  need  know  nothing.  The  Letter  has  come  under  cover  enclosing 
another  Letter  of  an  official  sort,  to  one  '  Mr.  Rumsey '  (a  total 
stranger  to  me) ;  and  is  superscribed.  For  yourself . 

LETTER  XXXVHL 

*  To  Major  Thomas  Saunders^  at  Brecknock  ;  These. 

'  Before  Pembroke,'  17th  June,  1648. 

Sir, 

I  send  you  this  enclosed  by  itself,  because  it's  of  greater 
moment.  The  other  you  may  communicate  to  Mr.  Rumsey,  as  far  as 
you  think  fit  and  I  have  written.  I  would  not  have  him  or  other 
honest  men  be  discouraged  that  I  think  it  not  fit,  at  present,  to  enter 
into  contests  ;  it  will  be  good  to  yield  a  little,  for  public  advantage  : 
and  truly  that  is  my  end  ;  wherein  I  desire  you  to  satisfy  them. 

I  have  sent,  as  my  Letter  mentions,  to  have  you  remove  out  of 
Brecknockshire  ;  indeed,  into  that  part  of  Glamorganshire  which  lieth 
next  Monmouthshire.  For  this  end  :  We  have  plain  discoveries  that 
Sir  Trevor  Williams,  of  Llangibby,J  about  two  miles  from  Usk  in  the 
County  of  Monmouth,  was  very  deep  in  the  plot  of  betraying  Chep- 
stow Castle  ;  so  that  we  are  out  of  doubt  of  his  guiltiness  thereof.  I 
do  hereby  authorise  you  to  seize  him  ;  as  also  the  High  Sheriff  of 
Monmouth,  Mr.  Morgan,  who  was  in  the  same  plot. 

But,  because  Sir  Trevor  Williams  is  the  more  dangerous  man  by 

*  Abundant  details  lie  scattered  in  Rushworth,  vii.  :  Poyer  and  Pembroke 
Castle,  in  March,  p.  1033;  Flamming  killed  (i  May),  p.  1097:  Chepstow  sur- 
prised (' beginning  of  May"),  p.  I'^oo,— retaken  (29  May),  p.  1130;  St.  Pagan's 
Fight  (8  May),  p.  mo;   Cromwell's  march,  pp.  1121-8. 

f  10  January,  1645-6,  Williams  ;  17  November,  1647,  Morgan  :  Commons 
Journals,  in  diebus. 

X  He  writes  '  Langevie ; '   '  Munmouth'  too. 


PEMBROKE.  197 


far,  I  would  have  you  seize  him  first,  and  the  other  will  easily  be  had. 
To  the  end  you  may  not  be  frustrated  and  that  you  be  not  deceived,  I 
think  fit  to  give  you  some  characters  of  the  man,  and  some  intimations 
how  things  stand.  He  is  a  man,  as  I  am  informed,  full  of  craft  and 
subtlety  ;  very  bold  and  resolute  ;  hath  a  House  at  Llangibby  well 
stored  with  arms,  and  very  strong  ;  his  neighbours  about  him  very 
Malignant,  and  much  for  him, — who  are  apt  to  rescue  him  if  appre- 
hended, much  more  to  discover  anything  which  may  prevent  it.  He 
is  full  of  jealousy ;  partly  out  of  guilt,  but  much  more  because  he 
doubts  some  that  were  in  the  business  have  discovered  him,  which 
indeed  they  have, — and  also  because  he  knows  that  his  Servant  is 
brought  hither,  and  a  Minister  to  be  examined  here,  who  are  able  to 
discover  the  whole  plot. 

If  you  should  march  directly  into  that  Country  and  near  him,  it's 
odds  he  either  fortify  his  House,  or  give  you  the  slip  :  so  also,  if  you 
should  go  to  his  House,  and  not  find  him  there  ;  or  if  you  attempt  to" 
take  him,  and  miss  to  effect  it  ;  or  if  you  make  any  known  inquiry 
after  him, — it  will  be  discovered. 

Wherefore,  *  as '  to  the  first,  you  have  a  fair  pretence  of  going  out  of 
Brecknockshire  to  quarter  about  Newport  and  Caerleon,  which  is  not 
above  four  or  five  miles  from  his  House.  You  may  send  to  Colonel 
Herbert,  whose  House  lieth  in  Monmouthshire  ;  who  will  certainly 
acquaint  you  where  he  is.  You  are  also  to  send  to  Captain  Nicholas, 
who  is  at  '"hepstow,  to  require  him  to  assist  you,  if  he  '  Williams  ' 
should  get  into  his  House  and  stand  upon  his  guard.  Samuel  Jones, 
who  is  Quartermaster  to  Colonel  Herbert's  troop,  will  be  very  assisting 
to  you,  if  you  send  to  him  to  meet  you  at  your  quarters  ;  both  by 
letting  you  know  where  he  is,  and  also  in  all  matters  of  intelligence. 
If  there  shall  be  need,  Captain  Burge's  troop,  now  quartered  in 
Glamorganshire,  shall  be  directed  to  receive  orders  from  you. 

You  perceive  by  all  this  that  we  are,  it  may  be,  a  little  too  much 
solicitous  in  this  business  ; — it's  our  fault ;  and  indeed  such  a  temper 
causeth  us  often  to  overact  business.  Wherefore,  without  more  ado, 
we  leave  it  to  you  ;  and  you  to  the  guidance  of  God  herein  ;  and  rest, 

Yours, 

Oliver  Cromwell.''^ 

Saunders,  by  his  manner  of  endorsing  this  Letter,  seems  to  intimate 
that  he  took  his  two  men  ;  that  he  keeps  the  Letter  by  way  of  voucher. 
Sir  Trevor  Williams  by  and  byf  compounds  as  a  Delinquent, — retires 
then  into  '  Langevie  House '  in  a  diminished  state,  and  disappears 
from  History.  Of  Sheriff  Morgan,  except  that  a  new  Sheriff  is  soon 
appointed,  we  have  no  farther  notice  whatever. 

*  Harris,  p.  495.  f  Commons  Journals. 


19§ 


SECOND   CIVIL   WAR, 


LETTER  XXXIX. 

Since  Cromwell  quitted  London,  there  have  arisen  wide  commo- 
tions in  that  central  re^-ion  too  ;  the  hope  of  the  Scotch  Army  and  the 
certainty  of  this  War  in  Wales  excite  all  unruly  things  and  persons. 

May  iGth.  Came  a  celebrated  '  Surrey  Petition  :'  highflying  armed 
cavalcade  of  Freeholders  from  Surrey,  with  a  Petition  craving  in  very 
high  language  that  Peace  be  made  with  his  Majesty  :  they  quarrelled 
with  the  Parliament's  Guard  in  W^estminster  Hall,  drew  swords,  had 
swords  drawn  upon  them  ;  '  the  Miller  of  Wandsworth  was  run  through 
with  a  halbert,'  he  and  others  ;  and  the  Petitioners  went  home  in  a 
slashed  and  highly  indignant  condition.  Thereupon,  May  24///, 
armed  meeting  of  Kentishnien  on  Blackheath  ;  armed  meeting  of 
Essex-men  ;  several  armed  meetings,  all  in  communication  with  the 
City  Presbyterians  :  Fairfax,  ill  of  the  gout,  has  to  mount,— in  ex- 
tremity of  haste,  as  a  man  that  will  quench  fire  among  smoking  flax. 

ytme  \st.  Fairfax,  at  his  utmost  speed,  smites  fiercely  against  the 
centre  of  this  Insurrection  ;  drives  it  from  post  to  post  ;  drives  it  into 
Maidstone  '  about  7  in  the  evening,'  '  with  as  hard  fighting  as  I  ever 
saw  ;'  tramples  it  out  there.  The  centre-flame  once  trampled  out,  the 
other  flames,  or  armed  meetings,  hover  hither  and  thither  ;  gather  at 
length,  in  few  days,  all  at  Colchester  in  Essex  ;  where  Fairfax  is  now 
besieging  them,  with  a  very  obstinate  and  fierce  resistance  from  them. 
These  are  the  '  glorious  successes  God  has  vouchsafed  you,'  which 
Oliver  alludes  to  in  this  Letter. 

We  are  only  to  notice  farther  that  Lambert  is  in  the  North  ;  waiting, 
in  very  inadequate  strength,  to  see  the  Scots  arrive.  Oliver  in  this 
Letter  signifies  that  he  has  reinforced  him  with  some  '  horse  and 
dragoons,'  sent  by  '  West  Chester,  which  we  now  call  Chester,  where 
*  Colonel  Dukinfield '  is  Governor.  The  Scots  are  indubitably  coming  : 
Sir  Marmaduke  Langdale  (whom  Oliver,  we  may  remark,  encountered 
in  the  King's  left  wing  at  Naseby  Fioht)  has  raised  new  Yorkshiremen, 
has  seized  Berwick,  seized  Carlisle,  and  joined  the  Scots  ;  it  is  becom- 
ing an  openly  Royalist  affair. 

Very  desirable,  of  course,  that  Oliver  had  done  with  Pembroke,  and 
were  fairly  joined  with  Lambert.  But  Pembroke  is  strong  ;  Poyer  is 
stubborn,  hopes  to  surrender  '  on  conditions  ;'  Oliver,  equally  stub- 
born, though  sadly  short  of  artillery  and  means,  will  have  him  '  at; 
mercy  of  the  Parliament/  so  signal  a  rebel  as  him.  Fairfax's  Father, 
the  Lord  Ferdinando,  died  in  March  last  ;*  so  that  the  General's  title, 
is  now  changed  : 

To  Jus  Excellency  the   Lord  Fairfax,  General  of  the  Parliaments 
Army :   These. 

Before  Pembroke,  28th  June,  1648. 

My  Lord, 

I  have  some  few  days  since  despatched  horse  and  dragoons  for 
the  North.     I  sent  them  by  the  way  of  West  Chester  ;  thinking  it  fit 

*  13  March,  1647-8  (Kushworth,  vii.  1030). 


PEMBROKE.  199 


to  do  so  in  regard  of  this  enclosed  Letter  which  I  received  from 
Colonel  Dukinfield  ; — requiring  them  to  give  him  assistance  in  the 
way.  And  if  it  should  prove  that  a  present  help  would  not  serve  the 
turn,  then  I  ordered  Captain  Pennyfeather's  troop  to  remain  with  the 
Governor  '  Dukinfield  ;'  and  the  rest  immediately  to  march  towards 
Leeds, — and  to  send  to  the  Committee  of  York,  or  to  him  that  com- 
mands the  forces  in  those  parts,  for  directions  whither  they  should 
come,  and  how  they  shall  be  disposed  of. 

The  number  I  sent  are  six  troops  :  four  of  horse,  and  two  of 
dragoons  ;  whereof  three  are  Colonel  Scroop's, — and  Captain  Penny - 
feather's  troop,  and  the  other  two  dragoons.  I  could  not,  by  the 
judgment  of  the  Colonel's  here,  spare  more,  nor  send  them  sooner 
without  manifest  hazard  to  these  parts.  Here  is,  as  I  have  formerly 
acquainted  your  Excellency,  a  very  desperate  Enemy;  who,  being 
put  out  of  all  hope  of  .mercy,  are  resolved  to  endure  to  the  uttermost 
extremity  ;  being  very  many  'of  them'  gentlemen  of  quality,  and  men 
thoroughly  resolved.  They  have  made  some  notable  sallies  upon 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Reade's  quarter,*  to  his  loss.  We  are  forced  to 
keep  divers  posts,  or  else  they  would  have  relief,  or  their  horse  break 
away.  Our  foot  about  them  are  Four-and-twenty  hundred  ;  we  always 
necessitated  to  have  some  in  garrisons. 

The  Country,  since  we  sat  down  before  this  place,  have  made  two 
or  three  insurrections  ;  and  are  ready  to  do  it  every  day  :  so  that, — 
what  with  looking  to  them,  and  disposing  our  horse  to  that  end,  and 
to  get  us  in  provisions,  without  which  we  should  starve,  this  country 
being  so  miserably  exhausted  and  so  poor,  and  we  no  money  to  buy 
victuals, — indeed,  whatever  may  be  thought,  it's  a  mercy  we  have 
been  able  to  keep  our  men  together  in  the  midst  of  such  necessity, 
the  sustenance  of  the  foot  for  most  part  being  but  bread  and  water. 
Our  guns,  through  the  unhappy  accident  at  Berkley,  not  yet  come  to 
us  ; — and  indeed  it  was  a  very  unhappy  thing  they  were  brought 
thither  ;  the  wind  having  been  always  so  cross,  that  since  they  were 
recovered  from  sinking,  they  could  not  '  come  to  us  ; '  and  this  place 
not  being  to  be  had  without  fit  instruments  for  battering,  except  by 
starving.f  And  truly  I  believe  the  Enemy's  straits  do  increase  upon 
them  very  fast,  and  that  within  a  few  days  an  end  will  be  put  to  this 
business  ; — which  surely  might  have  been  before,  if  we  had  received 
things  wherewith  to  have  done  it.  But  it  will  be  done  in  the  best 
time.t 

I  rejoice  much  to  hear  of  the  blessing  of  God  upon  your  Excellency's 
endeavours.  I  pray  God  that  this  Nation,  and  those  that  are  over  us, 
and  your  Excellency  and  all  we  that  are  under  you,  'may  discern' 
what  the  mind  of  God  may  be  in  all  this,  and  what  our  duty  is. 
Surely  it  is  not  that  the  poor  Godly  People  of  this  Kingdom  should 
still  be  made  the  object  of  wrath  and  anger  ;  nor  that  our  God  would 

*  Reade  had  been  entrusted  with  the  Siege  of  Tenby;  that  had  ended  June  2 
(Commons  Journals,  v.  588);   and  Reade  is  now  assisting  at  Pembroke. 

t  '  Without  either  fit  instruments  for  battering  except  by  starving.'  Great  haste, 
and  considerable  stumbling  in  the  grammar  of  this  last  sentence  1  After  *  starving,' 
a  mere  comma  ;   and  so  on. 

If  God's  time  is  the  best. 


200  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR, 

have  our  necks  under  a  yoke  of  bondage.  For  these  things  that 
have  lately  come  to  pass  have  been  the  wonderful  works  of  God ; 
breaking  the  rod  of  the  oppressor,  as  in  the  day  of  Midian, — not  with 
garments  much  rolled  in  blood,  but  by  the  terror  of  the  Lord  ;  who 
will  yet  save  His  people  and  confound  His  enemies,  as  on  that  day. 
The  Lord  multiply  His  grace  upon  you.  and  bless  you,  and  keep  your 
h?art  upright ;  and  then,  though  you  be  not  conformable  to  the  men 
of  this  world,  nor  to  their  wisdom,  yet  you  shall  be  precious  in  the 
eyes  of  God,  and  He  will  be  to  you  a  horn  and  a  shield. — 

My  Lord,  I  do  not  know  that  I  have  had  a  Letter  from  any  of  your 
Army,  of  the  glorious  successes  God  has  vouchsafed  you.  I  pray 
pardon  the  complaint  made.  I  long  to  '  be '  with  you.  I  take  leave  ; 
and  rest, 

My  Lord, 

Your  most  humble  and  faithful  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

*P.S.'  Sir,  I  desire  you  that  Colonel  Lehunt  may  have  a  Commis- 
sion to  command  a  Troop  of  horse,  the  greatest  part  whereof  came 
from  the  Enemy  to  us  ;  and  that  you  would  be  pleased  to  send  blank 
Commissions  for  his  inferior  officers,— with  what  speed  may  be.* 

In  Rushworth,  under  date  March  24th,  is  announced  that  '  Sir  W. 
'  Constable  has  taken  care  to  send  ordnance  and  ammunition  from 
'  Gloucester,  for  the  service  before  Pembroke. 'f  '  The  unhappy 
accident  at  Berkley,'  I  believe,  is  the  stranding  of  the  '  Frigate,'  or 
Shallop,  that  carried  them.  Guns  are  not  to  be  had  of  due  quality  for 
battering  Pembroke.  In  the  beginning  of  June,t  'Hugh  Peters' 
went  across  to  Milford  Haven,  and  from  the  Lion,  a  Parliament  Ship 
riding  there,  got  '  two  drakes,  two  demi-culverins,  and  two  whole  cul- 
verins,'  and  safely  conveyed  them  to  the  Leaguer  ;  with  which  new 
implements  an  instantaneous  essay  was  made,  and  a  '  storming ' 
thereupon  followed,  but  without  success. 

Several  bodies  of  '  horse '  are  mentioned  as  deserting,  or  taking 
quarter  and  service  on  the  Parliament  side.§  It  is  over  these  that 
Lehunt  is  to  be  appointed  Colonel  ;  and  to  Fairfax  as  General-in- 
chief  '  of  all  the  Parliament's  Forces  raised  or  to  be  raised,'  it  belongs 
to  give  him  and  his  subordinates  the  due  commissions. 

July  ^th.  Young  Villiers  Duke  of  Buckingham,  son  of  the  assas- 
sinated Duke  ;  he  with  his  Brother  Francis,  with  the  Earl  of  Holland, 
and  others  who  will  pay  dear  for  it,  started  up  about  Kingston  on 
Thames  with  another  open  Insurrectionary  Armament ;  guided  chiefly 
by  Dutch  Dalbier,  once  Cromwell's  instructor,  but  now  gone  over  to 
the  other  side.  Fairfax  and  the  Army  being  all  about  Colchester  in 
busy  Siege,  there  seemed  a  good  opportunity  here.  They  rode 
towards  Riegate,  these  Kingston  Insurgents,  several  hundreds  strong: 
but  a  Parliament  Party  '  under  Major  Gibbons '  drives  them  back  ; 

*  Sloane  MSS.  1519,  f.  90.  f  vii.  1036. 

:t  Cromwelliana,  p.  40.  §  Rushworth,  Cromwelliana. 


PRMBkOKE.  401 


following  close,  comes  to  action  with  them  between  '  Nonsuch  Park 
and  Kingston,  where  the  poor  Lord  Francis,  Brother  of  the  Duke, 
fell  mortally  wounded  ; — drives  them  across  the  river  '  into  Hertford- 
shire ; '  into  the  lion's  jaws.  For  Fairfax  sent  a  Party  out  from  Col- 
chester ;  overtook  them  at  St.  Neot's ;  and  captured,  killed,  or  entirely 
dissipated  them.*  Dutch  Dalbier  was  hacked  in  pieces,  '  so  angry 
were  the  soldiers  at  him.'  The  Earl  of  Holland  stood  his  trial  after- 
wards ;  and  lost  his  head.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham  got  off; — might 
almost  as  well  have  died  with  poor  Brother  Francis  here,  for  any  good 
he  afterwards  did.  Two  pretty  youths,  as  their  Vandyke  Portraits  in 
Hampton  Court  still  testify ;  one  of  whom  lived  to  become  much 
uglier  ! 

July  Zth.  Duke  Hamilton,  with  the  actual  Scotch  Army,  is  'at 
Annan '  on  the  Western  Border,  ready  to  step  across  to  England.  Not 
quite  Forty  thousand  ;  yet  really  about  half  that  number,  tolerably 
effective.  Langdale,  with  a  vanguard  of  Three  thousand  Yorkshire- 
men,  is  to  be  guide  ;  Monro,  with  a  body  of  horse  that  had  long 
served  in  Ulster,  is  to  bring  up  the  rear.  The  great  Duke  dates  from 
Annan,  8th  July,  1648.1  Poor  old  Annan  ;— never  such  an  Army 
gathered,  since  the  Scotch  James  went  to  wreck  in  Solway  Moss, 
above  a  hundred  years  ago  !  \  Scotland  is  in  a  disastrous,  distracted 
condition  ;  overriden  by  a  Hamilton  majority  in  Parliament.  Poor 
Scotland  will,  with  exertion,  deliver  its  '  King  from  the  power  of 
Sectaries  ; '  and  is  dreadfully  uncertain  what  it  will  do  with  him  when 
delivered  !     Perhaps  Oliver  will  save  it  the  trouble. 

July  nth.  OHver  at  last  is  loose  from  Pembroke  ;  drunken  Colonel 
Poyer,  Major- General  Laughern  and  some  others  surrender  '  at 
mercy  ; '  a  great  many  more  on  terms  ;  and  the  Welsh  War  is  ended. 
Cromwell  hurries  northward:  by  Gloucester,  W^arwick  ;  gets '3,000 
pairs  of  shoes'  at  Leicester  ;  leaves  his  prisoners  at  Nottingham  (with 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  Colonel,  in  the  Castle  there)  ;  joins  Lambert 
among  the  Hills  of  Yorkshire,§  where  his  presence  is  much  needed 
now. 

July  2yth.  In  these  tumultuous  months  the  Fleet  too^has  partially 
revolted  ;  '  set  Colonel  Admiral  Rainsborough  ashore,'  m  the  end  of 
May  last.  The  Earl  of  Warwick,  hastily  sent  thither,  has  brought 
part  of  it  to  order  again  ;  other  part  of  it  has  fled  to  Holland,  to  the 
Young  Prince  of  Wales.  The  young  Prince  goes  hopefully  on  board, 
steers  for  the  coast  of  England  ;  emits  his  summons  and  manifesto 
from  Yarmouth  roads,  on  the  27th  of  this  month.  Getting  nothing  at 
Yarmouth,  he  appears  next  week  in  the  Downs  ;  orders  London  to 
join  him,  or  at  least  to  lend  him  ^20,000. || 

It  all  depends  on  Hamilton  and  Cromwell  now.  His  Majesty  from 
Carisbrook  Castle,  the  revolted  Mariners,  the  London  Presbyterians, 
the  Besieged  in  Colchester,  and  all  men,  are  waiting  anxiously  what 
they  now  will  make  of  it  when  they  meet. 

*  Rushworth,  vii.  1178,  82.  f  Ibid.  vii.  1184.  t  James  V.  A.D.  1542. 

§  At  Barnard  Castle,  on  the  27th  July,  '  his  horse  '  joined  (Rushworth,  vii.  1211); 
he  himself  not  till  a  fortnight  after,  at  Wetherby  farther  south. 

II  Rushworth,  vii.  ;  29  May,  p.  1131  ;  8  June.  11  June,  pp.  1145,  1151;  27  July, 
pp.  1207,  1215,  &c. 


502  SECOND  CIVIL  IV A/?. 


LETTERS   XL,   XLL 

PRESTON   BATTLE. 

The  Battle  of  Preston  or  Battle-and-Rout  of  Preston  lasts  three 
days  ;  and  extends  over  many  miles  of  wet  Lancashire  country, — from 
'  Langridge  Chapel  a  little  on  the  east  of  Preston/  southward  to  War- 
rington Bridge,  and  northward  also  as  far  as  you  like  to  follow.  A 
widespread,  most  confused  transaction  ;  the  essence  of  which  is,  That 
Cromwell,  descending  the  valley  of  the  Ribble,  with  a  much  smaller 
but  prompt  and  compact  force,  finds  Hamilton  flowing  southward  at 
Preston  in  very  loose  order  ;  dashes  in  upon  him,  cuts  him  in  two, 
drives  him  north  and  south,  into  as  miserable  ruin  as  his  worst  enemy 
could  wish. 

There  are  four  accounts  of  this  Affair  by  eye-witnesses  still  acces- 
sible :  Cromwell's  account  in  these  Two  Letters  ;  a  Captain  Hodgson's 
rough  brief  recollections  written  afterwards  ;  and  on  the  other  side, 
Sir  Marmaduke  Langdale's  Letter  in  vindication  of  his  conduct  there  ; 
and  lastly  the  deliberate  Narrative  of  Sir  James  Turner  ('alias  Dugald 
Dalgetty,'  say  some).  As  the  Affair  was  so  momentous,  one  of  the 
most  critical  in  all  these  Wars,  and  as  the  details  of  it  are  still  so 
accessible,  we  will  illustrate  Cromwell's  own  account  by  some  excerpts 
from  the  others.  Combining  all  which,  and  considering  well,  some 
image  of  this  rude  old  tragedy  and  triumph  may  rise  upon  the  reader. 

Captain    Hodgson,  an  honest-hearted,  pudding-headed  Yorkshire 

Puritan,  now  with  Lambert  in  the  Hill  Country,  hovering  on  the  left 

flank  of  Hamilton  and  his  Scots,  saw  Cromwell's  face  at  Ripon,  much 

to  the  Captain's  satisfaction.     '  The  Scots,'  says  he, '  marched  towards 

Kendal ;  we  towards  Ripon,  where  Oliver  met  us  with  horse  and 

foot.     We  were  then  between  Eight    and  Nine  thousand  :    a  fine 

smart  Army,  fit  for  action.     We  marched  up  to  Skipton  ;  the  Forlorn 

of  the  Enemy's  horse,'  Sir  Marmaduke's,  '  was  come  to  Gargrave  ; 

having  made  havoc  of  the  country, — it  seems,  intending  never  to 

come  there  again.'     '  ."-tout  Henry  Cromwell,'  he  gave  them  a  check 

at  Gargrave  ;  * — and  better  still  is  coming. 

Here,  however,  let  us  introduce  Sir  James  Turner,  a  stout  pedant 
and  soldier-of-fortune,  original  Dus^ald  Dalgetty  of  the  Novels,  who 
is  now  marching  with  the  Scots,  and  happily  has  a  turn  for  taking 
Notes.  The  reader  will  then  have  a  certain  ubiquity,  and  approaA 
Preston  on  both  sides.  Of  the  Scotch  Officers,  wc  may  remark, 
Middleton  and  the  Earl  of  Calendar  have  already  fought  in  England 
for  the  Parliament  :  Baillie,  once  beaten  by  Montrose,  has  been  in 
many  wars,  foreign   and   domestic  ;    he  is   lefthand   cousin  to   the 

*  Hodgson's  Memoirs  (with  Sl'ngsby's  Memoirs,  Edinburgh,  1808;  a  dull 
authentic  Book,  left  full  of  blunders,,  of  darkness  natural  and  adsc;ititious,  by  the 
Editor),  pp.  114    r. 


PRESTON  BATTLE.  ^o^ 


Reverend  Mr.  Robert,  who  heard  the  Apprentices  in  Palaceyard 
bellowing  "  Justice  on  Strafford  !  "  long  since,  in  a  loud  and  hideous 
manner.  Neither  of  the  Le&leys  is  here,  on  this  occasion  ;  they  abide 
at  home  with  the  oppressed  minority.  The  Duke,  it  will  be  seen, 
marches  in  extremely  loose  order  ;  vanguard  and  rearguard  very  far 
apart, — and  a  Cromwell  attending  him  on  flank  ! 

'  At   Hornby,'  says  the  learned  Sir  James  alias  Dugald,  '  a  day's 

*  march  beyond   Kendal,  it  was  advised,  Whether  we  should  march 

*  to  Lancashire,  Cheshire,  and  the  Western  Counties  ;  or  if  we  should 
'go  into  Yorkshire,  and  so  put  ourselves  in  the  straight  road. to 
'  London,  with  a  resolution  to  fight  all  who  would  oppose  us  ?  Calen- 
'  dar  was  indifferent  ;  Middleton  was  for  Yorkshire  ;  Baillie  for  Lan- 
'  cashire.  When  my  opinion  was  asked,  I  was  for  Yorkshire ;  and 
'  for  this  reason  only,  'I'hat  I  understood  Lancashire  was  a  close 
'country,  full  of  ditches  and  hedges  ;  which  was  a  great  advantage 
'  the  English  would  have  over  our  raw  and  undisciplined  musketeers  ; 
'  the  Parliament's  Army  consisting  of  disciplined  and  well-trained 
'  soldiers,  and  excellent  firemen  ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  Yorkshire 

*  was  a  more  open  country  and  full  of  heaths,  where  we  might  both 
'  make  use  of  our  horse,  and  come  sooner  to  push  of  pike '  with  our 
foot.  '  My  Lord  Uuke  was  for  Lancashire  way  ;  and  it  seems  he 
'  had  hopes  that  some  forces  would  join  with  him  in  his  march  that 
'  way.  I  have  indeed  heard  him  say,  that  he  thought  Manchester  his 
'  own  if  he  came  near  it.  Whatever  the  matter  was,  I  never  saw  him 
'  tenacious  in  anything  during  the  time  of  his  command  but  in  that. 
'  We  chose  to  go  that  way  which  led  us  to  our  ruin. 

'  Our  march  was  much  retarded  by  most  rainy  and  tempestuous 
'weather,  the  elements  fighting  against  us  ;  and  by  staying  for  country 
'  horses  to  carry  our  little  ammunition.  The  vanguard  is  constantly 
'  given  to  Sir  Marmaduke,  upon  condition  that  he  should  constantly 
'  furnish  guides  ;  pioneers  for  clearing  the  ways  ;  and,  which  was  more 
'  than  both  these,  have  good  and  certain  intelligence  of  all  the  Enemy's 
'  motions.  But  whether  it  was  by  our  fault  or  his  neglect,  want  of 
'  intelligence  helped  to  ruin  us  ;  for,' — in  fact  we  were  marching  in 
extremely  loose  order ;  left  hand  not  aware  what  the  right  was 
doing  ;  van  and  rear  some  twenty  or  thirty  miles  apart ; — far  too  loose 
for  men  that  had  a  Cromwell  on  their  flank  ! 

On  the  night  of  Wednesday,  i6th  August,  1648,  my  Lord  Duke  has 
got  to  Preston  with  the  main  body  of  his  foot  ;  his  horse  lying  very 
wide, — ahead  of  him  at  Wigan,  arear  of  him,  one  knows  not  where, 
he  himself  hardly  knows  where.  Sir  Marmaduke  guards  him  on  the 
left,  •  on  Preston  Moor,  about  Langridge  Chapel,'  some  four  miles  up 
the  Ribble, — and  knows  not,  in  the  least  what  storm  is  coming.  For 
Cromwell,  this  same  night,  has  got  across  the  hills  to  Clitheroe  and 
farther ;  this  same  Wednesday  night  he  lies  '  at  Stonyhurst,'  where 
now  the  College  of  Stonyhurst  is, — '  a  Papist's  house,  one  Sherburne's  ;' 
and  tomorrow  morning  there  will  be  news  of  Cromwell 

'  That  night,'  says  Hodgson,  '  we  pitched  our  camp  at  Stanyares 
'  Hall,  a  Papist's  house,  one  Sherburne's  ;  and  the  next  morning  a 
'  Forlorn  of  horse  and  foot  was  drawn  out.  And  at  Langridge  Chapel 
'  our  horse  came  upon  Sir  Marmaduke  ;  drawn  up  very  formidably. 


:S04  SECO^fD   CIVIL  WAR. 


'One  Major  Poundall '  (Pownell,  you  pudding-head!)  'and  myself 
'commanded  the  Forlorn  of  foot.  And  here  being-  drawn  up  by  the 
'Moorside  (a  mere  scantli  ig  of  us,  as  yet,  not  half  the  number  we 
*  should  have  been),  the  General'  Cromwell  'comes  to  us,  orders  us 
'  To  march.  We  not  ha\  ing  half  of  our  men  come  up,  desired  a  little 
'patience;  he  gives  out  the  word,  "March!"' — not  having  anv 
patience,  he,  at  this  moment  !  And  so  the  Battle  of  Preston,  the  first 
day  of  it,  is  begun.  Here  is  the  General's  own  Report  of  the  busi- 
ness at  night.  Poor  Langdale  did  not  know  at  first,  and  poor  Hamil- 
tx)n  did  not  know  all  day,  that  it  was  Cromwell  who  was  now  upon 
them.*  Sir  Marmaduke  complains  bitterly  that  he  was  not  supported  ; 
that  they  did  not  even  send  him  powder,— marched  away  the  body  of 
their  force  as  if  this  matter  had  been  nothing  ;  '  merely  some  flying 
'  party,  Ashton  and  the  Lancashire  Presbyterians.'  Cromwell  writes 
in  haste,  late  at  night. 

LETTER  XL. 

For  the  Honourable  Coinni'ttee  of  Lancashire  sitting  at  Manchester. 

{I  desire  the  Commander  of  the  Forces  there  to  open  this  Letter  if  it 
come  710 1  to  their  hanUs.) 

'  Preston,'  17th  August,  1648. 

Gentlemen, 

It  hath  pleased  God,  this  day,  to  shew  His  great  power  by 
making  the  Army  successful  against  the  common  Enemy. 

We  lay  last  night  at  Mr.  Sher burn's  of  Stonyhurst,  nine  miles  from 
Preston,  which  was  within  three  miles  of  the  Scots  quarters.  We  ad- 
vanced betimes  next  morning  towards  Preston,  with  a  desire  to  engage 
the  Enemy  ;  and  by  that  time  our  Forlorn  had  engaged  the  Enemy, 
we  were  about  four  miles  from  Preston,  and  thereupon  we  advanced 
with  the  whole  Army  ;  and  the  Enemy  being  drawn  out  on  a  Moor 
betwixc  us  and  the  Town,  the  Armies  on  both  sides  engaged  ;  and 
after  a  very  sharp  dispute,  continuing  for  three  or  four  hours,  it  pleased 
God  to  enable  us  to  give  them  a  defeat  ;  which  I  hope  we  shall  im- 
prove, by  God's  assistance,  to  their  utter  ruin  :  and  in  this  service  your 
countrymen  have  not  the  least  f  share. 

We  cannot  be  particular,  having  not  time  to  take  account  of  the 
slain  and  prisoners  ;  but  we  can  assure  you  we  have  many  prisoners, 
and  many  of  those  of  quality  ;  and  many  slain  ;  and  the  Army  so 
dissipated  'as  I  say.'  The  principal  part  whereof,  with  Duke  Hamil- 
ton, is  on  south  side  Ribble  and  Darwen  Bridge,  and  we  lying  with 
the  greatest  part  of  the  Army  close  to  them  ;  nothing  hindering  the 
ruin  of  that  part  of  the  Enemy's  Army  but  the  night.  It  shall  be  our 
care  that  they  shall  not  pass  over  any  ford  beneath  the  Bridge,^  ta 
go  Northward,  or  to  come  betwixt  us  and  Whalley. 

We  understand  Colonel-General  Ashton's  are  at  Whalley  ;  we  have 
seven  troops  of  horse  or  dragoons  that  we  believe  lie  at  Clithroe. 
This  night  I  have  sent  order  to  them  expressly  to  march  to  Whalley, 
to  join  to  those  companies  ;  that  so  we  may  endeavour  the  ruin  of 

f  Sir  Marmaduke's  Letter.  t  means  '  the  not  least,' 

+  There  is  such  a  ford,  rideable  if  tide  and  rain  permit. 


PRESTON  BATTLE.  205 


this  Enemy.  You  perceive  by  this  Letter  how  things  stand.  By  this 
means  the  Enemy  is  broken  :  and  most  of  their  Horse  having  gone 
Northwards,  and  we  having  sent  a  considerable  party  at  the  very  heel 
of  them  ;  and  the  Enemy  having  lost  almost  all  his  ammunition,  and 
near  four  thousand  arms,  so  that  the  greatest  part  of  the  Foot  are 
naked  ; — therefore,  in  order  to  perfecting  this  work,  we  desire  you  to 
raise  your  County  ;  and  to  improve  your  forces  to  the  total  ruin  of 
that  Enemy,  which  way  soever  they  go  :  and  if*  you  shall  accordingly 
do  your  part,  doubt  not  of  their  total  ruin.t 

We  thought  fit  to  speed  this  to  you  ;  to  the  end  you  may  not  be 
troubled  if  they  shall  march  towards  you,  but  improve  your  interest  as 
aforesaid,  that  you  may  give  glory  to  God  for  this  unspeakable  mercy. 
This  is  all  at  present  from 

Your  very  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

Commons  yournals,  Monday,  21"  Augusti  1648:  'The  Copy  of 
*a  Letter  from  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell,  from  Preston  of 
*  i"]^  Aicgusti,  1648,  to  the  Committee  of  Lancashire  sitting  at  Man- 
'  Chester,  enclosed  in  a  Letter  from  a  Member  of  this  House  from 
'  Manchester,  of  19"  Augusti,  1648,  were  this  day  read.  Ordered,  That 
*it  is  referred  to  the  Committee  at  Derby  House  to  send  away  a  copy 
'  of  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell's  Letter  to  the  General  and  the  Lord 
'Admiral' — The  enclosing  '  Letter  from  the  Member  of  this  House  at 
Manchester,'  short  and  insignificant,  about  'dispensations,'  'provi- 
dences,' &c.  is  also  given  in  the  old  Pamphlets,  and  in  this  Chetham 
Book  now  before  us.  He  signs  himself  '  W.  L. ; '  probably  Wilham 
Langton,  the  new  Member  for  Preston. 


LETTER  XLL 

Cromwell,  on  this  Thursday  Night,  does  not  yet  know  all  the 
havoc  he  has  made.  Listen  to  stout  Sir  James  from  the  other  side  ; 
and  pity  poor  men  embarked  in  a  hollow  Cause,  with  a  Duke  of 
Hamilton  for  General ! 

'  Beside  Preston  in  Lancashire,'  says  the  stout  Knight,  '  Cromwell 
'  falls  on  Sir  Marmaduke's  flank.  The  English '  of  Sir  Marmaduke 
'  imagined  it  was  one  Colonel  Ashton,  a  powerful  Presbyterian,  who 
'  had  got  together  3,000  men  to  oppose  us,  because  we  came  out  of 
'  Scotland  without  the  General  Assembly's  permission.  Mark  the 
'  quarrel.  While  Sir  Marmaduke  disputes  the  matter,  Baillie,  by  the 
'  Duke's  order,  marches  to  Ribble   Bridge,  and  passes  it  with  all  the 

*  '  that '  in  the  Original. 

t  The  punctuation  and  grammar  of  these  sentences  might  have  been  improved  ; 
but  their  breathless  impetuosity,  directness,  sincere  singleness  of  purpose,  intent  on 
the  despatch  of  business  only,  would  have  been  obscured  in  the  process. 

t  Lancashire  during  the  Civil  War  (a  Collection  of  Tracts  republished  by  the 
Chetham  Society,  Manchester,  1844),  p.  257.  The  Letter  is  in  many  old  Pamphlets 
of  the  time.     Langdale  s  Letter  is  also  given  m  this  Chetham  Book,  p.  267. 


2o6  SECOND   CIVIL  WAR. 

*  foot  except  two  brigades.'  Never  dreaming  that  Cromwell  is  upon 
us  !  '  This  was  two  miles  from  Preston.  By  my  Lord  Duke's  com- 
*mand,  I  had   sent  some  ammunition  and  commanded-men  to  Sir 

*  Marmaduke's  assistance  :  but  to  no  purpose  ;  for  Cromwell  pre- 
'  vailed  ;  so  that  our  English  first  retired,  and  then  fled.     It  must  be 

*  remembered  that  the  night  before  this  sad  encounter,  Earl  Calendar 
'and  Middleton  were  gone  to  Wigan.  eight  miles  from  thence,  with  a 
'considerable  part  of  the  cavalry.  Calendar  was  come  back,  and  was 
'  with  the  Duke,'  while  the  action  took  place  ;  '  and  so  was  I  :  but 
'  upon  the  rout  of  Sir  Marmaduke's  people,  Calendar  got  away  to 
'  Ribble,  where  he  arrived  safely  by  a  miracle,  as  I  think  ;  for  the 
'  Enemy  was  between  the  Bridge  and  us,  and  had  killed  or  taken  most 
'  part  of  our  two  brigades  of  foot/  which  was  all  that  Baillie  had  left 
here. 

'  The  Duke  with  his  guard  of  horse,  Sir  Marmaduke  with  many 
'  officers,  among  others  myself,  got  into  Preston  Town  ;  with  intention 
'  to  pass  a  ford  below  it,  though  at  that  time  not  rideable.  At  the 
'  entry  of  the  Town,  the  enemy  pursued  us  hard.  The  Duke  faced 
'  about,  and  put  two  troops  of  them  to  a  retreat  ;  but  so  soon  as  we 
'  turned  from  them,  they  again  turned  upon  us.  The  Duke  facing  the 
'  second  time,  charged  them,  which  succeeded  well.  Being  pursued 
'  the  third  time,  my  Lord   Duke  cried  To  charge  once  more  for  King 

*  Charles  !  One  trooper  refusing,  he  beat  him  with  his  sword.  At  that 
'  charge  we  put  the  enemy  so  far  behind  us,  that  he  could  not  so  soon 
'  overtake  us  again.  Then  Sir  Marmaduke  and  I  entreated  the  Duke 
'  to  hasten  to  his  Army : — and  truly  here  he  shewed  as  much  personal 
'  valour  as  any  man  could  be  capable  of  We  swam  the  Ribble  River  ; 
'  and  so  got  to  the  place  where  Lieutenant-General  Baillie  had  advan- 
'  tageously  lodged  the  foot,  on  the  top  of  a  Hill,  among  very  fencible 

*  enclosures. 

'  After  Calendar  came  to  the  infantry,  he  had  sent  600  musketeers  to 
'  defend  Ribble  Bridge.     Very  unadvisedly  ;  for  the  way  Cromwell  had 

*  to  it  was  a  descent  from  a  hill  that  commanded  all  the  champaign  ; 
'which  was  about  an  English  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length  between  the 
'  Bridge  and  that  Hill  where  our  foot  were  lodged.  So  that  our 
'  musketeers,  having  no  shelter,  were  forced  to  receive  all  the  musket- 
'  shot  of  Cromwell's  infantry,  which  was  secure  within  thick  hedges  ; 
'  and  after  the  loss  of  many  men,  were  forced  to  run  back  to  our  foot. 
'  Here  Claud  Hamilton,  the  Duke's   Lieutenant-Colonel,  had  his  arm 

broke  with  a  musket-bullet. 
'  The  Bridge  of  Ribble  being  lost,  the  Duke  called  all  the  Colonels 
ogether  on  horseback  to  advise  what  was  next  to  be  done.     We  had 
no  choice  but  one  of  two  :  Either  stay,  and  maintain  our  ground  till 
Middleton  (who  was  sent  for)  came  back  with  his  cavalry  ;  Or  else 
march  away  that  night,  and  find  him  out.     Calendar  would  needs 
speak  first  ;  whereas  by  the  custom  of  war  he  should  have  told  his 
opinion  last, — and  it  was,  To  march  away  that  night  as  soon  as  i 
was  dark.     This  was  seconded  by  all  the  rest,  except  by  Lieutenant 
'  General  Baillie  and  myself     But  all  the  arguments  we  used,— as  rb" 

*  impossibility  of  a  safe  retreat,  from  an  enemy  so  powerful  of  horse 

'  in  so  very  foul  weather,  and  extremely  deep  ways  ;  our  soldiers  ex- 


PRESTO  A'  BATTLE.  207 

ceedingly  wet,  weary,  and  hungry  ;  the  inevitable  loss  of  all  our 
ammunition, — could  not  move  my  Lord  Duke  by  his  authority  to 
contradict  the  shameful  resolution  taken  by  t«he  major  part  of  his 
officers. 

*  After  that  drumless  march  was  resolved  upon,  and  but  few  horse 
appointed  to  stay  in  rear  of  the  foot,  I  inquired,  What  should  become 
of  our  unfortunate  Ammunition,  since  forward  with  us  we  could  not 
get  it  ?  It  was  not  thought  fit  to  blow  it  up  that  night,  lest  thereby 
the  enemy  should  know  of  our  retreat,  or  rather  flight.  I  was  of  that 
opinion  too  ;  but  for  another  reason  :  for  we  could  not  have  blown  it 
up  then,  without  a  visible  mischief  to  ourselves,  being  so  near  it.  It 
was  ordered  it  should  be  done,  three  hours  after  our  departure,  by  a 
train  :  but  that  being  neglected,  Cromwell  got  it  all. 

'  Next  morning  we  appeared  at  Wigan  Moor  ;  half  our  number  less 
than  we  were  ;— most  of  the  faint  and  weary  soldiers  having  lagged 
behind  ;  whom  we  never  saw  again.-  Lieutenant-General  Middleton 
had  missed  us,'  such  excellent  order  was  in  this  Army  ;  '  for  he  came 
by  another  wdiy  to  Ribble  Bridge.  It  was  to  be  wished  he  had  still 
stayed  with  us.  He,  not  finding  us  there,  followed  our  track  :  but 
was  himself  hotly  pursued  by  Cromwell's  horse  ;  with  whom  he 
skirmished  the  whole  way  till  he  came  within  a  mile  of  us.  He  lost 
some  men,  and  several  were  hurt,  among  others  Colonel  Urrey*  got 
a  dangerous  shot  on  the  left  side  of  his  head  ;  whereof,  though  he 
was  afterwards  taken  prisoner,  he  recovered.  In  this  retreat  of 
Middleton's,  v/hich  he  managed  well,  Cromwell  lost  one  of  the 
gallantest  officers  he  had.  Major  Thornhaugh  ;  who  was  run  into  the 
breast  with  a  lance,  whereof  he  died. 

'After  Lieutenant-General  Middleton's  coming,  we  began  to  think 
of  fighting  in  that  Moor  :  but  that  was  found  impossible, — in  regard 
it  was  nothing  large,  and  was  environed  with  enclosures  which  com- 
manded it,  and  these  we  could  not  maintain  long,  for  want  of  that 
ammunition  we  had  left  behind  us.  And  therefore  we  marched  for- 
ward with  intention  to  gain  Warrington,  ten  miles  from  the  Moor  we 
were  in  ;  and  there  we  conceived  we  might  face  about,  having  the 
command  of  a  Town,  a  River,  and  a  Bridge.  Yet  I  conceive  there 
were  but  few  of  us  could  have  foreseen  we  might  be  beaten,  before 
we  were  masters  of  any  of  them. 

'  It  was  towards  evening  and  in  the  latter  end  of  August,'  Friday 
1 8th  of  the  month,  'when  our  horse  began  to  march.  Some  regi- 
'  ments  of  them  were  left  with  the  rear  of  the  foot  :  Middleton  stayed 
'  with  these  ;  my  Lord  Duke  and  Calendar  were  before. — As  I  marched 
'  with  the  last  brigade  of  foot  through  the  Town  of  Wigan,  I  was 
'  alarmed.  That  our  horse  behind  me  were  beaten,  and  running  several 
'  ways,  and  that  the  enemy  was  in  my  rear,  I  faced  about  with  that 
'  brigade  ;  and  in  the  Market-place,  serried  the  pikes  together,  shoulder 
'  to  shoulder,  to  entertain  any  that  might  charge  :  and  sent  orders  to 
'  the  rest  of  the  brigade  before,  To  continue  their  march,  and  follow 

*  Lieutenant-General  Baillie  who  was  before  them.     It  was  then  night, 
'  but  the  moon  shone  bright.     A  regiment  of  horse  of  our  own  appeared 

*  first,  riding  very  disorderly.     I  got  them  to  stop,  till  I  commanded  my 

*  Sir  John  Hurry,  the  famous  Turncoat,  of  whom  afterwards. 


2o8  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 

'  pikes  to  open,  and  give  way  for  them  to  ride  or  run  away,  since  they 

*  would  not  stay.  But  now  my  pikemen,  being  demented  (as  I  think 
'  we  were  all),  would  not  hear  me  :  and  two  of  them  ran  full  tilt  at  me,' 
— poor  Dalgetty  !  '  One  of  their  pikes,  which  was  intended  for  my 
'  belly,  I  griped  with  my  left  hand  ;  the  other  ran  me  nearly  two  inches 
'  into  the  inner  side  of  my  right  thigh  ;  all  of  them  crying,  of  me  and 

*  those  horse,  "  They  are  Cromwell's  men  !  "  This  was  an  unseason- 
'able  wound  ;  for  it  made  me,  after  that  night,  unserviceable.  This 
'  made  me  forget  all  rules  of  modesty,  prudence,  and  discretion,' — my 
choler  being  up,  and  my  blood  flowing  !  I  rode  to  the  horse,  and 
'desired  them  to  charge  through  these  foot.  They  fearing  the  hazard 
'  of  the  pikes,  stood  :  I  then  made  a  cry  come  from  behind  them, 
'  That  the  enemy  was  upon  them.  This  encouraged  them  to  charge 
'  my  foot,  so  fiercely  that  the  pikemen  threw  down  their  pikes,  and  got 

*  into  houses.     All  the  horse  galloped  away,  and  as  I  was  told  after- 

*  wards,  rode  not  through  but  over'  our  whole  foot ;  treading  them 
'  down  ;— and  in  this  confusion  Colonel  Lockhart  was  trod  down  from 
'  his  horse,  with  great  danger  of  his  life. 

'  Though  the  enemy  was  near,  yet  I  beat  drums  to  gather  my  men 

*  together.  Shortly  after  came  Middleton  with  some  horse,  I  told  him 
'  what  a  disaster  I  had  met  with,  and  Avhat  a  greater  I  expected.  He 
'told  me  he  would  ride  before,  and  make  the  horse  halt.  I  marched 
'  however  all  that  night  till  it  was  fair  day  ;  and  then  Baillie,  who  had 
'  rested  a  little,  entreated  me  to  go  into  some  house  and  repose  on  a 
'  chair  ;  for  I  had  slept  none  in  two  nights,  and  eaten  as  little.  I 
'  alighted  ;  but  the  constant  alarms  of  the  Enemy's  approach  made 
'  me  resolve  to  ride  forward  to  Warrington,  which  was  but  a  mile  ; 
'  and  indeed  I  may  say  I  slept  all  that  way,  notwithstanding  my 
'  wound.' 

While  the  wounded  Dalgetty  rides  forward,  let  us  borrow  another 
glimpse  from  a  diflerent  source  ;*  of  bitter  struggle  still  going  on  a 
little  to  the  rear  of  him.  '  At  a  place  called  Redbank/  near  Winwick 
Church,  two  miles  from  Warrington,  '  the  Scots  made  a  stand  with  a 
'  body  of  pikes,  and  lined  the  hedges  with  muskets  ;  who  so  rudely 
'entertained  the  pursuing  Enemy,  that  they  were  compelled  to  stop 
'  until  the  coming  up  of  Colonel  Pride's  regiment  of  foot,  who  after  a 
'sharp  dispute  put  those  same  brave  fellows  to  the  run.  They  were 
'  commanded  by  a  little  spark  in  a  blue  bonnet,  who  performed  the 
'  part  of  an  excellent  commander,  and  was  killed  on  the  spot.'  Does 
any  one  know  this  little  spark  in  the  blue  bonnet  ?  No  one.  His 
very  mother  has  long  ceased  to  weep  for  him  now.  Let  him  have 
burial,  and  a  passing  sigh  from  us  ! — Dugald  Turner  continues  : 

'  I  expected  to  have  found  either  the  Duke  or  Calendar,  or  both  of 

*  them,  at  Warrington  :  but  I  did  not  ;  and  indeed  I  have  often  been 

*  told  that  Calendar  carried  away  the  Duke  with  him,  much  against 
'  his  mind.  Here  did  the  Lieutenant- General  of  the  foot  meet  with  an 
'  Order,  whereby  he  is  required  "  To  make  as  good  conditions  for 

*  himself  and  those  under  him  as  he  could  ;  for  the  horse  would  not 
'  come  back  to  him,  being  resolved  to  preserve  themselves  for  a  better 

*  time.''     Baillie  was  surprised  with  this  :  and  looking  upon  that  action 

*  Heath's  Chronicle,  p.  323. 


PRESTON  BATTLE.  209 

'  which  he  was  ordered  to  do,  as  full  of  dishonour,  he  lost  much  of  that 
'  patience  of  which  naturally  he  was  master ;  and  beseeched  any  that 
'  would  to  shoot  him  through  the  head,' — poor  Baillie  !     '  At  length 

*  having  something  composed  himself,  and  being  much  solicited  by 

*  the  officers  that  were  by  him,  he  wrote  to  Cromwell. — I  then  told 
'  him,  That  so  long  as  there  was  a  resolution  to  fight,  I  would  not  go  a 
'  foot   from   him ;   but    now  that  they  were   to    deliver    themselves 

*  prisoners,  I  would  preserve  my  liberty  as  long  as  I  could  :  and  so 
'  took  my  leave  of  him,  carrying  my  wounded  thigh  away  with  me.  I 
'met  immediately  with  Middleio.i  ;  who  sadly  condoled  the  irrecover- 

*  able  losses  of  ihe  last  two  days.  Within  two  hours  after,  Baillie  and 
'  all  the  officers  and  soldiers  that  were  left  of  the  foot  were  Crom- 
'  well's  prisoners.  I  got  my  wound  dressed  that  morning  by  my  own 
'  surgeon  ;  and  took  from  him  those  things  I  thought  necessary  for 
'  me  ;  not  knowing  when  1  might  see  him  again  ; — as  indeed  I  never 

*  saw  him  after.'* 

This  was  now  the  Saturday  morning  when  Turner  rode  away, 
'  carrying  his  wounded  thigh  with  him  ; '  and  got  up  to  Hamilton 
and  the  vanguard  of  horse  ;  who  rode,  aimless  or  as  good  as  aim- 
less henceforth,  till  he  and  they  were  captured  at  Uttoxeter,  or  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Monro  with  the  rear^gu^rd  of  horse,  'always  a  day's 
march  behind,'  hearing  now  what  had  befallen,  instantlp  drew  bridle ; 
paused  uncertain  ;  then,  in  a  marauding  manner,  rode  back  towards 
their  own  country. 

Of  which  disastrous  doings  let  us  now  read  Cromwell's  victorious 
account,  drawn  up  with  more  deliberation  on  the  morrow  after.  'This 
Gentleman,'  who  brings  up  the  Letter,  is  Major  Berry;  '  once  a  Clerk 
in  the  Shropshire  Iron-works  ;'  now  a  very  rising  man.  '  He  had 
lived  with  me,'  says  Richard  Baxter,  'as  guest  in  my  own  house;'  he 
has  now  high  destinies  before  him — which  at  last  sink  lower  than 
ever.f 

To  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Esquire,  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Commons  :  These. 

'Warrington,'  20th  August,  1648. 

Sir, 

I  have  sent  up  this  Gentleman  to  give  you  an  account  of  the 
great  and  good  hand  of  God  towards  you,  in  the  late  victory  obtained 
against  the  Enemy  in  these  parts. 

After  the  conjunction  of  that  Party  which  I  brought  with  me  out 
of  Wales  with  the  Northern  Forces  about  Knaresborongh  and 
Wetherby. — hearing  that  the  Enemy  was  advanced  with  their 
Army  into  Lancashire,  we  marched  the  next  day,  being  the  13th 
of  this  instant  August,  to  Otley  (having  cast  off  our  Train,  and 
sent  it  to  Knaresborough,  because  of  the  difficulty  of  march- 
ing therewith  through  Craven,  and  to  the  end  we  might  with 
more  expedition"  attend  the  Enemy's  motion)  :  and  on  the 
14th    to    Skipton ;    the    15th    to    Gisburne ;    the    i6th   to    Hodder 

*  Memoirsof  his  own  Life  and  Times,  by  Sir  James  Turner  (Edinburgh,  1829), 
pp.  63-^7. 
f  Baxter's  I^fe,  pp.  ^7.  97.  58,  72, 


SECOND  CIVIL  WAR, 


Bridge  over  Ribble  ;  *  where  we  held  a  council  of  war.  At 
which  we  had  in  consideration,  Whether  we  should  march  to  Whalley 
that  night,  and  so  on,  to  interpose  between  the  Enemy  and  his  further 
progress  into  Lancashire  and  so  southward, — which  we  had  some  ad- 
vertisement the  Enemy  intended,  and  *we  are'  since  confirmed  that 
they  intended  for  London  itself :  Or  whether  to  march  immediately 
over  the  said  Bridge,  there  being  no  other  betwixt  that  and  Preston, 
and  there  engage  the  Enemy, — who  we  did  believe  would  stand  his 
ground,  because  we  had  information  that  the  Irish  Forces  under 
Monro  lately  come  out  of  Ireland,  which  consisted  of  twelve  hundred 
horse  and  fifteen  hundred  foot,  were  on  their  march  towards  Lanca- 
shire to  join  them. 

It  was  thought  that  to  engage  the  Enemy  to  fight  was  our  busi- 
ness ;  and  the  reason  aforesaid  giving  us  hopes  that  our  marching  on 
the  North  side  of  Ribble  would  effect  it,  it  was  resolved  we  should 
march  over  the  Bridge  ;  which  accordingly  we  did  ;  and  that  night 
quartered  the  whole  Army  in  the  field  by  Stonyhurst  Hall,  being 
Mr.  Sherburn's  house,  a  place  nine  miles  distant  from  Preston.  Very 
early  the  next  morning  we  marched  towards  Preston  :  having  inteiii- 
gence  that  the  Enemy  was  drawing  together  thereabouts  from  all  his 
out-quarters,  we  drew  out  a  Forlorn  of  about  two  hundred  horse  and 
four  hundred  foot,  the  horse  commanded  by  Major  Smithson,  the  foot 
by  Major  Pownel.  Our  Forlorn  of  horse  marched,  within  a  mile, 
'  to '  where  the  Enemy  was  drawn  up, — in  the  enclosed  grounds  by) 
Preston,  on  that  side  next  us  ;  and  there,  upon  a  Moor,  about  half  ai 
mile  distant  from  the  Enemy's  Army,  met  with  their  Scouts  and  Out- 
guard  ;  and  d'd  behave  themselves  with  that  valour  and  courage  as'i 
made  their  Guards  (which  consisted  both  of  horse  and  foot)  to  quit 
their  ground  ;  and  took  divers  prisoners  ;  holding  this  dispute  with 
them  until  our  Forlorn  of  foot  came  up  for  their  justification  ;  and  by 
these  we  had  opportunity  to  bring  up  our  whole  Army. 

So  soon  as  our  foot  and  horse  were  come  up,  we  resolved  that 
night  to  engage  them  if  we  could  ;  and  therefore,  advancing  with  our 
Forlorn,  and  putting  the  rest  of  our  Army  into  as  good  a  posture  as 
the  ground  would  bear  (which  was  totally  inconvenient  for  our  horse, 
being  all  enclosure  and  miry  ground),  we  pressed  upon  them.  The 
regiments  of  foot  were  ordered  as  followeth.  There  being  a  Lane, 
very  deep  and  ill,  up  to  the  Enemy's  Army,  and  leading  to  the  Town, 
we  commanded  two  regiments  of  horse,  the  first  whereof  was  Colonel 
Harrison's  and  next  was  my  own,  to  charge  up  that  Lane  ;  and  on 
either  side  of  them  advanced  the  '  Main  '-battle. — which  were 
Lieutenant- Colonel  Read's,  Colonel  Dean's  and  Colonel  Pride's  on 
the  right ;  Colonel  Bright's  and  my  Lord  General's  on  the  left  ;  and 
Colonel  Ashton  with  the  Lancashire  regiments  in  reserve.  We 
ordered  Colonel  Thornhaugh's  and  Colonel  Twistleton's  regiments  of 

*  Over  Hodder  rather,  which  is  the  chief  tributary  of  the  Ribble  in  those  up- 
land parts,  and  little  inferior  to  the  main  stream  in  size.  Ribble  from  the  North- 
east, Hodder  from  the  North,  then  a  few  miles  farther,  Calder  from  the  South ; 
after  which  Ribble  pursues  its  old  direction;  draining  an  extensive  hill-tract  by 
means  of  frequent  inconsiderable  brooks,  and  receiving  no  notable  stream  on  either 
side  till,  far  down,  the  Darwen  from  the  East  and  South  falls  in  near  Preston,  and 
the  united  waters,  now  a  n  spegtahle  !<iv  r,  rush  swiftly  into  the  Trjsh  Sea, 


PRESTON  BATTLE:  211 

horse  on  the  right  ;  and  one  regiment  in  reserve  for  the  Lane  ;  and 
the  remaining  horse  on  the  left : — so  that,  at  last,  we  came  to  a 
Hedge-dispute  ;  the  greatest  of  the  impression  from  the  Enemy  being 
upon  our  left  wing,  and  upon  the  '  Main  '-battle  on  both  sides  the 
Lane,  and  upon  our  horse  in  the  Lane  :  in  all  which  places  the 
Enemy  were  forced  from  their  ground,  after  four  hours  dispute  ; — 
until  we  came  to  the  Town  ;  into  which  four  troops  of  my  own 
regiment  first  entered,  and,  being  well  seconded  by  Colonel  Har- 
rison's regiment,  charged  the  Enemy  in  the  Town,  and  cleared  the 
streets. 

There  came  no  band  of  your  foot  to  fight  that  day  but  did  it  with 
incredible  valour  and  resolution  ;  among  which  Colonel  Bright's,  my 
Lord  General's,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Read's  and  Colonel  Ashton's  had 
the  greatest  work  ;  they  often  coming  to  push  of  pike  and  to  close 
firing,  and  always  making  the  Enemy  to  recoil.  And  indeed  I  must 
needs  say,  God  was  as  much  seen  in  the  valour  of  the  officers  and 
soldiers  of  these  before-mentioned  as  in  any  action  that  hath  been 
performed  ;  the  Enemy  making,  though  he  was  still  worsted,  very 
stiff  and  sturdy  resistance.  Colonel  Dean's  and  Colonel  Pride's,  out- 
winging  the  Enemy,  could  not  come  to  so  much  share  of  the  action  ; 
the  Enemy  shogging  *  down  towards  the  Bridge  ;  and  keeping  almost 
all  in  reserve,  that  so  he  might  bring  fresh  hands  often  to  fight. 
Which  we  not  knowing,  and  lest  we  should  be  outwinged,  '  we ' 
placed  those  two  regiments  to  enlarge  our  right  wing  ;  this  was  the 
cause  they  had  not  at  that  time  so  great  a  share  in  that  action. 

At  the  last  the  Enemy  was  put  into  disorder  ;  many  men  slain, 
many  prisoners  taken  ;  the  Duke,  with  most  of  the  Scots  horse  and 
foot,  retreated  over  the  Bridge  ;  where, — after  a  very  hot  dispute 
betwixt  the  Lancashire  regiments,  part  of  my  Lord  General's,  and 
them,  being  often  at  push  of  pike, — they  were  beaten  from  the  Bridge; 
and  our  horse  and  foot,  following  them,  killed  many  and  took  divers 
prisoners  ;  and  we  possessed  the  Bridge  over  Darwen  '  also,'  and  a 
few  houses  there  ;  the  Enemy  being  driven  up  within  musket-shot  of 
us  where  we  lay  that  night,t— we  not  being  able  to  attempt  farther 
upon  the  Enemy,  the  night  preventing  us.  In  this  posture  did  the 
Enemy  and  we  lie  most  part  of  that  night.  Upon  entering  the  Town, 
many  of  the  Enemy's  horse  fled  towards  Lancaster  ;  in  the  chase  of 
whom  went  divers  of  our  horse,  who  pursued  them  near  ten  miles, 
and  had  execution  of  them,  and  look  about  five  hundred  horse  and 
many  prisoners.  We  possessed  in  this  Fight  very  much  of  the 
Enemy's  ammunition ;  I  believe  they  lost  four  or  five  thousand  arms. 
The  number  of  slain  we  judge  to  be  about  a  thousand  ;  the  prisoners 
we  took  were  about  four  thousand. 

In  the  night  the  Duke  was  drawing  off  his  Army  towards  Wigan  ; 
we  were  so  wearied  with  the  dispute  that  we  did  not  so  well  attend 

*  Shog  is  from  the  same  root  as  shock  ;  'shogging,'  a  word  of  Ohver's  in  such 
cases,  signifies  moving  by  pulses,  intermittently.  Ribble  Bridge  lay  on  the  Scotch 
right ;  Dean  and  Pride,  therefore,  who  fought  on  the  English  right,  got  gradually 
less  and  less  to  do. 

t  The  Darwen  between  us  and  them, 


21 :  SECOND   CIVIL  IV A R. 

the  Enemy's  going  ofif  as  might  have  been  ;  by  means  whereof  the 
Enemy  was  gotten  at  least  three  miles  with  his  rear,  before  ours  got 
to  them.  I  ordered  Colonel  Thornhaugh  to  command  two  or  three 
regiments  of  horse  to  follow  the  Enemy,  if  it  were  possible  to  make 
him  stand  till  we  could  bring  up  the  Army.  The  Enemy  marched 
away  seven  or  eight  thousand  foot  and  about  four  thousand  horse  ;  we 
followed  him  with  about  three  thousand  foot  and  two  thousand  five 
hundred  horse  and  dragoons  :  and,  in  this  prosecution,  that  worthy 
Gentleman,  Colonel  Thornhaugh,  pressing  too  boldly,  was  slain,  being 
run  into  the  body  and  thigh  and  head  by  the  Enemy's  lancers.*  And 
give  me  leave  to  say,  he  was  a  man  as  faithful  and  gallant  in  your 
service  as  any  ;  and  one  who  often  heretofore  lost  blood  in  your 
quarrel,  and  now  his  last.  He  hath  left  some  behind  him  to  inherit  a 
Father  s  honour  ;  and  a  sad  Widow  ; — both  now  the  interest  of  the 
Commonwealth. 

Our  horse  still  prosecuted  the  Enemy  ;  killing  and  taking  divers 
all  the  way.  At  last  the  Enemy  drew  up  within  three  miles  of  Wigan  ; 
and  by  that  time  our  Army  was  come  up,  they  drew  off  again,  and  re- 
covered Wigan  before  we  could  attempt  any  thmg  upon  them.  We 
lay  that  night  in  the  field  close  by  the  Enemy  ;  being  very  dirty  and 
weary,  and  having  marched  twelve  miles  of  such  ground  as  I  never 
rode  in  all  my  life,  the  day  being  very  wet.  We  had  some  skirm-shing, 
that  night,  with  the  Enemy,  near  the  Town  ;  where  we  took  General 
Van  Druske  and  a  Colonel,  and  killed  some  principal  Officers,  and 
took  about  a  hundred  prisoners  ;  where  I  also  received  a  Letter  from 
Duke  Hamilton,  for  civil  usage  towards  his  kinsman  Colonel 
Hamilton,!  whom  he  left  wounded  there.  We  took  also  Colonel 
Hurry  and  Lieutenant-Colonel,  Innes  sometimes  in  your  service.  The 
next  morning  the  Enemy  marched  towards  Warrington,  and  we  at 
the  heels  of  them.  The  Town  of  Wigan,  a  great  and  poor  Town,  and 
very  Malignant,  were  plundered  almost  to  their  skins  by  them. 

We  could  not  engage  the  Enemy  until  we  came  within  three  miles 
of  Warrington  ;  and  there  the  Enemy  made  a  stand,  at  a  place  near 
Winwick.  We  held  them  in  some  dispute  till  our  Army  came  up  ; 
they  maintaining  the  Pass  with  great  resolution  for  many  hours  ;  ours 
and  theirs  coming  to  push  of  pike  and  very  close  charges, — which 
forced  us  to  give  ground  ;  but  our  men,  by  the  blessing  of  God, 
quickly  recovered  it,  and  charging  very  home  upon  them,  beat  them 
from  their  standing  ;  w^here  we  killed  about  a  thousand  of  them,  and 
took,  as  we  believe,  about  two  thousand  prisoners  ;  and  prosecuted 

*  '  Run  through  with  a  lander  in  Chorley,  he  wanting  his  arms,'  says  Hodgson. 
For  '  arms '  read  '  armour,'  corslet,  &:c.  This  is  the  Colonel  Thornhaugh  so  often 
mentioned,  praised  and  mourned  for,  by  Mrs.  Hutchinson. 

f  Claud  Hamilton  ;  see  Turner  supra.  Who  '  Van  Druske '  is,  none  knows. 
'  Colonel  Hurry  '  is  the  ever-changing  Sir  John  Hurry,  sometimes  called  Urry  and 
Hurrey,  who  whisks  like  a  most  rapid  actor  of  all  work,  ever  on  a  new  side,  ever 
charging  in  the  van,  through  this  Civil- War  Drama.  1  he  noiablest  feat  he  ever 
did  was  leading  Prince  Rupert  on  that  marauding  party,  from  Oxford  to  High 
Wycombe,  on  the  return  from  which  Hampden  met  his  death  (Clarendon,  ii.  351). 
Hurry  had  been  on  the  Parliament-side  before.  He  was  taken,  at  last,  when 
Montrose  was  taken;  and  hanged  out  of  the  way.  Of  Irines  ('Ennis')  I  knovy 
nothing  at  present. 


PRESTON  BATTLE.  213 

them  home  to  Warrington  Town  ;  where  they  possessed  the  Bridge, 
which  had  a  strong  barricade  and  a  work  upon  it^  formerly  made  very 
defensive.  As  soon  as  we  came  thither,  I  received  a  message  from 
General  Baillie,  desiring  some  capitulation.  To  which  I  yielded. 
Considering  the  strength  of  the  Pass,  and  that  I  could  not  go  over  the 
River  '  Mersey '  within  ten  miles  of  Warrington  with  the  Army,  I  gave 
him  these  terms  :  That  he  should  surrender  himself  and  all  his  officers 
and  soldiers  prisoners  of  war,  with  all  his  arms  and  ammunition  and 
horses  to  me  ;  I  giving  quarter  for  life,  and  promising  civil  usage. 
Which  accordingly  is  done  :  and  the  Commissioners  deputed  by  me 
have  received,  and  are  receiving,  all  the  arms  and  ammunition  ;  which 
will  be,  as  they  tell  me,  about  Four  thousand  complete  arms  ;  and  as 
many  prisoners  :  and  thus  you  have  their  Infantry  totally  ruined. 
What  Colonels  and  Officers  are  with  General  Baillie,  I  have  not  yet 
received  the  list. 

The  Duke  is  marching  with  his  remaining  Horse,  which  are  about 
three  thousand,  towards  Nantwich  ;  where  the  Gentlemen  of  the 
County  have  taken  about  five  hundred  of  them  ;  of  which  they  sent 
me  word  this  day.  The  country  will  scarce  suifer  any  of  my  men  to 
pass,  except  they  have  my  hand-*  writing  ;'  telhng  them,  They  are 
Scots.  They  bring  in  and  kill  divers  of  them,  as  they  light  upon 
them.  Most  of  the  Nobility  of  Scotland  are  with  the  Duke.  If  I  had 
a  thousand  horse  that  could  but  trot  thirty  miles,  I  should  not  doubt 
but  to  give  a  very  good  account  of  them  :  but  truly  we  are  so  harassed 
and  haggled  out  in  this  business,  that  we  are  not  able  to  do  more  than 
walk  'at'  an  easy  pace  after,  them. — I  have  sent  post  to  my  Lord 
Grey,  to  Sir  Henry  Cholmely  and  Sir  Edward  Rhodes  to  gather  all 
together,  with  speed,  for  their  prosecution  ;  as  likewise  to  acquaint  the 
Governor  of  Stafford  therewith. 

I  hear  Monro  is  about  Cumberland  with  the  horse  that  ran  away,* 
and  his  'own'  Irish  horse  and  foot,  which  are  a  considerable  body. 
I  have  left  Colonel  Ashton's  three  regiments  of  foot,  with  seven  troops 
of  horse  (six  of  Lancashire  and  one  of  Cumberland),  at  Preston  ;  and 
ordered  Colonel  Scroop  with  five  troops  of  horse  and  two  troops  of 
dragoons,  'and'  with  two  regiments  of  foot  (Colonel  Lascelles's  and 
Colonel  Wastell's),  to  embody  with  them  ;  and  have  ordered  them  to 
put  their  prisoners  to  the  sword  if  the  Scots  shall  presume  to  advance 
upon  them,  because  they  cannot  bring  them  off  with  security.! 

Thus  you  have  a  Narrative  of  the  particulars  of  the  success  which 
God  hath  given  you  :  which  I  could  hardly  at  this  time  have  done, 
considering  the  multiplicity  of  business  ;  but  truly,  when  I  was  once 
engaged  in  it,  I  could  hardly  tell  how  to  say  less,  there  being  so  much 
of  God  in  it  ;  and  I  am  not  willing  to  say  more,  lest  there  should  seem 
to  be  any  of  man.  Only  give  me  leave  to  add  one  word,  shewing  the 
disparity  of  forces  on  both  sides  ;  that  so  you  may  see,  and  all  the 

*  Northward  from  Preston  on  the  evening  of  the  17th,  the  Battle-day. 

t  It  is  to  be  hoped  the  Scots  under  Monro  will  not  presume  to  advance,  for  the 
pris  )ners  here  in  Preston  are  about  four  thousand  !  -These  are  not  Bailiie  s 
\Vanj.i^:oa  men  '  who  surrendered  on  quarter  tor  life.'     These  are  'at  discretion,' 


514  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 

world  acknowledge,  the  great  hand  of  God  in  this  business.  The 
Scots  Army  could  not  be  less  than  twelve  thousand  effective  foot,  well 
armed,  and  five  thousand  horse  ;  Langdale  not  less  than  two  thousand 
five  hundred  foot,  and  fifteen  hundred  horse  :  in  all  Twenty-one 
Thousand  ;— and  truly  very  few  of  their  foot  but  were  as  well  armed 
if  not  better  than  yours,  and  at  divers  disputes  did  fight  two  or  three 
hours  before  they  would  quit  their  ground.  Yours  were  about  two 
thousand  five  hundred  horse  and  dragoons  of  your  old  Army  ;  about 
four  thousand  foot  of  your  old  Army  ;  also  about  sixteen  hundred 
Lancashire  foot,  and  about  five  hundred  Lancashire  horse  :  in  all, 
about  Eight  Thousand  Six  hundred.  You  see  by  computation  about 
two  thousand  of  the  Enemy  slain  ;  betwixt  eight  and  nine  thousand 
prisoners  ;  besides  what  are  lurking  in  hedges  and  private  places, 
which  the  Country  daily  bring  in  or  destroy.  Where  Langdale  and 
his  brok-en  forces  are,  1  know  not  ;  but  they  are  exceedingly  shattered. 
Surely,  Sir,  this  is  nothing  but  the  hand  of  God  ;  and  wherever  any- 
thing in  this  world  is  exalted,  or  exalts  itself,  God  will  pull  it  down  ; 
for  this  is  the  day  wherein  he  alone  will  be  exalted.  It  is  not  fit  for 
me  to  give  advice,  nor  to  say  a  word  what  use  you  should  make  of 
this  ; — more  than  to  pray  you,  and  all  that  acknowledge  God,  That 
they  would  exalt  Him, — and  not  hate  His  people,  who  are  as  the  apple 
of  His  eye,  and  from  whom  even  Kings  shall  be  reproved  ;  and  that 
you  would  take  courage  to  do  the  work  of  the  Lord,  in  fulfilling  the 
end  of  your  Magistracy,  in  seeking  the  peace  and  welfare  of  this 
Land,— that  all  that  will  live  peaceably  may  have  countenance 
from  you,  and  they  that  are  incapable  and  will  not  leave  troubling 
the  Land  may  speedily  be  destroyed  out  of  the  Land.  And  if  you 
take  courage  in  this,  God  will  bless  you  ;  and  good  men  will  stand 
by  you  ;  and  God  will  have  glory,  and  the  Land  will  have  happiness 
by  you  in  despite  of  all  your  enemies.  Which  shall  be  the  prayer  of 
Your  most  humble  and  faithful  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

Postscript.  We  have  not,  in  all  this,  lost  a  considerable  Officer 
but  Colonel  Thornhaugh  ;  and  not  many  soldiers,  considering  the 
service  :  biit  many  are  wounded  and  our  horse  much  wearied.  I 
humbly  crave  that  some  course  may  be  taken  to  dispose  of  the 
Prisoners.  The  trouble,  and  extreme  charge  of  the  Country  where 
they  lie,  is  more  than  the  danger  of  their  escape.  I  think  they  would 
not  go  home  if  they  might,  without  a  convoy  ;  they  are  so  fearful  of 
the  Country,  from  whom  they  have  deserved  so  ill.  Ten  men  will 
keep  a  thousand  from  running  away."* 

Conunons  Journals.,  Wednesday,  2'^d  August,  1648  :  '  Ordered,  That 
'  the  sum  of  Two-hundred  Pounds  be  bestowed  upon  Major  Berry, 
'  and  the  sum  of  One-hundred  Pounds  upon  Edward  Sexby,  who 
'  brought  the  very  good  news  of  the  very  great  Success  obtained,  by  the 
'  great  mercy  of  God,  against  the  whole  Scots  Army  in  Lancashire, 
'  and  That  the  said  respective  sums  shall  be' — in  short,  paid  directly 

*  Ch'etham-Soclety  Book,  ut  supra,  p.  259-267. 


PRESTON  BATTLE,  dll^ 

Of  Major  Berry,  Richard  Baxter's  friend,  we  have  already  heard 
Captain  Edward  Sexby,  here  known  to  us  for  the  first  time,  will  agaii 
turn  up,  little  to  his  advantage,  by  and  by.  A  day  of  universal 
Thanksgiving  for  this  '  wonderful  great  Success  '  is  likewise  ordered  ; 
and  a  printed  schedule  of  items  to  be  thankful  for,  is  despatched, '  to 
the  number  of  10,000,'  into  all  places.* 

Colchester  Siege,  one  of  the  most  desperate  defences,  being  now 
plainly  without  object,  terminates,  on  Monday  next.t  Surrender,  '  on 
quarter'  for  the  iinferior  parties,  '  at  discretion '  for  the  superior.  Two 
of  the  latter,  Sir  Charles  Lucas  and  Sir  George  Lisle,  gallant  Officers 
both,  are  sentenced  and  shot  on  the  place.  '  By  Ireton's  instigation,' 
say  some  :  yes,  or  without  any  special  instigation  ;  merely  by  the 
nature  of  the  case  !  They  who,  contrary  to  Law  and  Treaty,  have 
again  involved  this  Nation  in  blood,  do  they  deserve  nothing .? — Two 
more.  Goring  and  Lord  Capel,  stood  trial  at  Westminster  ;  of  whom 
Lord  Capel  lost  his  head.  He  was  '  the  first  man  that  rose  to  com- 
plain of  Grievances'  in  November,  1640  ;  being  then  Mr.  Capel,  and 
Member  for  Hertfordshire. 

The  Prince  with  his  Fleet  in  the  Downs,  too,  so  soon  as  these 
Lancashire  tidings  reached  him,  made  off  for  Holland  ;  'entered  the 
Hague  in  thirty  coaches,'  and  gave  up  his  military  pursuits.  The 
Second  Civil  War,  its  back  once  broken  here  at  Preston,  rapidly  dies 
everywhere  ;  is  already  as  good  as  dead. 

On  Friday  25th,  at  Uttoxeter  in  Staffordshire,  the  poor  Duke  of 
Hamilton,  begirt  with  enemies,  distracted  with  mutinies  and  internal 
discords,  surrenders  and  ceases  ;  '  very  ill,  and  unable  to  march.' 
'  My  Lord  Duke  and  Calendar,'  says  Dalgetty, '  fell  out  and  were  at 
*  very  high  words  at  supper,  where  I  was,'  the  night  before  ;  '  each 
'  blaming  the  other  for  the  misfortune  and  miscarriage  of  our  affairs  : ' 
a  sad  employment  !  Dalgetty  himself  went  prisoner  to  Hull ;  lay 
long  with  Colonel  Robert  Overton,  an  acquaintance  of  ours  there. 
'  As  we  rode  from  Uttoxeter,  we  made  a  stand  at  the  Duke's  window; 
'  and  he  looking  out  with  some  kind  words,  we  took  our  eternal  fare- 
'  well  of  him,'-  never  saw  him  more.  He  died  on  the  scaffold  for  this 
business  ;  being  Earl  of  Cambridge,  and  an  English  Peer  as  well  as 
Scotch  :  — the  unhappiest  of  men  ;  one  of  those  '  very  able  men'  who, 
with  all  their  '  ability,'  have  never  succeeded  in  any  enterprise  what- 
ever !  — 

In  Scotland  itself  there  is  no  farther  resistance.  The  oppressed 
Kirk  Party  rise  rather,  and  almost  thank  the  conquerers.  '  Sir  George 
Monro,'  says  Turner,  '  following  constantly  a  whole  day's  march  in 
the  rear  of  us,'  finding  himself^  by  this  unhappy  Battle,  cut  asunder 
from  my  Lord  Duke,  and  brought  into  contact  with  Cromwell  instead, 
— '  marched  straight  back  to  Scotland  and  joined  with  Earl  Lanark's 
forces,'  my  Lord  Duke's  Brother.  '  Straight  back,'  as  we  shall  find,  is 
not  the  word  for  this  march. 

'  But  so  soon  as  the  news  of  our  Defeat  came  to  Scotland,'  continues 
Turner,  '  Argyle  and  the  Kirk  Party  rose  in  arms  ;  every  mother's 
son;  and  this  was  called  the  "  Whiggamore  Raid:"'  1648,— first 
*  Commons  Journals,  v.  685.  f  28  Aug.,  Rushworth,  vii,  1242. 


^i6  SIlCOND  civil   war. 

appearance  of  the  Whig  Party  on  the  page  of  History,  I  think  ! 
'  David  Leslie  was  at  their  head,  and  old  Leven,'  the  Fieldmarshal  of 
163^,  ''is  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh;  who  cannonaded  the  Royal' 
Hamilton  'troops  whenever  they  came  in  view  of  him  !'* 

Cromwell  proceeds  northward,  goes  at  last  to  Edinburgh  itself,  to 
compose  this  strange  state  of  matters. 


LETTERS     XLIL— LI. 

Monro  with  the  rearward  of  Hamilton's  beaten  Army  did  not 
march  '  straight  back  '  to  Scotland  as  Turner  told  us,  but  very  obli- 
quely back  \  lingering  for  several  weeks  on  the  South  side  of  the 
border  ;  collecting  remnants  of  English,  Scotch,  and  even  Irish 
Malignants,  not  without  hopes  of  making  a  new  Army  from  them, — 
cruelly  spoiling  those  Northern  Counties  in  the  interim.  Cromwell, 
waiting  first  rill  Lambert  with  the  force  sent  in  pursuit  of  Hamilton 
can  rejoin  the  main  Army,  moves  Northward,  to  deal  with  these 
broken  parties,  and  with  broken  Scotland  generally.  The  following 
Ten  Letters  bring  him  as  far  as  Edinburgh  :  whither  let  us  now  attend 
him  with  such  lights  as  they  yield. 

LETTER  XLIL 

A  PRIVATE  Letter  to  my  Lord  Wharton  ;  to  congratulate  him  on 
some  '  particular  mercy,'  seemingly  the  birth  of  an  heir,  and  to  pour 
out  his  sense  of  these  great  general  mercies.  This  Philip  Lord 
Wharton  is  of  the  Committee  of  Derby  House,  the  Executive  in  those 
months  ;  it  is  probablef  Cromwell  had  been  sending  despatches  to 
them,  and  had  hastily  enclosed  this  in  the  Packet. 

Philip  Lord  Wharton  seems  to  have  been  a  zealous  Puritan,  much 
concerned  with  Preachers,  Chaplains  &c.  in  his  domestic  establish- 
ment ;  and  full  of  Parliamentary  and  Politico-religious  business  in 
public.  He  had  a  regiment  of  his  own  raising  at  Edgehill  Fight  ; 
but  it  was  one  of  those  that  ran  away  ;  whereupon  the  unhappy 
Colonel  took  refuge  '  in  a  sawpit,' — says  Royalism  confidently,  crowing 
over  it  without  end.|  A  quarrel  between  him  and  Sir  Henry  Midmay, 
Member  for  Maiden,  about  Sir  Henry's  saying,  "  He  Wharton  had 
made  his  peace  at  Oxford,"  in  November,  1643,  is  noted  in  the  Com- 
mons Journals,  iii.  300.  It  was  to  him,  about  the  time  of  this  Crom- 
well Letter,  that  one  Osborne,  a  distracted  King's  flunkey,  had 
written,  accusing  Major  Rolf,  a  soldier  under  Hammond,  of  attempt- 
ing to  poison  Charles  in  the  Isle  of  Wight. § — This  Philip's  patrimo- 
nial estate,  Wharton,  still  a  Manorhouse  of  somebody,  lies  among 

*  Turner,  ubi  supra  ;  Guthry's  Memoirs  (Glasgow,  1748),  p,  285. 
f  Commons  Journals,  vi.  6,  5  September. 

%  Woods  Athenae,  iii.  177,  and  in  all  manner  of  Pamphlets  elsewhere. 
§  Wood,  iii.  501;   Pamphlets;  Commons  Journals,  &c. 


ft 


kNARESBOROVClf.  It; 

the  Hills  on  the  southwest  side  of  Westmoreland  ;  near  the  sources 
of  the  Eden,  the  Swale  rising  on  the  other  watershed  not  far  off.  He 
seems  however  to  have  dwelt  at  Upper  Winchington,  Bucks,  '  a  seat 
near  Great  Wycomb.'  He  lived  to  be  a  Privy  Councillor  to  William 
of  Orange.*  He  died  in  1696.  Take  this  other  anecdote,  once  a 
very  famous  one  : 

*  James   Stewart   of    Rlantyre   in    Scotland,   son   of   a   Treasurer 

*  Stewart,  and  himself  a  great  favourite  of  King  James,  was  a  gallant 

*  youth  ;  came  up  to  London  with  great  hopes  :  but  a  discord  falling 
'  out  between  him  and  the  young  Lord  Wharton,  they  went  out  to 

*  single  combat  each  against  the  other  ;  and  at  the  first  thrust  each 
'  of  them  killed  the  other,  and  they  fell  dead  in  one  another's  arms 
'on  the  place.'!  The  'place'  was  Islington  fields;  the  date  8th 
November,  1609.  The  tragedy  gave  rise  to  much  balladsinging  and 
other  rumour.*     Our  Philip  is  that  slain  Wharton's  Son. 

This  Letter  has  been  preserved  by  Thurloe  :  four  blank  spaces 
ornamented  with  due  asterisks  occur  in  it, — Editor  Birch  does  not 
inform  us  whether  from  tearing  off  the  Seal,  or  why.  In  these  blank 
spaces  the  conjectural  sense,  which  I  distinguish  here  as  usual  by 
commas,  is  occasionally  somewhat  questionable. 

For  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  Wharton  :  These. 

'  Near  Knaresborough,'  2d  September,  1648. 

My  Lord, 

You  know  how  untoward  I  am  at  this  business  of  writing  ;  yet 
a  word.  I  beseech  the  Lord  make  us  sensible  of  this  great  mercy 
here,  which  surely  was  much  more  than  'the  sense  of  it'  the  House 
expresseth.§  I  trust  '  to  have,  through  '  the  goodness  ol  our  God,  time 
and  opportunity  to  speak  of  it  to  you  face  to  face.  W  hen  we  think  of 
our  God,  what  are  we  !  Oh,  His  mercy  to  the  whole  society  of  saints, 
—despised,  jeered  saints  !  Let  them  mock  on.  Would  we  were  all 
saints  !  The  best  of  us  are.  God  knows,  poor  weak  saints  ; — yet  saints  ; 
if  not  sheep,  yet  lambs  ;  and  must  be  fed.  We  have  daily  bread, i  and 
shall  have  it,  in  despite  of  all  enemies.  1  here's  enough  in  our  Father's 
house,  and  he  dispenseth  it.H  I  think,  through  these  outward  mercies, 
as  we  call  them.  Faith,  Patience,  Love,  Hope  are  exercised  and  per- 
fected,— yea,  Christ  formed,  and  grows  to  a  perfect  man  within  us.  I 
know  not  well  how  to  distinguish  :  the  difference  is  only  in  the  subject. 

*  Wood,  iv.  407,  542  ;  Fasti,  i.  335 ;   Nicolas's  Synopsis  of  the  Peerage. 

t  Scotstarvet's  Staggering  State  (Edinburgh,  1754,  a  very  curious  little  Book), 
p.  32. 

X  Bibliotheca  Topographica,  no.  xlix. 

§  The  House  calls  it  'a  wonderful  great  mercy  and  success,*  this  Preston  vlctoi\ 
(Commons  Journals,  v.  680);— and  then  passes  on  to  other  matters,  not  quiii 
adequately  conscious  that  its  life  had  been  saved  hereby  !  What  fire  was  blazinr 
and  how  high  in  Wales,  and  then  in  Lancashire,  is  known  only  in  perfection  u 
those  that  trampled  it  out. 

II  Spiritual  food,  encouragement  of  merciful  Providence,  from  day  to  day. 

%  There  follows  here  in  the  Birch  edition  :  'As  our  eyes'  [seven  stars]  '  behinde, 
then  wee  can  '  [seven  stars}  'we  for  him  :  words  totally  unintelligible,  and  not 
worth  guessing  at,  the  original  not  being  here,  but  only  Birch's  questionable 
reading  of  it. 


SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 


*not  in  the  object ;'  to  a  worldly  min  they  are  outward,  to  a  saint 
Christian  ; — but  I  dispute  not. 

My  Lord,  I  rejoice  in  your  particular  mercy.  I  hope  that  it  is  so  to 
you.  If  so,  it  shall  not  hurt  you  ;  not  make  you  plot  or  shift  for  the 
young  Baron  to  make  him  great.  You  will  say,  "  He  is  God's  to  dis- 
pose of,  and  guide  for,"  and  there  you  will  leave  him. 

My  love  to  the  dear  little  Lady,  better  *to  me'  than  the  child.  The 
Lord  bless  you  both.  My  love  and  service  to  all  friends  high  and 
low;  if  you  will,  to  my  Lord  and  Lady  Mulgrave  and  Will  Hill.  I  am 
truly, 

Your  faithful  friend  and  humblest  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.'* 

During  these  very  days,  perhaps  it  was  exactly  two  days  after, 
'on  Monday  last,'  if  that  mean  4th  September,t— Monro,  lying  about 
Appleby,  has  a  party  of  horse  '  sent  into  the  Bishoprick  ;'  firing  '  divers 
houses '  thereabouts,  and  not  forgeting  to  plunder  '  the  Lord  Wharton's 
tenants '  by  the  road :  Cromwell  penetrating  towards  Berwick,  yet  still 
at  a  good  distance,  scatters  this  and  other  predatory  parties  rapidly 
enough  to  Appleby, — as  it  were  by  the  very  wind  of  him  ;  like  a  com- 
ing mastiff  smelt  in  the  gale  by  vermin.  They  are  swifter  than  he,  and 
get  to  Scotland,  by  their  dexterity  and  quick  scent,  unscathed.  '  Across 
to  Kelso'  about  September  8th.  :J: 

Mulgrave  in  those  years  is  a  young  Edmund  Sheffield,  of  whom  I  as 
yet  know  nothing  more  whatever. — '  Will  Hill '  is  perhaps  William 
Hill,  a  Puritan  Merchant  in  London,  ruined  out  of '  a  large  estate'  by 
lending  for  the  public  service  ;  who,  this  Summer,  and  still  in  this 
very  month,  is  dunning  the  Lords  and  Commons,  the  Lords  with 
rather  more  effect,  to  try  if  they  cannot  give  him  some  kind  of 
payment,  or  shadow  of  an  attempt  at  payment, — he  having  long  lain 
in  jail  for  want  of  his  money.  A  zealous  religious,  and  now  destitute 
and  insolvent  man  ;  known  to  Oliver  ; — and  suggests  himself  along 
with  the  Mulgraves  by  the  contrast  of '  Friends  high  and  low.'  Poor 
Hill  did,  after  infinite  struggling,  get  some  kind  of  snack  at  the 
Bishops'  Lands  by  and  by.§ 

The  'young  Baron'  now  born  is  father  (I  suppose);  he  or  his 
brother  is  father,  of  the  far-famed  high-gifted  half-delirious  Duke  of 
Wharton. 

On  the  8th  of  September,  Cromwell  is  at  Durham, |i  scaring  the 
Monro  fraternity  before  him  ;  and  publishes  the  following 

*  Thurloe,  i.  99.  f  Cromwelliana,  p.  45. 

X  Rushworth,  vii.  1250,  3,  9,  60.  §  Commons  Journals,  vi.  29,  243. 

II  Ibid.  vii.  1260. 


DECLARA  TION,  i\c^ 


DECLARATION. 

Whereas  the  Scottish  Army,  under  the  command  of  James  Duke 
of  Hamilton,  which  lately  invaded  this  Nation  of  England,  is,  by  the 
blessing  of  God  upon  the  Parliament's  Forces,  defeated  and  over- 
thrown ;  and  some  thousands  of  their  soldiers  and  officers  are  now 
prisoners  in  our  hands  ;  so  that,  by  reason  of  their  great  number,  and 
want  of  sufficient  guards  and  watches  to  keep  them  so  carefully  as 
need  requires  (the  Army  being  employed  upon  other  duty  and  service 
of  the  Kingdom),  divers  may  escape  away  ;  and  many,  both  since  and 
upon  the  pursuit,  do  lie  in  private  places  in  the  country  : 

I  thought  it  very  just  and  necessary  to  give  notice  to  all,  and 
accordingly  do  declare.  That  if  any  Scottishmen,  officers  or  soldiers, 
lately  members  of  the  said  Scottish  Army,  and  taken  or  escaped  in  or 
since  the  late  Fight  and  pursuit,  shall  be  found  straggling  in  the 
countries,  or  running  away  from  the  places  assigned  them  to  remain 
in  till  the  pleasure  of  the  Parliament,  or  of  his  Excellency  the  Lord 
General  be  known, — It  will  be  accounted  a  very  good  and  acceptable 
service  to  the  Country  and  Kingdom  of  England,  for  any  person  or 
persons  to  take  and  apprehend  all  such  Scottishmen  ;  and  to  carry 
them  to  any  Officer  having  the  charge  of  such  prisoners  ;  or,  in  defect 
of  such  Officer,  to  the  Committee  or  Governor  of  the  next  Garrison  for 
the  Parliament  within  the  County  where  they  shall  be  so  taken  ; 
there  to  be  secured  and  kept  in  prison,  as  shall  be  found  most 
convenient. 

And  the  said  Committee,  Officer,  or  Governor  respectively,  are 
desired  to  secure  such  of  the  said  prisoners  as  shall  be  so  appre- 
hended and  brought  unto  them,  accordingly.  And  if  any  of  the  said 
Scottish  officers  or  soldiers  shall  make  any  resistance,  and  refuse  to 
be  taken  or  render  themselves,  all  such  persons  well-affected  to  the 
service  of  the  Parliament  and  Kingdom  of  England,  may  and  are 
desired  to  fall  upon,  fight  with,  and  slay  such  refusers  :  but  if  the  said 
prisoners  shall  continue  and  remain  within  the  places  and  guards 
assigned  for  the  keeping  of  them.  That  then  no  violence,  wrong,  nor 
injury  be  offered  to  them  by  any  means. 

Provided  also,  and  special  care  is  to  be  taken,  That  no  Scottishman 
residing  within  this  Kingdom,  and  not  having  been  a  member  of  the 
said  Army,  and  also.  That  none  such  of  the  said  Scottish  prisoners  as 
shall  have  liberty  given  them,  and  sufficient  passes  to  go  to  any  place 
appointed,  may  be  interrupted  or  troubled  hereby. 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

'Durham,'  8th  September,  1648. 


LETTER  XLIII. 

Fairfax  is  still  at  Colchester,  arranging  the  '  ransoms,'  and  confused 
wrecks  of  the  Siege  there  ;  Cromwell  has  now  reached  Berwick,*  all 
the  Monroes   now  fairly   across   the   Tweed.      *  Lieutenant-Colonel 
*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  46).  f  Rushworth,  vii.  1256, 


i20  SECOND  CiViL  WAR. 


Cowell,'  I  conclude,  was  mortally  wounded  at  Preston  Battle  ;  and 
here  has  the  poor  Widow  been,  soliciting  and  lamenting. 

For  his  Excellency  the  Lord  Fairfax:;  General  of  all  the  Parliamenfs 
Armies ;  These. 

'Berwick,'  nth  September,  1648. 

My  Lord, 

Since  we  lost  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cowell,  his  Wife  came  to  me 
near  Northallerton,  much  lamenting  her  loss,  and  the  sad  condition 
she  and  her  children  were  left  in. 

He  was  an  honest  worthy  man.  He  spent  himself  in  your  and  the 
Kingdom's  service.  He  being  a  great  Trader  in  London,  deserted  it 
to  serve  the  Kingdom.  He  lost  much  monies  to  the  State  ;  and  I 
believe  few  outdid  him.  He  hath  a  great  arrear  due  to  him.  He  left 
a  Wife  and  three  small  children  but  meanly  provided  for.  Upon  his 
deathbed,  he  commended  this  desire  to  me.  That  I  should  befriend 
his  to  the  Parliament  or  to  your  Excellency.  His  Wife  will  attend 
you  for  Letters  to  the  Parliament  ;  which  I  beseech  you  to  take  into  a 
tender  consideration. 

I  beseech  you  to  pardon  this  boldness  to. 

Your  Excellency's  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

On  the  19th  June,  1649,  *  Widow  Cowell '  is  ordered  to  be  paid  her 
Husband's  Arrears  by  the  Committee  at  Haberdashers'  Hall.f  One 
hopes  she  received  payment,  poor  woman  !  '  Upon  his  deathbed  her 
Husband  commended  this  desire  to  me? 

In  the  very  hours  while  this  Letter  is  a-writing,  '  Monday,  1 1 
September,  1648,'  Monro,  now  joined  with  the  Earl  of  Lanark,  pre- 
sents himself  at  Edinburgh  :  but  the  Whiggamore  Raid,  all  the  force 
of  the  West  Country,  6,000  strong,  is  already  there  ;  '  draws  out  on 
the  crags  be-east  the  Town,'  old  Leven  in  the  Castle  ready  to  fire 
withal  ;  and  will  not  let  him  enter.  Lanark  and  Monro  move  west  to 
Stirling  ;  meet  Argyle  and  the  Whiggamores,  make  some  Treaty  or. 
Armistice,  and  admit  them  to  be  the  real  '  Committee  of  Estates,'  the 
Hamilton  Faction,  having  ended.;]:  Here  are  Two  Letters  of  one  date 
directly  on  the  back  of  these  occurrences. 


LETTER  XLIV. 

For  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  Marquis  of  Argyle,  and  the  rest 
of  the  well- affected  Lords,  Gentleme^t,  Ministers,  and  People  now  in 
arms  in  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland ;  Present. 

'  Near  Berwick,'  i6th  September,  1648. 

My  Lords  and  Gentlemen, 

Being   (in   prosecution    of  the   common    Enemy)    advanced, 
with  the  Army  under  my   command,   to  the  borders  of  Scotland, 

*  Lansdowne  MSS.  1236,  fol.  85. 

f  Commons  Journals,  vi.  237.  :|:  Guthry,  pp.  288-97, 


NEAR  BERWICK.  221 


I  thought  fit,  to  prevent  any  misapprehension  or  prejudice  that 
might  be  raised  thereupon,  to  send  your  Lordships  these  Gentle- 
men, Colonel  Bright,  Scoutmaster-General  Rowe,  and  Mr.  Stapylton, 
to  acquaint  you  with  the  reasons  thereof  :  concerning  which  I  desire 
your  Lordships  to  give  them  credence.  I  remain. 
My  Lords, 

Your  very  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell''^ 

Colonel  Bright  and  Scoutmaster  Rowe  are  persons  that  often  occur, 
though  somewhat  undistinguishably  in  the  Old  Pamphlets.  Bright,  in 
the  end  of  this  month,  was  sent  over,  '  from  Berwick '  apparently,  to 
lake  possession  of  Carlisle  now  ready  to  surrender  to  us.t  '  Scout- 
master' is  the  Chief  of  the  Corps  of  '  Guides,'  as  soldiers  now  call 
them.  As  to  Stapylton  or  Stapleton.  we  ha\e  to  remark  that,  besides 
Sir  Philip  Stapleton,  the  noted  Member  for  Boroughbridge,  and  one 
of  the  Eleven,  who  is  now  banished  and  dead,  there  is  a  Bryan 
Stapleton  now  Member  for  Aldborough  :  he  in  January  lastj  was 
Commissioner  to  Scotland  ;  but  this  present  Stapylton  is  still  another. 
Apparently,  one  Robert  Stapylton  ;  a  favourite  chaplain  of  Crom- 
well's ;  an  Army-Preacher,  a  man  of  weight  and  eminence  in  that 
character.  From  his  following  in  the  rear  of  the  Colonel  and  the 
Scoutmaster,  instead  of  taking  precedence  in  the  Lieutenant-General's 
Letter  as  an  M.P.  would  have  done,  we  may  infer  that  this  Reverend 
Robert  Stapylton  is  the  Cromwell  Messenger, — sent  to  speak  a  word 
to  the  Clergy  in  particular. 

Scoutmaster  Rowe,  William  Rowe,  appears  with  an  enlarged  sphere 
ot  influence,  presiding  over  the  Cromwell  spy- world,  in  a  very  diligent, 
expert  and  almost  respectable  manner,  some  years  afterwards,  in  the 
Milton  State-Papers.  His  counsel  might  be  useful  with  Argyle  ;  his 
experienced  eye,  at  any  rate,  might  take  a  glance  of  the  Scottish 
Country,  with  advantage  to  an  invading  General. 

Of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Stapylton's  proceedings  on  this  occasion  we 
have  no  notice  :  but  he  wMl  occur  afterwards  in  these  Letters  ;  and 
two  years  hence,  on  Cromwell's  second  visit  to  those  Northern  parts, 
we  find  this  recorded:  'Last  Lord's  Day,' 29th  September,  1650, 
'  Mr.  Stapylton  preached  in  the  High  Church,'  of  Edinburgh,  while 
we  were  mining  the  Castle  I — '  forenoon  and  afternoon,  before  his 
'  Excellency  with  his  Officers  ;  where  was  a  great  concourse  of  peo- 
'  pie  ;  many  Scots  expressing  much  affection  at  the  doctrine,  in  their 
'usual  way  of  groans.'§  In  their  usual  way  of  groans,  while  Mr. 
Stapylton  held  forth  :  consider  that  ! — Mr.  Robert,  '  at  10  o'clock  at 
night  on  the  3rd  September'  next  year,  writes  'from  the  other  side  of 
Severn,'  a  copious  despatch  concerning  the  Battle  of  Worcester, ;  and 
then  disappears  from  History. 

The  following  Letter,  of  the  same  date,  was  brought  by  the  same 
Messengers  for  the  Committee  of  Estates. 

*  Thurloe,  i.  lOo.  f  Oomwelliana,  p.  48. 

%  Commons  Journals,  v.  442 ;  Whitlocke,  p.  296. 
^  C'ronnv;;Uiana,  p.  92.  ||  Ibid.  p.  113, 


222  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 


LETTER  XLV. 

For  the  Right  Honourable  the  Committee  of  Estates  for  the 
Kingdo7n  of  Scotland ;  These. 

'  Near  Berwick,' 
i6th  September,  1648. 

Right  Honourable, 

Being  upon  my  approach  to  the   borders  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Scotland,  1  thought  fit  to  acquaint  you  of  the  reason  thereof. 

It  is  well  known  how  injuriously  the  Kingdom  of  England  was 
lately  invaded  by  the  Army  under  Duke  Hamilton  ;  contrary  to  the 
Covenant  and  '  to '  our  leagues  of  amity,  and  against  all  the  en- 
gagements of  love  and  brotherhood  between  the  two  Nations.  And 
notwithstanding  the  pretence  of  your  late  Declaration,*  published  to 
take  with  the  people  of  this  Kingdom,  the  Commons  of  England  in 
Parliament  Assembled  declared  the  said  Army  so  entering,  Enemies 
to  the  Kingdom  ;  and  those  of  England  who  should  adhere  to  them, 
Traitors.  And  havingf  received  command  to  march  with  a  consider- 
able part  of  their  Army,  to  oppose  so  great  a  violation  of  faith  and 
justice, — what  a  witness  God,  being  appealed  to,;];  hath  borne,  upon 
the  engagement  of  the  two  Armies,  against  the  unrightousness  of 
man,  not  only  yourselves,  but  this  Kingdom,  yea  and  a  great  part  of 
the  known  world  will,  I  trust,  acknowledge.  How  dangerous  a  thing 
is  it  to  wage  an  unjust  war ;  much  more,  to  appeal  to  God  the 
Righteous  Judge  therein  !  We  trust  He  will  persuade  you  better  by 
this  manifest  token  of  His  displeasure  ;  lest  His  hand  be  stretched  out 
yet  more  against  you,  and  your  poor  People  also,  if  they  will  be  de- 
ceived. 

That  which  I  am  to  demand  of  you  is,  The  restitution  of  the  Gar- 
risons of  Berwick  and  Carlisle  into  my  hands,  for  the  use  of  the 
Parliament  and  Kingdom  of  England.  If  you  deny  me  herein,  I 
must  make  our  appeal  to  God  ;  and  call  upon  Him  for  assistance,  in 
what  way  He  shall  direct  us  ; — wherein  we  are,  and  shall  be,  so  far 
irom  seeking  the  harm  of  the  well-affected  people  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Scotland,  that  we  profess  as  before  the  Lord,  That  (what  difference 
an  Army,  necessitated  in  a  hostile  way  to  recover  the  ancient  rights 
and  inheritance  of  the  Kingdom  under  which  they  serve,  can  make§) 
we  shall  use  our  endeavour  to  the  utmost  that  the  trouble  may  fall 
upon  the  contrivers  and  authors  of  this  breach,  and  not  upon  the 
poor  innocent  people,  who  have  been  led  and  compelled  into  this 
action,  as  many  poor  souls  now  prisoners  to  us  confess. 

We  thouglit  ourselves  bound  in  duty  thus  to  expostulate  with  you, 
and  thus  to  profess  ;  to  the  end  we  may  bear  our  integrity  out  before 

*  To  be  found  in  Rushworth  ;  read  it  not  ! 

t  The  gram mer  requires  'I  having,'  but  the  physiognomy  of  the  sentence  re- 
quires nothing. 

T  On  Preston  Moor. 

§  Means  :  '  so  far  as  an  Army,  necessitated  to  vindicate  its  coimtry  by  War,  can 
make  a  discrimmation  '  The  '  ani  ient  rights  and  inheritance' are  the  right  tQ 
Ohoosc  our  own  King  or  Xo-King,  and  so  fortli, 


CUES  WICK.  223 

the  world,  and  may  have  comfort  in  God,  whatever  the  event  be. 
Desiring  your  answer,  I  rest. 

Your  Lordship's  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

The  troubles  of  Scotland  are  coming  thick.  The  '  Engagers,'  those 
that  'engaged'  with  Hamilton  are  to  be  condemned;  then,  before 
long,  come  '  Resolutioners '  and  '  Protesters  ; '  and  in  the  wreck  of 
the  Hamilton-Argyle  discussions,  and  general  cunctations, — all  men 
desiring  to  say  Yes  atid  No  instead  of  Yes  or  No, — Royalism  and 
Presbyterianism  alike  are  disastrously  sinking. 

The  Lordships,  for  the  present,  send  most  conciliatory  congratula- 
tory response ;  have  indeed  already  written  in  that  strain  '  from 
Falkirk,'  where  the  Whiggamore  Raid  and  Lanark  were  making  their 
Armistice  or  Treaty.     Whereupon  follows 


LETTER  XLVL 

To  the  Right  Honourable  the  Earl  of  Loudon^  Chancellor  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Scotland  : 

To  be  cojnnnaticated  to  the  Noblemen^  Gentlemen^  and  Burgesses  now 
in  ar?ns,\  who  dissented  in  Parliament  from  the  late  Eitgageinent 
against  the  Kingdom  of  England. 

Cheswick,:{:  i8th  September,  1648. 

Right  Honourable, 

We  received  yours  from  Falkirk  of  the  15th  September  instant. 
We  have  had  also  a  sight  of  your  Instructions  given  to  the  Laird  of 
Greenhead  and  Major  Strahan  ;  as  also  other  two  Papers  concerning 
the  Treaty  between  your  Lordships  and  the  Enemy  ;  wherein  your 
care  of  the  interests  of  the  Kingdom  of  England,  for  the  delivery  of 
the  Towns§  unjustly  taken  from  them,  and 'your'  desire  to  preserve 
the  unity  of  both  Nations,  appears.  By  which  also  we  understand 
the  posture  you  are  in  to  oppose  the  enemies  of  the  welfare  and  the 
peace  of  both  Kingdoms  ;  for  which  we  bless  God  for  His  goodness 
to  you  ;  and  rejoice  to  see  the  power  of  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland  in 
a  hopeful  way  to  be  invested  in  the  hands  of  those  who,  we  trust,  are 
taught  of  God  to  seek  His  honour,  and  the  comfort  of  His  people. 

And  give  us  leave  to  say,  as  before  the  Lord,  who  knows  the  secrets 
of  all  hearts,  That,  as  we  think  one  especial  end  of  Providence  in 
permitting  the  enemies  of  God  and  Goodness  in  both  Kingdoms  to 
rise  to  that  height,  and  exercise  such  tyranny  over  His  people,  was  to 
shew  the  necessity  of  Unity  amongst  those  of  both  Nations,  so  we 
hope  and  pray  that  the  late  glorious  dispensation,  in  giving  so  happy 

*  Thurloe,  i.  100. 

f  'The  "U'higcfamore  Raid,'  as  Turner  calls  it,  now  making  a  Treaty  with 
Lanark,  Monro,  and  the  other  Assignees  of  the  bankrupt  Hamilton  concern. 

X  Cheswick,  still  a  Manorhouse  ''of  the  Family  of  Strangeways,'  lies  three  or 
four  miles  south  of  Berwick,  on  the  great  road  to  Newcastle  and  London. 

§  Berwick  and  Carlisle,  which  by  agreement  in  1646-7  were  not  to  be  garriSQn^4 
except  by  conserit  of  both  Kjngdom?- 


224  SECOND   CIVIL  WAR. 

success  against  your  and  our  Enemies  in  our  victories,  may  be  the 
foundation  of  Union  of  the  People  of  God  in  love  and  amity.  Unto 
that  end  we  shall,  God  assisting,  to  the  utmost  of  our  power  endeavour 
to  perform  what  may  be  behind  on  our  part  :  and  when  we  shall, 
through  any  wilfulness,  fail  therein,  let  this  profession  rise  up  in 
judgment  against  us,  as  having  been  made  in  hypocrisy, — a  severe 
avenger  of  which  God  hath  lately  appeared,  in  His  most  righteous 
witnessing  against  the  Army  under  Duke  Hamilton,  invading  us 
under  specious  pretences  of  piety  and  justice.  We  may  humbly  say, 
we  rejoice  with  more  trembling*  than  to  dare  to  do  such  a  wicked 
thing. 

Upon  our  advance  to  Alnwick,  we  thought  fit  to  send  a  good  body 
of  our  horse  to  the  borders  of  Scotland,  and  thereby  a  summons  to 
tnc  Garrison  of  Berwick  :  to  which  having  received  a  dilatory  answer, 
I  desired  a  safe-convoy  for  Colonel  Bright  and  the  Scoutmaster- 
General  of  this  Army  to  go  to  the  Committee  of  Estates  in  Scotland  ; 
who,  I  hope,  will  have  the  opportunity  to  be  with  your  Lordships 
before  this  come  to  your  hands,— and,  according  as  they  are  in- 
structed, will  let  your  Lordships  in  some  measure,  as  well  as  we  could 
in  so  much  ignorance  of  your  condition,  know  our  affections  to  you. 
And  understanding  things  more  fully  by  yours,  we  now  thought  fit  to 
make  you  this  '  present'  return. 

The  command  we  received,  upon  the  defeat  of  Duke  Hamilton, 
was,  To  prosecute  this  business  until  the  Enemy  were  put  out  of  a 
condition  or  hope  of  growing  into  a  new  Army,  and  the  Garrisons  of 
Berwick  and  Carlisle  were  reduced.  Four  regiments  of  our  horse 
and  some  dragoons,  who  had  followed  the  Enemy  into  the  south 
parts,!  being  now  come  up  ;  and  this  country  not  able  to  bear  us,  the 
cattle  and  old  corn  thereof  having  been  wasted  by  Monro  and  the 
forces  with  him  ;  the  Governor  of  Berwick  also  daily  victualling  his 
(Jarrison  from  Scotland  side  ;  and  the  Enemy  yet  in  so  considerable  a 
posture  as  by  these  Gentlemen  and  your  Papers  we  understand, — 
still  prosecuting  their  former  design,  having  gotten  the  advantage  of 
Stirling  Bridge,  and  so  much  of  Scotland  at  their  backs  to  enable 
them  thereunto  ;  and  your  Lordships'  condition  not  being  such,  at 
present,  as  may  compel  them  to  submit  to  the  honest  and  necessary 
things  you  have  proposed  to  them  for  the  good  of  both  the  Kingdoms: 
we  have  thought  fit,  out  of  the  sense  of  duty  to  the  commands  laid 
upon  us  by  those  who  have  sent  us,  and  to  the  end  we  might  be  in  a 
posture  more  ready  to  give  you  assistance,  and  not  be  wanting  to 
what  we  have  made  so  large  professions  of, — to  advance  into  Scot- 
land with  the  Army.;^  And  we  trust,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  the 
common  Enemy  will  thereby  the  sooner  be  brought  to  a  submission 
to  you.  And  we  thereby  shall  do  what  becomes  us  in  order  to  the 
obtaining  of  our  Garrisons  ;  engaging  ourselves  that,  so  soon  as  we 
shall  know  from  you  that  the  enemy  will  yield  to  the  things  you  have 

*  'Join  trembling  with  your  mirth'  (Second  Psalm), 
f  Uttoxeter  and  thereabouts. 

X  iNeirher  does  the  sentence  end  even  here  !  It  is  dreadfully  bad  composition  J 
yet  contains  a  vigorous  clear  sense  in  it, 


CHESlVrCTC.  225 


proposed  to  them,  and  we  have  our  Garrisons  delivered  to  us,  we  shall 
forthwith  depart  out  of  your  Kingdom  ;   and  in  the  meantime  be 

*  even  *  more  tender  towards  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland,  in  the  point 
of  charge,  than  if  we  were  in  our  own  Kingdom. 

If  we  shall  receive  from  you  any  desire  of  a  more  speedy  advance, 
we  shall-  readily  yield  compliance  therewith  ; — desiring  also  to  hear 
from  you  how  affairs  stand.  This  being  the  result  of  a  Council  of 
War,  I  present  it  to  you  as  the  expression  of  their  affections  and  of 
my  own  ,•  who  am,  My  Lords, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

Cheswick,  where  Oliver  now  has  his  head-quarter,  lies,  as  we  said, 
some  three  or  four  miles  south  of  Berwick,  on  the  English  side  of 
Tweed.  Part  of  his  forces  crossed  the  River,  I  think,  this  same  day  ; 
a  stray  regiment  had  without  order  gone  across  the  day  before. — The 

*  Laird  of  Greenhead,'  Sir  William  Ker,  is  known  in  the  old  Scotch 
Books  ;  stili  better,  Major  Strahan,  who  makes  a  figure  on  his  own 
footing  by  and  by.  The  Anti-Hamilton  or  Whiggamore  Party  are  all 
inclined  to  Cromwell  ;  inclined,  and  yet  averse  ;  wishing  to  say  "  Yes 
and  No  :  ■'  if  that  were  possible  ! — 

The  answer  to  this  Letter  immediately  follows  in  Thurloej  but  it  is 
not  worth  giving.  The  intricate  longwindedness  of  mere  Loudons, 
Argyles  and  the  like,  on  such  subjects  at  this  time  of  day,  is  not 
tolerable  to  either  gods  or  men.  "  We,  Loudon,  Argyle,  and  Com- 
pany, are  very  sensible  how  righteously  '  God  who  judgeth  the  Earth,' 
has  dealt  with  Hamilton  and  his  followers  ;  an  intolerable,  uncon- 
scionable race  of  men,  tending  towards  mere  ruin  of  religion,  and 
'  grievously  oppressive  to  us.  We  hope  all  things  from  you,  respect- 
able Lieutenant-General.  We  have  sent  influential  persons  to  order 
the  giving  up  of  Berwick  and  Carlisle  instantly  ;  and  hope  these 
Garrisons  will  obey  them.  We  rest, — Humbly  devoted, — Argyle, 
Loudon,  and  Company." 

Influential  Persons  :  '  Friday  last,  the  22nd  September,  the  Marquis 

*  of  Argyle,  the  Lord  Elcho,  Sir  John  Scot  and  others  came  as  Com- 
'  missioners   from  the    Honest  Party   in  Scotland    to   the    Laird   of 

*  Mordington's  House  at  Mordington,   to    the    Lieutenant-General's 

*  quarters,  two  miles  within   Scotland.     That  night  the   Marquis   of 

*  Argyle  sent  a  trumpet  to  Berwick,'t— Berwick  made  delays,  needed 
to  send  to  the  Earl  of  Lanark  first.  Lanark,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will 
consent.  Meanwhile  the  Lieutenant-General  opens  his  parallels, 
diligently  prepares  to  besiege,  if  necessary.  Among  these  influential 
piersons,  a  quick  reader  notices  '  Sir  John  Scot,' — and  rejoices  to  re- 
cognise him,  in  that  dim  transient  way,  for  the  '  Director  of  the 
Chancery,'  and  Laird  of  Scotstarvet  in  Fife,  himself  in  rather  a  stag- 
gering siateX  at  present,  worthy  old  gentleman  ! 

*  Thurloe,  i.  loi.  f  Rushworth,  vii,  1282. 

Ij:  Scott  of  Scotstarvef  s  Staggering  State  0/  Scots  Statesmen  is  the  strange  Title 
of  his  strange  little  Book;  not  a  Satire  at  all,  but  a  Homily  on  Life's  Nothingness, 
enforced  by  examples ;  gives  in  brief  compass,  not  without  a  rude  Laconic 
geniality,  the  cream  of  Scotch  Biographic  History  in  that  age,  and  unconsciously 
a  curious  self-portrait  of  the  Writer  withal. 

VOL.  L  I 


226  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 


PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas  we  are  marching  with  the  Parhament's  Army  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Scotland,  in  pursuance  of  the  remaining  part  of  the 
Enemy  who  lately  invaded  the  Kingdom  of  England,  and  for  the  re- 
covery of  the  Garrisons  of  Berwick  and  Carlisle  : 

These  are  to  declare,  That  if  any  Officer  or  Soldier  under  my  com- 
mand shall  take  or  demand  any  money  ;  or  shall  violently  take  any 
horses,  goods,  or  victual,  without  order  ;  or  shall  abuse  the  people  in 
any  sort, — he  shall  be  tried  by  a  Council  of  War  ;  and  the  said  per- 
son so  offending  shall  be  punished,  according  to  the  Articles  of  War 
made  for  the  government  of  the  Army  in  the  Kingdom  of  England, 
which  punishment  is  death. 

Each  Colonel,  or  other  chief  Officer  in  every  regiment,  is  to  tran- 
scribe a  copy  of  this  ;  and  to  cause  the  same  to  be  delivered  to  each 
Captain  in  his  regiment :  and  every  said  Captain  of  each  respective 
troop  and  company  is  to  publish  the  same  to  his  troop  or  company  ; 
and  to  take  a  strict  course  that  nothing  be  done  contrary  hereunto. 

Given  under  my  hand,  this  20th  September,  1648. 

Oliver  Cromwell* 


LETTER   XLVIL 

For  the  Right  Honourable  the  Committee  of  Estates  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Scotland^  at  Edinburgh  :    These. 

Norham,  21st  September,  1648. 

Right  Honourable, 

We  perceive  that  there  was,  upon  our  advance  to  the  Borders, 
the  last  Lord's  Day,t  a  very  disorderly  carriage  by  some  horse  ;  who, 
without  order,  did  steal  over  the  Tweed,  and  plundered  some  places 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland  :  and  since  that,  some  stragglers  have 
been  alike  faulty  ;  to  the  wrong  of  the  inhabitants,  and  to  our  very 
great  grief  of  heart. 

I  have  been  as  diligent  as  T  can  to  find  out  thd  men  that  have  done 
the  wrong,  and  I  am  still  in  the  discovery  thereof ;  and  I  trust  there 
shall  be  nothing  wanting  on  my  part  that  may  testify  how  much  we 
abhor  such  things  :  and  to  the  best  of  my  information  I  cannot  find 
the  least  guilt  of  the  factij;  to  lie  upon  the  regiments  of  this  Army,  but 
upon  some  of  the  Northern  horse,  who  have  not  been  under  our  dis- 
cipline and  government,  until  just  that  we  came  into  these  parts. 

I  have  commanded  those  forces  away  back  again  into  PIngland  ;  and 
1  hope  the  exemplarity  of  jus^^ice  will  testify  for  us  Dur  great  detestation 
of  the  fact.;}:  For  the  remaining  regiments,  which  are  of  our  old 
forces,  we  may  engage  for  them  their  officers  will  keep  them  from 

*   Newspapers  in  Cromwelliana,  p.  46. 

t  21  September,  1648,  is  Thursday ;  last  Sunday  is  17th. 

J  'fait; 


NORHAM.  227 


doing  any  such  things  :  and  we  are  confident  that,  saving  victual, 
they  shall  not  take  anything  from  the  inhabitants  ;  and  in  that  also 
they  shall  be  so  far  from  being  their  own  carvers,  as  that  they  shall 
submit  to  have  provisions  ordered  and  proportioned  by  the  consent, 
and  with  the  direction,  of  the  Committees  and  Gentlemen  of  the 
Country,  and  not  otherwise,  if  they"*^  please  to  be  assisting  to  us 
therein. 

I  thought  fit,  for  the  preventing  of  misunderstanding,  to  give  your 
Lordships  this  account ;  and  rest, 

My  Lords, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROxMWELL.t 

*  Upon  our  entrance  into  Scotland,  a  Regiment  lately  raised  in  the 
'  Bishoprick  of  Durham,  under  Colonel  Wren,  behaved  themselves 
'  rudely  ;  which  as  soon  as  the  Lieutenant-General  of  this  Army ' 
Cromwell  '  had  notice  of,  he  caused  it  to  rendezvous  on  Tweed  banks  ; 
'  and  the  Scottish  people  having  challenged  several  horses  taken  from 
'  them  by  that   Regiment,   the   Lieutenant-General   caused   the  said 

*  horses  to  be  restored  back,  and  the  plunderers  to  be  cashiered.     A 

*  Lieutenant  that  countenanced  such  deeds  was  delivered  into  the 

*  Marshal's  hands  ;  and  the  Colonel  himself,  conniving  at  them,  and 

*  not  doing  justice  upon  the  offenders  when  complaints  were  brought 

*  in  to  him,  was  taken  from  the  head  of  his  Regiment,  and  suspended 

*  from  executing  his  place,  until  he   had  answered  at  a  Council  of 

*  War   for   his   negligence   in   the   performance    of    his   duty.     This 

*  notable  and  impartial  piece  of  justice  did  take  very  much  with  the 

*  people;  and  the  Regiment  is  ordered  back  into  Northumberland';}: 
— as  we  see) 

The  answer  of  '  Loudon  Canccllarius '  to  this  Letter  from  Norham 
is  given  in  the  old  Newspapers. §  The  date  is  Edinburgh,  28th  Sep- 
tember, 1648.  Loudon  of  course  is  very  thankful  for  such  tenderness 
and  kind  civilities  ;  thankful  especially  that  the  Honourable  Lieu- 
tenant-General has  come  so  near,  and  by  the  dread  of  him  forced  the 
Malignants  at  Stirhng  Bridge  to  come  to  terms,  and  leave  the  Well- 
affected  at  peace.  A  very  great  blessing  to  us  'the  near  distance  of 
your  forces  at  this  time,' — though  once  [you  ken  varry  weel,  and  Whit- 
iocke  kens)  we  considered  you  an  incendiary,  and  I,  O  honourable 
Lieutenant-Genera],  would  so  fain  have  had  you  extinguished, — not 
knowing  what  I  did  ! 

Norham  lies  on  the  South  shore  of  the  Tweed,  some  seven  miles 
above  Berwick  : 

•  Day  set  on  Norham's  castled  steep.' || 

Cromwell  went  across  to  Mordington,  and  met  the  '  Inflential  Per- 
sons,' on  the  morrow. 

*  These  Committees. 

t  Thurloe,  i.  103  (from  the  Pubhc  Records  of  Scotland,  in  the  Laigh  Parlia- 
ment House  at  luJinburgh). 

X  Perfect  Ciurnal,  October  2  to  9  (in  Crom'"  clliana,  p.  47). 

§  Cromwelliana,  p.  47.  .  -coti's  Marpvo:?,. 


228  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 


LETTER   XLVIII. 

*  To  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Coutmojis :  These. ^ 

Berwick,  2d  October,  1648. 

'SIR/ 

*  •*  *  Upon  Friday,  29th  September,  came  an  Order  from 
the  Earl  of  Lanark,  and  divers  Lords  of  his  Party,  requiring  the 
Governor  of  Berwick  to  march  out  of  the  Town  ;  which  accordingly 
he  did  on  Saturday,  September  30th  ; — at  which  time  I  entered  ;  and 
have  placed  a  Garrison  there  for  your  use.  The  Governor  would  fain 
have  capitulated  for  the  English  '  who  were  with  him  ; '  but  we,  having 
this  advantage  upon  him,  would  not  hear  of  it  :  so  that  they  are  sub- 
mitted to  your  mercy,  and  are  under  the  consideration  of  Sir  Arthur 
Haselrig  ;  who,  I  believe,  will  give  you  a  good  account  of  them  ;  and 
who  hath  already  turned  out  the  Malignant  Mayor,  and  put  an  honest 
man  in  his  room. 

1  have  also  received  an  Order  for  Carlisle  ;  and  have  sent  Colonel 
Bright,  with  horse  and  foot,  to  receive  it  ;  Sir  Andrew  Car  and 
Colonel  Scot  being  gone  with  him  to  require  observance  of  the  Order  ; 
there  having  been  a  Treaty  and  an  agreement  betwixt  the  two  parties 
in  Scodand,  To  disband  all  forces,  except  fifteen  hundred  horse  and 
foot  under  the  Earl  of  Leven,  which  are  to  be  kept  to  see  all  remain- 
ing forces  disbanded. 

Having  some  other  things  to  desire  from  the  Committee  of  Estates 
at  Edinburgh  for  your  service,  I  am  myself  going  thitherward  this 
day  ;  and  so  soon  as  I  shall  be  able  to  give  you  a  further  account 
thereof,  I  shall  do  it.  In  the  mean  time,  I  make  it  my  desire  that  the 
Garrison  of  Berwick  (into  which  I  have  placed  a  regiment  of  foot, 
which  shall  be  attended  also  by  a  regiment  of  horse)  may  be  provided 
for  ;  and  that  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig  may  receive  commands  to  supplv 
it  with  guns  and  ammunition  from  Newcastle  ;  and  be  otherwise 
enabled  by  you  to  furnish  this  Garrison  with  all  other  necessaries, 
according  as  a  place  of  that  importance  will  require.  Desiring  thnt 
these  mercies  may  beget  trust  and  thankfulness  to  God  the  only  author 
of  them,  and  an  improvement  of  them  to  His  glory  and  the  good  of 
this  poor  Kingdom,  I  rest, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 


LETTER   XLIX. 

Follows  here  a  small  Note,  enclosing  a  duplicate  of  the  above 
Letter,  for  Fairfax  ;  written  chietly  to  enforce  the  request  as  to 
Haselrig  and  Berwick, — '  Hasleridge  '  and  '  Barwick,'  as  Oliver  here 

*  Newspapers  (Cromwplli'na,  p.  48). 


BERWICK.  229 


spells.  Haselrig  is  Governor  of  Newcastle,  a  man  of  chief  authority 
in  those  Northern  regions.— Fairfax,  who  has  been  surveying,  regu- 
lating, and  extensively  dining  in  Townhalls,  through  the  Eastern 
Counties,  is  now  at  St.  Albans,* — the  Army's  head-quarters  for  some 
time  to  come. 

'  To  his  Excellency  the  Lord  Fairfax^  at  St.  Albans :  These! 

Berwick,  2d  October,  1648. 

May  it  please  your  Excellency, 

I  received  your  late  Commissions,  with  your  directions  how 
they  shall  be  disposed  ;  which  1  hope  I  shall  pursue  to  your  satis- 
faction. 

I  having  sent  an  account  to  the  House  of  Commons  am  bold 
(being  straitened  in  time)  to  present  you  with  a  Duplicate  thereof, 
which  I  trust  will  give  you  satisfaction.  I  hope  there  is  a  very  good 
understanding  between  the  Honest  Party  of  Scotland  and  us  here  ; 
better  than  some  would  have. — Sir,  I  beg  of  your  Excellency  to  write 
to  Sir  A.  Haselrig  to  take  care  of  Berwick  ;  he  having  at  Newcastle 
all  things  necessary  for  the  Garrison  '  here,'  which  is  left  destitute  of 
all,  and  may  be  lost  if  this  be  not  '  done.'  I  beg  of  your  Lordship  a 
Commission  to  be  speeded  to  him.  I  have  no  more  at  present ;  but 
rest, 

My  Lord, 
Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

In  these  weeks,  once  more,  there  is  an  intensely  interesting  Treaty 
going  on  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  ;  Treaty  of  Forty  Days  with  the  King  ; 
solemn  Parliamentary  Commissioners  on  one  hand.  Majesty  with  due 
Assistants  on  the  other,  very  solemnly  debating  and  negotiating  day 
after  day,  for  forty  days  and  longer,  in  the  Town  of  Newport  there.;); 
The  last  hope  of  Presbyterian  Royalism  in  this  world.  Not  yet  the 
last  hope  of  his  Majesty  ;  who  still,  after  all  the  sanguinary  ruin  of 
this  year,  feels  himself  a  tower  of  strength  ;  inexpugnable  in  his  divine 
right,  which  no  sane  man  can  question  ;  settlement  of  the  Nation 
impossible  without  him.  Happily,  at  any  rate,  it  is  the  last  of  the 
Treaties  with  Charles  Stuart,— for  History  begins  to  be  weary  of 
them.  Treaty  which  came  to  nothing,  as  all  the  others  had  done. 
Which  indeed  could  come  only  to  nothing  ;  his  Majesty  not  having 
the  smallest  design  to  abide  by  it  ;  his  Majesty  eagerly  consulting 
about  '  escape'  all  the  while,  -  escape  to  Ormond  who  is  now  in  Ireland 
again,  escape  somewhither,  anywhither  ; — and  considering  the  Treaty 
mainly  as  a  piece  of  Dramatur^^y,  which  must  be  handsomely  done  in 
the  interim,  and  leave  a  good  impression  on  the  Public  §    Such  is  the 

*  Since  i6th  September,  Rushworth,  vii.  1271. 

f  Sloane  MSS.  1519,  f.  92. 

\  Warwick,  pp.  321-9;  Rushworth,  vii.  &c.  &c.  Began  i8th  September; 
was  lengthened  out  by  successive  permissions  to  the  i8th,  25th,  and  even  27th  of 
November. 

§  His  own  Letters  (in  Wagstaff's  Vindication  of  the  Royal  Martyr,  in  Carte's 
Ormond,  &c.) ;  see  Godwin,  ii.  608-23. 


^30  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 

Treaty  of  Forty  Days  ;  a  mere  torpor  on  the  page  of  History  ;  which 
the  reader  shall  conceive  for  himself  ad  libitum.  The  Army,  from 
head-quarters  at  St.  Albans,  regards  him  and  it  with  a  sternly  watch- 
ful eye  ;  not  participating  in  the  hopes  of  Presbyterian  Royalism  at 
all  ; — and  there  begin  to  be  Army  Councils  held  again. 

As  for  Cromwell,  he  is  gone  forward  to  Edinburgh  ;  reaches  Seaton, 
the  Earl  of  Winton's  House,  which  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  horse, 
a  few  miles  east  of  Edinburgh,  on  Tuesday  evening.  Next  day, 
Wednesday,  4th  October,  1648,  come  certain  dignitaries  of  the  Argyle 
or  Whiggamore  Party,  and  escort  him  honourably  into  Edinburgh  ; 
*  to  the  Earl  of  Murrie^s  House  in  the  Cannigate'  (so,  in  good  Edin- 
burgh Scotch,  do  the  old  Pamphlets  spell  it) ;  '  where  a  strong  guard,' 
an  English  Guard,  'is  appointed  to  keep  constant  watch  at  the  Gate;' 
and  all  manner  of  Earls  and  persons  of  Whiggamore  quality  come 
to  visit  the  Lieutenant- General  ;  and  even  certain  Clergy  come, 
who  have  a  leaning  that  way."* — The  Earl  of  Moray's  House,  Moray 
House,  still  stands  in  the  Canongate  of  Edinburgh,  well  known  to 
the  inhabitants  there.  A  solid  spacious  mansion,  which,  when  all 
bright  and  a^\N  two  hundreds  years  ago,  must  have  been  a  very 
adequate  lodging.  There  are  remains  of  noble  gardens  ;  one  of  the 
noble  state-rooms,  when  I  last  saw  it,  was  an  extensive  Paper  Ware- 
house. There  is  no  doubt  but  the  Lieutenant-General  did  lodge 
here  ;  Guthry  seeming  to  contradict  this  old  Pamphlet,  turns  out  to 
confirm  it.t 


and  encouraging  and  authorising  him  to  do  more.  Of  which  circum- 
stance, in  the  following  official  Document,  he  fails  not  to  avail  him- 
self, on  the  morrow  after  his  arrival. 


LETTER   L. 

For  the  Right  Honourable  the  Couimittee  of  Estates  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Scotland  :  These. 

Edinburgh,  5th  October,  1648. 

Right  Honourable, 

I  shall  ever  be  ready  to  bear  witness  of  your  Lordships'  for- 
wardness to  do  right  to  the  Kingdom  of  England,  in  restoring  the 
Garrisons  of  Berwick  and  Carlisle  :  and  having  received  so  good  a 
pledge  of  your  resolutions  to  maintain  amity  and  a  good  understand- 
ing between  the  Kingdoms  of  England  and  Scotland,  it  makes  me 

*  True  Account  of  the  great  Expressions  of  Love  from  the  Noblemen  &c.  of 
Scotland  unto  Lieutenant-Generial  Cromwell  and  his  Officers;  In  a  Letter  to  a 
Friend  (London,  1648;  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to,  no.  392,  §  26,  dated  with 
the  pen  23rd  October)  :  Abridged  in  Rush  worth,  vii.  1295. 

t  Guthry's  Memoirs,  p.  297.  For  a  description  of  the  place,  see  Chambers's 
Edinburgh  Journal,  2rst  January,  1837. 

$  Commons  Journals,  28  September,  1648. 


^^.m^.:- 


EDINBURGH.  231 


not  to  doubt  but  that  your  Lordships  will  further  grant  what  in  justice 
and  reason  may  be  demanded. 

I  can  assure  your  Lordships,  That  the  Kingdom  of  England  did 
foresee  that  wicked  design  of  the  Malignants  in  Scotland  to  break  all 
engagements  of  faith  and  honesty  between  the  Nations,  and  to  take 
from  the  Kingdom  of  England  the  Towns  of  Berwick  and  Carhsle. 
And  although  they  could  have  prevented  the  loss  of  those  consider- 
able Towns,  without  breach  of  the  Treaty,  by  laying  forces  near  unto 
them  ;  yet  such  was  the  tenderness  of  the  Parliament  of  England 
not  to  give  the  least  suspicion  of  a  breach  with  the  Kingdom  of  Scot- 
land, that  they  did  forbear  to  do  any  thing  therein.  And  it  is  not 
unknown  to  your  Lordships,  when  the  Malignants  had  gotten  the 
power  of  your  Kingdom,  how  they  protected  and  employed  our 
English  Malignants,  though  demanded  by  our  Parliament  ;  and  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  those  Towns  ; — and  with  what  violence  and 
unheard-of  cruelties  they  raised  an  Army,  and  began  a  War,  and  in- 
vaded the  Kingdom  of  England  ;  and  endeavoured,  to  the  uttermost 
of  their  power,  to  engage  both  Kingdoms  in  a  perpetual  Quarrel  ; 
and  what  blood  they  have  spilt  in  our  Kingdom,  and  what  great  loss 
and  prejudice  was  brought  upon  our  Nation,  even  to  the  endangering 
the  total  ruin  thereof. 

And  although  God  did,  by  a  most  mighty  and  strong  hand,  and 
that  in  a  wonderful  manner,  destroy  their  designs  ;  yet  it  is  apparent 
that  the  same  ill-affected  spirit  still  remains  ;  and  that  divers  Persons 
of  great  quality  and  power,  who  were  either  the  Contrivers,  Actors, 
or  Abbetiors  of  the  late  unjust  War  made  upon  the  Kingdom  of 
England,  are  now  in  Scotland  ;  who  undoubtedly  do  watch  for  all 
advantages  and  opportunities  to  raise  dissensions  and  divisions  be- 
tween the  Nations.  « 

Now  forasmuch  as  I  am  commanded,  To  prosecute  the  remaining 
part  of  the  Army  that  invaded  the  Kingdom  of  England,  whereso- 
ever it  should  go,  to  prevent  the  like  miseries  :  And  considering  that 
divers  of  that  Army  are  retired  into  Scotland,  and  that  some  of  the 
heads  of  those  Malignants  were  raising  new  forces  in  Scotland  to 
carry  on  the  same  design  ;  and  that  they  will  certainly  be  ready  to  do 
the  like  upon  all  occasions  of  advantage  :  And  forasmuch  as  the 
Kingdom  of  England  hath  lately  received  so  great  damage  by  the 
failing  of  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland  in  not  suppressing  Mahgnants 
and  Incendiaries  as  they  ought  to  have  done  ;  and  in  suffering  Per- 
sons to  be  put  in  places  of  great  trust  in  the  Kingdom,  who  by  their 
interest  in  the  Parliament  and  the  Countries,  brought  the  Kingdom 
of  Scotland  so  far  as  they  could,  by  an  unjust  Engagement,  to  invade 
and  make  war  upon  their  Brethren  of  England  : 

'  Therefore,'  my  Lords,  I  hold  myself  obliged,  in  prosecution  of  my 
Duty  and  Instructions,  to  demand,  That  your  Lordships  will  give 
assurance  in  the  name  of  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland,  that  you  will 
not  admit  or  suffer  any  that  have  been  active  in,  or  consenting  to, 
the  said  Engagement  against  England,  or  have  lately  been  in  arms  at 
Stirling  or  elsewhere  in  the  maintenance  of  that  Engagement,  to  be 
employed  in  any  public  Place  or  Trust  whatsoever.     And  this  is  the 


232  SECOND   CIVIL  IVAR. 

least  security  I  can  demand.  I  have  received  an  Order  from  both 
Houses  of  the  Parhament  of  England,*  which  I  hold  fit  to  communicate 
to  your  Lordships  ;  whereby  you  will  understand  the  readiness  of  the 
Kingdom  of  England  to  assist  you  who  were  dissenters  from  that 
Invasion  ;  and  1  doubt  not  but  your  Lordships  will  be  as  ready  to 
give  such  further  satisfaction  as  they  in  their  wisdoms  shall  find  cause 
to  desire. 

Your  Lordships'  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.f 

This  was  presented  on  Thursday,  to  the  Dignitaries  sitting  in  the 
Laigh  Parliament-House  in  the  City  of  Edinburgh.  During  which 
same  day  came  'the  Lord  Provost  to  pay  his  respects'  at  Moray 
House  ;  came  'old  Sir  William  Dick,'  an  old  Provost  nearly  ruined 
by  his  well-aiTected  Loans  of  Money  in  these  Wars,  '  and  made  an 
oration  in  name  of  the  rest  ; ' — came  many  persons,  and  quality  car- 
riages, making  Moray  House  a  busy  place  that  day;  'of  which  I 
hope  a  good  fruit  will  appear.' 

Loudon  Cancellarius  and  Company,  from  the  Laigh  Parliamjn'- 
House,  respond  with  the  amplest  assent  next  day  X  and  on  the 
morrow,  Saturday,  all  business  being  adjusted,  and  Lambert  left  with 
two  horse-regiments  to  protect  the  Laigh  Parliament- House  from 
Lanarks    and   Malignants, — '  when   we   were    about   to    come   avva\ , 

*  several  coaches  were  ^ent  to  bring  up  the  Lieutenant- General,  the 

*  Earl  of  Leven'  Governor  of  the  Castle  and  Scotch  Commander-in- 
chief,  '  with  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig  and  the  rest  of  the  Officers,  to  Edin- 
'  burgh  Castle  ;  where  was  provided  a  very  sumptuous  Banquet,'  old 
Leven  doing  the  honours,  'my  Lord  Marquis  of  Argyle  and  divers 
'  other  Lords  being  present  to  grace  the  entertainment.  At  our  de- 
'  p.irture,  many  pieces  of  ordnance  and  a  volley  of  small  shot  was 
'  given  us  from  the  Castle  ;  and  some  Lords  convoying  us  out  of  the 
'  City,  we  there  parted.'  The  Lord  Provost  had  defrayed  us,  all  the 
while,  in  the  handsomest  manner.  We  proceeded  to  Dalhousie,  the 
Seat  of  the  Ramsays,  near  Dalkeith  ;  on  the  road  towards  Carlisle 
and  home,— by  Selkirk  and  Hawick,  I  conclude.  Here  we  stay  till 
Monday  morning,  and  leave  orders,  and  write  letters. 


LETTER  LI. 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall^  Esquire,  Speaker  of 
the  Honourable  House  of  Commons :  These. 

Dalhousie,  9ch  October.  1648. 

Sir, 

In  my  last,  wherein  I  gave  you  an  account  of  my  despntch 
of  Colonel  Bright  to  Carlisle,  after  the  rendition  of  Berwick,  I  ac- 

*  Votes  of  September  28th;   Commons  Journals,  vi.  37  :  'received  the  day  we 
entered  J':dinburgh  '  (Rushworth,  ubi  supra). 

t  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to,  no.  392,  §  19  :  Printed  by  Order  of  Parliament. 
%  Ibid.  ^„ 


DALHOVSIE. 


quainted  you  with  my  intentions  to  <:o  to  t1ie  h^?,f1-quarters  of  my 
horse  at  the  Earl  of  Winton's,  witliin  six  m  ios  o.  Edinburgh  ;  that 
^rom  thence  I  might  represent  to  the  Committee  of  Estates,  what  I 
had  further  to  desire  in  your  behalf. 

The  next  day  after  I  came  thither,  I  received  an  invitation  from 
the  Committee  of  Estates  to  come  to  Edinburgh  ;  they  sending  to  me 
the  Lord  Kircudbright  and  Major-General  Holborn  for  that  purpose  ; 
with  whom  I  went  the  same  day,  being  Wednesday,  4th  of  this  m- 
stant  October.  We  fell  into  consideration,  What  was  fit  further  to 
insist  upon.  And  being  sensible  that  the  late  Agreement  between 
the  Committee  of  Estates  and  the  Earls  of  Crawford,  C^lencairn,  and 
Lanark,  did  not  sufficiently  answer  my  instructions,  which  were,  To 
disenable  them  from  being  in  power  to  raise  new  troubles  to 
England  :  therefore  1  held  it  my  duty,  Not  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
mere  disbanding  of  them  ;  but  considering  their  power  and  interest, 
1  thought  it  necessary  to  demand  concerning  them  and  all  their 
abettors,  according  to  the  contents  of  the  Paper*  here  enclosed. 

Wherein, — having  received  that  very  day  your  Votes  for  giving 
fu'ther  assistance  '  to  the  Well-affected  in  Scotland,'  I  did  in  the 
close  thereof  acquaint  them  with  the  same  ;  reserving  such  further 
satisfaction  to  be  given  by  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland,  as  the  Parlia- 
ment of  England  should  in  their  Wisdom  see  cause  to  desire.  The 
Committee  of  Estates  '  had  '  sent  the  Earl  of  Cassilis,  Lord  Warriston, 
and  two  Gentlemen  more  to  me.  To  receive  what  I  had  to  offer  unto 
them  ; — which  upon  Thursday  I  delivered.  Upon  Friday  I  received 
by  the  said  persons  this  enclosed  Answer,  which  is  the  Original 
itself. 

Having  proceeded  thus  far  as  a  Soldier,  and  I  trust,  by  the  bless- 
ing of  God,  not  to  your  disservice  ;  and  having  laid  the  business 
before  you,  I  pray  God  direct  you  to  do  further  as  may  be  for  His 
glory,  the  good  of  the  Nation  wherewith  you  are  intrusted,  and  the 
comfort  and  encouragement  of  the  Saints  of  God  in  both  Kingdoms 
and  all  the  World  over  I  do  think  the  affairs  of  Scotland  are  in  a 
thriving  posture,  as  to  the  interest  of  honest  men  :  and  '  Scotland  is ' 
like  to  be  a  better  neighbour  to  you  now  than  when  the  great  pre- 
tenders to  the  Covenant  and  Religion  and  'J'reaiies, — 1  mean  Duke 
Hamilton,  the  Earls  of  Lauderdale,  Traquair,  Carnegy,  and  their  con- 
federates,— had  the  power  in  their  hands.  I  dare  '  be  bold  to  '  say 
that  that  Party,  with  their  pretences,  had  not  only,  throui^h  the 
treachery  of  some  in  England  (who  have  cause  to  blushi,  endangered 
the  whole  State  and  Kingdom  of  England;  but  also  'had'  brought 
Scotland  into  such  a  condition,  as  that  no  honest  man  who  had  the 
fear  of  God,  or  a  conscience  of  Religion,  'and'  \\\q  just  ends  of  the 
Covenant  and  Treaties,  could  have  a  being  in  that  Kingdom.  But 
God,  who  is  not  to  be  mocked  or  decei\ed,  and  is  very  jealous  when 
His  Name  and  Religion  are  made  use  of  to  carry  on  impious  designs, 
hath  taken  vengeance  of  such  profanity, — even  to  astonishment  and 
admiration.  And  I  wish  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  it  may  cause 
all  to  tremble  and  repent,  who  have  practised  the  like,  to  the  blas- 
phemy of  His  Name,  and  the  destruction  of  His  People  ;  so  as  they 

*  Letter  L. 


^U  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 


may  never  presume  to  do  the  like  again  !  And  I  think  it  is  not 
unseasonable  for  me  to  take  the  humble  boldness  to  say  thus  much 
at  this  time. 

All  the  Enemy's  Forces  in  Scotland  are  now  disbanded.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Estates  have  declared  against  all  of  that  Party's  sitting  in 
Parliament.*  Good  Elections  are  '  already  '  made  in  divers  places; 
of  such  as  dissented  from  and  opposod  the  late  wicked  Engagement : 
and  they  are  now  raising  a  force  of  about  4,000  Horse  and  Foot  ; — 
which  until  they  can  complete,  they  have  desired  me  to  leave  them 
two  Regiments  of  Horse,  and  two  Troops  of  Dragoons.  Which  ac- 
cordingly I  have  resolved,  conceiving  I  had  warrant  by  your  late 
Votes  so  to  do  ;  and  have  left  Major- General  Lambert  to  command 
them. 

I  have  received,  and  so  have  the  Officers  with  me,  many  honours 
and  civilities,  from  the  Committee  of  Estates,  the  City  of  Edinburgh, 
and  Ministers  ;  with  a  noble  entertainment  ; — which  we  may  not  own 
as  done  to  us,  but  as  '  done  to '  your  servants.  I  am  now  marching 
towards  Carlisle  ;  and  I  shall  give  you  such  further  accounts  of  your 
affairs  as  there  shall  be  occasion.     I  am.  Sir, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.+ 

Cromwell,  at  Carlisle  on  the  14th,  has  received  delivery  of  the 
Castle  there,  for  which  good  news  let  the  Messenger  have^ioo.:J: 
Leaving  all  in  tolerable  order  in  those  regions,  the  Lieutenant- 
General  hastens  into  Yorkshire  to  Pontefract  or  Pomfret  Castle  ;  a 
strong  place  which  had  been  surprised  in  the  beginning  of  the  year, 
and  is  stubbornly  defended  ; — surrender  being  a  very  serious  matter 
now  ;  the  War  itself  being  contrary  to  Law  and  Treaty,  and  as  good 
as  Treason,  think  some. 


LETTERS  LIL— LV. 

The  Governor  of  Pontefract  Castle  is  one  Morris,  once  the  Earl  of 
Strafford's  servant ;  a  desperate  man  :  this  is  the  Lieutenant-General's 
summons  to  him, 

LETTER  LIT. 

For  the  Governor  of  Pojitefract  Castle. 

'  Pontefract,'  9th  November,  1648 

Sir, 

Being  come  hither  for  the  reduction  of  this  place,  I  thought  fit 
to  summon  you  to  deliver  your  Garrison  to  me,  for  the  use  of  the  Par- 

*  The  Scotch  Parliament,  which  is  now  getting  itself  elected. 

t  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to,  no.  392,  §  19  ;  see  Commons  Journals,  vi.  54. 

;J:  Commons  Journals,  20  October,  1648. 


PONTEFRACT,  23$ 


liament.  Those  gentlemen  and  soldiers  with  you  may  have  better 
terms  than  if  you  should  hold  it  to  extremity.  I  expect  your  answer 
this  day,  and  rest, 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell  * 

Governor  Morris  stiffly  refuses  ;  holds  out  yet  a  good  while, — and 
at  last  loses  his  head  at  York  assizes  by  the  business.f  Royalism  is 
getting  desperate  ;  has  taken  to  highway  robbery  ;  is  assassinating, 
and  extensively  attempting  to  assassinate.;^;  Two  weeks  ago,  Sunday, 
29th  October,  a  Party  sallied  from  this  very  Castle  of  Pontefract  ;  rode 
into  Doncaster  in  disguise,  and  there,  about  five  in  the  afternoon,  get- 
ting into  Colonel  Rainsborough's  lodging,  stabbed  him  dead  : — murder, 
or  a  very  questionable  kind  of  homicide  ! 

Meanwhile,  the  Royal  Treaty  in  Newport  comes  to  no  good  issue, 
and  the  Forty  Days  are  now  done  ;  the  Parliament  by  small  and 
smaller  instalments  prolongs  it,  still  hoping  beyond  hope  for  a  good 
issue.  The  Army,  sternly  watchful  of  it  from  St.  Albans,  is  presenting 
a  Remonstrance,  That  a  good  issue  lies  not  in  it ;  that  a  good  issue 
must  be  sought  elsewhere  than  in  //.  By  bringing  Delinquents  to 
justice ;  and  the  Chief  Delinquent,  who  has  again  involved  this 
Nation  in  blood  !  To  which  doctrine,  various  petitioning  Counties 
and  Parties,  and  a  definite  minority  in  Parliament  and  England  gene- 
rally, testify  their  stern  adherence,  at  all  risks  and  hazards  whatsoever. 


LETTER  LIII. 

Jenner  Member  for  Cricklade  ;  and  Ashe  Member  for  Westbury  ; 
these  two,  sitting  I  think  in  the  Delinquents'  Committee  at  Gold- 
smith's Hall,— seem  inclined  for  a  milder  course.  Wherein  the 
Lieutenant-General  does  by  no  means  agree  with  the  said  Jenner  and 
Ashe  ;  having  had  a  somewhat  closer  experience  of  the  matter  than 
they  ! 

*  Colonel  Owen '  seems  to  be  a  Wesh  Delinquent  ;  I  suppose  the 
*  Sir  John  Owen '  of  whom  there  arises  life-and-death  question  by  and 
by.  '  The  Governor  of  Nottingham  '  is  Colonel  Hutchinson,  whom  we 
know.  Sir  Marmaduke  Langdale  we  also  know, — and  '  presume  you 
have  heard  what  is  become  of  him  ?'  Sir  Marmaduke,  it  was  rigorously 
voted  on  the  6th  of  this  month,  is  one  of  the  '  Seven  that  shall  be  ex- 
cepted from  pardon  :'  whom  the  King  himself,  if  he  bargain  with  us, 
shall  never  forgive.§  He  escaped  afterwards  from  Nottingham  Castle, 
by  industry  of  his  own. 

*  Newspapers  (Cromwelliana,  p.  48) ;   Rushworth,  vii.  1325. 
f  State  Trials.  Ij;  Rushworth,  vii.  1279  &c,,  1315. 

\  Commons  Journals,  vi.  70. 


^36  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 


To  the  Honourable  my  ho7ioured  Friends  Robert  Jenner  and  John 
Ashe,  Esquires^  '  at  London.''  These. 

Knottingley,  near  Pontefract, 
20th  November,  1648. 

Gentlemen, 

I  received  an  Order  from  the  Governor  of  Nottingham,  directed 
to  him  from  you,  to  bring  up  Colonel  Owen,  or  take  bail  for  his 
coming  up  to  make  his  composition,  he  having  made  an  humble  Peti- 
lion  to  the  Parliament  for  the  same. 

If  I  be  not  mistaken,  the  House  of  Commons  did  vote  all  those 
'persons  '  Traitors  that  did  adhere  to,  or  bring  in,  the  Scots  in  their 
late  Invading  of  this  Kingdom  under  Duke  Hamilton.  And  not 
without  very  clear  justice  ;  this  being  a  more  prodigious  Treason  than 
any  tiiat  had  been  perfected  before ;  because  the  former  quarrel  was 
that  Englishmen  might  rule  over  one  another  ;  this  to  vassalise  us  to 
i\  foreign  Nation.  And  their  fault  who  have  appeared  in  this  Sum- 
mer's business  is  certainly  double  to  theirs  who  were  in  the  first,  be- 
cause it  is  the  repetition  of  the  same  offence  against  all  the  witnesses 
that  God  has  borne,*  by  making  and  abetting  a  Second  War. 

And  if  this  be  their  justice,t  and  upon  so  good  grounds,  I  wonder 
how  it  comes  to  pass  that  so  eminent  actors  should  so  easily  be  re- 
ceived to  compound.  You  will  pardon  me  if  I  tell  you  how  contrary 
this  is  to  some  of  your  judgments  at  the  rendition  of  Oxford  :  though 
we  had  the  Town  in  consideration, It  and  '  our  '  blood  saved  to  boot ; 
yet  Two  Years  perhaps  was  thought  too  little  to  expiate  their  offence.§ 
But  noW;  when  you  have  such  men  in  your  hands,  and  it  will  cost  you 
nothing  to  do  justice  ;  now  after  all  this  trouble  and  the  hazard  of  a 
Second  War, — for  a  little  more  money  ||  all  offences  shall  be  par- 
doned ! 

This  Gentleman  w^as  taken  with  Sir  Marmaduke  Langdale,  in  their 
flight  together  : — I  presume  you  have  heard  what  is  become  of  him. 
Let  me  remember  you  that  out  of  the  '  same '  Garrison  was  fetched 
not  long  since  (I  believe  while  we  were  in  heat  of  action)  Colonel 
Humphrey  Mathews,  than  whom  this  Cause  we  have  fought  for  has 
not  had  a  more  dangerous  enemy  ; — and  he  not  guilty  only  of  being 
an  enemy,  but  he  apostatised  from  your  Cause  and  Quarrel ;  having 

*  From  Naseby  downwards,  God,  in  the  battle-whirlwind,  seemed  to  speak  and 
witneis  very  audibly. 

t  House  of  Commons's.  %  Town  as  some  recompense. 

§  Sentence  uninielligible  to  the  careless  reader,  so  hasty  is  it,  and  overcrowded 
with  meaning  in  the  original.  '  Give  me  leave  to  tell  you  that,  if  it  were  contrary 
to  some  of  your  judgments,  that  at  the  rendition  of  Oxford,  though  we  had  the 
Town  in  consideration,  and  blood  saved  to  boot-,  yet  Two  Years  perhaps,"  &c.— 
Oxford  was  surrendered  20-24  June,  1646;  the  Malignants  found  there  were  to 
have  a  composition,  not  exceeding  Two  Years  revenue  for  estates  of  inheritance 
(Rushworth,  vi.  280,  5),— which  the  victorious  Presbyterian  Party,  belike  Jenner 
and  Asne  among  the  rest,  had  exclaimed  against  as  too  lenient  a  procedure.  Very 
different  now  wlien  the  new  MaUgnants,  though  a  doubly  criminal  set,  are  bone  of 
their  own  bone  ! 

il  Gold-^mith  ?  Hall  h.is  a  true  fcc'in.^  ^  ■  '.r.mcy  ;  n  dimmer  one  for  Justice,  it 
seems  ! 


KNOTTINGLEY.  237 


been  a  Colonel,  if  not  more,  under  you,  and  *  then '  the  desperatest 
promoter  of  the  Welsh  Rebellion  amongst  them  all  !  And  how  near 
you  were  brought  to  ruin  thereby,  all  men  that  know  anything  can 
tell ;  "^  and  this  man  was  taken  away  by  composition,  by  what  order  1 
know  not. 

Gentlemen,  though  my  sense  does  appear  more  severe  than  perhaps 
you  would  have  it,  yet  give  me  leave  to  tell  you  I  find  a  sense  among 
the  Officers  concerning  such  things  as  '  the  treatment  of  those  men, 
to  amazement ;— which  truly  is  not  so  much  to  see  their  blood  made 
so  cheap,  as  to  see  such  manifest  witnessings  of  God,  so  terrible  and. 
so  just,  no  more  reverenced. 

1  have  directed  the  Governor  to  acquaint  the  Lord-General  here- 
with ;  and  rest, 

Gentlemen, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

'Oliver  CROMWELL.'t 

Here  is  a  sour  morsel  for  Jenner  and  Ashe  ;  different  from  what 
they  were  expecting  !  It  is  to  be  hoped  they  will  digest  this  piece  of 
admonition,  and  come  forth  on  the  morrow  two  sadder  and  two  wiser 
men.  For  Colonel  Owen,  at  all  events,  there  is  clearly  no  outlook, 
at  present,  but  sitting  reflective  in  the  strong-room  of  Nottingham 
Castle,  whither  his  bad  Genius  has  led  him.  Who  Colonel  Owen  was, 
what  he  had  specially  done,  or  what  became  of  him  afterwards,  except 
that  he  escaped  beheading  on  this  occasion,  is  not  known  to  me. 
His  name  indicates  a  Welsh  habitat  ;  '  he  was  taken  with  Sir  Mai- 
maduke  in  their  flight  together  :'  probably  one  of  the  Presbyterian 
Welshmen  discomfited  in  June  and  July  last,  who  had  fled  to  join 
Hamilton,  and  be  worse  discomfited  a  second  time.  The  House 
some  days  ago  had  voted  that  '  Sir  John  Owen,'  our  '  Colonel  Owen ' 
I  conclude,  should  get  off  with  '  banishment  ;'  likewise  that  Lord 
Capel,  the  Earl  of  Holland,  and  other  capital  Dehnquents  should  be 
'banished  ;'  and  even  that  James  Earl  of  Cambridge  (James  Duke  of 
Hamilton)  should  be  ^Jined £\oo,ooo.'  Such  votes  are  not  unlikely  to 
produce  '  a  sense  amongst  the  Officers,' who  had  to  grapple  with  these 
men,  as  with  devouring  dragons  lately,  life  to  life.  Such  votes — will 
need  to  be  rescinded.^  Such,  and  some  others  !  For  indeed  the. 
Presbyterian  Party  has  rallied  in  the  House  during  the  late  high  blaze 
of  Royalism  ;  and  got  a  Treaty  set  on  foot  as  we  saw,  and  even  got 
the  Eleven  brought  back  again.— 

Jenner  and  Ashe  are  old  stagers,  having  entered  Parliament  at  the 
beginning.  They  are  frequently  seen  in  public  business  ;  assiduous 
subalterns.  Ashe  sat  afterwards  in  Oliver's  Parliaments. §  Of  this 
Ashe  1  will  remember  another  thing  :  once,  some  years  ago,  when 
the  House  was  about  thanking  some   Monthly-fast  Preacher,  Ashe 

*  Witness  Chepstow,  St.  Pagan's.  Pembroke  : — '  this  man'  is  Mathews. 
f  Eloane  Mss.  1519,  fol.  94. 

X  Passed,   10  November,   1648   (Commons  Journals,  vi.   3)  ;    repealed,  13  De- 
cember (with  a  Declaration ;   Somers  Tracts,  v.  167). 
§  Parliamentary  History,  xxi.  3. 


238  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 

said  pertinently,  "  What  is  the  use  of  thanking  a  Preacher  who  spoke 
so  low  that  nobody  could  hear  him  ?  "  ''^ 

Colonel  Humphrey  Mathews,  we  are  glad  to  discover, f  was  one  of 
the  persons  taken  in  Pembroke  Castle  by  Oliver  himself  in  July  last : 
brought  along  with  him,  on  the  march  towards  Preston,  and  left,  as 
the  other  Welsh  Prisoners  were,  at  Nottingham  ;— out  of  which  most 
just  durance  some  pragmatical  official,  Ashe,  Jenner,  or  another,  '  by 
what  order  I  know  not,'  has  seen  good  to  dehver  him  ;  him,  '  the 
desperatest  promoter  of  the  Welsh  Rebellion  amongst  them  all/ 
Such  is  red-tape  even  in  a  Heroic  Puritanic  Age  !  No  wonder  '  the 
Officers  have  a  sense  of  it,'  amounting  even  '  to  amazement'  Our 
blood  that  we  have  shed  in  the  Quarrel,  this  you  shall  account  as 
nothing,  since  you  so  please  ;  but  these  'manifest  witnessings  of  God, 
so  terrible  and  so  just,' — are  they  not  witnessings  of  God  ;  are  they 
mere  sports  of  chance  ?  Ye  wretched  infidel  red-tape  mortals,  what 
will  or  can  become  of  you  ?  By  and  by,  if  this  course  hold,  it  will 
appear  that  '  You  are  no  Parliament  ; '  that  you  are  a  nameless  un- 
believing rabble,  with  the  mere  title  of  Parliament,  who  must  go 
about  your  business  elsewhither,  with  soldierb'  pikes  in  your  rear- 
ward ! — 


LETTER   LIV. 

*  All  the  Regiments  here  have  petitioned  my  Lord  General  against 

*  the  Treaty'  at  Newport,  'and  for  Justice  and  a  Settlement  of  the 

*  Kingdom.  They  desired  the  Lieutenant-General  to  recommend 
'  their  Petition  ;  which  he  hath  done  in  the  Letter  following  ;'— which 
is  of  the  same  date,  and  goes  in  the  same  bag  with  that  to  Jenner 
and  Ashe,  just  given. 

For  his  Excellency  the  Lord  General  Fairfax  '  at  St.  Albans  : 

These! 

Knottingley,  20th  November,  1648. 

My  Lord, 

I  find  in  the  Officers  of  the  Regiments  a  very  great  sense  of 
the  suffenngs  of  this  poor  Kingdom  ;  and  in  them  all  a  very  great 
zeal  to  have  impartial  Justice  done  upon  Offenders.  And  I  must 
confess  I  do  in  all,  from  my  heart,  concur  with  them  ;  and  I  verily 
think  and  am  persuaded  they  are  things  which  God  puts  into  our 
hearts. 

I  shall  not  need  to  offer  anything  to  your  Excellency  :  I  know,  God 
teaches  you  ;  and  that  He  hath  manifested  His  presence  so  to  you  as 
that  you  will  give  glory  to  Him  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  world.  I  held  it 
my  duty,  having  received  these  Petitions  and  Letters,  and  being  '  so ' 
desired  by  the  framers  thereof, — to  present  them  to  you.  The  good 
Lord  work  His  will  upon  your  heart,  enabling  you  to  it;  and  the 
presence  of  Almighty  God  go  along  with  you.     Thus  prays, 

My  Lord, 
Your  most  humble  and  faithful  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

*  Rushworth,  vii.  1339.       t  D'Ewes's  ms.  p.  414.      %  Cromwelliana,  pp.  41,  42. 


KNOTTINGLEY,  239 


This  same  day,  Monday,  20th  November,  1648,  the  Army  from 
St.  Albans,  by  Colonel  Ewer  and  a  Deputation,  presents  its  humble 
unanimous  '  Remonstrance  '  to  the  House  ;  craving  that  the  same  be 
taken  '  into  speedy  and  serious  consideration.'*  It  is  indeed  a  most 
serious  Document  ;  tending  to  the  dread  Unknown  !  Whereupon 
ensue  'high  debates,'  Whether  we  shall  take  it  into  consideration  ? 
Debates  to  be  resumed  this  day  week.  The  Army,  before  this  day 
week,  moves  up  to  Windsor  ;  will  see  a  little  what  consideration  there 
is.  Newport  Treaty  is  just  expiring  ;  Presbyterian  Royalism,  on  the 
brink  of  desperate  crises,  adds  still  two  days  of  life  to  it. 


LETTER    LV. 

The  Army  came  to  Windsor  on  Saturday,  the  25th ;  on  which 
same  day  Oliver,  from  Knottingley,  is  writing  a  remarkable  Letter, 
the  last  of  the  series,  to  Hammond  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  who  seems 
to  be  in  much  strait  about  '  that  Person '  and  futile  Treaty  now  under 
his  keeping  there. 

To  Colonel  Robert  Hammond :  These. 

'  Knottingley,  near  Pontefract,' 
25th  November,  1648. 

Dear  Robin, 

No  man  rejoiceth  more  to  see  a  line  from  thee  than  myself.  I 
know  thou  hast  long  been  under  trial.  Thou  shalt  be  no  loser  by  it. 
All  '  things '  must  work  for  the  best. 

Thou  desirest  to  hear  of  my  experiences.  I  can  tell  thee  :  I  am 
such  a  one  as  thou  didst  formerly  know,  having  a  body  of  sin  and 
death  ;  but  I  thank  God,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  there  is  no 
condemnation,  though  much  infirmity;  and  I  wait  for  the  redemption. 
And  in  this  poor  condition  I  obtain  mercy,  and  sweet  consolation 
through  the  Spirit.  And  find  abundant  cause  every  day  to  exalt  the 
Lord,  and  abase  flesh, — and  hereinf  I  have  some  exercise. 

As  to  outward  dispensations,  if  we  may  so  call  them  :  we  have  not 
been  without  our  share  of  beholding  some  remarkable  providences, 
and  appearances  of  the  Lord,  His  presence  hath  been  amongst  us, 
and  by  the  light  of  His  countenance  we  have  prevailed. ^  We  are 
sure,  the  goodwill  of  Him  who  dwelt  in  the  Bush  has  shined  upon  us  ; 
and  we  can  humbly  say,  We  know  in  whom  we  have  believed  ;  who 
can  and  will  perfect  what  remaineth,  and  us  also  in  doing  what  is 
well-pleasing  in  His  eyesight. 

I  find  some  trouble  in  your  spirit ;  occasioned  first,  not  only  by  the 
continuance  of  your  sad  and  heavy  burden,  as  you  call  it,  but  '  also ' 
by  the  dissatisfaction  you  take  at  the  ways  of  some  good  men  whom 
you  love  with  your  heart,  who  through  this  principle,  That  it  is  lawful 
for  a  lesser  part,  if  in  the  right,  to  force  '  a  numerical  majority  '  &c. 

*  Commons  Journals,  vi.  81;   Remonstrance  itself  in  Rushwortli,  vii.  1330. 
f  '  and  in  the  letter  respect  at  least.'  :{:  At  Preston,  &c. 


240  S:.^GM)   CIVIL  WAR. 

To  the  first  :  Call  not  your  burden  sad  or  heavy.  If  your  Father 
laid  it  upon  you,  He  intended  neither.  He  is  the  Father  of  lights, 
from  whom  comes  every  good  and  perfect  gift  ;  who  of  His  own  will 
begot  us,  and  bade  us  count  it  all  joy  when  such  things  befal  us  ;  they 
being  for  the  exercise  of  faith  and  patience,  whereby  in  the  end 
(James  i.)  we  shall  be  made  perfect. 

Dear  Robin,  our  fleshly  reasonings  ensnare  us.  These  make  us 
say,  "  heavy,"  "  sad,"  "  pleasant,"  "  easy."  Was  there  not  a  little  of 
this  when  Robert  Hammond,  through  dissatisfaction  too,  desired  re- 
tirement from  the  Army,  and  thought  of  quiet  in  the  Isle  of  "Wight  1* 
Did  not  God  find  him  out  there  .^  I  believe  he  will  never  forget  this. 
— And  now  I  perceive  he  is  to  seek  again  ;  partly  through  his  sad 
and  heavy  burden,  and  partly  through  his  dissatisfaction  and  friends' 
actings. 

Dear  Robin,  thou  and  I  were  never  worthy  to  be  doorkeepers  in 
this  Service.  If  thou  wilt  seek,  seek  to  know  the  mind  of  God  in  all 
that  chain  of  Providence,  whereby  God  brought  thee  thither,  and  that 
Person  to  thee  ;  how,  before  and  since,  God  has  ordered  him,  and 
affairs  concerning  him  :  and  then  tell  me.  Whether  there  be  not  some 
glorious  and  high  meaning  in  all  this,  above  what  thou  hast  yet 
attained  ?  And,  laying  aside  thy  fleshly  reason,  seek  of  the  Lord  to 
teach  thee  what  that  is  ;  and  He  will  do  it.  I  dare  be  positive  to  say, 
It  is  not  that  the  wicked  should  be  exaited  that  God  should  so  appear 
as  indeed  He  hath  done  f  For  there  is  no  peace  to  them.  No,  it  is 
set  upon  the  hearts  of  such  as  fear  the  Lord,  and  we  have  witness 
upon  witness,  That  it  shall  go  ill  with  them  and  their  partakers.  I 
say  again,  seek  that  spirit  to  teach  thee  ;  which  is  the  spirit  of  know- 
ledge and  understanding,  the  spirit  of  counsel  and  might,  of  wisdom 
and  of  the  fear  of  the  Lord.  That  spirit  will  close  thine  eyes  and 
stop  thine  ears,  so  that  thou  shalt  not  judge  by  them  ;  but  thou  shalt 
judge  for  the  meek  of  the  Earth,  and  thou  shalt  be  made  able  to  do 
accordingly.  The  Lord  direct  thee  to  that  which  is  well-pleasing  in 
His  eyesight. 

As  to  thy  dissatisfaction  with  friends'  actings  upon  that  supposed 
principle,  I  wonder  not  at  that.  If  a  man  take  not  his  own  burden 
well,  he  shall  hardly  others'  ;  especially  if  involved  by  so  near  a  rela- 
tion of  love  and  Christian  brotherhood  as  thou  art.  I  shall  not  take 
upon  me  to  satisfy  ;  but  I  hold  myself  bound  to  lay  my  thoughts 
before  so  dear  a  friend      The  Lord  do  His  own  will. 

You  say  :  "  God  hath  appointed  authorities  among  the  nations,  to 
"  which  active  or  passive  obedience  is  to  be  yielded.  This  resides  in 
"  England  in  the  Parliament.  Therefore  active  or  passive  resist- 
"  ance  "  &c. 

Authorities  and  powers  are  the  ordinance  of  God.  This  or  that 
species  is  of  human  institution,  and  limited,  some  with  larger,  others 
with  stricter  banHs,  each  one  according  to  it  constitution.  '  But'  I  do 
not  therefore  think  the  Authorities  may  do  anything^\  and  yet  such 

*  6th  September  of  the  foregoing  year. 

+  For  other  purpose  >  that  God  has  so  manifested  Himself  Jas,  in  these  transactions 
of  ours,  He  has  done. 

J  Whatsoever  they  hke,  , 


KNOTTINGLEY.  il\ 


obedience  be  due.  All  agree  that  there  are  cases  in  which  it  is  lawful 
to  resist.  If  so,  your  ground  fails,  and  so  likewise  the  inference. 
Indeed,  dear  Robin,  not  to  multiply  words,  the  query  is,  Whether 
ours  be  such  a  case  .'*     This  ingenuously  is  the  true  question. 

To  this  I  shall  say  nothing,  though  I  could  say  very  much  ;  but 
only  desire  thee  to  see  what  thou  findest  in  thy  own  heart  to  two  or 
three  plain  considerations  :  First,  Whether  Sains  Populihe  a  sound 
position  ?*  Secondly,  whether  in  the  way  in  hand,t  really  and  before 
the  Lord,  before  whom  conscience  has  to  stand,  this  be  provided  for  ; 
— or  if  the  whole  fruit  of  the  War  is  not  like  to  be  frustrated,  and 
*all  most  like  to  turn  to  what  it  was,  and  worse  1  And  this,  contrary 
to  Engagements,  explicit  Covenants  with  those  %  who  ventured  their 
lives  upon  those  Covenants  and  Engagements,  without  whom  perhaps, 
in  equity,  relaxation  ought  not  to  be  ?  Thirdly,  Whether  this  Army 
be  not  a  lawful  Power,  called  by  God  to  oppose  and  fight  against  the 
King  upon  some  stated  grounds  ;  and  being  in  power  to  such  ends, 
may  not  oppose  one  Name  of  Authority,  for  those  ends,  as  well  as 
another  Name, — since  it  was  not  the  outward  Authority  summoning 
them  that  by  its  power  made  the  quarrel  lawful,  but  the  quarrel  was 
lawful  in  itself  ?  If  so,  it  may  be,  acting  will  be  justified  in  foro  hii- 
mano. — But  truly  this  kind  of  reasonings  may  be  but  fleshly,  either 
with  or  against  :  only  it  is  good  to  try  what  truth  may  be  in  them. 
And  the  Lord  teach  us. 

My  dear  Friend,  let  us  look  into  providences  ;  surely  they  mean 
somewhat.  They  hang  so  together  ;  have  been  so  constant,  so  clear, 
unclouded.  Malice,  swoln  malice  against  God's  people,  now  called 
"  Saints,"  to  root  out  their  name  ; — and  yet  they,  '  these  poor  Saints,' 
getting  arms,  and  therein  blessed  with  defence  and  more  ! — I  desire, 
he  that  is  for  a  principle  of  suffering§  would  not  too  much  slight  this. 
I  slight  not  him  who  is  so  minded  :  but  let  us  beware  lest  fleshly  rea- 
soning see  more  safety  in  making  use  of  this  principle  than  in  act- 
ing !  Who  acts,  if  he  resolve  not  through  God  to  be  willing  to  part 
with  all .''  Our  hearts  are  very  deceitful,  on  the  right  and  on  the 
left. 

What  think  you  of  Providence  disposing  the  hearts  of  so  many  of 
God's  people  this  way, — especially  in  this  poor  Army,  wherein  the 
great  God  has  vouchsafed  to  appear  !  I  know  not  one  Officer  among 
us  but  is  on  the  increasing  hand.||  And  let  me  say,  it  is  after  much 
patience, — here  in  the  North.  We  trust,  the  same  Lord  who  hath 
framed  our  minds  in  our  actings  is  with  us  in  this  also.  And  all 
contrary  to  a  natural  tendency,  and  to  those  comforts  our  heart 
could  wish  to  enjoy  as  well  as  others.  And  the  difficulties  probably 
to  be  encountered  with,  and  the  enemies  : — not  few  ;  even  all  that  is 
glorious  in  this  world.  Appearance  of  united  names,  titles  and  autho- 
rities 'all  against  us;' — and  yet  not  terrified  'we  ;'  only  desiring  to 

*  '  The  safety  of  the  people  the  supreme  law  :'  is  that  a  true  doctrine  or  a  false 
one? 
t  By  this  Parliamentary  Treaty  with  the  King, 
t  Us  soldiers. 
§  Passive  obedience, 
jl  Come  or  coniing  over  to  this  opinion, 


242  SECOND  CIVIL   WAR. 


fear  our  great  God,  that  we  do  nothing  against  His  will.  Truly  this 
is  our  condition."^ 

And  to  conclude.  We  in  this  Northern  Army  were  in  a  waiting 
posture  ;  desiring  to  see  what  the  Lord  would  lead  us  to.  And  a  De- 
clarationf  is  put  out,  at  which  many  are  shaken  : — although  we  could 
perhaps  have  wished  the  stay  of  it  till  after  the  Treaty,  yet  seeing  it 
is  come  out,  we  trust  to  rejoice  in  the  will  of  the  Lord,  waiting  His 
farther  pleasure. — Dear  Robin,  beware  of  men  ;  look  up  to  the  Lord. 
Let  Him  be  free  to  speak  and  command  in  thy  heart.  Take  heed  of 
the  things  I  fear  thou  hast  reasoned  thyself  into  ;  and  thou  shalt  be 
able  through  Him,  without  consulting  flesh  and  blood,  to  do  valiantly 
for  Him  and  His  people. 

Thou  mentionest  somewhat  as  if,  by  acting  against  such  opposition 
as  is  like  to  be,  there  will  be  a  tempting  of  God.  Dear  Robin,  tempt- 
ing of  God  ordinarily  is  either  by  acting  presumptuously  in  carnal 
confidence,  or  in  unbelief  through  diffidence  :  both  these  ways  Israel 
tempted  God  in  the  wilderness,  and  He  was  grieved  by  them.  Not 
the  encountering  'of  difficulties,  therefore,  makes  us  to  tempt  God  ; 
but  the  acting  before  and  without  faith. :|:  If  the  Lord  have  in  any 
measure  persuaded  His  people,  as  generally  He  hath,  of  the  lawful- 
ness, nay  of  the  duty, — this  persuasion  prevailing  upon  the  heart  is 
faith  ;  and  acting  thereupon  is  acting  in  faith  ;  and  the  more  the  diffi- 
culties are,  the  more  the  faith.  And  it  is  most  sweet  that  he  who  is 
not  persuaded  have  patience  towards  them  that  are,  and  judge  not : 
and  this  will  free  thee  from  the  trouble  of  others'  actings,  which,  thou 
sayest,  adds  to  thy  grief  Only  let  me  offer  two  or  three  things,  and  I 
have  done. 

Dost  thou  not  think  this  fear  of  the  Levellers  (of  whom  there  is  no 
fear)  "  that  they  would  destroy  Nobility,"  '  &c.'  has  caused  some  to 
take  up  corruption,  and  find  it  lawful  to  make  this  ruining  hypocritical 
Agreement,  on  one  part .''  §  Hath  not  this  biassed  even  some  good 
men?  I  will  not  say,  the  thing  they  fear  will  come  upon  tl^em  ;  but 
if  it  do,  they  will  themselves  bring  it  upon  themselves.  Have  not 
some  of  our  friends,  by  their  passive  principle  (which  I  judge  not, 
only  I  think  it  liable  to  temptation  as  well  as  the  active,  and  neither 
of  them  good  but  as  we  are  led  into  them  of  God,  and  neither  of  them 
to  be  reasoned  into,  because  the  heart  is  deceitful), — been  occasioned 
to  overlook  what  is  just  and  honest,  and  to  think  the  people  of  God 
may  have  as  much  or  more  good  the  one  way  than  the  other  ?  Good 
by  this  Man, — against  whom  the  Lord  hath  witnessed  ;  and  whom 

*  The  incorrect  original,  rushing  on  in  an  eager  ungrammatical  manner,  were  it 
not  that  common  readers  might  miss  the  meaning  of  it,  would  please  me  better  ;  at 
any  rate  I  subjoin  it  here  as  somewhat  characteristic:  '  And  let  me  say  it  is  here  in 
'  the  North  after  much  patience,  we  trust  the  same  Lord  who  hath  framed  our 
'  minds  in  our  actings  is  with  us  in  this  also.  And  this  contrary  to  a  natural  ten- 
'dency,  and  to  those  comforts  our  hearts  could  wish  to  enjoy  with  others.  And 
•  the  dfficulties  probably  to  be  encountered  with,  and  the  enemies,  not  few,  even 
'  all  that  is  glorious  in  this  world,  with  appearance  of  united  names,  titles  and 
'authorities,  and  yet  not  terrified,  only'  &c. 

f  Remonstrance  of  the  Army,  presented  by  Ewer  on  Monday  last. 

X  Very  true,  my  Lord  General, — then,  now,  and  always  ! 

§  Hollow  Treaty  at  Newport, 


HURST  CASTLE.  ^4^ 


thou  knowest  !     Is  this  so  in  their  hearts  ;  or  is  it  reasoned,  forced 


in 


?* 


Robin,  I  have  done.  Ask  we  our  hearts,  Whether  we  think  that, 
after  all,  these  dispensations,  the  like  to  which  many  generations  can- 
not afford,— should  end  in  so  corrupt  reasonings  of  good  men  ;  and 
should  so  hit  the  designings  of  bad  ?  Thinkest  thou  in  thy  heart  that 
the  glorious  dispensations  of  God  point  out  to  this  ?  Or  to  teach  His 
people  to  trust  in  Him,  and  to  wait  for  better  things,— when,  it  may 
be,  better  are  sealed  to  many  of  their  spirits  ?t  And  I,  as  a  poor 
looker-on,  I  had  rather  live  in  the  hope  of  that  spirit  '  which 
believes  that  God  doth  so  teach  us,'  and  take  my  share  with 
them,  expecting  a  good  issue,  than  be  led  away  with  the  others. 

This  trouble  I  have  been  at,  because  my  soul  loves  thee,  and  I 
would  not  have  thee  swerve,  or  lose  any  glorious  opportunity  the  Lord 
puts  into  thy  hand.  The  Lord  be  thy  counsellor.  Dear  Robin,  I 
rest  thine, 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

Colonel  Hammond,  the  ingenuous  young  man  whom  Oliver  much 
loves,  did  not  receive  this  Letter  at  the  Isle  of  Wight  whither  it  was 
directed  ;  young  Colonel  Hammond  is  no  longer  there.  On  Monday 
the  27th,  there  came  to  him  Colonel  Ewer,  he  of  the  Remonstrance  ; 
Colonel  Ewer  with  new  force,  with  an  Order  from  the  Lord  Cicneral 
and  Army  Council  that  Colonel  Hammond  do  straightway  repair  to 
Windsor,  being  wanted  at  head-quarters  there.  A  young  Colonel, 
with  dubitations  such  as  those  of  Hammond's,  will  not  suit  in  that 
Isle  at  present.  Ewer,  on  the  Tuesday  night,  a  night  of  storm  and 
pouring  rain,  besets  his  Majesty's  lodgings  in  the  Town  of  Newport 
(for  his  Majesty  is  still  on  parole  there)  with  strange  soldiers,  in  a 
strange  state  of  readiness,  the  smoke  of  their  gun-matches  poisoning 
the  air  of  his  Majesty's  apartment  itself; — and  on  the  morrow  morning 
at  eight  of  the  clock,  calls  out  his  Majesty's  coach  ;  moves  off  with 
his  Majesty  in  grim  reticence  and  rigorous  military- order,  to  Hurst 
Castle,  a  small  solitary  stronghold  on  the  opposite  beach  yonder.  § 

For  at  London  matters  are  coming  rapidly  to  a  crisis.  The  re- 
sumed debate,  "  Shall  the  Army  Remonstrance  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration.? "  does  not  come  out  affirmative;  on  the  contrary,  on 
Monday  the  30th,  it  comes  out  negative  by  a  Majority  of  Ninety  : 
"  No,  we  will  not  take  it  into  consideration."  No?  The  Army  at 
Windsor,  thereupon,  spends  again  '  a  Day  in  Prayer.'  The  Army  at 
Windsor  has  decided  on  the  morrow  that  it  will  march  to  London  ; — 
marches,  arrives,  accordingly,  on  Saturday  December  2nd  ;  quarters 
itself  in  Whitehall,  in  St.  James's  ;  'and  other  great  vacant  Houses  in 
'the  skirts  of  the  City  and  Villages  about,  no  offence  being  given  any- 

*  I  think  it  is  '  reasoned  '  in,  and  by  bad  arguments  too,  my  Lord  General ! 
The  inner  heart  of  the  men  in  real  contact  with'the  inner  heart  of  the  matter  had 
little  to  do  with  all  that  : — alas,  ^cas  there  e\er  any  such  'contact'  with  the  real 
truth  of  any  inaiter,  on  the  part  of  such  men,  your  Excellency  ! 

f  Already  indubitably  sure  to  many  of  them. 

X  Birch,  p.  101  ;  ends  the  \'olume. 

§  Colonel  Cooks  Narrative,  in  Rushworth,  vii.  1344. 


V 


244  SEC'dNb  CIVIL  IvAR. 

'  where.'*  In  the  drama  of  Modern  History  one  knows  not  any 
graver,  more  noteworthy  scene  ; — earnest  as  very  Death  and  Judg- 
ment. They  have  decided  to  have  Justice,  these  men  ;  to  see  God's 
Justice  done,  and  His  judgments  executed  on  this  Earth.  The 
abysses  where  the  thunders  and  the  splendours  are  bred, — the  reader 
sees  them  again  hiid  bare  :  and  black  Madness  lying  close  to  the 
Wisdom  which  is  brightest  and  highest  ;— and  owls  and  godless  mxen 
who  hate  the  lightning  and  the  light,  and  love  the  mephitic  dusk  and 
darkness,  are  no  judges  of  the  actions  of  heroes  !  '  Shedders  of 
blood  ? '  Yes,  blood  is  occasionally  shed.  The  healing  Surgeon,  the 
sacrificial  Priest,  the  august  Judge  pronouncer  of  God's  oracles  to 
men,  tiiese  and  the  atrocious  Murderer  are  alike  shedders  of  blood  ; 
and  it  is  an  owl's  eye  that,  except  for  the  dresses  they  wear,  discerns 
no  difference  in  these  ! — Let  us  leave  the  owl  to  his  hootings  ;  let  us 
get  on  with  our  Chronology  and  swift  course  of  events. 

On  Monday^  \th  December^  the  House,  for  the  last  time,  takes 
'  into  farther  debate' the  desperate  question.  Whether  his  Majesty's 
concessions  in  that  Treaty  of  Newport  are  a  ground  of  settlement  ? 
— debates  it  all  Monday  ;  has  debated  it  all  Friday  and  Saturday 
before.  Debates  it  all  Monday,  till  five  o'clock  next  morning  ; '  at 
five  o'clock  next  morning,  decides  it.  Yea.  By  a  Majority  of  Forty- 
six,  One  hundred  and  twenty-nine  to  Eighty-three,  it  is  at  five  o'clock 
on  Tuesday  morning  decided,  Yea,  they  are  a  ground  of  settlement. 
The  Army  Chiefs  and  the  Minority  consult  together,  in  deep  and 
deepest  deliberation,  through  the  night  ;  not,  I  suppose,  without 
Prayer  ;  and  on  the  morrow  morning  this  is  what  we  see  : 

Wednesday,  6th  December,  1648,  '  Colonel  Rich's  regiment  of  horse 
'and  Colonel  Pride's  regiment  of  foot  were  a  guard  to  the  Parliament ; 
'and  the  City  Trainbands  were  discharged'  from  that  employment.! 
Yes,  they  were  !  Colonel  Rich's  horse  stand  ranked  in  Palaceyard, 
Colonel  Pride's  foot  in  Westminster  Hall  and  at  all  entrances  to  the 
Commons  House,  this  day  :  and  in  Colonel  Pride's  hand  is  a  written 
list  of  names,  names  of  the  chief  among  the  Hundred  and  twenty-nine  ; 
and  at  his  side  is  my  Lord  Grey  of  Groby,  who,  as  this  Member  after 
that  comes  up,  whispers  or  beckons,  "  He  is  one  of  them,  he  cannot 
enter  ! "  And  Pride  gives  the  word,  "  To  the  Queen's  Court ;  "  and 
Member  after  Member  is  marched  thither,  Forty-one  of  them  this 
day  ;  and  kept  there  in  a  state  bordering  on  rabidity,  asking.  By  what 
Law.?  and  ever  agnin,  By  what  Law?  Is  there  a  colour  or  faintest 
shadow  of  Law,  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  Books,  Yearbooks,  Rolls  of 
Parliament,  Bractons,  Fletas,  Cokes  upon  Lyttleton,  for  this.?  Hugh 
Peters  visits  them  ;  has  little  comfort,  no  light  as  to  the  Law  ; 
confesses,  "  It  is  by  the  Law  of  Necessity  ;  truly,  by  the  Power  of 
me  Sword." 

It  must  be  owned  the  Constable's  baton  is  fairly  down,  this  day  ; 
overborne  by  the  Power  of  the  Sword,  and  a  Law  not  to  be  found  in 
any  of  the  Books.  At  night  the  distracted  Forty-one  are  marched 
to  Mr.  Duke's  Tavern  hard-by,  a  '  Tavern  called  Hell  ; '  and  very 
imperfectly  accommodated  for  the  night.  Sir  Symonds  D'Ewes,  who 
has  ceased  taking  notes  long  since  ;  Mr.  William  Prynne,  louder  than 
*  Rushworth,  vii.  1350.  f  Ibid.  vii.  1353. 


DEA  TH-  WA  RkA  N  T. 


any  in  the  question  of  Law  ;  Waller,  Massey,  Harley,  and  others  of 
the  old  Eleven,  are  of  this  unlucky  Forty-one  ;  among  whom  too  we 
count  little  Clement  Walker  '  in  his  grey  suit  with  his  little  stick,'* — 
asking  in  the  voice  of  the  indomitablest  terrier  or  Blenheim  cocker, 
*•  By  what  Law  ?  I  ask  again.  By  what  Law  ?  "  Whom  no  mortal 
will  ever  be  able  to  answer.  Such  is  the  far-famed  Purging  of  the 
House  by  Colonel  Pride. 

This  evening,  while  the  Forty- one  are  getting  lodged  in  Mr.  Duke's, 
Lieutenant-General  Cromwell  came  to  Town.  Pontefract  Castle 
is  not  taken  ;  he  has  left  Lambert  looking  after  that,  and  come  up 
hither  to  look  after  more  important  things. 

The  Commons  on  Wednesday  did  send  out  to  demand  '  the  Mem- 
bers of  this  House '  from  Colonel  Pride  ;  but  Pride  made  respectful 
evasive  answer  ; — could  not  for  the  moment  comply  with  the  desires 
of  the  honourable  House.  On  the  Thursday  Lieutenant- General 
Cromwell  is  thanked  ;  and  Pride's  Purge  continues  :  new  men  of  the 
Majority  are  seized  ;  others  scared  away  need  no  seizing  ; — above  a 
Hundred  in  all  ;t  who  are  sent  into  their  countries,  sent  into  the 
Tower  ;  sent  out  of  our  way,  and  trouble  us  no  farther.  The  Minority 
has  now  become  Majority  ;  there  is  now  clear  course  for  it,  clear 
resolution  there  has  for  some  time  back  been  in  it.  What  its  resolu- 
tion was,  and  its  action  that  it  did  in  pursuance  thereof,  '  an  action 
not  done  in  a  corner,  but  in  sight  of  all  the  Nations,'  and  of  God  who 
made  the  Nations,  we  know,  and  the  whole  world  knows  ! — 


DEATH-WARRANT. 


The  Trial  of  Charles  Stuart  falls  not  to  be  described  in  this  place  ; 
the  deep  meanings  that  lie  in  it  cannot  be  so  much  as  glanced  at  here. 
Oliver  Cromwell  attends  in  the  High  Court  of  Justice  at  every  session 
except  one  ;  Fairfax  sits  only  in  the  first.  Ludlow,  Whalley,  Walton, 
names  known  to  us,  are  also  constant  attendants  in  that  High  Court, 
during  that  long-memorable  Month  of  January,  1649.  The  King  is 
thrice  brought  to  the  Bar  ;  refuses  to  plead,  comports  himself  with 
royal  dignity,  with  royal  haughtiness,  strong  in  his  divine  right  ; 
'smiles'  contemptuously,  'looks  with  an  austere  countenance;' — • 
does  not  seem,  till  the  very  last,  to  have  fairly  believed  that  they 
would  dare  to  sentence  him.  But  they  were  men  sufficiently  provided 
with  daring ;  men,  we  are  bound  to  see,  who  sat  there  as  in  the 
Presence  of  the  Maker  of  all  men,  as  executing  the  judgments  of 
Heaven  above,  and  had  not  the  fear  of  any  man  or  thing  on  the 
Earth  below.  Bradshaw  said  to  the  King,  "  Sir,  you  are  not  per- 
"  mitted  to  issue  out  in  these  discoursings.  This  Court  is  satisfied  of 
"  its  authority.  No  Court  will  bear  to  hear  its  authority  questioned  in 
"  that  manner." — "  Clerk  read  the  Sentence  !  "  — 

And  so,  under  date  29th  January,  1648-9,  there  is  the  stern  Docu- 

*  List  in  Rushworth,  p,  1355. 

t  List  in  Somers  Tracts,  vi.  37  ;  — very  incorrect,  as  all  the  Lists  arc.         ,• 


246  SECOND  CIVIL  WAR. 

ment  to  be  introduced  ;  not  specifically  of  Oliver's  composition  ;  but 
expressing  in  every  letter  of  it  the  conviction  of  Oliver's  heart,  in 
this,  one  of  his  most  important  appearances  on  the  stage  of  earthly 
life. 

To  Colonel  Francis  Hacker,  Colonel  Himcks,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Phayr,  a?td  to  every  of  them. 

At  the  High  Court  of  Justice  for  the  Trying 
and  Judging  of  Charles  Stuart,  King  of 
England,  29th  January,  1648. 

Whereas  Charles  Stuart,  King  of  England,  is  and  standeth  con- 
victed, attainted  and  condemned  of  High  Treason  and  other  high 
Crimes ;  and  Sentence  upon  Saturday  last  was  pronounced  against 
him  by  this  Court,  To  be  put  to  death  by  the  severing  of  his  head 
from  his  body ;  of  which  Sentence  execution  yet  remaiheth  to  be 
done  : 

These  are  therefore  to  will  and  require  you  to  see  the  said  Sentence 
executed,  in  the  open  Street  before  Whitehall,  upon  the  morrow,  being 
the  Thirtieth  day  of  this  instant  month  of  January,  between  the  hours 
of  Ten  in  the  morning  and  Five  in  the  afternoon,  with  full  effect. 
And  for  so  doing,  this  shall  be  your  warrant. 

And  these  are  to  require  all  Officers  and  Soldiers,  and  others  the 
good  People  of  this  Nation  of  England,  to  be  assisting  unto  you  in 
this  service. 

Given  under  our  hands  and  seals, 

John  Bradshaw. 

Thomas  Grey,  *  Lord  Groby/ 

OliVer  Cromwell. 

('  and  Fifty-six  others.')* 

"  ipsis  molossis  ferociores,  More  savage  than  their  own  mastiffs  !" 
shrieks  Saumaise  ;t  shrieks  all  the  world,  in  unmelodious  soul-con- 
fusing diapason  of  distraction,— happily  at  length  grown  very  faint  in 
our  day.  The  truth  is,  no  modern  reader  can  conceive  the  then 
atrocity,  ferocity,  unspeakability  of  this  fact.  First,  after  long  reading 
in  the  old  dead  Pamphlets  does  one  see  the  magnitude  of  it.  To  be 
equalled,  nay  to  be  preferred  think  some  in  point  of  horror,  to  '  the 
Crucifixion  of  Christ.'  Alas,  in  these  irrevereSnt  times  of  ours,  if  all 
the  Kings  of  Europe  were  to  be  cut  in  pieces  at  one  swoop,  and  flung 
in  heaps  in  St.  Margaret's  Churchyard  on  the  same  day,  the  emotion 
would,  in  strict  arithmetical  truth,  be  small  in  comparison  !  We 
know  it  hot,  this  atrocity  of  the  English  Regicides  ;  shall  never  know 
it.  I  reckon  it  perhaps  the  most  daring  action  any  Body  of  Men  to 
be  met  with  in  History  ever,  with  clear  consciousness,  deliberately 
set  themselves  to  do.     Dread  Phantoms,  glaring  supernal  on  you, — 

■*  Rushworth,  vii.    1426  ;    Nalson's   Trial  of   King  Charles  (London,    1684) ; 
Phelpes's  Trial  of  &c.  &e. 
•J-  balmasii  Clamor  Regii  Sanguinis. 


DEA  TH-  WARRANT.  247 

when  once  they  are  quelled  and  their  light  snuffed  out,  none  knows 
the  terror  of  the  Phantom  !  The  Phantom  is  a  poor  paper-lantern 
with  a  candle-end  in  it,  which  any  whipster  dare  now  beard. 

A  certain  Queen  in  some  South-Sea  Island,  I  have  read  in  Mis- 
sionary Books,  had  been  converted  to  Christianity  ;  did  not  any 
longer  believe  in  the  old  gods.  She  assembled  her  people  ;  said  to 
them,  "  My  faithful  People,  the  gods  do  not  dwell  in  that  burning- 
mountain  in  the  centre  of  our  Isle.  That  is  not  God  ;  no,  that  is  a 
common  burning-mountain, — mere  culinary  fire  burning  under  pecu- 
liar circumstances.  See,  I  will  walk  before  you  to  that  burning- 
mountain  ;  will  empty  my  washbowl  into  it,  cast  my  slipper  over  it, 
defy  it  to  the  uttermost,  and  stand  the  consequences  !" — She  walked 
accordingly,  this  South-Sea  Heroine,  nerved  to  the  sticking-place  ; 
her  people  following  in  pale  horror  and  expectancy  :  she  did  her 
experiment  ; — and,  I  am  told,  they  have  truer  notions  of  the  gods  in 
that  Island  ever  since  !  Experiment  which  it  is  now  very  easy  to 
repeat,  and  very  needless.  Honour  to  the  Brave  who  deliver  us 
from  Phantom-dynasties,  in  South-Sea  Islands  and  in  North  ! 

This  action  of  the  English  Regicides  did  in  effect  strike  a  damp 
like  death  through  the  heart  of  Flunkeyism  universally  in  this  world. 
Whereof  Flunkeyism,  Cant,  Cloth-worship,  or  whatever  ugly  name 
it  have,  has  gone  about  incurably  sick  ever  since  ;  and  is  now  at 
length,  in  these  generations,  very  rapidly  dying.  The  like  of  which 
action  will  not  be  needed  for  a  thousand  years  again.  Needed,  alas 
— not  till  a  new  genuine  Hero-worship  has  arisen,  has  perfected 
itself;  and  had  time  to  degenerate  into  a  Flunkeyism  and  Cloth- 
worship  again  !     Which  I  take  to  be  a  very  long  date  indeed. 

Thus  ends  the  Second  Civil  War.  In  Regicide,  in  a  Common- 
wealth and  Keepers  of  the  Liberties  of  England.  In  punishment  of 
Delinquents,  in  abolition  of  Cobwebs  ; — if  it  be  possible  in  a  Govern- 
ment of  Heroism  and  Veracity ;  at  lowest,  of  Anti-Flunkeyism,  Anti- 
Cant,  and  the  endeavour  after  Heroism  and  Veracity. 


END  OF  VOL.  L 


Oliver  Cromwell's 


LETTERS  AND   SPEECHES 


IVITH  ELUCIDATIONS 


BY 

THOMAS  CARLYLE 


IN   THREE    VOLUMES 

Vol.  H. 


GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  AND  SONS 

New-York  :  9  Lafayette  Place 
london  and  glasgow 


CONTENTS, 


CROMWELL'S   LETTERS   AND    SPEECHES. 

PART  V. 

Campaign  in  Ireland.     1649. 

PAGE 

Letter  LVL  To  Rev.  Mr.  Robinson  :  London,  i  Feb.  1648-9     .          .12 
This  Letter  and  the  three  following  relate  to  Richard  CromweU's 
Marriage. 

Pass 


Letter  LVIL  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq.:  London,  12  Feb.  1648-9 

Order  

1  ETTER  LVIII.  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq.:  London,  26  Feb.  1648-9 

„  LIX.  To  the  same  :  London,  8  March,  1648-9 

„  LX.   To  Dr.  Love  :  London,  14  March,  164S-9   . 

Recommends  a  Suitor  to  him. 


„  LXL  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq.:  London,  14  March,  16,8-9    . 

This  and  the  .'our  following  relate  to  Richard  Crom well's  Marriage 

,,          LXIL  To  the  same :  London,  25  March,  1649 
„        LXIIL  To  the  same  :  London,  30  March,  1649 
,,         LXIV.  To  the  same  :  London,  6  April,  1649  . 
„           LXV.  To  the  same:   London,  15  April,  1649. 
The  Levellers .        , 

Letter  LXVI.  To  Hon.  W.  Lsnthall  .  London,  10  July,  1649     .  34 

Recommends  Mr    Lowry,  his  fellow  Member. 

,,       LXVIL   To  R    Mayor,  Esq  :   Bristol,  19  June,  1649  •  •         '35 

Jn  ?it^5wer  to  fi  Recommendation.. 


13 
14 

IS 

16 
17 
19 


CONTENTS. 


I'AGK 

Letter  LXVIII.  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq.:  Milfoid  Haven,  13  Aug.  1649    .     37 

News   received   from   Iieland  ;  Jones's  Defeat  of  Ormond 
near  Bagatrath. 

„  LXIX.  To  Mrs.  Richard  Cromwell  :  Milford  Haven,  13  Aug. 

1649 38 

Religious  Advices. 

Irish  War  .        • 40 

Letter   LXX.  To  President  Bradshavir  :  Dublin,  16  Sept.  1649     .         ,     44 
Storm  of  Drogheda. 

„        LXXI.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall  :  Dublin,  17  Sept.  1649       .         .     45 
The  same. 


„      LXXn.  To  the  same  :  Wexford,  14  Oct.  1649    , 
March  to  Wexford  ;  Capture  of  Wexford. 

„    LXXHL  To  Governor  Taaf :  Ross,  17  Oct.  1649 

Ross  summoned. 

„     LXXIV.  To  the  same  :  Ross,  19  Oct.  1649 
Terms  for  Ross. 


LXXV.  To  the  same  :  same  date         .        •        • 
Same  subject. 

LXXVL  To  the  same  :  same  date 

Same  subject. 

LXXVn.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall  :  Ross,  25  Oct.  1649 
Account  of  the  Gaining  of  Ross. 

LXXVni.  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq  :  Ross,  13  Nov.  1649 
Irish  News,  and  Family  Affairs. 


50 
54 

55 
56 
57 
58 
59 


„     LXXIX.   To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall  :  Ross,  14  Nov.  1649  .         .     60 

Proceedings  in  Munster :  Cork,  Youghal,  Baltimore,  Castle- 
haven  ;  other  Mercies. 

„       LXXX.  To  the  same  :  Waterford,  Nov.  1649     .         .         .         .64 

Reynolds  takes  Carrick-on-Suir  ;  defends  it  gallantly :  Reflec- 
tions. 

„     LXXXL  To  the  same  :  Cork,  19  Dec.  1649        .         .         .         .68 

Waterford  not  taken  ;  Death  of  Lieut. -Gen.  Michael  Jones  ; 
Repulse  of  the  enemy  at  Passage. 

„  LXXXn.  To  the  same  :  Castletown,  15  Feb.  1649-50.         .         .     71 
New  Campaign  :  Reduction  of  many  places  in  Tipperary  and 
the  Southwest. 

„  LXXXHL  To  President  Bradshaw  :  Cashel,  5  March,  1649-50      .     75 
Progress  of  the  Campaig;n  :  Cahir  Cas^k. 


CONTENTS,  5 


I' AGE 

LiiTTER  LXXXIV.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall  :  Carrick,  2  April,  1650      .       75 
The  same  :  Kilkenny  taken  ;  Col.  Hewson. 

LXXXV.  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq. :  Carrick,  2  April,  1650 .          .       8c3 
Reflections  on  the  Mercies  in  Ireland. 


PART  VI. 
War  with  Scotland.     1650-51. 

Letter  LXXXVI.  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq.  :  Alnwick,  17  July,  165O  .       92 

Concerning  his  Son  and  Daughter-in-law. 

,,     LXXXVII.  To  President Bradshaw:  Mu.>5selburgh,  30  July,  1650       94 
Appearance  before  Edinburgh  :  Lesley  within  his  lines. 

„  LXXXVIII.  To    Scots    Committee    of   Estates :    Musselburgh, 

3  Aug.  1650  . 97 

Remonstrates  on  their  dangerous  courses,  on  their  unchristian 
conduct  towards  him. 

„     LXXXIX.  To  Gen.  Lesley  :  Camp  at  Pentland  Hills,  14  Aug. 

1650 100 

Answer  to  Lesley's  Message  and  Declaration.  / 

„  XC.  To  the  Council  of    State  :   Musselburgh,    30  Aug. 

1650 103 

Progress  of  the  Scotch  Campaign  :  Skirmish  on  the  Stirling 
Road,  no  Battle  ;  retreat  to  the  eastward  again. 

Battle  of  Dunbar 105 

LETTE.R  XCI.  To  Sir  A.  Haselrig  :  Dunbar,  2  Sept.  1650    ...     106 
Day  before  Dunbar  Battle, 

,,       XCH.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall  :  Dunbar,  4  Sept.  1650       .         .112 
Of  Dunbar  Battle  :— This  Letter  and  the  next  three. 

„     XCHL  To  President  Bradshaw  :  Dunbar,  4  Sept.  1650    .         .     117 

„      XC IV.  To  Mrs.  Cromwell  :  Dunbar,  4  Sept.  1650    .         .         .118 

,,        XCV.  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq.,  Dunbar,  4  Sept.  1650    .         .         .119 

,,      XCVI.  To  Governor  Dundas  :  Edinburgh,  9  Sept.  1650    .         .     121 
Has  offered  to  let  the   Ministers  in  Edinburgh  Castle  preach 
in  the  City  :  Rebuke  for  their  Refusal. 

jj    XCVn.  To  the  same  :  Edinburgh,  12  Sept.  1650      .         .         .124 
Second  more  deliberate  Rebuke    with  Queries. 


6 


CONTENTS, 


Queries 

Letter  XCVIII.  To  President  Bradshaw  :  Edinburgh,  25  Sept.  1650 
Has  marched  towards  Stirling,  but  been  obliged  to  return. 

„            XCIX.  To  Scots  Committee  of  Estates :  Linlithgow,  9  Oct 
1650 

Remonstrates  again  with  them  concerning  the  folly  and  im 
piety  of  this  War. 

Proclamation  .......... 


f^ETTER  C.  To  Hon.  W  Lenthall :  Edinburgh,  4  Dec.  1650 

Progress  of  Scotch  affairs :  Ker  and  Strahan. 

,,       CI.  To  Governor  Dundas  :  Edinburgh,  12  Dec.  1650 

This  and  the  six  following,  with  the  Pass  and  Proclamation,  relate 
to  the  Siege  of  Edinburgh  Castle. 

„     CII.  To  the  same  :  same  date  .         .         , 

,,   CIIL  To  the  same:  Edinburgh,  13  Dec.  1650 

,,    CIV.  To  the  same:  Edinburgh,  14  Dec.  1650 

,,      CV.  To  the  same:  same  date    . 

,,    CVI.  To  the  same  :  Edinburgh,  18  Dec.  1650 

,,  CVII.  To  the  same  :  same  date    . 


Pass 


Proclamation 


Letter  CVIII.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall:  Edinburgh,  24  Dec.  1650 

Edinl  urgh  Castle  surrendered. 

„  CIX.  To  Col.  Hacker  :  Edinburgh,  25  Dec.  1650 

Capt.  Empson's  Commission  cannot  be  revoked.     Censures  a 
phrase  of  Hacker's. 

ff  ex.  To  Gen.  Lesley:  Edinburgh.  17  Jan.  1650-I 

Provost  Jaffray,  Rev.  Messrs.  Waugh  and  Carstairs. 

,,            CXL  To  Scots  Committee  of  Estates  :  Edinburgh,  17  Jan. 
1650-1    

Augustin,  the  German  Mosstrooper. 

CXII.  To  Committee  of  Army  :  Edmburgh,  4  Feb.  1650-1 
Symonds  and  the  Medal  for  Dunbar  Battle. 


128 


129 

m 
140 

141 
142 

143 

144 

145 
146 
146 
146 

147 
149 

151 

154 
155 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Letter  CXIII.  To    President     Bradshaw:    Edinburgh)    24    March, 


1650-1 


Has  beert  dangerously  unwell  ;  thanks  foJr  their  inquiring  after 
him. 

),  CXIV.  To  Mrs.  Cromwell :  Edinburgh,  12  April,  1651 

Domestic.     The  Lord  Herbert.     Richard  and  the  other  Chil 
dren. 

',,  CXV.  To  Hon.  A.  Johnston :  Edinburgh,  12  April,  1651 

PubHc  Registers  of  Scotland. 


Second  Visit  to  Glasgow 


Letter  CXVL  To  Mrs.  Cromwell :  Fdinburgh,  3  May,  1651      . 
Domestic.     Regards  to  his  Mother. 

„       CXVII.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall :  LinUthgow,  21  July,  1651 
Inverkeithing  Fight. 

„     CXVni.  To  President  Bradshaw:  Dundas,  24  July,  1651 
Gone  over  to  Fife. 

„        CXIX.  To  the  same:  Linlithgow,  26  July,  1651      . 

Inchgarvie  surrendered. 

„  CXX.  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq.:  Burntisland,  28  July,  1651 

Rebukes  his  Son  Richard  for  excess  in  expenditure. 

9,        CXXI.  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall:  Burntisland,  29 July,  1651 
Burntisland.     Army  mostly  in  Fife. 

„      CXXIL  To  the  same  :  Leith,  4  Aug.  1651 

St.  Johnston  taken  :  the  Enemy  suddenly  gone  southward. 

Battle  of  Worcester 


Letter  CXXHL  To  Hon.  W.  Lenthall :    near  Worcester,  3  Sept 
1651 

Battle  of  Worcester. 


158 

161 

163 
166 

168 

169 

170 

170 

172 

176 
178 


),         CXXIV.  To  the  same  :  Worcester,  4  Sept.  1651    .         •        .     179 
The  same. 


PART  VH. 

The  Little  Parliament.     1651-53. 

Letter  CXXV.  To  Rev.  J.  Cotton  :  London,  2  Oct.  165 1  .        .        .     191 
Reflections  on  Public  Affairs  :  what  Prophecies  are  now  ful- 
iilling. 


COXTENTS. 


PAGE 

Letter  CXXVI.  To  Mr.  Hungerford  :  London    30  July,  1652  .         .     198 
Note  on  Private  Business. 

CXXVn.  To  Mr.  Parker  :  Whitehall,  23  April,  1653      .         .     20? 
Riot  in  the  Fen-Country.. 

Summons 207 

Speech  I.  Opening  of  the  Little  Parliament,  14  July,  1653  .         .     208 

Retrospective  :  aim  of  all  these  Wars  and  Struggles  ;  chief  events  of 
them  ;  especially  dismissal  of  the  Long  Parliament.  Prospective  : 
dayspring  of  divine  Prophecy  and  Hope,  to  be  struggled  towards, 
though  with  difficulty.     Demits  his  authority  into  their  hands. 

LtTTBfi  CXXVIIL  To  Committee  of  Customs:  Whiiehall,  Oct.  1653     229 
In  remonstrance  for  a  poor  Suitor  to  them. 

CXXIX.  To  H.  Weston,  Esq.:  Whitehall,  16  Nov.  1653    .     230 
Excuse  for  an  oversight  :  Speldhurst  Living, 


PART   VIIL 

First  Protectorate  Parliament.     1654. 

Letter  CXXX.  To  R.  Mayor,  Esq.:  Whitehall,  4  May,  1654    .         .    243 

Dare  not  undertake  the  Purchase  recommended. 

„       CXXXL  To  Lord  Fleetwood  :  Whitehall,  16  May,  1654  .     244 

To  di.-^miss  Col.  Alured. 

„      CXXXIL  To  Col.  Alured  :  Whitehall,  16  May,  1654        .         .     245 
Official  Order  to  the  Colonel. 

„    CXXXIIL  To  Sir  T.  Rymer  :  Whitehall,  5  July,  1654        .         .     247 
A  City  Preacher. 

Speech  IL  Meeting  of   the  First    Protectorate    Parliament,  4    Sept. 

1654 249 

Goodwin's  Sermon,  On  the  Deliverance  out  of  Egypt,  and  Pil- 
grimage ioiDards  Canaan  throuQh  the  Wilderness.  Our  difficulties  : 
Antichrist  ;  Levellers,  Fifth-Monarchists,  Jesuits.  Our  attainments  : 
Some  Reform  of  Law ;  Reform  of  Church ;  Peace,  with  almost  all 
Nations.     Finance  ;  necessity  of  Concord. 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART  V. 


CAMPAIGN    IN    IRELAND. 
1649. 


11 


LETTERS   LVL— LXV. 

On  Tuesday,  y^th  Januaty,  1648-9,  it  is  ordered  in  the  Common? 
House,  '  That  the  Post  be  stayed  until  to-morrow  morning,  ten  of 
the  clock  : '  and  the  same  afternoon,  the  King's  Execution  having  now, 
taken  place,  Edward  Uendy  Sergeant  at  Anns,  with  due  trumpeters, 
pursuivants  and  horse-troops,  notifies,  loud  as  he  can  blow,  at  Cheap- 
side  and  elsewhere,  openly  to  all  men,  That  whosoever  shall  pro- 
claim a  new  King,  Charles  Second  or  another,  without  authority  of 
Parliament,  in  this  Nation  of  England,  shall  be  a  Traitor  and  suffer 
death.     For  which  service,  on  the  morrow,  each  trumpeter  receives 

*  ten  shillings '  of  the  public  money,  and  Sergeant  Dendy  himself — 
shall  see  what  he  will  receive.*  And  all  Sheriffs,  Mayors  of  Towns, 
and  such  like  are  to  do  the  same  in  their  respective  localities,  that 
the  fact  be  known  to  every  one. 

After  which  follow,  in  Parliament  and  oyt  of  it,  such  debatings, 
committee-ings,  consultings  toward  a  Settlement  of  this  Nation,  as 
the  reader  can  in  a  dim  way  sufficiently  fancy  for  himself  on  con- 
sidering the  two  following  facts.  First,  That  on  February  I'^th, 
Major  Thomas  Scot,  an  honourable  Member  whom  we  shall  after- 
wards know  better,  brings  in  his  Report  or  Ordinance  for  a  Council 
OF  State  to  be  henceforth  the  Executive  among  us  ;  which  Council, 
to  the  number  of  Forty-one  Persons,  is  thereupon  nominated  by 
Parliament;  and  begins  its  Sessions  at  Derby  House  on  the  17th. 
Bradshaw,  Fairfax,  Cromwell,  Whitlocke,  Harry  Marten,  Ludlow, 
Vane  the  Younger,  and  others  whom  we  know,  are  of  this  Council. 

Second,  That,  after  much  adjustment  and  new-modelling,  new  Great 
Seals,  new  Judges,  Sergeants'  Maces,  there  comes  out,  on  May  i<^th,  an 
emphatic  Act,  brief  as  Sparta,  in  these  words  :  '  Be  it  declared  and 
'  enacted  by  this  present  Parliament,  and  by  the  authority  of  the  same  : 
'  That  the  People  of  England,  and  of  all  the  dominions  and  territories 
'  thereunto   belonging,  are  and  shall   be,  and  are  hereby  constituted, 

*  made,  established  and  confirmed  to  be,  A  Commonwealth  or  Free- 
'  State  ;  and  shall  from  henceforth  be  governed  as  a  Commonwealth 
*and  Free-State,— by  the  Supreme  Authority  of  this  Nation  the  Re- 
'  presentatives  of  the  People  in  Parliament,  and  by  such  as  they  shall 
'  appoint  and  constitute  officers  and  ministers  under  them  for  the 
'  good  of  the  People  ;  and  that  without  any  King  or  House  of  Lords.'f 
— What  modelling  and  consulting  has  been  needed  in  the  interim  the 
reader  shall  conceive. 

*  Commons  Journals,  vi.  126;  Scobell's  Acts  and  Ordinances  (London,   1658, 
^657).  ii-  3- 
t  Scobell,  ii.  30  :  Commons  Journals,  19  May. 


12  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

Strangely  enough,  among  which  great  national  transactions  the 
following  small  family-matters  again  turn  up  ;  asserting  that  they  too 
had  right  to  happen  in  this  world,  and  keep  memory  of  themselves, 
— and  shew  how  a  Lieutenant-General's  mind,  busy  pulling  down 
Idolatrous  Kingships,  and  setting  up  Religious  Commonwealths,  has 
withal  an  idle  eldest  Son  to  marry  ! — 

There  occured  *  a  stick,'  as  we  saw  some  time  ago,*  in  this  Mar- 
riage-Treaty :  but  now  it  gathers  life  again  ; — and,  not  to  agitate  the 
reader's  sympathies  overmuch,  we  will  say  at  once  that  it  took  effect 
this  time ;  that  Richard  Cromwell  was  actually  wedded  to  Dorothy 
Mayor,  at  Hursley,  on  Mayday  1649  5^  ^^^  one  point  fairly  settled  at 
last  !— But  now  mark  farther  how  Anne,  second  daughter  of  the  house 
of  Hursley,  came  to  be  married  not  long  after  to  '  John  Dunch  of 
Pusey  in  Berkshire  ; '  which  Dunch  of  Pusey  had  a  turn  for  collect- 
ing Letters.  How  Dunch,  groping  about  Hursley  in  subsequent 
years,  found  ^Seventeen  Letters  of  Cromwell,'  and  collected  them, 
and  laid  them  up  at  Pusey  ;  how,  after  a  century  or  so,  Horace  Wal- 
pole,  likewise  a  collector  of  Letters,  got  his  eye  upon  them  ;  transcribed 
them,  imparted  them  to  dull  Harris,  j  From  whom,  accordingly,  here 
they  still  are  and  continue.  This  present  fascicle  of  Ten  is  drawn 
principally  from  the  Pusey  stock  ;  the  remainder  will  introduce  them- 
selves in  due  course. 

'LETTER  LVL 

Colonel  Norton,  *  dear  Dick,'  was  purged  out  by  Pride  ;  lazy  Dick 
and  lazy  Frank  Russel  were  both  purged  out,  or  scared  away,  and 
are  in  the  lists  of  the  Excluded.  Dick,  we  infer,  is  now  somewhat 
estranged  from  Cromwell  ;  probably  both  Dick  and  Frank ;  Frank 
returned,  Dick  never  did.  And  so,  there  being  now  no  'dear 
Norton' on  the  spot,  the  Lieutenant- General  applies  to  Mr.  Robin- 
son, the  pious  Preacher  at  Southampton,  of  whom  we  transiently 
heard  already  ; — a  priest  and  counsellor,  and  acting  as  such,  to  all 
parties. 

For  my  very  loving  Friend,  Mr.  Robinson,  Preacher  at  Southampton  : 

These. 

'  London,'  ist  February,  1648. 

Sir, 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  Letter.     As  to  the  business  you  men- 
tion, I  desire  to  use  this  plainness  with  you. 

When  the  last  overture  was,  between  me  and  Mr.  Mayor,  by  the 
kindness  of  Colonel  Norton, — after  the  meeting  I  had  with  Mr.  Mayor 
at  Farnham,  I  desired  the  Colonel  (finding,  as  I  thought,  some 
scruples  in  Mr.  Mayor),  To  know  of  him  whether  his  mind  was  free 
to  the  thing  or  not.  Col.  Norton  gave  me  this  account,  That  Mr. 
Mayor,  by  reason  of  some  matters  as  they  then  stood,  was  not  very 
free  thereunto.  Whereupon  I  did  acquiesce,  submitting  to  the  pro- 
vidence of  God. 

Upon  your  reviving  of  the  business  to  me,  and  your  Letter,  I  think 

*  Letter  XXXVL  vol.  i.  p.  184.        f  Noble,  i.  188.  X  Harris,  p.  504. 


LONDON. 


n 


fit  to  return  you  this  answer,  and  to  say  in  plainness  of  spirit  to  you  : 
That,  upon  your  testimony  of  the  Gentlewoman's  worth,  and  the 
common  report  of  the  piety  of  the  family,  I  shall  be  willing  to  enter- 
tain the  renewing  of  the  motion,  upon  such  conditions  as  may  be  to 
mutual  satisfaction.  Only  I  think  that  a  speedy  resolution  will  be 
very  convenient  to  both  parties.  The  Lord  direct  all  to  His  glory. 
I  desire  your  prayers  therein  ;  and  rest, 

Your  very  affectionate  friend, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

'  February  ist,' — it  is  Thursday  ;  the  King  was  executed  on  Tues- 
day :  Robinson  at  Southampton,  I  think,  must  have  been  writing  at 
the  very  time. 

On  Tuesday  night  last,  a  few  hours  after  the  King's  Execution,  Mar- 
quis Hamilton  had  escaped  from  Windsor,  and  been  retaken  in 
Southwark  next  morning,  Wednesday  morning.  '  Knocking  at  a 
door,'  he  was  noticed  by  three  troopers  ;  who  questioned  him,  de- 
tected him  ;  f  and  bringing  him  to  the  Parliament  Authorities,  made 
£\o  a-piece  by  him.  He  will  be  tried  speedily,  by  a  new  High  Court 
of  Justice ;  he  and  others. 


PASS. 

To  all  Officers  and  Soldiers,  and  all  Persons  whom  these  may 
concern. 

Whereas  John  Stanley  of  Dalegarth,  in  the  County  of  Cumber- 
land, Esquire,  hath  subscribed  to  his  Composition,  and  paid  and 
secured  his  Fine,  according  to  the  direction  of  Parliament : 

These  are  to  require  you  to  permit  and  suffer  him  and  his  servants 
quietly  to  pass  into  Dalegarth  above-said,  with  their  horses  and 
swords,  and  to  forbear  to  molest  or  trouble  him  or  any  of  his  Family 
there  ;  without  seizing  or  taking  away  any  of  his  horses,  or  other 
^oods  or  estate  whatsoever  ;  and  to  permit  and  suffer  him  or  any  of 
his  Family,  at  any  time,  to  pass  to  any  place,  about  his  or  their  occa- 
sions ;  without  offering  any  injury  to  him  or  any  of  his  Family,  either 
at  Dalegarth,  or  in  his  or  their  travels  :  As  you  will  answer  your  con- 
tempt at  your  utmost  perils. 

Given  under  my  hand  and  seal  this  2d  of  February,  1648. 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

Oliver's  seal  of  ^  six  quarterings  '  is  at  the  top.  Of  course  only  the 
seal  and  signature  are  specially  his  :  but  this  one  Pass  may  stand  here 
as  the  sample  of  many  that  were  then  circulating, — emblem  of  a  time 
of  war,  distress,  uncertainty  and  danger,  which  then  was. 

*  Harris,  p.  504 ;  one  of  the  seventeen  Letters  found  at  Pusey. 
f  Croniwelliana,  p.  51. 

X  lefferson's  History  and  Antiquities  of  Allerdal?  Ward,  CuintJerlapd  (Carlible, 
1842),  p.  284. 


14  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

The  2d  of  February  is  Friday.  Yesterday,  Thursday,  there  was 
question  in  the  House  of  'many  Gentlemen  from  the  Northern  Coun- 
ties, who  do  attend  about  Town  to  make  their  compositions,'  and  of 
what  is  to  be  done  with  them.*  The  late  business  that  ended  in 
Preston  Fight  had  made  many  new  delinquents  in  those  parts  ;  whom 
now  we  see  painfully  with  pale  faces  dancing  attendence  in  Gold- 
smiths' Hall, — not  to  say  knocking  importunately  at  doors  in  the  grey 
of  the  morning,  in  danger  of  their  life  !  Stanley  of  Dalegarth  has 
happily  got  his  composition  finished,  his  Pass  signed  by  the  Lieu- 
tenant-General ;  and.  may  go  home  with  subdued  thankfulness  in  a 
whole  skin.  Dalegarth  Hall  is  still  an  estate  or  farm,  in  the  southern 
extremity  of  Cumberland  ;  on  the  Esk  river,  in  the  Ravenglass  dis- 
trict ;  not  far  from  that  small  Lake  which  Tourists  go  to  see  under 
the  name  of  Devock  Water.     Quiet  life  to  Stanley  there  ! 


LETTER  LVIL 

For  my  very  worthy  Friend^  Richard  Mayor,  Esq.  :  These. 

'  London,'  12th  February,  1648. 

Sir, 

I  RECEIVED  some  intimations  formerly,  and  by  the  last  return 
from  Southampton  a  letter  from  Mr.  Robinson,  concerning  the  re- 
viving of  the  last  year's  motion  touching  my  Son  and  your  Daughter. 
Mr.  Robinson  was  also  pleased  to  send  enclosed  in  his  a  Letter  from 
you,  bearing  date  the  5th  of  this  instant  February,  wherein  I  find 
your  willingness  to  entertain  any  good  means  for  the  completing  of 
that  business. 

From  whence  I  take  encouragement  to  send  my  Son  to  wait  upon 
you  ;  and  by  him  to  let  you  know.  That  my  desires  are,  if  Providence 
so  dispose,  very  full  and  free  to  the  thing, — if,  upon  an  interview,  there 
prove  also  a  freedom  in  the  young  persons  thereunto.  What  liberty 
you  will  give  herein,  I  wholly  submit  to  you. 

I  thought  fit,  in  my  letter  to  Mr.  Robinson,  to  mention  somewhat 
of  expedition  ;  because  indeed  I  know  not  how  soon  I  may  be  called 
into  the  field,  or  other  occasions  may  remove  me  from  hence  ;  having 
for  the  present  some  liberty  of  stay  in  London.  The  Lord  direct  all 
to  His  glory.     I  rest, 

Sir, 
Your  very  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

Thomas  Scott  is  big  with  the  Council  of  State  at  present ;  he  pro- 
duces it  in  the  House  tomorrow  morning,  13th  February;  and  the 
List  of  actual  Councillors,  as  we  said,  is  voted  the  next  day. 

There  is  also  frequent  debate  about  Ireland  J  in  these  days,  and 

*  Commons  Journals,  in  die. 

t   Harris,  p.  505  ;  one  of  the  Pusey  seventeen, 

^  Cromwelliana,  14  February,  &(;, 


ORDI.R.  15 


what  is  to  be  done  for  relief  of  it  :  the  Marquis  of  Ormond,  fur- 
nished with  a  commission  from  the  Prince,  who  now  calls  himself 
Charles  II.,  reappeared  there  last  year  ;  has,  with  endless  patience 
and  dijfficulty,  patched  up  some  kind  of  alliance  with  the  Papists, 
Nuncio  Papists  and  Papists  of  the  Pale  ;  and  so  far  as  numbers  go. 
looks  very  formidable.  One  does  not  know  how  soon  one  '  may  be 
called  into  the  field.'     However,  there  will  several  things  turn  up  to  be 


settled  first. 


ORDER. 

On  the  Saturday  17th  Februar}^,  1648-9,  more  properly  on  Monday 
19th,  the  Council  of  State  first  met,  to  constitute  itself  and  begin  des- 
patch of  business.*  Cromwell  seems  to  have  been  their  first  Presi- 
dent. At  first  it  had  been  decided  that  they  should  have  no  constant 
President ;  but  after  a  time,  the  inconveniences  of  such  a  method 
were  seen  into,  and  Bradshaw  was  appointed  to  the  office. 

The  Minute-book  of  this  Council  of  State,  written  in  the  clear  old 
hand  of  Walter  Frost,  still  lies  complete  in  the  State-Paper  Office  ; 
as  do  the  whole  Records  of  the  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms,  of  the 
Committee  of  Sequestrations  in  Goldsmiths'  Hall,  ancT  many  other 
Committees  and  officialities  of  the  Period.  By  the  long  labour  of  Mr. 
Lemon,  these  waste  Documents,  now  gathered  into  volumes,  classed, 
indexed,  methodised,  have  become  singularly  accessible.  Well  read, 
the  thousandth  or  perhaps  ten-thousandth  part  of  them  well  ex- 
cerpted, and  the  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  parts  well  forgotten, 
much  light  for  what  is  really  English  History  might  still  be  gathered 
there.  Alas,  if  the  ^30,000  wasted  in  mere  stupidities  upon  the  old- 
parchment  Record  Commission  had  been  expended  upon  wise  labours 
here  ! — But  to  our  '  Order.^ 

Sir  Oliver  Fleming,  a  most  gaseous  but  indisputable  historical 
Figure,  of  uncertain  genesis,  uncertain  habitat,  glides  through  the  old 
Books  as  *  Master  of  the  Ceremonies,' — master  of  one  knows  not 
well  what.  In  the  end  of  1643  -he  clearly  is  nominated  '  Master  of 
the  Ceremonies '  by  Parliament  itself;!  and  glides  out  and  in  ever 
after,  presiding  over  '  Dutch  Ambassadors,'  '  Swedish  Ambassadors' 
and  such  like,  to  the  very  end  of  the  Protectorate.  A  Blessed  Res- 
toration, of  course,  relieved  him  from  his  labours.  He,  for  the  pre- 
sent, wants  to  see  some  Books  in  the  late  Royal  Library  of  St. 
James's.    This  scrap  of  paper  still  lies  in  the  British  Museum. 

To  the  Keeper  of  the  Library  of  St.  James's. 

22d  February,  1648. 

These  are  to  will  and  require  you,  upon  sight  hereof,  to  deliver  unto 
Sir  Oliver  Fleming,  or  to  whom  he  shall  appoint,  two  or  three  such 
Books  as  he  shall  choose,  of  which  there  is  a  double  copy  in  the  Li< 
brary  :  to  be  by  him  disposed  'of  as  there  shall  be  direction  given 

*  Commons  Journals,  vi.  146. 

■f  2  November.  i'S'13,  Comrnons  Journals,  iii,  299 


i6  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND, 


him  by  the  Council.     Of  which  you  are  not  to  fail,  and  for  which  this 
shall  be  your  warrant. 

Given  at  the  Council  of  State,  this  22nd  day  of  February,  1648. 

In  the  name,  and  signed  by  Order  of,  the 
Council  of  State  appointed  by  Authority 
of  Parliament, 

Oliver  Cromwell, 

{Presses  pro  tempore).* 

There  is  already  question  of  selling  the  late  King's  goods,  crown- 
jewels,  plate,  and  '  hangings,'  under  which  latter  title,  we  suppose, 
are  included  his  Pictures,  much  regretted  by  the  British  connoisseur 
at  present.     They  did  not  come  actually  to  market  till  July  next.f 


LETTER  LVIII. 

Reverend  Mr.  Stapylton,  of  whom  we  heard  once  before  in  Edin- 
burgh, has  been  down  at  Hursley  with  Mr.  Richard ;  Miss  Dorothy 
received  them  with  her  blushes,  with  her  smiles  ;  the  elder  Mayors 
*  with  many  civilities  :'  and  the  Marriage-treaty,  as  Mr.  Stapylton  re- 
ports, promises  well. 

For  my  very  worthy  Friend^  Richard  Mayor^  Esqtiire :  These. 

London,'  26th  February,  1648. 

Sir, 

I  received  yours  by  Mr.  Stapylton  ;  together  with  an  account 
of  the  kind  reception  and  the  many  civilities  afforded  '  to '  them,;|; — 
especially  to  my  Son,  in  the  liberty  given  him  to  wait  upon  your 
worthy  Daughter.  The  report  of  whose  virtue  and  godliness  has  so 
great  a  place  in  my  heart,  that  I  think  fit  not  to  neglect  anything,  on 
my  part,  which  may  consummate  a  close  of  the  business,  it  God  please 
to  dispose  the  young  ones'  hearts  thereunto,  and  other  suitable  order- 
ing '  of  affairs  towards  mutual  satisfaction  appear  in  the  dispensation 
of  Providence. 

For  which  purpose,  and  to  the  end  matters  may  be  brought  to  as 
near  an  issue  as  they  are  capable  of,— not  being  at  liberty,  by  reason 
of  public  occasion,  to  wait  upon  you,  nor  your  health,  as  I  understand, 
permitting  it, — I  thought  fit  to  send  this  Gentleman,  Mr.  Stapylton, 
instructed  with  my  mind,  to  see  how  near  we  may  come  to  an  under- 
standing one  of  another  therein.  And  although  I  could  have  wished 
the  consideration  of  things  had  been  between  us  two,  it  being  of  so 
near  concernment, — yet  Providence  for  the  present  not  allowing,  I 
desire  you  to  give  him  credence  on  my  behalf. 

Sir,  all  things  which  yourself  and  I  had  in  conference  at  Farnham, 
do  not  occur  to  my  memory,  thorough  multiplicity  of  business  inter- 

*  Additional  Ayscough  MSS.  12,098. 

f  Scobell,    Part  ii.  46,  the  immense  Act  of  Rirhament  for  sale  of  thern. 

1  To  Rich9.rd  CroinweU  and  him, 


LONDON.  17 


vening.     I  hope  I  shall  with  a  very  free  heart  testify  my  readiness  to 
that  which  may  be  expected  from  me. 

I  have  no  more  at  present :   but  desiring  the  Lord  to   order   this 
affair  to  His  glory  and  the  comfort  of  His  servants,  1  rest, 

Sir, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell  * 


LETTER  LIX. 

This  Thursday,  8th  March,  1648-9,  they  are  voting  and  debating 
in  a  thin  House,  hardly  above  60  there,  Whether  Duke  Hamilton, 
Earl  Holland,  Lord  Capel,  Goring,  and  Sir  John  Owen, — our  old 
friend  '  Colonel  Owen'  of  Nottmgham  Castle,  Jenner  and  Ashe's  old 
friend,! — are  10  die  or  to  live  ? 

They  have  been  tried  in  a  new  High  Court  of  Justice,  and  all  found 
guilty  of  treason,  of  levying  war  against  the  Supreme  Authority 
of  this  Nation.  Shall  they  be  executed.?  shall  they  be  respited.-* 
The  House  by  small  Majorities  decides  against  the  first  three  ; 
decides  in  favour  of  the  last ;  and  as  to  Goring,  the  votes  are  equal, 
—the  balance-tongue  trembles,  "  Life  or  Death  !"  Speaker  Lenthall 
says,  Life.;J; 

Meanwhile,  small  private  matters  also  must  be  attended  to. 

For  my  very  worthy  Friend^  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire  :    These. 

'  London,'  8th  March,  1648. 

Sir, 

Yours  I  have  received  ;  and  have  given  farther  instructions  to 
this  Bearer,  Mr.  Stapylton,  to  treat  with  you  about  the  business  in 
agitation  between  your  Daughter  and  my  Son. 

1  am  engaged§  to  you  for  all  your  civilities  and  respects  already 
manifested.  1  trust  there  will  be  a  right  understanding  between  us, 
and  a  good  conclusion  :  and  though  1  cannot  particularly  remember 
the  things  spoken  of  at  Farnham,  to  which  your  Letter  seems  to  refer 
]Tie,  yet  i  doubt  not  but  I  have  sent  the  offer  of  such  things  now  as 
will  give  mutual  satisfaction  to  us  both.  My  attendance  upon  public 
affairs  will  not  give  me  leave  to  come  down  unto  you  myself ;  1  have 
sent  unto  you  this  Gentleman  with  my  mind. 

I  salute  Mrs.  Mayor,  though  unknown,  with  the  rest  of  your 
Family.  I  commit  you,  with  the  progress  of  the  Business,  to  the 
Lord  ;  and  rest. 

Sir, 
Your  assured  friend  to  serve  you, 

Oliver  Cromwell.|| 

*  Harris,  p.  505 ;    one  of  the  Pusey  seventeen  :   Signature  only  is  in  Cromwell's 
hand, 
t  Letter  LIII.  vol.  i.p.  235.  X  Commons  Journals,  vi,  159.         §  obliged. 

II  Harris,  p.  506  ;  one  ot  the  seventeen, 


l8  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

On  the  morrow  morning,  poor  versatile  Hamilton,  poor  versatile 
Holland,  with  the  Lord  Capel  who  the  first  of  all  in  this  Parliament 
rose  to  complain  of  Grievances,  meet  their  death  in  Palaceyard.  The 
High  Court  was  still  sitting  in  Westminster  Hall  as  they  passed 
through  'from  Sir  Robert  Cotton's  house.'  Hamilton  lingered  a 
little,  or  seemed  to  linger,  in  the  Hall ;  still  hopeful  of  reprieve 
and  fine  of  ^100,000  :  but  the  Earl  of  Denbigh,  his  brother-in-law, 
a  Member  of  the  Council  of  State,  stept  up  to  him  ;  whispered  in 
his  ear  ;— the  poor  Uuke  walked  on.  That  is  the  end  of  all  his  diplo- 
macies ;  his  Scotch  Army  of  Forty-thousand,  his  painful  ridings  to 
Uttoxeter,  and  to  many  other  places,  have  all  issued  here.  The  Earl 
of  Lanark  will  now  be  Duke  of  Hamilton  in  Scotland  :  may  a  better 
fate  await  him  ! 

The  once  gay  Earl  of  Holland  has  been  'converted'  some  days 
ago,  as  it  were  for  the  nonce,— poor  Earl  !  With  regard  to  my  Lord 
Capel  again,  who  followed  last  in  order,  he  behaved,  says  Bulstrode, 
'much  alter  the  manner  of  a  stout  Roman.  He  had  no  Minister  with 
'  him,  nor  shewed  any  sense  of  death  approaching  ;  but  carried  him- 
'  self  all  the  time  he  was  upon  the  scaffold  with  that  boldness  and 
'  resolution  as  was  to  be  admired.  He  wore  a  sad-coloured  suit,  his 
'  hat  cocked  up,  and  his  cloak  thrown  under  one  arm  :  he  looked 
'  towards  the  people  at  his  first  coming  up,  and  put  off  his  hat  in 
'  manner  of  a  salute  ;  he  had  a  little  discourse  with  some  gentlemen, 
'  and  passed  up  and  down  in  a  careless  posture.'*  Thus  died  Lord 
Capel,  the  first  who  complained  of  Grievances  :  in  seven  years  time 
there  are  such  changes  for  a  man  ;  and  the  first  acts  of  his  Drama 
little  know  what  the  last  will  be  ! — 

This  new  High  Court  of  Justice  is  one  of  some  Seven  or  Eight 
that  sat  in  those  years,  and  were  greatly  complained  of  by  Constitu- 
tional persons.  Nobody  ever  said  that  they  decided  contrary  to 
evidence  ;  but  they  were  not  the  regular  Judges.  They  took  the  Par- 
liament's law  as  good"  without  consulting  Fleta  and  Bracton  about  it. 
They  consisted  of  learned  Sergeants  and  other  weighty  persons  nomi- 
nated by  the  Parliament,  usually  in  good  numbers,  for  the  occasion. 

Some  weeks  hence,  drunken  Poyer  of  Pembroke  and  the  confused 
Welsh  Colonels  are  tried  by  Court  Martial  ;  Poyer,  Powel,  Laughern 
are  found  to  merit  death.  Death  however  shall  be  executed  only 
upon  one  of  them  ;  let  the  other  two  be  pardoned  :  fet  them  draw 
lots  which  two.  'In  two  of  the  lots  was  written,  Life  given  by  Godj 
'  the  third  lot  was  a  blank.  The  Prisoners  were  not  willing  to  draw 
'  their  own  destiny  ;  but  a  child  drew  the  lots,  and  gave  them  :  and 
'  the  lot  fell  to  Colonel  Poyer  to  die.'t  He  was  shot  in  Covent  Garden; 
died  like  a  soldier,  poor  confused  Welshman  ;  and  so  ended. 

And  with  these  executions,  the  chief  Delinquents  are  now  got 
punished.  The  Parliament  lays  up  its  axe  again  ;  willing  to  pardon 
the  smaller  multitude,  if  they  will  keep  quiet  henceforth. 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  380  {^Cwq first  of  the  two  pages  380  which  there  are), 
f  Ibid.  21  April,  1649. 


LONDON.  19 


LETTER  LX. 

For  my  worthy  Friend,  Dr.  Love,  Master  of  Benet  College^ 
'  Cambridge  : '  These. 

'  London,'  14th  March,  1648. 

Sir, 

I  understand  one  Mrs.  Nutting  is  a  suitor  unto  you,  on  the 
right  of  her  Son,  about  the  renewing  of  a  Lease  which  holds  of  your 
College.  The  old  interest  I  have  had  makes  me  presume  upon  your 
favour.  I  desire  nothing  but  what  is  just  ;  leaving  that  to  your  judg- 
ment ;  and  beyond  which  I  neither  now  nor  at  any  time  shall  move. 
If  1  do,  denial  shall  be  most  welcome  and  accepted  by. 

Sir, 
Your  affectionate  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.-* 

This  is  not  the  Christopher  Love  who  preached  at  Uxbridge,  during 
the  Treaty  there  in  1644  ;  who  is  now  a  minister  in  London,  and  may 
again  come  before  us;  this  is  a  Cambridge  '  Dr.  Love,'  of  whom  1  know 
nothing  Oliver,  as  we  may  gather,  had  befriended  him,  during  the 
reform  of  that  University  in  1644,  Probably  in  Baker's  Manuscripts 
it  might  be  ascertained  in  what  year  he  graduated,  where  he  was 
born,  where  buried  ;  but  nothing  substantial  is  ever  likely  to  be  known 
of  him, — or  is  indeed  necessary  to  be  known.  '  Mrs.  Nutting '  and 
he  were  evidendy  children  of  Adam,  breathing  the  vital  air  along 
with  Oliver  Cromwell  ;  and  Oliver,  on  occasion,  endeavoured  to  pro- 
mote justice  and  kindness  between  them  ;  and  they  remain  two 
'  shadows  of  small  Names.' 

Yesterday,  Tuesday,  13th  March,  there  was  question  in  the  Council 
of  State  about  modelling  of  the  forces  that  are  to  go  to  Ireland  ;' 
and  a  suggestion  was  made,  by  Fairfax  probably,  who  had  the  model- 
ling to  do,  that  they  would  model  much  better  if  they  knew  first 
under  what  Commander  they  were  to  go  t  It  is  thought  Lieulc- 
nant-General  Cromwell  will  be  the  man. 

On  which  same  evening,  furthermore,  one  discerns  in  a  faint  but 
an  authentic  manner,  certain  dim  gentlemen  of  the  highest  autho- 
rity, young  Sir  Harry  Vane  to  appearance  one  of  them,  repairing  to 
the  lodging  of  one  Mr.  Milton,  'a  small  house  in  Holborn  which 
opens  backwards  into  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  ;'  to  put  an  official  ques- 
tion to  him  there  !  Not  a  doubt  of  it  they  saw  Mr.  John  this  evening. 
In  the  official  Book  this  yet  stands  legible  : 

^  Die  Martts,  13*^  Maftii  1648.'  '  That  it  is  referred  to  the  same 
'  Committee,'  Whitlocke,  Vane,  Lord  Lisle,  Earl  of  Denbigh,  Harry 
Marten,  Mr.  Lisle,  'or  any  two  of  them,  to  speak  with  Mr,  Milton, 
'  to  know.  Whether  he  will  be  employed  as  Secretary  for  the  Foreign 

*  Lansdown  mss.  1236,  fol.  8^. 

<  Order-Book  of  the  Council  of  State  (in  the  State-Paper  Offjcei,  i.  86, 


20  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


'  Languages  ?  and  to  report  to  the  Council.'*  I  have  authority  to  say 
that  Mr.  Milton,  thus  unexpectedly  applied  to,  consents  ;  is  formally 
appointed  on  Thursday  next;  makes  his  proof- shot, 'to  the  Senaie 
of  Hamburgh, 't  about  a  week  hence  ; — and  gives,  and  continues  to 
give,  great  satisfaction  to  that  Council,  to  me,  and  to  the  whole 
Nation  now,  and  to  all  Nations  !  Such  romance  lies  in  the  State- 
Paper  Office. 

Here,  however,  is  another  Letter  on  the  Hursley  Business,  of  the 
same  date  as  Letter  LX.  ;  which  must  also  be  read.  1  do  not  expect 
many  readers  to  take  the  trouble  of  representing  before  their  minds 
the  clear  condition  of  '  Mr.  Ludlow's  lease,'  of  '  the  ^^250,' '  the  ^i  50,' 
«S:c.,  in  this  abstruse  affair  :  but  such  as  please  to  do  so  will  find  it 
all  very  straight  at  last.  We  observe  Mr.  Major  has  a  decided  pre- 
ference for  '  my  ould  land  ;  '  land  that  I  inherited,  or  bought  by 
common  contract,  instead  of  getting  it  from  Parliament  for  Public 
Services  !  In  fact,  Mr.  Mayor  seems  somewhat  of  a  sharp  man:  but 
neither  has  he  a  dull  man  to  deal  with — though  a  much  bigger  one. 


LETTER  LXL 

'■  For  my  worthy  Frie?td,  Richard  Mayor,   Esqtcire,  at 
Hursley  :  These.^ 

'  London,'  14th  March,  1648. 

Sir, 

I  received  your  Paper  by  the  hands  of  Mr.  Stapylton.  I  desire 
your  leave  to  return  my  dissatisfaction  therewith.  I  shall  not  need  to 
premise  how  much  I  have  desired  (I  hope  upon  the  best  grounds)  to 
match  with  you.  The  same  desire  still  continues  in  me,  if  Providence 
see  it  fit.  But  1  may  not  be  so  much  wanting  to  myself  nor  family  as 
not  to  have  some  equality  of  consideration  towards  it,| 

I  have  two  young  Daughters  to  bestow,  if  God  give  them  life  and 
opportunity.  According  to  your  Offer,  I  have  nothing  for  them  ; 
nothing  at  all  in  hand.  If  my  Son  die,  what  consideration  is  there  to 
me  ?  And  yet  a  jointure  parted  with  '  on  my  side.'  If  she  die,  there 
is  'on  your  side'  little  'money  parted  with  ;'  'even'  if  you  have  an 
heir  male,  '  there  is  '  but  ^3,000,  '  and  '  without  time  ascertained, § 

As  for  these  things,  'mdeed,'  I  doubt  not  but,  by  one  interview 
between  you  and  myself,  they  might  be  accommodated  to  mutual 
satisfaction  ;  and  in  relation  to  these,  I  think  we  should  hardly  part, 
or  have  many  words,  so  much  do  I  desire  a  closure  with  you.  But  to 
deal  freely  with  you  :  the  settling  of  the  Manor  of  Hursley,  as  you 
propose  it,  sticks  so  much  with  me,  that  either  I  understand  you  not, 
or  else  it  much  fails  my  expectation.     As  you  offer  it,  there  is  ^400 

*  Order- Book  of  the  Council  of  State  (in  the  State-Paper  Office),  i.  86;  Todd"s 
Life  of  Milton  (London,  1826),  pp.  96,  108-123. 

t  Seriatus  Pop  ulu^que  Anglican  us  Amplissimo  Civiiatis  Haniburgensis  Senatui, 
Salutem  (in  Milton's  Literce  Senatus  Anglicarii,  \h\sjirst  Letter  to  the  HamburT; 
gers  is  not  given).  X  '  it'  is  not  the  family,  but  the  match. 

§  See  Letter  XXXVL  vol.  i.  p.  184. 


LONDON.  21 


per  annum  charged  upon  it.  Yox  the  ;^  150  to  your  Lady,  for  her  hfe. 
as  a  jointure,  I  stick  not  at  that  :  but  the  ^250  per  annum  until  Mr, 
Ludlow's  Lease  expires,  the  tenor  whereof  I  know  not,  and  so  much 
of  the  ^250  per  a7inunt  as  exceeds  that  Lease  in  annual  value  for 
some  time  also  after  the  expiration  of  the  said  Lease,"- — gives  such  a 
maim  to  the  Manor  of  Hursley  as  indeed  renders  the  rest  of  the 
Manor  very  inconsiderable. 

Sir,  if  I  concur  to  deny  myself  in  point  of  present  monies,  as  also  in 
the  other  things  mentioned,  as  aforesaid,  I  may  and  do  expect  the 
Manor  of  Hursley  to  be  settled  without  any  charge  upon  it,  after  your 
decease,  saving  your  Lady's  jointure  of  £1^0  per  a7inu7n, — which  if 
you  should  think  fit  to  increase,  I  should  not  stand  upon  it.  Your 
own  Estate  is  best  known  to  you  :  but  surely  your  personal  Estate, 
being  free  for  you  to  dispose,  will,  with  some  small  matter  of  addition, 
beget  a  nearness  of  equality, — if  I  hear  well  from  others.  And  if  the 
difference  were  not  very  considerable,  I  should  not  insist  upon  it. 

What  you  demand  of  me  is  very  high  in  all  points.  I  am  willing  to 
settle  as  you  desire  in  everything  ;  saving  for  maintenance  ^400  per 
annum,  £yy:>  per  annum. \  I  would  have  somewhat  free,  to  be 
thanked  by  them  for.  The  ^^300  per  annum  of  my  old  land^  for  a 
jointure,  after  my  Wife's  decease,  I  shall  settle ;  and  in  the  mean 
time  'a  like  sum'  out  of  other  lands  at  your  election  :  and  truly,  Sir, 
if  that  be  not  good,  neither  will  any  lands,  I  doubt.  I  do  not  much 
distrust,  your  principles  in  other  things  have  acted§  you  towards  con- 
fidence.— You  demand  in  case  my  Son  have  none  issue  male  but  only 
daughters,  then  the  '  Cromwell'  Lands  in  Hantshire,  Monmouth-  and 
Gloucester-shire  to  descend  to  these  daughters,  or  else  ^^3,000  apiece. 
The  first  would  be  most  unequal  ;  the  latter  'also  '  is  too  high.  They 
will  be  well  provided  for  by  being  inheritrixes  of  their  Mother  ;  and  I 
am  willing  '  that '  ^2,000  apiece  be  charged  upon  those  lands  '  for 
them.' 

Sir,  I  cannot  but  with  very  many  thanks  acknowledge  your  good 
opinion  of  me  and  of  my  Son  ;  as  also  your  great  civilities  towards 
him  ;  and  your  Daughter's  good  respects, — whose  goodness,  thcigh 
known  to  me  only  at  a  distance  and  by  the  report  of  others,  I  much 
value.  And  indeed  that  causeth  me  so  cheerfully  to  deny  myself  as  I 
do  in  the  point  of  monies,  and  so  willingly  to  comply  in  other  things. 
But  if  I  should  not  insist  as  above,  I  should  in  a  greater  measure  than 
were  meet  deny  both  my  own  reason  and  the  advice  of  my  friends  ; 
which  I  may  not  do    Indeed,  Sir,  I  have  not  closed  with  a  far  greater 

*  'Ludlow's  Lease,'  S:c.  is  not  very  plain.  The  'tenor  of  Ludlow's  Lease'  is 
still  less  known  to  us  than  it  was  to  the  Lieutenant-General  !  Thus  much  is  clear: 
252-1- 150=^400  pounds  are  to  be  paid  off  Hursley  Manor  by  Richard  and  his  Wife, 
which  gives  a  sad  'mnim'  to  it.  When  Ludlow's  Lease  falls  in,  there  will  be 
some  increment  of  benefit  to  the  Manor;  but  we  are  to  derive  no  advantage  from 
that,  we  are  still  to  pay  the  surplus  'for  some  time  after.' 

t  Means,  in  its  desperate  haste  :  '  except  that  instead  of  /"400  per  annum  for 
maintenance,  we  must  say  ;i^300. ' 

X  Better  than  Parliament  land,  thinks  Mayor  !  Oliver  too  prefers  it  for  his  Wife; 
but  thinks  all  land  will  have  a  chance  to  go,  if  that  go, 

§  actuated  or  impelled.  _ 


22  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND, 


Offer  of  estate;  hut  chose  rather  to  fix  here  :  I  hope  1  have  not  been 
wanting  to  Providence  in  this. 

I  have  made  myself  plain  to  you.  Desiring  vou  will  make  my  Son 
the  messenger  of  your  pleasure  and  resolution  herein  as  speedily  as 
with  conveniency  you  may,  1  take  leave, 

And  rest, 

Your  affectionate  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

I  desire  my  service  may  be  presented  to  your  Lady  and 
Daughters.* 

On  the  morrow,  which  is  Monday  the  15th,  day  of  John  Milton's 
nomination  to  be  Secretary,  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell  was  nomi- 
nated Commander  for  Ireland  ;  satisfactory  appointments  both. 


LETTER  LXIL 

The  Lieutenant-General  is  in  hot  haste  today  ;  sends  a  brief  Letter 
'by  your  Kinsman,'  consenting  to  almost  everything. — Mayor,  as  we 
saw  before,  decidedly  prefers  '  my  ould  land '  to  uncertain  Parlia- 
mentary land.  Oliver  (see  last  Letter)  offered  to  settle  the ^300  of 
jointure  upon  his  old  land,  after  his  Wife's  decease  ;  he  now  agrees 
that  half  of  it,  ^^150,  shall  be  settled  directly  out  of  the  old  land,  and 
the  other  half  out  of  what  Parliamentary  land  Mayor  may  like  best. — 
The  Letter  breathes  haste  in  every  line  ;  but  hits,  with  a  firm  knock, 
in  Cromwell's  way,  the  essential  nails  on  their  head,  as  it  hurries  on. 

'  Your  Kinsman,'  who  carries  this  Letter,  turns  out  by  and  by  to  be 
a  Mr.  Barton  ;  a  man  somewhat  particular  in  his  ways  of  viewing 
matters  :  unknown  otherwise  to  all  men.  The  Lieutenant-General 
getting  his  Irish  Appointment  confirmed  in  Parliament,  and  the  con- 
ditions of  it  settled,!  is  naturally  very  busy. 

For   my    worthy  Friend^  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire,  at 
Hursley  :  These. 

'London,'  25th  March,  1649. 

Sir, 

You  will  pardon  the  brevity  of  these  lines  ;  the  haste  I  am  in, 
by  reason  of  business,  occasions  it.  To  testify  the  earnest  desire  1 
have  to  see  a  happy  period  to  this  Treaty  between  us,  I  give  you  to 
understand. 

That  I  agree  to  ;^i  50  per  annum  out  of  the  ^300  per  a?tnuj7t  of  my 
^/^  land  for  your  Daughter's  jointure,  and  the  other  ^150  where  you 
please.  '  Also  '  ;;^4oo  for  present  maintenance  where  you  shall  choose; 
either  in  Hantshire,  Gloucester-  or  Monmouth-shire.  Those  lands 
'to  be'  settled  upon  my  Son  and  his  heirs  male  by  your  Daughter;  and 
in  case  of  daughters,  only  ;!^2,ooo  apiece  to  be  charged  upon  those 
lands. 

*  Harris,  p.  507    Dunch's  Pusey  seventeen. 

f  Cromweiliana.p.  54;  Commons  Journals,  .ic. 


LONDON.  23 


'  On  the  other  hand/  ^{,400  per  a7inuin  free  *  to  raise  portions  for  my 
two  Daughters.  I  expect  the  Manor  of  Hursley  to  be  settled  upon 
your  Daughter  and  her  heirs,  the  heirs  of  her  body.  Your  Lady  a 
jointure  of  ^150 /^r  annum  out  of  it.  For  compensation  to  your 
younger  Daughter,  I  agree  to  leave  it  in  your  power,  after  your  de- 
cease, to  charge  it  with  as  much  as  will  buy  in  the  Lease  of  the  Farm 
at  Allington  t  by  a  just  computation.     I  expect,  so  long  as  they  '  the 

*  young  couple  '  live  with  you,  their  diet,  as  you  expressed  ;  or  in  case 
of  voluntary  parting  'from  you,'  £\^o per  annum.  '  You  are  to  give' 
;^3,ooo  in  case  you  have  a  Son  \X  ^o  be  paid  in  two  years  next  fol- 
lowing. In  case  your  Daughter  die  without  issue, — ^1,000  within  six 
months  '  of  the  marriage.' 

Sir,  if  this  satisfy,  I  desire  a  speedy  resolution.  T  should  the  rather 
desire  so  because  of  what  your  Kinsman  can  satisfy  you  in.  The  Lord 
bless  you,  and  your  P^amily,  to  whom  I  desire  my  affections  and  service 
may  be  presented.     I  rest, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.§ 

Your  Kinsman  can  in  part  satisfy  you  what  a  mutiphcity  of  business 
we  are  in  :  modelling  the  Army  for  Ireland  ; — which  indeed  is  a  most 
delicate  dangerous  operation,  full  of  difficulties  perhaps  but  partly 
known  to  your  Kinsman  ! 

For,  in  these  days,  John  Lilburn  is  again  growing  very  noisy  ; 
bringing  out  Pamphlets,  England's  New  Chains  Discovered.,  in  several 
Parts.  As  likewise,  The  Hnnling  of  the  Foxes  froin  Triploe  Heath  to 
Whitehall  by  Five  Small  B eagles, \\—XhQ  tracking  out  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well and  his  Grandees,  onward  from  their  rendezvous  at  Royston  or 
Triploe,  all  the  way  to  their  present  lodgment  in  Whitehall  and  the 
seat  of  authority.  '  Five  small  Beagles,'  Five  vociferous  petitionary- 
Troopers,  of  the  Levelling  species,  who  for  their  high  carriage  and  muti- 
nous ways  have  been  set  to  '  ride  the  wooden  horse '  lately.  Do  military- 
men  of  these  times  understand  the  wooden  horse  ?  He  is  a  mere  tri- 
angular ridge  or  roof  of  wood,  set  on  four  sticks,  with  absurd  head  and 
tail  superadded  ;  and  you  ride  him  bare-backed,  in  face  of  the  world, 
frequently  with  muskets  tied  to  your  feet,— in  a  very  uneasy  manner  ! 
To  Lieutenant-Colonel  Lilburn  and  these  small  Beagles  it  is  manifest 
we  are  getting  into  New  Chains,  not  a  jot  better  than  the  old  ;  and 
certainly  Foj^es  ought  to  be  hunted  and  tracked.  Three  of  the  Beagles 
the  best-nosed  and  loudest-toned,  by  names  Richard  Overton,  William 
Walwyn,  Thomas  Prince, — these,  with  Lieutenant-Colonel  Lilburn, 
huntsman  of  the  pack,  are  shortly  after  this  lodged  in  the  Tower  ;1 

*  committed  to  the  Lieutenant,'  to  be  in  mild  but  safe  keeping  with 

*  Means,  '  shall  be  settled  on  Richard  and  his  Wifs,  that  I  may  be  enabled 

t  '  Ludlow's  Lease,"  I  fancy,  Anne  Mayor,  '  your  younger  Daughter,'  married 
Dunch  of  Pusey;  John  Dunch,  to  whom  we  owe  these  seventeen  Letters.  See 
also  Letter  27  August,  1657. 

X  Cirandson,  i.e.  :  'die,'  in  the  next  sentence,  means  more  properly  live. 

§  Harris,  p.  508  ;   one  of  the  seventeen. 

II  Gven  itiSomers  Tracts,  vi.  44-60. 

'\  27  March,   11  April,  1649  (Commons  Journals,  in.  diebus). 


24  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

that  officer.  There  is,  in  fact,  a  very  dangerous  leaven  in  the  Army, 
and  in  the  LeveUing  Public  at  present,  which  thinks  with  itself  ;  God's 
enemies  having  been  fought  down,  chief  Delinquents  all  punished,  and 
the  Godly  Party  made  triumphant,  why  does  not  some  Millennium 
arrive  ? 


LETTER  LXIII 

*  Compensation,'  here  touched  upon,  is  the  '  compensation  to  your 
younger  Daughter'  mentioned  in  last  Letter  ;  burden  settled  on 
Hursley  Manor,  *  after  your  decease,'  to  buy  in  the  Lease  of  Allington 
Farm.'  Mayor  wants  it  another  way  ;  which  seems  truly  inconvenient, 
and  in  truth  cannot  be. 

For  my  worthy  Friend,  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire,  at  Hursley  ; 
These. 

'London,  30th  March,  1649. 

Sir, 

I  received  yours  of  the  28th  instant.  I  desire  the  matter  of 
compensation  may  be  as  in  my  last  to  you.  You  propose  another 
way  ;  which  seems  to  me  truly  inconvenient. 

I  have  agreed  to  all  other  things,  as  you  take  me,  and  that  rightly, 
repeating  particulars  in  your  Paper.  The  Lord  dispose  this  great 
Business  ^ great  between  you  and  me)  for  good. 

You  mention  to  send  by  the  Post  on  Tuesday.*  I  shall  speed  things 
here  as  I  may.  I  am  designed  for  Ireland,  which  will  be  speedy.  '  I 
should  be  very  glad  to  see  things  settled  before  I  go,  if  the  Lord  will. 
My  service  to  all  your  Family.     I  rest, 

Sir, 
Your  affectionate  servant, 

'Oliver  Cromwell. 'f 


LETTER   LXIV. 

Who  the  Lawyer,  or  what  the  *  arrest'  of  him  is,  which  occasions 
new  expense  of  time,  I  do  not  know.  On  the  whole,  one  begins  to 
wish  Richard  well  wedded  ;  but  the  settlements  do  still  a  little  stick, 
and  we  must  have  patience. 

For  my  worthy  Friend,  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire,  at  Hursley  r 

These. 

'  London,'  6th  April,  1649. 

Sir, 

I  received  your   Papers  enclosed  in  your  Letter ;  although  I 
know  not  how  to  make  so  good  use  of  them  as  otherwise  might  have 
been,  to  have  saved  expense  of  time,  if  the  arrest  of  your  Lawyer  had 
not  fallen  out  at  this  time. 
*  The  30th  of  March  is  Friday     Tuesday  is  the  3rd  of  April.        f  Harris,  p.  508. 


10 A  DON.  25 

I  conceive  a  draught,  to  your  sntisfaction,  by  your  own  Lawyer, 
would  have  saved  much  time  :  which  to  me  is  precious.  I  hope  you 
will  send  some  '  cne  '  up,  perfectly  instructed.  I  shall  endeavour  to 
speed  what  is  to  be  done  on  my  part  ;  not  knowing  how  soon  I  may 
be  sent  down  towards  my  charge  for  Ireland.  And  I  hope  to  perform 
punctually  with  you. 

Sir,  my  Son  had  a  great  desire  to  come  down  and  wait  upon  your 
Daughter.  I  perceive  he  minds  that  more  than  to  attend,  to  business 
here.*  I  should  be  glad  to  see  him  settled,  and  all  things  finished 
before  I  go.  I  trust  not  to  be  wanting  therein.  The  Lord  direct  all 
our  hearts  into  His  good  pleasure.     1  rest, 

Sir, 
Your  afifectionate  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

My  service  to  your  Lady  and  Family. 

There  is  much  to  be  settled  before  I  can  'be  sent  down  to  my 
charge  for  Ireland.'  The  money  is  not  yet  got  ; — and  the  Army  has 
ingredients  difficult  to  model.  Next  week,  a  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee, one  of  whom  is  the  Lieutenant-General,  and  another  is  Sir 
Harry  Vane,  have  to  go  to  the  City,  and  try  if  they  will  lend  us 
;^ 1 20,000  for  this  business.  Much  speaking  in  the  Guildhall  there,  in 
part  by  Cromwell.;]:  The  City  will  lend  ;  and  now  if  the  Army  were 
once  modelled,  and  ready  to  march ? — 


LETTER   LXV. 

Here,  at  any  rate,  is  the  end  of  the  Marriage-treaty,— not  even  Mr. 
Barton,  with  his  peculiar  ways  of  viewing  matters,  shall  now  delay  it 
long. 

For  my  worthy  Friend,  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire  :  These. 

'London,'  15th  April,  1649. 

Sir, 

Your  Kinsman  Mr.  Barton  and  myself,  repairing  to  our  Counsel, 
for  the  perfecting  of  this  Business  so  much  concerning  us,  did,  upon 
Saturday  this  15th  of  April,  draw  our  Counsel  to  a  meeting  :  where, 
upon  consideration  had  of  my  Letter  to  yourself  expressing  my  con- 
sent to  particulars,  which  '  Letter '  Mr.  Barton  brought  to  your 
Counsel  Mr.  Hales  of  Lincoln's  Inn  ;§— upon  the  reading  that  which 
expresseth  the  w^ay  of  your  settling  Hursley,  your  Kinsman  expressed 
a  sense  of  yours  contrary  to  the  Paper  in  my  hand,  as  also  to  that 
uncer  your  hand,  of  the  28th  of  March,  which  was  the  same  as  mine 
as  to  that  particular. 

*  The  dog  !  f  Harris,  p.  509. 

X  i'2th  April  1649,  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  55). 
§  This  is  the  future  Judge  Hale. 


2^  CAMPAIGN  IN   \7^ELAND 


In*  that  which  1  myself  am  to  do,  I  know  nothing  of  doubt,  but  do 
agree  it  all  to  your  Kinsman's  satisfaction.  Nor  is  there  much  material 
difference  '  between  us,'  save  in  this,— wherein  both  my  Paper  sent  by 
you  to  your  Counsel,  and  yours  of  the  28th,  do  in  all  literal  and  all 
equitable  construction  agree,  viz.  :  To  settle  an  Estate  in  lee-simple 
upon  your  Daughter,  after  your  decease  ;  which  Mr.  Barton  athrnis 
itot  to  be  your  meaning, — although  he  has  not  (as  to  mej  formerly 
made  this  any  objection  ;  nor  can  the  words  bear  it  ;  nor  have  I  any- 
thing more  considerable  m  lieu  of  what  I  part  with  than  this.  And  I 
have  appealed  to  yours  or  any  Counsel  in  England,  whether  it  be  not 
just  and  equal  ihdt  1  insist  thereupon. 

And  this  misunderstanding, — if  it  be  yours,  as  it  is  your  Kinsman's, 
— put  a  stop  to  the  Business  ;  so  that  our  Counsel  could  not  proceed, 
until  your  pleasure  herein  were  known.  Wherefore  it  was  thought  fit 
to  desire  Mr.  Barton  to  have  recourse  to  you  to  know  your  mind  ;  he 
alleging  he  had  no  authority  to  understand  that  expression  so,  but  the 
contrary  ; — wliich  w..i  thought  not  a  little  strange,  even  by  your  own 
Counsel. 

I  confess  I  did  apprehend  we  should  be  incident  to  mistakes,  treat- 
ing at  such  a  distance;— although  I  may  take  the  boldness  to  say, 
there  is  nothing  expected  from  me  but  I  agree  to  it  to  your  Kinsman's 
sense  to  a  tittle. 

Sir,  I  desired  to  know  what  commission  your  Kinsman  had  to  help 
this  doubt  by  an  expedient ; — who  denied  to  have  any  ;  but  did  think 
it  were  better  for  you  to  part  with  some  money,  and  keep  the  power  in 
your  own  hand  as  to  the  land,  to  dispose  thereof  as  you  should  see 
cause.  Whereupon  an  overture  was  made,  and  himself  and  your 
Counsel  desired  to  draw  it  up  ;  the  effect  whereof  this  enclosed  Paper 
contains.  And  although  I  should  not  like  change  of  agreements,  yet 
to  shew  how  much  I  desire  the  perfecting  of  this  Business,  if  you  like 
thereof  (though  this  be  far  the  worse  bargain),  I  shall  submit  there- 
unto ;  your  Counsel  thinking  that  things  may  be  settled  this  way  with 
more  clearness  and  less  intricacy.  There  is  mention  made  of  ^900 
per  a7tnu7n  to  be  reserved  :  but  it  comes  to  but  about  ^800  ;  my  lands 
in  Glamorganshire  being  but  little  above  £/\.oo per  anmun ;  and  the 
'  other'  £\Qo  per  annum  out  of  my  Manor  in  Gloucester-  and  Mon- 
mouth-shire.  I  wish  a  clear  understanding  may  be  between  us  ;  truly 
I  would  not  willingly  mistake.  Desiring  to  wait  upon  Providence  in 
this  Business,  I  rest, 

Sir, 
Your  affectionate  friend  and  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELLf 

I  desire  my  service  may  be  presented  to  your  Lady  and  Daughters. 

This  is  the  last  of  the  Marriage- treaty.     Mr.  Barton,  whom  '  no 

*  A  mere  comma  here,  instead  of  new  paragraph  ;  greatly  obscuring  the  sense  : 
'-'as  to  that  particular,  and  I  know  nothing  of  doubt  in  that  which  I  am  to  doe, 
but  doe  agree  itt  all,'  &c. 

t  II urns,  p.  509. 


THt   LEVELLEk^.  27 


Counsel  in  England  '  could  back,  was  of  course  disowned  in  his  over- 
zeal  ;  the  maich  was  concluded  ;  solemnized,  ist  May,  1649.* 

Richard  died  12th  July,  17 12,  at  Cheshunt,  age  86  ;  f  his  Wife  died 
5th  January,  1675-6,  at  Hursley,  and  is  buried  there, — where,  ever 
after  Richard's  Deposition,  and  while  he  travelled  on  the  Continent, 
she  had  continued  to  reside.  In  pulling  down  the  old  Hursley  House, 
above  a  century  since,  when  the  Estate  had  passed  into  other  hands, 
there  was  found  in  some  crevice  of  the  old  walls  a  rusty  lump  of 
metal,  evidently  an  antiquity  ;  which  was  carried  to  the  new  Proprietor 
at  Winchester  ;  who  sold  it  as  'a  Roman  weight'  for  what  it  would 
bring.  When  scoured,  it  turned  out, — or  is  said  by  vague  Noble, 
quoting  vague  '  Vertue,'  '  Hughes's  Letters,'  and  '  A}it.  So^.'  (Anti- 
quarian Society),  to  have  turned  out, — to  be  the  Great  Seal  of  the 
Commonwealth.^  If  the  Antiquaries  still  have  it,  let  them  be  chary 
of  it. 


THE  LEVELLERS. 


While  Miss  Dorothy  Mayor  is  choosing  her  wedding-dresses,  and 
Richard  Cromwell  is  looking  forward  to  a  life  of  Arcadian  felicity 
now  near  at  hand,  there  has  turned  up  for  Richard's  Father  and  other 
parties  interested,  on  the  public  side  of  things,  a  matter  of  very  dif- 
ferent complexion,  requiring  to  be  instantly  dealt  with  in  the  interim. 
The  matter  of  the  class  called  Levellers  ;  concerning  which  we  must 
now  say  a  few  words. 

In  1647,  as  we  saw,  there  were  Army  Adjutators  ;  and  among  some 
of  them  wild  notions  afloat,  as  to  the  swift  attainability  of  Perfect 
PYeedom  civil  and  religious,  and  a  practical  Millennium  on  this  Earth  ; 
notions  which  required,  in  the  Rendezvous  at  Corkbushfield,  '  Ren- 
dezvous of  Ware  '  as  they  oftenest  call  it,  to  be  very  resolutely  trodden 
out.  Eleven  chief  mutineers  were  ordered  from  the  ranks  in  that 
Rendezvous  ;  were  condemned  by  swift  Court  Martial  to  die  ;  and 
Trooper  Arnald,  one  of  them,  was  accordingly  shot  there  and  then  ; 
which  extinguished  the  mutiny  for  that  time.  War  since,  and  Justice 
on  Delinquents,  England  made  a  Free  Commonwealth,  and  such  like, 
have  kept  the  Army  busy  :  but  a  deep  republican  leaven,  working  all 
along  among  these  men,  breaks  now  again  into  very  formidable  de- 
velopment. As  the  following  brief  glimpses  and  excerpts  may  satisfy 
an  attentive  reader  who  will  spread  them  out  to  the  due  expansion  in 
his  mind.  Take  first  this  glimpse  into  the  civil  province  :  and  dis- 
cern, with  amazement,  a  whole  submarine  world  of  Calvinistic  Sans- 
culottism.  Five-point  Charter  and  the  Rights  of  Man,  threatening  to 
emerge  almost  two  centuries  before  its  time  ! 

'  The  Council  of  State,'  says  Whitlocke,§  just  while  Mr.  Barton  is 
boggling  about  the  Hursley  Marriage-settlements,  *  has  intelligence 
i  ot  certain  Levellers  appearing  at  St.  Margaret's  Hill,  near  Cobham 
<  in  Surrey,  and  at  St.  George's  Hill,'  in  the  same  quarter  :  *  that  they 

*  Noble,  j.  188.  t  Ibid.  i.  176.  188. 

Ij:  Noble,  i.  195,  Bewildered  Biography  of  the  Mayors,  '  Majors  or  Maijors,' 
ibid.  ii.  436-40.  §  17  April,  p.  384. 


CAMPAIGM  IN  IRELAND. 


'  were  digging  the  ground,  and  sowing  it  with  roots  and  beans.  One 
'  Everard,  once  of  the  Army,  who  terms  himself  a  Prophet,  is  the 
'  chief  of  them  ; '  one  Winstanley  is  another  chief.  '  They  were  Thirty 
'  men,  and  said  that  they  should  be  shortly  Four-thousand.  They 
'  invited  all  to  come  in  and  help  them  ;  and  promised  them  meat, 
'  drink,  and  clothes.  They  threaten  to  pull  down  Park-pales,  and  to 
'  lay  all  open  ;  and  threaten  the  neighbours  that  they  will  shortly 
'  make  them  all  come  up  to  the  hills  and  work.'  These  infatuated 
persons,  beginning  a  new  era  in  this  headlong  manner  on  the  chalk 
hills  of  Surrey,  are  laid  hold  of  by  certain  Justices,  '  by  the  country 
people,'  and  also  by  '  two  troops  of  horse  ; '  and  complain  loudly  of 
such  treatment ;  appealing  to  all  men  whether  it  be  fair."*^  This  is 
the  account  they  give  of  themselves  when  brought  before  the  General 
some  days  afterwards  : 

'April  2oth,  1649.  Everard  and  Vv^instanley,  the  chief  of  those 
'  that  digged  at  St.  George's  Hill  in  Surrey,  came  to  the  General  and 
'  made  a  large  declaration,  to  justify  their  proceedings.  Everard  said, 
'  He  was  of  the  race  of  the  Jews,'  as  most  men,  called  Saxon  and 
other,  properly  are  ;  '  That  all  the  Liberites  of  the  People  were  lost 
'  by  the  coming  in  of  William  the  Conqueror  ;  and  that,  ever  since, 

*  the  People  of  God  had  lived  under  tyranny  and  oppression  worse 
'  than  that  of  our  Forefathers  under  the  Egyptians.  But  now  the 
'  time  of  deliverance  was  at  hand  ;  and  God  would  bring  His  People 

*  out  of  this  slavery,  and  restore  them  to  their  freedom  in  enjoying 
'  the  fruits  and  benefits  of  the  Earth.  And  that  there  had  lately 
'  appeared  to  him,  Everard,  a  vision  ;  which  bade  him,  Arise  and  dig 
'  and  plough  the  Earth,  and  receive  the  fruits  thereof.  That  their 
'  intent  is  to  restore  the  Creation  to  its  former  condition.     That  as 

*  God  had  promised  to  make  the  barren  land  fruitful,  so  now  what 
'  they  did,  was  to    restore  the  ancient  Community  of  enjoying  the 

*  Fruits  of  the  Earth,  and  to  distribute  the  benefit  thereof  to  the  poor 
'  and  needy,  and  to  feed  the  hungry  and  clothe  the  naked.  That  they 
'  intend  not  to  meddle  with  any  man's  property,  nor  to  break  down 
'  any  pales  or  enclosures,'  in  spite  of  reports  to  the  contrary  ;  '  but 
'  only  to  tneddle  with  what  is  common  and  untilled,  and  to  make  it 
'  fruitful  for  the  use  of  man.  That  the  time  will  suddenly  be,  when  all 
'men  shall  willingly  come  in  and  give  up  their  lands  and  estates,  and 
'  submit  to  this  Community '  of  Goods. 

These  are  the  principles  of  Everard,  Winstanley,  and  the  poor 
Brotherhood,  seemingly  Saxon,  but  properly  of  the  race  of  the  Jews, 
who  were  found  dibbling  beans  on  St.  George's  Hill,  under  the  dear 
April  skies  in  1649,  and  hastily  bringing  in  a  new  era  in  that  manner. 
'  And  for  all  such  as  will  come  in  and  work  with  them,  they  shall  have 
'  meat,  drink,  and  clothes,  which  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  the  life  of 
'  man  :  and  as  for  money,  there  was  not  any  need  of  it  ;  nor  of  clothes 
'  more  than  to  cover  nakedness,'  For  the  rest,  '  That  they  will  not 
'  defend  themselves  by  arms,  but  will  submit  unto  authority,  and  wait 
'  till  the  promised  opportunity  be  offered,  which  they  conceive  to  be 

*  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to,  no.  427,  §  6  (Declaration  of  the  bloody  and 
unchristian  Acting  of  WiUiam  Star,  &c.  in  opposition  to  those  that  dig  upon 
George-Hill  in  Surrey) ;  ib.  no.  418,  §  5,  &c. 


THE  LEVELLERS. 


29 


*  at  hand.  And  that  as  their  forefathers  lived  in  tents,  so  it  would  be 
'suitable  to  their  condition,  now  to  live  in  the  same. 

*  While  they  were  before  the  General  they  stood  with  their  hats  on  ; 

*  and  being  demanded  the  reason  thereof,  they  said,  Because  he  was 

*  but  their  fellow-creature.  Being  asked  the  meaning  of  that  phrase, 
'■  Give  honour  to  whom  honour  is  due, — they  said.  Your  mouths  shall 
'be  stopped  that  ask  such  a  question.'* 

Dull  Bulstrode  hath  '  set  down  this  the  more  largely  because  it  was 
the  beginning  of  the  appearance '  of  an  extensive  levelling  doctrine, 
much  to  be  '  avoided  '  by  judicious  persons,  seeing  it  is  '  weak  per- 
suasion.' The  germ  of  (Quakerism  and  much  else  is  curiously  visible 
here.     But  let  us  look  now  at  the  military  phasis  of  the  matter  ;  where 

*  a  weak  persuasion '  mounted  on  cavalry  horses,  with  sabres  and  fire- 
arms in  its  hand,  may  become  a  very  perilous  one. 

Friday,  lotli  Aprii,  1649.  The  Lieutenant-General  has  consented 
to  go  to  Ireland  :  the  City  also  will  lend  money,  and  now  this  Friday 
the  Council  of  the  Army  meets  at  W  hitehallto  decide  what  regiments 
shall  go  on  that  service.  'After  a  solemn  seeking  of  God  by  prayer,' 
they  agree  that  it  shall  be  by  lot  ;  tickets  are  put  into  a  hat,  a  child 
draws  them  :  the  regiments,  fourteen  of  foot  and  fourteen  of  horse, 
are  decided  on  in  this  manner.  '  The  officers  on  whom  the  lot  fell,  in 
'  all  the  twenty-eight  regiments,  expressed  much  cheerfulness  at  the 

*  decision.'  The  officers  did  : — but  the  common  men  are  by  no  means 
all  of  that  humour.  The  common  men,  blown  on  by  Lilburn  and  his 
five  small  Beagles,  have  notions  about  England's  new  Chains,  about 
the  Hunting  of  Foxes  from  Triploe  Heath,  and  in  fact  ideas  concern- 
ing the  capability  that  Hes  in  man  and  in  a  free  Commonwealth, 
which  are  of  the  most  alarming  description. 

Thursday,  26th  April.  This  night  at  the  Bull  in  Bishopsgate  there 
was  an  alarming  mutiny  broken  out  in  a  troop  of  Whalley's  regiment 
there.  Whalley's  men  are  not  allotted  for  Ireland  :  but  they  refuse 
to  quit  London,  as  they  are  ordered  ;  they  want  this  and  that  first  : 
they  seize  their  colours  from  the  Cornet,  who  is  lodged  at  the  Bull 
there  :— the  General  and  the  Lieutenant-General  have  to  hasten 
thither  ;  quell  them,  pack  them  forth  on  their  march  ;  seizing  fifteen 
of  them  first,  to  be  tried  by  Court  Martial.  Tried  by  instant  Court 
Martial,  five  of  them  are  found  guilty,  doomed  to  die,  but  pardoned  ; 
and  one  of  them,  Trooper  Lockyer,  is  doomed  and  not  pardoned. 
Trooper  Lockyer  is  shot,  in  Paul's  Churchyard,  on  the  morrow.  A 
very  brave  young  man,  they  say  ;  though  but  three-and-twenty,  '  he 
has  served  seven  years  in  these  Wars,'  ever  since  the  Wars  began. 
'  Religious '  too,  '  of  excellent  parts  and  much  beloved  ; ' — but  with 
hot  notions  as  to  human  Freedom,  and  the  rate  at  which  the  millen- 
niums are  attainable,  poor  Lockyer  !  He  falls  shot  in  Paul's  Church- 
yard on  Friday,  amid  the  tears  of  men  and  women.  _  Paul's  Cathe- 
dral, we  remark,  is  now  a  Horseguard  ;  horses  stamp  in  the  Canons' 
stalls  there  :  and  Paul's  Cross  itself,  as  smacking  of  Popery,  where  in 
fact  Alablaster  once  preached  flat  Popery,  is  swept  altogether  away, 
and  its  leaden  roof  melted  into  bullets,  or  mixed  with  tin  for  culinary 
pewter.     Lockyer's   corpse  is  watched  and  wept  over,  not  without 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  ■^^. 


^o  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

prayer,  in  the  eastern  regions  of  the  City,  till  a  new  week  come  ;  and 
on  Monday,  this  is  what  we  see  advancing  westward  by  way  of  funeral 
to  him. 

'  About  one  hundred  went  before  the  Corpse,  five  or  six  in  a  file  ; 
'  the  Corpse  was  then  brought,  with  six  trumpets  sounding  a  soldier's 

*  knell :  then  the  Trooper's  Horse  came,  clothed  all  over  in  mourning, 
■  and  led  by  a  footman.  The  Corpse  was  adorned  with  bundles  of 
'  Rosemary,  one  half  stained  in  blood  ;  and  the  Sword  of  the  deceased 
'  along  with  them.  Some  thousands  followed  m  rank  and  file  :  all 
'  had  seagreen-and-black  Ribbon  tied  on  their  hats,  and  to  their 
'  breast  :  and  the  women  brought  up  the  rear.     At  the  new  Church- 

*  yard  in  Westminster,  some  thousands  more  of  the  better  sort  met 

*  them,  who  thought  not  fit  to  march  through  the  City.  Many  looked 
'  upon  this  funeral  as  an  affront  to  the  Parliament  and  Army  ;  others 
'called  these  people  "  Levellers,"  but  they  took  no  notice  of  any  one's 
'  sayings.* 

That  was  the  end  of  Trooper  Lockyer  :  six  trumpets  wailing  stern 
music  through  London  streets;  Rosemaries  and  Sword  half-dipt  in 
blood  ;  funeral  of  many  thousands  in  seagreen  Ribbons  and  black  : — 
testimony  of  a  weak  persuasion  now  looking  somewhat  perilous. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Lilburn  and  his  five  small  Beagles,  now  in  a  kind 
of  loose  arrest  under  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  make  haste  to 
profit  by  the  general  emotion  ;  publish  on  the  ist  of  Mayf  their 
'  Agreement  of  the  People,' — their  Bentham-Sieyes  Constitution  : 
Annual  very  exquisite  Parliament,  and  other  Lilburn  apparatus  ; 
whereby  the  Perfection  of  Human  Nature  will  with  a  maximum  of 
rapidity  be  secured,  and  a  millenium  straightway  arrive,  sings  the 
Lilburn  Oracle. 

Afay  c)th.  Richard  Cromwell  is  safe  wedded  ;  Richard's  Father  is 
reviewing  troops  in  Hyde  Park,  '  seagreen  colours  in  some  of  their 
hats.'  The  Lieutenant-General  speaks  earnestly  to  them.  Has  not 
the  Parliament  been  diligent,  doing  its  best  ?  It  has  punished  De- 
linquents ;  it  has  voted  in  these  very  days  resolutions  for  dissolving 
itsalf  and  assembling  future  Parliaments.^  It  has  protected  trade  ;  got 
a  good  Navy  afloat.  You  soldiers,  there  is  exact  payment  provided  for 
you.  Martial  Law  ?  Death,  or  other  punishment  of  Mutineers  ?  Well  ! 
Whoever  cannot  stand  Martial  Law  is  not  fit  to  be  a  soldier  :  his  best 
plan  will  be  to  lay  down  his  arms  ;  he  shall  have  his  ticket  and  get 
his  arrears  as  we  others  do, — we  that  still  mean  to 'fight  against  the 
enemies  of  England  and  this  Cause.§ — One  trooper  shewed  signs  of 
insolence  ;  the  Lieutenant-General  suppressed  him  by  rigour  and  by 
clemency  :  the  seagreen  ribbons  were  torn  from  such  hats  as  had  them. 
The  humour  of  the  men  is  not  the  most  perfect.  This  Review  was 
on  Wednesday  :  Lilburn  and  his  five  small  Beagles  are,  on  Saturday, 
committed  close  Prisoners  to  the  Tower,  each  rigorously  to  a  call  of 
his  own. 

It  is  high  time.  For  now  the  flame  has  caught  the  ranks  of  the 
Army  itself,  in  Oxfordshire,  in  Gloucestershire,  at  Salisbury  where 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  385.  f  Whitlocke's  date,  p.  38^, 

1  15  April,  1649,  Commons  Journals. 
§  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  56), 


THE  LEVELLERS.  3I 


head-quarters  are  ;  and  rapidly  there  is,  on  all  hands,  a  dangerous 
conflagration  blazing  out.  In  Oxfordshire,  one  Captain  Thompson, 
not  known  to  us  before,  has  burst  from  his  quarters  at  Banbury,  with 
a  Party  of  Two-hundred,  in  these  same  days  ;  has  sent  forth  his 
England s  Standard  Advimced J*  insisting  passionately  on  the  New 
Chains  we  are  fettered  with  :  indignantly  demanding  swift  perfection 
of  Human  Freedom,  justice  on  the  murderers  of  Lockyer  and  Anald  ; 
— threatening  that  if  a  hair  of  Lilburn  and  the  five  small  Beagles  be 
hurt,  he  will  avenge  it  '  seventy-and-seven  fold.'  This  Thompson's 
Party,  swiftly  attacked  by  his  Cdonel,  is  broken  within  the  week ;  he 
himself  escapes  with  a  few,  and -still  roves  up  and  down.  To  join 
whom,  or  to  communicate  with  Gloucestershire  where  help  lies,  there 
has  in  the  interim  open  mutiny  '  above  One-thousand  strong,'  with 
subalterns,  with  a  Cornet  Thompson  brother  of  the  Captain,  but 
without  any  leader  of  mark,  broken  out  at  Salisbury  :  the  General  and 
Lieutenant-General,  with  what  force  can  be  raised,  are  hastening 
thitherward  in  all  speed.  Now  were  the  time  for  Lieutenant- Color^l 
Lilburn ;  now  or  never  might  noisy  John  do  some  considerable  injury 
to  the  Cause  he  has  at  heart ;  but  he  sits,  in  these  critical  hours,  fast 
within  stone  walls  ! 

Monday,  i^th  May.  All  Sunday  the  General  and  Lieutenant- 
General  marched  in  full  speed  by  Alton,  by  Andover,  towards  Salis- 
bury ;  the  mutineers,  hearing  of  them,  start  northward  for  Bucking- 
hamshire, then  for  Berkshire ;  the  General  and  Lieutenant-General 
turning  also  northward  after  them  in  hot  chase.  The  mutineers 
arrive  at  Wantage ;  make  for  Oxfordshire  by  Newbridge  ;  hnd  the 
Bridge  already  seized  ;  cross  higher  up  by  swimming  ;  get  to  Burford, 
very  weary,  and  '  turn  out  their  horses  to  grass  ; ' — Fairfax  and  Crom- 
well still  following  in  hot  speed,  '  a  march  of  near  fifty  miles'  that 
Monday.  What  boots  it ;  there  is  no  leader,  noisy  John  is  sitting 
fast  within  stone  walls  !  The  mutineers  lie  asleep  in  Burford  their 
horses  out  at  grass  ;  the  Lieutenant-General,  having  rested  at  a  safe 
distance  since  dark,  bursts  into  Burford  as  the  clocks  are  striking 
midnight.  He  has  beset  some  hundreds  of  the  mutineers,  '  who 
could  only  fire  some  shots  out  of  windows  ; ' — has  dissipated  the 
mutiny,  trodden  down  the  Levelling  Principle  out  of  English  affairs 
once  more.  Here  is  the  last  scene  of  the  business  ;  the  rigorous  Court 
Martial  having  now  sat ;  the  decimated  doomed  Mutineers  being 
placed  on  the  leads  of  the  Church  to  see  : 

Thursday,  lyth  May.  'This  day  in  Burford  Churchyard,  Cornel 
Thompson,  brother  to  Thompson  the  chief  leader,  was  brought  tc 
the  place  of  execution  ;  and  expressed  himself  to  this  purpose,  Thai 
it  was  just  what  did  befall  him  ;  that  God  did  not  own  the  ways  ht 
went  ;  that  he  had  offended  the  General :  he  desired  the  prayers 
of  the  people  ;  and  told  the  soldiers  who  were  appointed  to  shoot 
him,  that  when  he  held  out  his  hands  they  should  do  their  duty.  And 
accordingly  he  was  immediately,  after  the  sign  given,  shot  to  death. 
Next  after  him  was  a  Corporal,  brought  to  the  same  place  of  execu- 
tion ;  where,  looking  upon  his  fellow-mutineers,  he  set  his  back 
against  the  wall  ;  and  bade  them  who  were  appomted  to  shoot, 
■*  Given  in  Walker's  History  of  Independency,  part  ii.  168 ;  dated  6  May, 


32  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

*  "  Shoot  !  "  and  died  desperately.  The  third  being  also  a  Corporal, 
'  was  brought  to  the  same  place  ;  and  without  the  least  acknowledg- 
'  ment  of  error,  or  shew  of  fear,  he  pulled  off  his  doublet,  standing  a 
'  pretty  distance  from  the  wall ;  and  bade  the  soldiers  do  their  duty  ; 

*  looking  them  in  the  face  till  they  gave  fire,  not  shewing  the  least 

*  kind  of  terror  or  fearfuhiess  of  spirit.' — So  die  the  Leveller  Cor- 
porals ;  strong  they,  after  their  sort,  for  the  Liberties  of  England ; 
resolute  to  the  very  death.  Misguided  Corporals  !  But  History, 
which  has  wept  for  a  misguided  Charles  Stuart,  and  blubbered,  in  the 
most  copious  helpless  manner,  near  two  centuries  now,  whole  floods 
of  brine,  enough  to  salt  the  Herringfishery, — will  not  refuse  these  poor 
Corpojals  also  her  tributary  sigh.  With  Arnald  of  the  Rendezvous  at 
Ware,  with  Lockyer  oi  the  Bull  in  Bishopsgate,  and  other  misguided 
martyrs  to  the  Liberties  of  England  then  and  si  nee,  may  they  sleep  well ! 

Cornet  Dean  who  now  came  forward,  as  the  next  to  be  shot,  *ex- 
'  pressed  penitence  ; '  got  pardon  from  the  General  :  and  there  was 
no  more  shooting.  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell  went  into  the 
Church,  called  down  the  Decimated  of  the  Mutineers  ;  rebuked,  ad- 
monished ;  said,  The  General  in  his  mercy  had  forgiven  them.  Mis- 
guided men,  would  you  ruin  this  Cause,  which  marvellous  Providences 
have  so  confirmed  to  us  to  be  the  Cause  of  God  ?  Go,  repent ;  and 
rebel  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  befall  you  !  '  They  wept,'  says  the 
old  Newspaper  ;  they  retired  to  the  Devizes  for  a  time  ;  were  then 
restored  to  their  regiments,  and  marched  cheerfully  for  Ireland. — 
Captain  Thompson,  the  Cornet's  brother,  the  first  of  all  the  Mutineers, 
he  too,  a  few  days  after,  was  fallen  in  with  in  Northamptonshire,  still 
mutinous  :  his  men  took  quarter  ;  he  himself  '  fled  to  a  wood  ; '  fired 
and  fenced  there,  and  again  desperately  fired,  declaring  he  would  never 
yield  alive  ;— whereupon  '  a  Corporal  with  seven  bullets  in  his  carbine ' 
ended  Captain  Thompson  too  ;  and  this  formidable  conflagration, 
to  the  last  glimmer  of  it  was  extinct. 

Sansculottism,  as  we  said  above,  has  to  lie  submerged  for  almost 
two  centuries  yet.  Levelling,  in  the  practical,  civil  or  military  pro- 
vinces of  English  things,  is  lorbidden  to  be.  In  the  spiritual  pro- 
vinces it  cannot  be  forbidden  ;  for  there  it  everywhere  already  is.  It 
ceases  dibbling  beans  on  St.  George's  Hill  near  Cobham  ;  ceases 
galloping  in  mutiny  across  the  Isis  to  Burford  ; — takes  into  Quaker- 
isms, and  kingdoms  which  are  not  of  this  world.  My  poor  friend 
Dryasdust  lamentably  tears  his  hair  over  the  '  intolerance '  of  that 
old  Time  to  Quakerism  and  such  like  :  if  Dryasdust  had  seen  the 
dibbling  on  St.  George's  Hill,  the  threatened  fall  of  '  Park-pales,'  and 
the  gallop  to  Burford,  he  would  reflect  that  Conviction  in  an  earnest 
age  means,  not  lengthy  Spouting  in  Exeter-Hall,  but  rapid  silent 
Practice  on  the  face  of  the  Earth  ;  and  would  perhaps  leave  his  poor 
hair  alone. 

On  Thursday  night,  17th  of  the  month,  the  General,  Lieutenant- 
General,  and  chief  Officers  arrive  at  Oxford  ;  lodge  in  All-Souls 
College  ;  head-quarters  are  to  be  there  for  some  days.  Solemnly 
welcomed  by  the  reformed  University ;  bedinnered,  bespeeched ; 
made  Doctors,  Masters,  Bachelors,  or  what  was  suitable  to  their 
ranks,  and  to  the  faculties  of  this  reformed  University.      Of  which 


LONDON,  33 


high  doings,  degrees  and  convocation-dinners,  and  eloquence  by 
Proctor  Zanchy,  we  say  nothing,— being  in  haste  for  Ireland.  This 
small  benefit  we  have  from  the  business  :  Anthony  Wood,  in  his 
crabbed  but  authentic  way,  has  given  us  biographical  sketches  of  all 
these  Graduates  ;  biographies,  very  lean,  very  perverse,  but  better 
than  are  commonly  going  then,  and  in  the  fatal  scarcity  not  quite 
without  value* 

Neither  do  we  speak  of  the  thanking  in  the  House  of  Commons  ; 
or  of  the  general  Day  of  Thanksgiving  for  London,  which  is  Thurs- 
day, 7th  June  (the  day  for  England  at  large  being  Thursday  2ist),t 
— and  of  the  illustrious  Dinner  which  the  City  gave  the  Parhament 
and  Officers,  and  all  the  Dignitaries  of  England,  when  Sermon  was 
done.  It  was  at  Grocers'  Hall,  this  City  dinner  ;  really  illustrious. 
Dull  Bulstrode,  Keeper,  or  one  of  the  Keepers,  of  the  Commonwealth 
Great  Seal,  was  there,— Keeper  of  that  lump  of  dignified  metal,  found 
since  all  rusty  in  the  wall  at  Hursley  :  and  my  Lord  of  Pembroke,  an 
Earl  and  Member  of  the  Council  of  State,  '  speaking  very  loud '  as 
his  manner  was,  insisted  that  illustrious  Bulstrode  should  take  place 
above  him  I  have  given  place  to  Bishop  Williams  when  he  was 
Keeper ;  and  the  Commonwealth  Great  Seal  is  as  good  as  any 
King's  ever  was  ; — illustrious  Bulstrode,  take  place  above  me  :  so  \X 
'  On  almost  every  dish  was  enamelled  a  bandrol  with  the  word  Wel- 
^  come.  No  music  but  that  of  drum  and  trumpet  ;'  no  balderdash,  or 
almost  none,  of  speech  without  meaning  ;  'no  drinking  of  healths  or 
other  incivility  :'— drinking  of  healths  ;  a  kind  of  invocation  or  prayer, 
addressed  surely  not  to  God,  in  that  humour ;  probably  therefore  to 
the  Devil,  or  to  the  Heathen  gods;  which  is  offensive  to  the  well- 
constituted  mind.  Four-hundred  pounds  were  given  to  the  Poor  of 
London,  that  they  also  might  dine  § — 

And  now  for  Bristol  and  the  Campaign  in  Ireland. 


LETTERS  LXVI.— LXIX. 

Tuesday,  \othJidy,  1649.     'This  evening  about  five  of  the  clock, 

*  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  began  his  journey  ;  by  the  way  of 

*  Windsor,  and  so  to  Bristol.   He  went  forth  in  that  state  and  equipage 
'  as  the   like   hath   hardly  been  seen  ;   himself  in  a   coach  with  six 

*  gallant  Flanders  mares,  whitish  grey  ;  divers  coaches  accompanying 

*  him ;  and   very  many  great  Officers  of   the  Army  ;  his   Lifeguard 

*  Wood's  Athenae,  iv.  (Fasti,  ii.  127-155)  :  the  Graduates  of  Saturday,  19th 
May,  1649,  are  Fair/a.:,  p,  148  ;  Cromwell,  p.  152 ;  Colonels  Scrope,  Grosvenor, 
Sir  Hardress  Waller,  higoldshy,  Harrison,  Goff  Okey ;  Adjutant-General 
Sedascue,  Scoutmaster  Rowe  :  and  of  Monday,  21st,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cobbeit, 
p.  140;  John  Rushworth,  Cornet  Joyce,  p.  138  :— olwhom  those  marked  here  in 
Italics  have  biographies  w  orth  looking  at  for  an  instant. 

t  Commons  Journals,  26  May.  1649. 

X  Whiilocke,  p.  391.  §  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  pp.  59,  60). 

\0L.  II.  C 


34  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


consisting  of  eighty  gallant  men,  the  meanest  whereof  a  Commander 
or  Esquire,  in  stately  habit  ;— with  trumpets  sounding,  almost  to  the 
shaking  of  Charing  Cross,  had  it  been  now  standing.  Of  his  Life- 
guard many  are  Colonels  ;  and  believe  me,  it's  such  a  guard  as  is 
hardly  to  be  paralleled  in  the  world.  And  now  have  at  you,  my 
Lord  of  Ormond  !  You  will  have  men  of  gallantry  to  encounter ; 
whom  to  overcome  will  be  honour  sufficient,  and  to  be  beaten  by  them 
will  be  no  great  blemish  to  your  reputation.  If  you  say  Caesar  or 
Nothing  :  they  say,  A  Republic  or  Nothing.  The  Lord  Lieutenant's 
colours  are  white."^ 

Thus  has  Lord  Lieutenant  Cromwell  gone  to  the  Wars  in  Ireland. 
But  before  going,  and  while  just  in  the  act,  he  has  had  a  Letter  to 
write,  on  behalf  of  his  'Partner'  or  fellow  Member  for  Cambridge, 
which  the  reader  is  now  to  glance  at : 


LETTER  LXVI. 
For  the  Honourable  William  Lenlhall,  Esquire, 

'  London,   loth  July,  1649* 

Sir, 

I  beseech  you,  upon  that  score  of  favour,  if  I  be  not  too  bold  to 
call  it  friendship,  which  1  have  ever  had  from  you,  let  me  desire  you 
to  promote  my  Partner's  humble  suit  to  the  House  ;  and  obtain,  as  far 
as  possibly  you  may,  some  just  satisfaction  for  him.  I  know  his 
sufferings  for  the  Pui3lic  have  been  great,  besides  the  loss  of  his  call- 
ing by  his  attendance  here.  His  affections  have  been  true  and 
constant ;  and,  I  believe,  his  decay  great  in  his  Estate.  It  will  be 
justice  and  charity  to  him  ;  and  I  shall  acknowledge  it  as  a  favour  to, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

John  Lowry,  Esq.,  is  Oliver's  fellow  Member  for  Cambridge. 
What  Lowry's  '  losses,'  '  estate,'  *  calling,'  or  history  in  general  were, 
remains  undiscoverable.  One  might  guess  that  he  had  been  perhaps 
a  lawyer,  of  Puritan  principles,  and  fortune  already  easy.  He  did  not 
sit  in  the  short  Parhament  of  1640,  as  Oliver  had  done  ;  Oliver's 
former  *  Partner.'  one  Meautys  as  we  mentioned  already,  gave  place 
to  Lowry  when  the  new  Election  happened. 

Lowry  in  1645  was  Mayor  of  Cambridge.  Some  controversy  as  to 
the  Privileges  of  the  University  there,  which  are  now  reformed 
according  to  the  Puritan  scheme,  had  arisen  with  the  Town  of 
Cambridge  :  a  deputation  of  Cambridge  University  men,  with  '  Mr. 
Vines'  at  their  head,  comes  up  with  a  Petition  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  on  the  4th  August,  1645  :  reporting  that  they  are  like  to  be 
aggrieved,  that  the  '  New  Mayor  of  Cambridge  will  not  take  the 
customary  oaths,'  in  respect  to   certain  privileges  of  the  University; 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  62^. 

f  Harris,  p.  516  ;  Harleian  Mss,  no,  6988— collated,  and  evaa. 


BRISTOL,  35 


and  praying  the  House,  in  a  bland  and  flattering  way,  to  protect  them. 
The  House  answers :."  Yours  is  the  University  which  is  under  the 
protection  of  this  House  ;"  Oxford,  still  in  the  King's  hands,  being  in 
a  very  unreformed  state :  "  this  House  can  see  no  learning  now  in  the 
Kingdom  but  by  your  eyes  ; " — certainly  you  shall  be  protected  ! — 
Counter-Petitions  come  from  Lowry  and  the  Corporation  ;  but  we 
doubt  not  the  University  was  protected  in  this  controversy,  and  Gown 
made  good  against  Town."*  What  the  controversy  specially  was,  or 
what  became  of  it,  let  no  living  man  enquire.  LoAV'ry  here  vanishes 
into  thick  night  again  ;  nowhere  reappears  till  in  this  Letter  of 
Cromwell's. 

Letter  written,  as  its  date  bears,  on  the  very  day  when  he  set  our 
towards  Bristol,  to  take  the  command  in  Ireland,  '  loth  July,  1649, 
about  five  in  the  afternoon.'  In  some  Committee-room,  or  other  such 
locality,  in  the  thick  press  of  business,  Lowry  had  contrived  to  make 
his  way  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  to  get  this  Letter  out  of  him. 
Which  indeed  proved  very  helpful.  For  on  that  day  week,  17th 
of  July,  1649,  ^^6  fi'^d  ^^  follows:  'The  humble  Petition  of  John 
'Lowry,  Esq.,  was  this  day  read.  Ordered,  That  the  sum  of  Three- 
'  hundred  pounds  be  allowed  unto  the  said  Mr.  John  Lowry,  for  his 
'  losses  in  the  said  Petition  mentioned  :  and  that  the  same  be 
'charged  upon  the  revenue  :  and  the  Committee  of  Revenue  are 
'  authorised  and  appointed  to  pay  the  same  :  and  the  same  is 
'  especially  recommended  to  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Senior,  to  take 
'  care  the  same  be  paid  accordingly,'! — which  we  can  only  hope  it 
was,  to  the  solace  of  poor  Mr.  Lowry  and  the  ending  of  these  dis- 
cussions. 

Ten  years  later,  in  Protector  Richard's  time,  on  Friday  22nd  July, 
I659,  a  John  Lowry,  Esquire,  now  quite  removed  from  Cambridge, 
turns  up  again  ;  claiming  to  be  continued  '  Cheque  in  Ward  in  the 
*  Port  of  London,' — which  dignity  is  accordingly  assured  him  till  '  the 
first  day  of  October  next.';]:  But  whether  this  is  our  old  friend  the 
Mayor  of  Cambridge,  and  what  kind  of  provision  for  his  old  age  this 
same  Chequeship  in  Ward  might  be,  is  unknown  to  the  present 
Editor.  Not  the  faintest  echo  or  vestige  henceforth  of  a  John  Lowry 
either  real  or  even  possible.  The  rest — gloomy  Night  compresses  it, 
and  we  have  no  more  to  say. 


LETTER   LXVIL 

Mayor  of  Hursley,  with  whom  are  the  young  Couple,  is  connected 
now  with  an  important  man  :  he  has  written  in  behalf  of  '  Major 
Long  ; '  for  promotion  as  is  likely.  The  important  man  does  not  pro- 
mote on  the  score  of  connexion  ;  and  mildly  signifies  so  much. 

*  See  Commons  Journals,  vi.  229,  241.         f  Commons  Jonmals,  vi.  263, 
X  Commons  Journals,  vii.  727. 

C  2 


36 


CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


For  my  very  loving  Brother,  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire,  at  Huts/ey  : 

These. 

Bristol  i9'hjuly,  1649. 

Loving  Brother, 

I  received  your  Letter  by  Major  Long  ;  and  do  in  answer  there- 
unto according  to  my  best  understanding,  with  a  due  consideration  to 
those  gentlemen  who  have  abid  the  brunt  of  the  service. 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  of  your  welfare,  and  that  our  children  have 
so  good  leisure  to  make  a  journey  to  eat  cherries  : — it's  very  excus- 
able in  my  Daughter  ;  I  hope  she  may  have  a  very  good  pretence  for 
it.  I  assure  you,  Sir,  I  wish  her  very  well  ;  and  1  believe  she  knows 
it.  I  pray  you  tell  her  from  me  I  expect  she  writes  often  to  me  ;  by 
which  I  shall  understand  how  all  your  Family  doth,  and  she  will  be 
kept  in  some  exercise.  I  have  delivered  my  Son  up  to  you  ;  and  I 
hope  you  will  counsel  him  :  he  will  need  it  ;  and  indeed  I  believe  he 
likes  well  what  you  say,  and  will  be  advised  by  you.  I  wish  he  may 
be  serious  ;  the  times  require  it. 

I  hope  my  Sister"^  is  in  health  ;  to  whom  I  desire  my  very  hearty 
affections  and  service  may  be  presented  ;  as  also  to  my  Cousin  Ann,t 
to  whom  I  wish  a  good  husband.  1  desire  my  affections  may  be  pre- 
sented to  all  your  Family,  to  which  I  wish  a  blessing  from  the  Lord. 
I  hope  I  shall  have  your  prayers  in  the  Business  to  which  I  am  called. 
My  Wife,  I  trust,  will  be  with  you  before  it  be  long,  in  her  way 
towards  Bristol. — Sir,  discompose  not  your  thoughts  or  Estate  for 
what  you  are  to  pay  me.  Let  me  know  wherein  I  may  comply  with 
your  occasions  and  mind,  and  be  confident  you  will  find  ms  to  you  as 
your  own  heart. 

Wishing  your  prosperity  and  contentment  very  sincerely,  with  the 
remembrance  of  my  love,  I  rest, 

Your  affectionate  brother  and  servant, 

Oliver  CrOxMwell.J 

Mayor  has  endorsed  this  Letter  :  '  Received  27  July,  1649,  per 
Messenger  express  from  Newbury.'  He  has  likewise,  says  Harris, 
jotted  on  it  '  some  shorthand,'  and  '  an  account  of  his  cattle  and 
sheep,' — Who  the  'Major  Long'  was,  we  know  not:  Cromwell 
undertakes  to  '  do '  for  him  what  may  be  right  and  reasonable,  and 
nothing  more. 

Cromwell,  leaving  London  as  we  saw  on  Tuesday  evening  July  loth, 
had  arrived  ?t  Bristol  on  Saturday  evening,  which  was  the  14th.  He 
had  to  continue,  here,  making  his  preparations,  gathering  his  forces, 
for  several  weeks.  Mrs.  Cromwell  means  seemingly  to  pass  a  little 
more  time  with  him  before  he  go.  In  the  end  of  July,  he  quits 
Bristol  ;  moving  westward  by  Tenby§  and  Pembroke,  where  certain 
forces  were  to  be  taken  up, — towards  Milford  Haven  ;  where  he  dates 
his  next  Letters,  just  in  the  act  of  sailing. 

*  Mrs.  Miiyor.  f  Miss  Mayor,  afterwards  M;s.  Dunch  of  Pusey. 

X  Harris,  p.  510;   no.  8  of  the  Pusey  seventeen. 

§  At  Tenby,  2nd  August,  Ccrnnions  Journals,  vi.  277. 


MlLPORD  HAVEN.  37 


LETTER  LXVIII. 

The  new  Lord  Lieutenant  had  at  first  designed  for  Munster, 
where  it  seemed  his  best  chance  lay.  Already  he  has  some  regiments 
over,  to  reinforce  our  old  acquaintance  Colonel,  now  Lieutenant- 
General  Michael  Jones,  at  present  besieged  in  Dublin,  and  enable 
him  to  resist  the  Ormond  Army  there.  But  on  the  2nd  of  August  an 
important  Victory  has  turned  up  for  Jones  :  surprisal,  and  striking 
into  panic  and  total  rout  of  the  said  Ormond  Army  ;"*"  which  fortunate 
event,  warmly  recognised  in  the  following  Letter,  clears  Dublin  of 
siege,  and  opens  new  outlooks  for  the  Lord  Lieutenant  there.  He 
sails  thitherward  ;  from  Milford  Haven,  Monday,  August  13th. 
Ireton,  who  is  Major-General,  or  third  in  command,  Jones  being 
second,  follows  with  another  division  of  the  force,  on  Wednesday. 
Hugh  Peters  also  went  ;  and  '  Mr.  Owen'  also,  for  another  chaplain. 

The  good  ship  John  is  still  lying  in  Milford  waters,  we  suppose, 
waiting  for  a  wind,  for  a  turn  of  the  tide.  '  My  Son '  Richard  Crom- 
well, and  perhaps  Richard's  Mother,  we  may  dimly  surmise,  had 
attended  the  Lord  Lieutenant  thus  far,  to  wish  him  speed  on  his 
perilous  enterprise.'* 

''For   7ny    loving  Brother^  Richard  Mayor,   Esquire  at  Hursley : 

These: 

'Milford  Haven,'  From  Aboard  the  John, 
13th  Aug.  1649. 

Loving  Brother, 

I  could  not  satisfy  myself  to  omit  this  opportunity  by  my  Son 
of  writing  to  you  ;  especially  there  being  so  late  and  great  an  occasion 
of  acquainting  you  with  the  happy  news  I  received  from  Lieutenant- 
General  Jones  yesterday. 

The  Marquis  of  Ormond  besieged  Dublin  with  19,000  men  or  there- 
abouts ;  7,000  Scots  and  3,000  more  were  coming  to  'join  him  in' 
that  work.  Jones  issued  out  of  Dublin  with  4,000  foot  and  1,200 
horse  ;  hath  routed  this  whole  army  ;  killed  about  4,000  upon  the 
place;  taken  2,517  prisoners,  above  300  'of  them'  officers,  some  of 
great  quality.f 

This  is  an  astonishing  mercy  ;  so  great  and  seasonable  that  indeed 
we  are  like  them  that  dreamed.  What  can  we  say  !  The  Lord 
fill  our  souls  with  thankfulness,  that  our  mouths  may  be  full  of 
His  praise, — and  our  lives  too  ;  and  grant  we  may  never  forget 
His  goodness  to  us.  These  things  seem  to  strengthen  our  faith  and 
love,  against  more  difficult  times.  Sir,  pray  for  me,  That  I  may  walk 
worthy  of  the  Lord  in  all  that  He  hath  called  me  unto  !— 

I  have  committed  my  Son  to  you  ;  pray  give  him  advice.     I  envy 

*  Rout  at  Rathmines  or  Bagatralh  :  Ormond's  own  Account  of  it,  in  Cartes 
Ormond  Papers,  ii.  403,  407-11. 

t  I  he  round  numbers  of  this  account  have,  as  is  usual,  come  over  greatly 
exaggerated  (Carte,  ubt  supra). 


3S 


CAMPAJu\  JN  IRELAND. 


him  not  his  contents  ;  but  I  fear  he  should  be  swallowed  up  in  them. 
I  would  have  him  mind  and  understand  Business,  read  a  little 
History,  study  the  Mathematics  and  Cosmography  : — these  are  good, 
with  subordination  to  the  things  of  God.  Better  than  Idleness,  or 
mere  outward  worldly  contents.  These  fit  for  Public  services,*  for 
which  a  man  is  born. 

Pardon  this  trouble.  I  am  thus  bold  because  I  know  you  love  me  ; 
as  indeed  I  do  you,  and  yours.  My  love  to  my  dear  Sister  and  my 
Cousin  Ann  your  Daughter,  and  all  Friends.     I  rest, 

Sir, 

Your  loving  brother, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

'  P.S.'  Sir,  I  desire  you  not  to  discommodate  yourself  because  of 
the  money  due  to  me.  Your  welfare  is  as  mine  :  and  therefore  let  me 
know  from  time  to  time  what  will  convenience  you  in  any  forbear- 
ance ;  I  shall  answer  you  in  it,  and  be  ready  to  accommodate  you. 
And  therefore  do  your  other  business  ;  let  not  this  hinder.f 


LETTER  LXIX. 

Same  date,  same  conveyance. 
To  my  beloved  Daughter,  Dorothy  Cromwell,  at  Hursley  :  These. 

From  Aboard  the  John,  13th  August,  1649. 

My  dear  Daughter, 

Your  Letter  was  very  welcome  to  me.  I  like  to  see  anything 
from  your  hand  ;  because  indeed  I  stick  not  to  say  I  do  entirely  love 
you.  And  therefore  I  hope  a  word  of  advice  will  not  be  unwelcome 
nor  unacceptable  to  thee. 

I  desire  you  both  to  make  it  above  all  things  your  business  to  seek 
the  Lord  :  to  be  frequently  calling  upon  Him,  that  He  would  manifest 
Himself  to  you  in  His  Son  ;  and  be  listening  what  returns  He  makes 
to  you, — for  He  will  be  speaking  in  your  ear  and  in  your  heart,  if  you 
attend  thereunto.  I  desire  you  to  provoke  your  Husband  likewise 
thereunto.  As  for  the  pleasures  of  this  Life,  and  outward  Business, 
let  that  be  upon  the  bye.  Be  above  all  these  things,  by  Faith  in 
Christ  ;  and  then  you  shall  have  the  true  use  and  comfort  of  thein, — 
and  not  otherwise.];  I  have  much  satisfaction  in  hope  your  spirit  is 
this  way  set  ;  and  I  desire  you  may  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  know- 
ledge of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  I  may  hear 
thereof.  The  Lord  is  very  near  :  which  we  see  by  His  wonderful 
works  :  and  therefore  He  looks  that  we  of  this  generation  draw  near 

*  Services  useful  to  all  men. 

f  Forster's  :^tatesmen  of  the  Commonwealth,  iv.  267 ;  from  certain  Mss.  of  Lord 
Nugent's. 

Hov\  tine  is  this:   equal,  in  its  obsolete  dialect,  to  the  highe  ,t  that   man  has 
yet  attauii-d  to,  in  any  dialect,  old  or  new  ! 


ABOARD   THE  JOHN.  39 

to  Him.     This  late  great  Mercy  of  Ireland  is  a  great  manifestation 
thereof     Your  Husband  will  acquaint  you  with  it.     We  should  be 
much  stirred  up  in  our  spirits  to  thankfulness.     We  much  need  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  to  enable  us  to  praise  God  for  so  admirable  a  mercy. 
The  Lord  bless  thee,  my  dear  Daughter. 
I  rest, 

Thy  loving  Father, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

*P.S  '  I  hear  thou  didst  lately  miscarry.  Prithee  take  heed  of  a 
coach  by  all  means  ;  borrow  thy  Father's  nag  when  thou  intendest  to 
go  abroad.* 

Is  the  last  phrase  ironical;  or  had  the  'coach,'  in  those  ancient 
roads,  overset,  and  produced  the  disaster  ?  Perhaps  *  thy  Father's 
nag '  is  really  safer  }  Oliver  is  not  given  to  irony  ;  nor  in  a  tone  for 
it  at  this  moment.  These  gentle  domesticities  and  pieties  are  strangely 
contrasted  with  the  fiery  savagery  and  iron  grimness,  stern  as  Doom, 
which  meets  us  in  the  next  set  of  Letters  we  have  from  him  ! 

On  the  second  day  following,  on  the  1 5th  of  August,t  Cromwell 
with  a  prosperous  wind  arrived  in  Dublin  ;  '  where,' say  the  old  News- 
papers,t  '  he  was  received  with  all  possible  demonstrations  of  joy ; 
'  the  great  guns  echoing  forth  their  welcome,  and  the  acclamations  of 
*  the  people  resounding  in  every  street.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  being 
'come  into  the  Ciry,— where  the  concourse  of  the  people  was  very 
'great,  they  all  flocking  to  see  him  of  whom  before  they  had  heard  so 
'  much, — at  a  convenient  place  he  made  a  stand,'  rising  in  his  carriage, 
w  suppose,  '  and  with  his  hat  in  his  hand  made  a  speech  to  them.' 
Speech  unfortunately  lost ;  it  is  to  this  effect :  '•'  That  as  God  had 
"  brought  him  thither  in  safety,  so  he  doubted  not  but  by  Divine  Pro- 
"  vidence  to  restore  them  all  to  their  just  liberties  and  properties," 
much  trodden  down  by  those  unblessed  Papist-Royalist  combinations, 
and  the  injuries  of  war  ;  "  and  that  all  persons  whose  hearts'  affections 
"  were  real  for  the  carrying  on  of  this  great  work  against  the  barbarous 
"  and  bloodthirsty  Irish  and  their  confederates  and  adherents,  and 
"  for  propagating  of  Christ's  Gospel  and  establishing  of  Truth  and 
"  Peace,  and  restoring  of  this  bleeding  Nation  of  Ireland  to  its  former 
"  happiness  and  tranquillity, — should  find  favour  and  protection  from 
"  the  Parliament  of  England  and  him,  and  withal  receive  such  rewards 
"and  gratuities  as  might  be  answerable  to  their  merits."  'This 
'  Speech,'  say  the  old  Newspapers,  '  was  entertained  with  great 
'  applause  by  the  people  ;  who  all  cried  out,  "  We  will  live  and  die 
'  with  you  ! " ' 

*  Forster,  iv.  268.     From  certain  mss.  of  Lord  Nugent. 

t  Carte,  ii.  83. 

X  In  Kimber  :  Life  of  Cromwell  (London,  1724),  p.  126. 


40  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND, 


LETTERS     LXX.— LXXXV. 

IRISH   WAR. 

The  history  of  the  Irish  War  is,  and  for  the  present  must  continue, 
very  dark  and  indecipherable  to  us.  Ireland,  ever  since  the  Irish 
Rebellion  broke  out  and  changed  itself  into  an  Irish  Massacre,  in  the 
end  of  1 64 1,  has  been  a  scene  of  distracted  controversies,  plunderings, 
excommunications,  treacheries,  conflagrations,  of  universal  misery 
and  blood  and  buster,  such  as  the  world  before  or  since  has  never 
seen.  The  History  of  it  does  not  form  itself  into  a  picture  ;  but 
remains  only  as  a  huge  blot,  an  indiscriminate  blackness  ;  which  the 
human  memory  cannot  willingly  charge  itself  with  !  There  are  Parties 
cm  the  back  of  Parties  ;  at  war  with  the  world  and  with  each  other. 
There  are  Catholics  of  the  Pale,  demanding  freedom  of  religion  ; 
under  my  Lord  This  and  my  Lord  That.  There  are  Old- Irish 
Catholics,  under  Pope's  Nuncios,  under  Abbas  O'Teague  of  the  ex- 
communications, and  Owen  Roe  O'Neil  ; — demanding  not  religious 
freedom  only,  but  what  we  now  call  'Repeal  of  the  Union  ;'  and 
unable  to  agree  with  the  Catholics  of  the  English  Pale.  Then 
there  are  Ormond  Royalists,  of  the  Episcopalian  and  mixed  creeds, 
strong  for  King  without  Covenant:  I'lster  and  other  Presbyterians, 
strong  for  King  and  Covenant  :  lastly,  Michael  Jones  and  the  Com- 
monwealth of  England,  who  want  neither  King  nor  Covenant.  All 
these  plunging  and  tumbling,  in  huge  discord,  for  the  last  eight 
years,  have  made  of  Ireland  and  its  affairs  the  black  unutterable  blot 
we  speak  of 

At  the  date  of  Oliver's  arrival,  all  Irish  Parties  are  united  in  a  com- 
bination very  unusual  with  them  ;  very  dangerous  for  the  incipient 
Commonwealth.  Ormond,  who  had  returned  thither  with  new  Com- 
mission, in  hopes  to  co-operate  with  Scotch  Hamilton  during  the 
Second  Civil  War,  arrived  too  late  for  that  object  ;  but  had  succeeded 
in  rallying  Ireland  into  one  mass  of  declared  opposition  to  the  Powers 
that  now  rule.  Catholics  of  the  Pale,  and  Old-Irish  Catholics  of  the 
Massacre,  will  at  length  act  together  :  Protestant  English  Royahsm, 
which  has  fled  hither  for  shelter  ;  nay,  now  at  last  Royalist  Presby- 
terianism,  and  the  very  Scots  in  Ulster, — have  all  joined  with  Ormond 
'  against  the  Regicides.'  They  are  eagerly  inviting  the  young  Charles 
Second  to  come  thither,  and  be  crowned  and  made  victorious.  He 
as  yet  hesitates  between  that  and  Scotland  ; — may  probably  give 
Scotland  the  preference.  But  in  all  Ireland,  when  Cromwell  sets  foot 
on  it,  there  remain  only  two  Towns,  Dub'in  and  Derry,  that  hold  lor 
the  Commonwealth  ;  Dublin  lately  besieged,  Derry  still  besieged.  A 
very  formidable  combination.  AH  Ireland  kneaded  together,  by 
favourable  accident  and  *he  incredible  patience  of  Ormond,  stands  up 
in  one  great  combination,  resolute  to  resist  the  Commonwealth. 
Combination  great  in  bulk  ;  but  made  of  iron  and  clay  ; — in  meaning 
not  so  great.     Oliver  has   taken   survey  and  measure  of  it;  Oliver 


iRtSH  WAR.  41 


descends  on  it  like  the  Hammer  of  Thor ;  smites  it,  as  at  one  fell 
stroke,  into  dust  and  ruin,  never  to  unite  against  him  more. 

One  could  pity  this  poor  Irish  people  ;  their  case  is  pitiable  enough! 
The  claim  they  started  with,  in  1641,  was  for  religious  freedom.  Their 
claim,  we  can  now  all  see,  was  just  :  essentially  just,  though  full  of 
intricacy  ;  difficult  to  render  clear  and  concessible  ; — nay,  at  that  date 
of  the  World's  History,  it  was  hardly  recognisable  to  any  Protestant 
man,  for  just  ;  and  these  frightful  massacrings  and  sanguinary  bluster- 
ings  have  rendered  it,  for  the  present,  entirely  unrecognisable.  A  just, 
though  very  intricate  claim  :  but  entered  upon,  and  prosecuted,  by 
such  methods  as  were  never  yet  available  for  asserting  any  claim  in 
this  world  !  Treachery  and  massacre  :  what  could  come  of  it  ? 
Eight  years  of  cruel  fighting,  of  desperate  violence  and  misery,  have 
left  matters  worse  a  thousandfold  than  they  were  at  first.  No  want 
of  daring,  or  of  patriotism  so-called  ;  but  a  great  want  of  other  things  ! 
Numerous  large  masses  of  armed  men  have  been  on  foot ;  full  of  fiery 
vehemence  and  audacity,  but  without  worth  as  Armies  :  savage  hordes 
rather  ;  full  of  hatred  and  mutual  hatred,  of  disobedience,  falsity  and 
noise.  Undrilled,  unpaid,— driving  herds  of  plundered  cattle  before 
them  for  subsistence  ;  rushing  down  from  hillsides,  from  ambuscadoes, 
passes  in  the  mountains  ;  taking  shelter  always  '  in  bogs  whither  the 
cavalry  cannot  follow  them.'  Unveracious,  violent,  disobedient  men. 
False  in  speech  : — alas,  false  in  thought,  first  of  all  ;  who  have  never 
let  the  Fact  tell  its  own  harsh  story  to  them  ;  who  have  said  always 
to  the  harsh  Fact,  "  Thou  art  not  that  way,  thou  art  this  way  !  "  The 
Fact,  of  course,  asserts  that  it  is  that  way  :  the  Irish  Projects  end  in 
perpetual  discomfiture  ;  have  to  take  shelter  in  bogs  whither  cavalry 
cannot  follow  !  There  has  been  no  scene  seen  under  the  sun  like 
Ireland  for  these  eight  years.  Murder,  p  I'age,  conflagration,  excom- 
munication ;  wide-flowing  blood,  and  1  hisf^r  high  as  Heaven  and  St. 
Peter  ; — as  if  wolves  or  rabid  dogs  were  in  fi^jht  here  ;  as  if  demons 
from  the  Pit  had  mounted  up  to  deface,  this  lair  green  piece  of  God's 
Creation  with  />^^/y  talkings  and  workings  !  It  is,  and  shall  remain, 
very  dark  to  us.  Conceive  Ireland  wasted,  torn  in  pieces  ;  black 
Controversy  as  of  demons  and  rabid  wolves  rushing  over  the  face  of 
it  so  long  ;  incurable,  and  very  dim  to  us  :  till  here  at  last,  as  in  the 
torrejit  of  Heaven's  lightning  descending  liquid  on  it,  we  have  clear 
and  terrible  view  of  its  affairs  for  a  time  ! — 

Oliver's  proceedings  here  have  been  the  theme  of  much  loud  criti- 
cism, and  sibylline  execration  ;  into  which  it  is  not  our  plan  to  enter 
at  present.  We  shall  give  these  Fifteen  Letters  of  his  in  a  mass,  and 
without  any  commentary  whatever.  To  those  who  think  that  a  land 
overrun  with  Sanguinary  Quacks  can  be  healed  by  sprinkling  it  with 
rose-water,  these  Letters  must  be  very  horrible.  Terrible  Surgery 
this  :  but  is  it  Surgery  and  Judgment,  or  atrocious  Murder  merely  "i 
That  is  a  question  which  should  be  asked  ;  and  answered.  Oliver 
Cromwell  did  believe  in  God's  Judgments  :  and  did  not  believe  in  the 
rose-water  plan  of  Surgery  ; — which,  in  fact,  is  this  Editor's  case  too ! 
Every  idle  lie  and  piece  of  empty  bluster  this  Editor  hears,  he  too, 
like  Oliver,  has  to  shudder  at  it  :'has  to  think  :  "  Thou,  idle  bluster, 
not  tru«,  thou  also  art  shutting  men's  minds  against  the  God's  Fact  y 


CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


thou  wilt  issue  as  a  cleft  crown  to  some  poor  man  some  day  ;  thou  also 
wilt  have  to  take  shelter  in  bogs  whither  cavalry  cannot  follow  !" — 
But  in  Oliver's  time,  as  I  say,  there  was  still  belief  in  the  Judgments 
of  God ;  in  Olivers  time,  'there  was  yet  no  distracted  jargon  of 
'abolishing  Capital  Punishments,'  of  Jean-Jacques  Philanthropy, and 
universal  rose-water  in  this  world  still  so  full  of  sin.  Men's  notion 
was,  not  for  abohshing  punishments,  but  for  making  laws  just  :  God 
the  Maker's  Laws,  they  considered,  had  not  yet  got  the  Punishment 
abolished  from  them  !  Men  had  a  notion,  that  the  difference  between 
Good  and  Evil  was  still  considerable  ; — equal  to  the  difference  be- 
tween Heaven  and  Hell.  It  was  a  true  notion  Which  all  men  yet 
saw,  and  felt  in  all  fibres  of  their  existence,  to  be  true.  Only  in  late 
decadent  generations,  fast  hastening  towards  radical  change  or  final  per- 
dition, can  such  indiscriminate  mashing-up  of  Good  and  Evil  into  one 
universal  patent-treacle,  and  most  unmedical  electuary,  of  Rousseau 
Sentimentalism,  universal  Pardan  and  Benevolence,  with  dinner  and 
drink  and  one  cheer  more,  take  effect  in  our  Earth.  Electuary  very 
poisonous,  as  sweet  as  it  is,  and  very  nauseous  ;  of  which  Ohver,  hap- 
pier than  we,  had  not  yet  heard  the  slightest  intimation  even  in  dreams. 

The  reader  of  these  Letters,  who  has  swept  all  that  very  ominous 
twaddle  out  of  his  head  and  heart,  and  still  looks  with  a  recognising 
eye  on  the  ways  of  the  Supreme  Powers  with  this  world,  will  find 
here,  in  the  rude  practical  state,  a  Phenomenon  which  he  will  account 
noteworthy.  An  arm2d  Soldier,  solemnly  conscious  to  himself  that  he 
is  the  Soldier  of  God  the  Just, — a  consciousness  which  it  well  beseems 
all  soldiers  and  all  men  to  have  always  ;— armed  Soldier,  terrible  as 
Death,  relentless  as  Doom  ;  doing  God's  Judgments  on  the  Enemies 
of  God  I  It  is  a  Phenomenon  not  of  joyful  nature  ;  no,  but  of  awful, 
to  be  looked  at  with  pious  terror  and  awe.  Not  a  Phenomenon  which 
you  are  called  to  recognise  with  bright  smiles,  and  fall  in  love  with  at 
sight  : — thou,  art  thou  worthy  to  love  such  a  thing  ;  worthy  to  do 
other  than  hate  it,  and  shriek  over  it  ?  Darest  thou  wed  the  Heaven's 
lightning,  then  :  and  say  to  it.  Godlike  One.-*  Is  thy  own  life  beauti- 
ful and  terrible  to  thee  ;  steeped  in  the  eternal  depths,  in  the  eternal 
splendours  ?  Thou  also,  art  thou  in  thy  sphere  the  minister  of  God's 
Justice  ;  feeling  that  thou  art  here  to  do  it,  and  to  see  it  done,  at  thy 
soul's  peril  ?  Thou  wilt  then  judge  Oliver  with  increasing  clearness  ; 
otherwise  with  increasing  darkness,  misjudge  him. 

In  fact,  Oliver's  dialect  is  rude  and  obsolete  ;  the  phrases  of  Oliver, 
to  him  solemn  on  the  perilous  battlefield  as  voices  of  God,  have  be- 
come to  us  most.mournful  when  spouted  as  frothy  cant  from  Exeter 
Hall.  The  reader  has,  all  along,  to  make  steady  allowance  for  that. 
And  on  the  whole,  clear  recognition  will  be  difficult  for  him.  To  a 
poor  slumberous  Canting  Age,  mumbling  to  itself  everywhere,  Peace, 
Peace,  where  there  is  no  peace, — such  a  Phenomenon  as  Oliver,  in 
Ireland  or  elsewhere,  is  not  the  most  recognisable  in  all  its  meanings. 
But  it  waits  there  for  recognition  ;  and  can  wait  an  Age  or  two.  The 
Memory  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  as  I  count,  has  a  good  many  centuries 
in  it  yet  ;  and  Ages  of  very  varied  complexion  to  apply  to,  before  all 
end.  My  reader,  in  this  passage  and  others,  shall  make  of  it  what 
he  can. 


TRISff  WAR.  43 


But  certainly,  at  lowest,  here  is  a  set  of  Military  Despatches  of  the 
most  unexampled  nature  !  Most  rough,  unkempt  ;  shaggy  as  the 
Numidian  lion.  A  style  rugged  as  crags  ;  coarse,  drossy  :  yet  with  a 
meaning  in  it,  an  energy,  a  depth  ;  pouring  on  like  a  fire-torrent  ; 
perennial  Ji)-e  of  it  visible  athwart  all  drosses  and  defacements  :  not 
uninteresting  to  see  !  This  man  has  come  into  distracted  Ireland  with 
a  God's  Truth  in  the  heart  of  him,  though  an  unexpected  one  ;  the 
first  such  man  they  have  seen  for  a  great  while  indeed.  He  carries 
Acts  of  Parhament,  Laws  of  Earth  and  Heaven,  in  one  hand  ;  drawn 
sword  in  the  other.  He  addresses  the  bewildered  Irish  populations, 
the  black  ravening  coil  of  sanguinary  blustering  individuals  at  Tredah 
and  elsewhere  :  "  Sanguinary  blustering  individuals,  whose  word  i:: 
grown  worthless  as  the  barking  of  dogs  ;  whose  very  thought  is  false, 
representing  no  fact  but  the  contrary  of  fact, — behold,  I  am  come  to 
speak  and  to  do  the  truth  among  you.  Here  are  Acts  of  Parliament, 
methods  of  regulation  and  veracity,  emblems  the  nearest  we  poor 
Puritans  could  make  them  of  God's  Law-Book,  to  which  it  is  and 
shall  be  our  perpetual  effort  to  make  them  correspond  nearer  and 
nearer.  Obey  them,  help  us  to  perfect  them,  be  peaceable  and  true 
under  them,  it  shall  be  well  with  you.  Refuse  to  obey  them,  I  will 
not  let  you  continue  living  !  As  articulate  speaking  veracious  orderly 
men,  not  as  a  blustering  murderous  kennel  of  dogs  run  rabid,  shall 
you  continue  in  this  Earth.  Choose!" — They  chose  to  disbelieve 
him ;  could  not  understand  that  he,  more  than  the  others,  meant  any 
truth  or  justice  to  them.  They  rejected  his  summons  and  terms  at 
Tredah  :  he  stormed  the  place  ;  and  according  to  his  promise,  put 
every  man  of  the  Garrison  to  death.  His  own  soldiers  are  forbidden 
to  plunder,  by  paper  Proclamation  ;  and  in  ropes  of  authentic  hemp 
they  are  hanged  when  they  do  it.  To  Wexford  Garrison  the  like 
terms  as  at  Tredah  ;  and,  failing  these,  the  like  storm.  Here  is  a 
man  whose  word  represents  a  thing  !  Not  bluster  this,  and  false 
jargon  scattering  itself  to  the  winds  :  what  this  man  speaks  out  of  him 
comes  to  pass  as  a  fact ;  speech  with  this  man  is  accurately  prophetic 
of  deed.  This  is  the  first  King's  face  poor  Ireland  ever  saw ;  the 
first  Friend's  face,  little  as  it  recognises  him, — poor  Ireland  ! 

But  let  us  take  the  Letters  themselves  ;  and  read  them  with  various 
emotions,  in  which  wonder  will  not  fail.  W  hat  a  rage,  •wide-sweeping 
inexorable  as  Death,  dwells  \\\  that  heart  ; — close  neighbour  to  pity,  to 
trembling  affection,  and  soft  tears  !  Some  leaders  know  that  softness 
without  rigour,  rigour  as  of  adamant  to  rest  upon,  is  but  sloth  and 
cowardly  baseness  ;  that  without  justice  first,  real  pity  is  not  possible, 
and  only  false  pity  and  maudlin  weakness  is  possible.  Others,  again, 
are  not  aware  of  that  fact. — To  our  Irish  friends  we  ought  to  say  like- 
wise that  this  Garrison  of  Tredah  consisted  mostly  of  Englishmen.* 
Perfectly  certain  this  : — and  therefore  let  "  the  bloody  hoof  of  the 
Saxon,"  &c.  forbear  to  continue  itself  on  that  matter.  At  its  peril  ! 
Idle  blustering,  and  untruth  of  every  kind  lead  to  the  like  terrible 
results  in  these  days  as  they  did  in  those. 

The  following  Two  Letters  on  Tredah,  or  Drogheda  as  we  now 

*  Ludlovr,  i.  -kOi. 


44  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


name  it,  contain  in  themselves,  especially  the  Second  and  more  deli- 
berate of  the  two  contains,  materials  for  a  pretty  complete  account 
of  the  Transaction  there.  It  requires  only  to  be  added,  what  Crom- 
well himself  has  forborne  to  do,  that  on  the  repulse  of  the  first  attack, 
it  was  he,  in  person,  who,  '  witnessing  it  from  the  batteries,'  hastened 
forward  and  led  on  the  new  attack  :  My  pretty  men,  we  must  posi- 
tively not  be  repulsed  ;  we  must  enter  here,  we  cannot  do  at  all  with- 
out entering  ! — The  rest  of  these  Irish  Letters  may,  I  hope,  tell  their 
own  tale. 


LETTER  LXX. 

'  To  the  Honourable  J oJiJi  Bradshaw,  Esquire,  President  of  the  Council 
of  Slate :   T/iese.' 

'Dublin,'  i6th  September,  1649. 

Sir, 

It  hath  pleased  God  to  bless  our  endeavours  at  Drogheda.* 
After  battery,  we  stormed  it.  The  Enemy  were  about  3,000  strong 
in  the  Town.  They  made  a  stout  resistance  ;  and  near  1,000  of  our 
men  being  entered,  the  Enemy  forced  them  out  again.  But  God 
giving  a  new  courage  to  our  men,  they  attempted  again,  and  entered  ; 
beating  the  Enemy  from  their  defences. 

The  Enemy  had  made  three  retrenchments,  both  to  the  right  and 
left  'of  where  we  entered  ;  all  which  they  were  forced  to  quit.  Being 
thus  entered,  we  refused  them  quarter  ;  having  the  day  before  sum- 
moned the  Town,  I  believe  we  put  to  the  sword  the  whole  number 
of  the  defendants.  I  do  not  think  Thirty  of  the  whole  number 
escaped  with  their  lives.  Those  that  did,  are  in  safe  custody  for  the 
Barbadoes.  Since  that  time,  the  Enemy  quitted  to  us  Trim  and 
Dunkalk.  In  Trim  they  were  in  such  haste  that  they  left  their  guns 
behind  them. 

This  hath  been  a  marvellous  great  mercy.  The  Enemy  being  not 
willing  to  put  an  issue  upon  a  field-battle,  had  put  into  this  Garrison 
almost  all  their  prime  soldiers,  being  about  3,000  horse  and  foot,  under 
the  command  of  their  best  officers  ;  Sir  Arthur  Ashton  being  made 
Governor.  There  were  some  seven  or  eight  regiments,  Ormond's  being 
one,  under  the  command  of  Sir  Edmund  Varney.  I  do  not  believe, 
neither  do  I  hear,  that  any  officer  escaped  with  his  life,  save  only  one 
Lieutenant,  who  I  hear,  going  to  the  Enemy  said,  That  he  was  the 
only  man  that  escaped  of  all  the  Garrison.  The  Enemy  upon  this 
were  filled  with  much  terror.  And  truly  I  believe  this  bitterness  will 
save  much  effusion  of  blood,  through  the  goodness  of  God. 

I  wish  that  all  honest  hearts  may  give  the  glory  of  this  to  God 
alone,  to  whom  indeed  the  praise  of  this  mercy  belongs.  *As' 
for  instruments,  they  were  very  inconsiderable  the  work  through- 
out,       -x-        -x-        -x- 

Captain  Brandly  did  with  forty  or  fifty  of  his  men  very  gallantly 
*  This  is  Oliver's  spelling ;  contrary  to  what  was  then  usual,  almost  universal 


STORM  OF  DROGHEDA.  45 


storm  the  Tenalias  ;  for  which  he  deserves  the  thanks  of  the  State. 
*  I  rest, 

Your  most  humble  servant,' 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

'  Tenalia^  I  believe,  is  now  called  Tenaille  by  engineers  ;  a  kind  of 
advanced  defensive  work,  which  takes  its  name  from  resemblance, 
real  or  imaginary,  to  the  lip  of  a  pair  of  pincers. 

The  '  Sir  Edmund  Varney  '  who  perished  here  was  the  son  of  the 
Standard-bearer  at  Edgehill.  For  Sir  Arthur  Ashton  see  Clarendon. 
Poor  Sir  Arthur  had  a  wooden  leg  which  the  soldiers  were  very  eager 
for,  understanding  it  to  be  full  of  gold  coin  ;  but  it  proved  to  be  mere 
timber:  all  his  gold,  200  broad  pieces,  was  sewed  into  his  belt,  and 
scrambled  for  when  that  came  to  light.t  There  is  in  Wood's  Lifcl 
an  old-soldier's  account  of  the  Storm  of  Tredah,  sufficiently  emphatic, 
by  Tom  Wood,  Anthony's  brother,  who  had"  been  there. 


LETTER  LXXI. 

For  the  HonourabU  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 
of  England:    These' 

Dublin,  17th  September,  1649. 

Sir, 

Your  Army  being  safely  arrived  at  Dublin ;  and  the  Enemy 
endeavouring  to  draw  all  his  forces  together  about  Trim  and 
Tecroghan,  as  my  intelligence  gave  me, — from  whence  endeavours 
were  made  by  the  Marquis  of  Ormond  to  draw  Owen  Roe  O'Neil 
with  his  forces  to  his  assistance,  but  with  what  success  I  cannot  yet 
learn, — I  resolved,  after  some  refreshment  taken  for  our  weather- 
beaten  men  and  horses,  and  accommodations  for  a  march,  to  take  the 
field.  And  accordingly,  upon  Friday,  the  30th  of  August§  last, 
rendezvoused  with  eight  regiments  of  foot,  six  of  horse  and  some 
troops  of  dragoons,  three  miles  on  the  north  side  of  Dublin.  The 
design  was.  To  endeavour  the  regaining  of  Drogheda  ;  or  tempting 
the  Enemy,  upon  his  hazard  of  the  loss  of  that  place,  to  fight. 

Your  Army  came  before  the  Town  upon  Monday  following  [j  Where 
having  pitched,  as  speedy  course  was  taken  as  could  be  to  frame  our 
batteries  ;  which  took  up  the  more  time  because  divers  of  the  batter- 
ing guns  were  on  shipboard.  Upon  Monday,  the  9thir  of  this  instant, 
the  batteries  began  to  play.  Whereupon  I  sent  Sir  Arthur  Ashton, 
the  then  Governor,  a  summons.  To  deliver  the  Town  to  the  use  of  the 
Parliament  of  England.  To  the  which  receiving  no  satisfactory 
answer,  I  proceeded  that  day  to  beat  down  the  Steeple  of  the  Church 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  412.  f  Ibid, 

X  Prefixed  to  the  Athenas  Oxonienses. 

§  Friday  is  31st ;  this  error  as  to  the  day  of  the  month  continues  through  the 
Letter. 

II  3rd  September,  \  loth. 


46  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


on  the  south  side  of  the  Town,  and  to  beat  down  a  Tower  not  far 
from  the  same  place,  which  you  will  discern  by  the  Chart  enclosed. 

Our  guns  not  being  able  to  do  much  that  day,  it  was  resolved  to 
endeavour  to  do  our  utmost  the  next  day  to  make  breaches  assault- 
able,  and  by  the  help  of  God  to  storm  them.  The  place  pitched 
upon  was  that  part  of  the  Town-wall  next  a  Church  called  St.  Mary's ; 
which  was  the  rather  chosen  because  we  did  hope  that  if  we  did  enter 
and  possess  that  Church,  we  should  be  better  able  to  keep  it  against 
their  horse  and  foot  until  we  could  make  way  for  the  entrance  of  our 
horse  ;  and  we  did  not  conceive  that  any  part  of  the  Town  would 
afford  the  like  advantage  for  that  purpose  with  this.  The  batteries 
planted  were  two  :  one  was  for  that  part  of  the  Wall  against  the  east 
end  of  the  said  Church  ;  the  other  against  the  Wall  on  the  south  side. 
Being  somewhat  long  in  battering,  the  Enemy  made  six  retrenchments  : 
three  of  them  from  the  said  Church  to  Duleek  Gate  ;  and  three  of 
them  from  the  east  end  of  the  Church  to  the  Town-wall  and  so  back- 
ward. The  guns,  after  some  two  or  three  hundred  shot,  beat  down 
the  corner  Tower,  and  opened  two  reasonable  good  breaches  in  the 
east  and  south  Wall. 

Upon  Tuesday,  the  loth  of  this  instant,  about  five  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  we  began  the  Storm :  and  after  some  hot  dispute  we  entered, 
about  seven  or  eight  hundred  men  ;  the  Enemy  disputing  it  very 
stiffly  with  us.  And  indeed,  through  the  advantages  of  the  place, 
and  the  courage  God  was  pleased  to  give  the  defenders,  our 
men  were  forced  to  retreat  quite  out  of  the  breach,  not  without  some 
considerable  loss  ;  Colonel  Cassel  being  there  shot  in  the  head,  whereof 
he  presently  died  ;  and  divers  officers  and  soldiers  doing  their  duty 
killed  and  wounded.  There  was  a  Tenalia  to  flanker  the  south  Wall 
of  the  Town,  between  Duleek  Gate  and  the  corner  Tower  before 
mentioned  ; — which  our  men  entered,  wherein  they  found  some  forty 
or  fifty  of  the  Enemy,  which  they  put  to  the  sword.  And  this  '  Tenalia' 
they  held  :  but  it  being  without  the  Wall,  and  the  sally-port  through 
the  Wall  into  that  Tenalia  being  choked  up  with  some  of  the  Enemy 
which  were  killed  in  it,  it  proved  of  no  use  for  an  entrance  into  the 
Town  that  way. 

Although  our  men  that  stormed  the  breaches  were  forced  to  recoil, 
as  is  before  expressed  ;  yet  being  encouraged  to  recover  their  loss, 
they  made  a  second  attempt  :  wherein  God  was  pleased  so  to  animate 
them  that  they  got  ground  of  the  Enemy,  and  by  the  goodness  of  God, 
forced  him  to  quit  his  entrenchments.  And  after  a  very  hot  dispute 
the  Enemy  having  both  horse  and  foot,  and  we  only  foot,  within  the 
Wall, — they  gave  ground,  and  our  men  became  masters  both  of  their 
retrenchments  and  '  of  the  Church  ;  which  indeed,  although  they 
made  our  entrance  the  more  difficult,  yet  they  proved  of  excellent 
use  to  us  ;  so  that  the  Enemy  couM  not  '  now '  annoy  us  with  their 
horse,  but  thereby  we  had  advantage  to  make  good  the  ground,  that 
so  we  might  let  in  our  own  horse  ;  which  accordingly  was  done, 
though  with  much  difficulty. 

Divers  of  the  Enemy  retreated  into  the  Mill-Mount  :  a  place  very 
strong  and  of  difficult  of  access  ;  being  exceedingly  high,  having  a  good 
graft,  and  strong' y  pallisadoed.     The  Governor,  Sir  Arthur  Ashton, 


STORM  OF  DROGUE  DA.  47 


and  divers  considerable  Officers  being  there,  our  men  getting  up  to 
them,  were  ordered  by  me  to  put  them  all  to  the  sword.  And  indeed, 
being  in  the  heat  of  action.  I  forbade  them  to  spare  any  that  were 
in  arms  in  the  Town  :  and,  1  think,  that  night  they  put  to  the  sword 
about  2,000  men  ;— divers  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  being  fled  over 
the  Bridge  into  the  other  part  of  the  Town,  where  about  100  of  them 
possessed  St  Peter's  Church-steeple,  some  the  west  Gate,  and  others 
a  strong  Round  Tower  next  the  Gate  called  St.  Sunday's.  These, 
being  summoned  to  yield  to  mercy,  refused.  Whereupon  I  ordered 
the  steeple  of  St.  Peter's  Church  to  be  fired,  when  one  of  them  was 
heard  to  say  in  the  midst  of  ihe  flames  :  "  God  damn  me,  God  con- 
found me  ;  I  burn,  I  burn." 

The  next  day,  the  other  two  Towers  were  summoned  ;  in  one  of 
which  was  about  six  or  seven  score  :  but  they  refused  to  yield  them- 
selves :  and  we,  knowing  that  hunger  must  compel  them,  set  only 
good  guards  to  secure  them  from  running  away  until  their  stomachs 
were  come  down.  From  one  of  the  said  Towers,  notwithstanding 
their  condition,  they  killed  and  wounded  some  of  our  men.  When 
they  submitted,  their  officers  were  knocked  on  the  head  ;  and  every 
tenth  man  of  the  soldiers  killed  ;  and  the  rest  shipped  for  the  Barba- 
does.  The  soldiers  in  the  other  Tower  were  all  spared,  as  to  their 
hves  only  ;  and  shipped  likewise  for  the  Barbadoes. 

I  am  persuaded  that  this  is  a  righteous  judgment  of  God  upon 
these  barbarous  wretches,  who  have  imbrued  their  hands  in  so  much 
innocent  blood  ;  and  that  it  will  tend  to  prevent  the  effusion  of  blood  for 
the  future.  Which  are  the  satisfactory  grounds  to  such  actions,  which 
otherwise  cannot  but  work  remorse  and  regret.  The  officers  and 
soldiers  of  this  Garrison  were  the  flower  of  their  Army.  And  their 
great  expectation  was,  that  our  attempting  this  place  would  put  fair  to 
ruin  us  ;  they  being  confident  of  the  resolution  of  their  men,  and  the 
advantage  of  the  place.  If  we  had  divided  our  force  into  two 
quarters  to  have  besieged  the  North  Town  and  the  South  Town,  we 
could  not  have  had  such  a  correspondency  between  the  two  parts  of 
our  Army,  but  that  they  might  have  chosen  to  have  brought  their 
Army,  and  have  fought  with  which  part  '  of  ours  '  they  pleased, — and 
at  the  same  time  have  made  a  sally  with  2,000  men  upon  us,  and  have 
left  their  walls  manned  ;  they  having  in  the  Town  the  number  here- 
after specified,  but  some  say  near  4,000. 

Since  this  great  mercy  vouchsafed  to  us,  I  sent  a  party  of  horse  and 
dragoons  to  Dundalk  ;  which  the  Enemy  quitted  and  we  are  pos- 
sessed of, — as  also  '  of  another  Castle  they  deserted,  between  Trim 
and  Drogheda,  upon  the  Boyne.  I  sent  a  party  of  horse  and  dragoons 
to  a  House  within  five  miles  of  Trim,  there  being  then  in  Trim  some 
Scots  Companies,  which  the  Lord  of  Ardes  brought  to  assist  the 
Lord  of  Ormond.  But  upon  the  news  of  Drogheda,  they  ran  away  ; 
leaving  their  great  guns  behind  them,  which  also  we  have  possessed. 

And  now  give  me  leave  to  say  how  it  comes  to  pass  that  this  work 
is  wrought.  It  was  set  upon  some  of  our  hearts,  That  a  great  thing 
should  be  done,  not  by  power  or  might,  but  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
And  is  it  not  so,  clearly  ?    That  which  caused  your  men  to  storm  so 


48  CA^.IPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

courageously,  it  was  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  gave  your  men  courage, 
and  took  it  away  again  ;  and  gave  the  Enemy  courage,  and  took  it 
away  again  ;  and  gave  your  men  courage  again,  and  therewith  this 
happy  success.  And  therefore  it  is  good  that  Ciod  alone  have  all  the 
glory. 

It  is  remarkable  that  these  people,  at  the  first,  set  up  the  Mass  in 
some  places  of  the  Town  that  had  been  monasteries  ;  but  afterwards 
grew  so  insolent  that,  the  last  Lord's  day  before  the  storm,  the  Pro- 
testants were  thrust  out  of  the  great  Church  called  St.  Peter's,  and 
they  had  public  Mass  there  :  and  in  this  very  place  near  i,ooo  of 
them  were  put  to  the  sword,  fleeing  thither  for  safety.  I  believe  all 
their  friars  were  knocked  on  the  head  promiscuously  but  two  ;  the 
one  of  which  was  Father  Peter  TaafT,  brother  to  the  Lord  Taaff, 
whom  the  soldiers  took  the  next  day,  and  made  an  end  of.  The 
other  was  taken  in  the  Round  Tower,  under  ths  repute  of  a  Lieutenant, 
and  when  he  understood  that  the  officers  in  that  Tower  had  no 
quarter,  he  confessed  he  was  a  Friar  ;  but  that  did  not  save  him. 

A  great  deal  of  loss  in  this  business  fell  upon  Colonel  Hewson's, 
Colonel  Cassel's,  and  Colonel  Ewer's  regiments.  Colonel  Ewer 
having  two  Field-Officers  in  his  regiment  shot ;  Colonel  Cassel  and 
a  Captain  of  his  regiment  slain  ;  Colonel  Hewson's  Captain-Lieu- 
tenant slain.  I  do  not  think  we  lost  loo  men  upon  the  place,  though 
many  be  wounded. 

I  most  humbly  pray  the  Parliament  may  be  pleased  'that*  this 
Army  may  be  maintained ;  and  that  a  consideration  may  be  had  of 
them,  and  of  the  carrying  on  affairs  here, '  such  '  as  may  give  a  speedy 
issue  to  this  work  To  which  there  seems  to  be  a  marvellous  fair 
opportunity  oftered  by  God.  And  although  it  may  seem  very  charge- 
able to  the  State  of  England  to  maintain  so  great  a  force  ;  yet  surely 
to  stretch  a  littJe  for  the  present,  in  following  God's  providence,  in 
hope  the  charge  will  not  be  long — I  trust  it  will  not  be  thought  by 
any  (that  have  not  irreconcilable  or  malicious  principles)  unfit  for 
me  to  move,  For  a  constant  supply ;  which  in  human  probability  as 
to  outward  things,  is  most  likely  to  hasten  and  perfect  this  work. 
And  indeed  if  God  please  to  finish  it  here  as  He  hath  done  in  Eng- 
land, the  War  is  like  to  pay  itself. 

We  keep  the  field  much  ;  our  tents  sheltering  us  from  the  wet  and 
cold.  But  yet  the  Country-sickness  overtakes  many  •  and  therefore 
we  desire  recruits,  and  some  fresh  regiments  of  foot,  may  be  sent  us. 
For  it's  easily  conceived  by  what  the  Garrisons  already  drink  up, 
what  our  Field-Army  will  come  to,  if  God  shall  give  more  Garrisons 
into  our  hands.     Craving  pardon  for  this  great  trouble,  I  rest. 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

P.S.  Since  writing  of  my  Letter,  a  Major  who  brought  off  forty- 
three  horse  from  the  Enemy  told  me  that  it's  reported  in  their  camp 
that  Owen  Roe  and  they  are  agreed. 

The  defendants  in  Drogheda  consisted  of :  The  Lord  of  Ormond's 
regiment ,  Sir  Edmund  Varney  Lieutenant- Colonel's,  of  400  ;  Colonel 


STORM  OF  DROGHEDA.  49 


Byrn's,  Colonel  Warren's,  and  Colonel  Wall's,  of  2,000  ;  the  Lord 
of  Westmeath's,  of  200 ;  Sir  James  Dillon's,  of  200 ;  and  200 
horse.* 

The  report  as  to  Owen  Roe  O'Neil  is  correct.  Monk,  who  had 
lately  in  Ulster  entered  upon  some  negotiation  with  O'Neil  and  his 
Old-Irish  Party,  who,  as  often  happened,  were  in  quarrel  with  the 
others,  found  himself  deserted  by  his  very  ^joldiers,  and  obliged  to  go 
•to  England  ;  where  this  policy  of  his,  very  useful  as  Monk  had 
thought,  is  indignantly  disavowed  by  the  Authorities,  who  will  not 
hear  of  such  a  connexion.f  O^ven  Roe  O'Neil  appears  to  have  been 
a  man  of  real  ability  :  surely  no  able  man,  or  son  of  Order,  ever 
sank  in  a  more  dismal  welter  of  confusions  unconquerable  by  him  ! 
He  did  no  more  service  or  disservice  henceforth  ;  he  died  in  some 
two  months,  of  a  disease  in  the  foot, — poisoned,  say  some,  by  the 
gift  of  a  'pair  of  russet- leather  boots'  which  some  traitor  had  be- 
stowed on  him.lt 

Such  was  the  Storm  of  Tredah,  A  thing  which,  if  one  wanted 
good  assurance  as  to  the  essential  meaning  of  it,  might  well  '  work 
remorse  and  regret  : '  for  indisputably  the  outer  body  of  it  is  emphatic 
enough  !  Cromwell,  not  in  a  light  or  loose  manner,  but  in  a  very 
solemn  and  deep  one,  takes  charge  for  himself,  at  his  own  peril. 
That  it  is  a  Judgment  of  God  :  and  that  it  did  '  save  much  effusion 
of  blood,'  we  and  all  spectators  can  very  readily  testify.  '  Th^ 
execrable  policy  of  that  Regicide,'  says  Jacobite  Carte  on  the  occasion. 
'  had  the  effect  he  proposed.  It  spread  abroad  the  terror  of  his  name  ; 
it  cut' — In  fact,  it  cut  through  the  heart  of  the  Irish  War.  Wexford 
Storm  followed  (not  by  forethought,  it  would  seem,  but  by  chance  of 
war)  in  the  same  stern  fashion  ;  and  there  was  no  other  storm  or 
slaughter  needed  in  that  Country.  Rose-water  Surgeons  might 
have  tried  it  otherwise  ;  but  that  was  not  Oliver's  execrable  policy, 
not  the  Rose-water  one.  And  so  we  leave  it,  standing  on  such  basis 
as  it  has. 

Ormond  had  sent  orders  to  'burn'  Dundalk  and  Trim  before 
quitting  them  ;  but  the  Garrisons,  looking  at  Tredah,  were  in  too 
much  haste  to  apply  the  coal.  They  marched  away  at  double-quick 
time  ;  the  Lord  Lieutenant  got  possession  of  both  Towns  unburnt. 
He  has  put  Garrisons  there,  we  see,  which  '  drink  up '  some  of  his 
forces.  He  has  also  despatched  Colonel  Venables,  of  whom  we  shall 
hear  again,  with  a  regiment  or  two  to  raise  what  Siege  there  may  be 
at  Derry,  and  assist  in  settling  distracted  Ulster  ;  a  service  they 
rapidly  accomplished,  without  much  hurt,  though  not  without  one 
imminent  peril— by  a  camisado,  or  surprisal  in  the  night-time,  which 
is  afterwards  alluded  to  in  these  Letters.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  him- 
self, who  dates  from  Dublin,  rests  but  a  few  days  there  ;  then  sets 
out  Southward  on  a  new  series  of  o-perations. 

*  Newspapers;  in  Parliamentary  History  (London,  1763),  xix.  20I. 
f  ID  August,  1649  (Commons  Journals,  vi.  277) 
J  Carte,  ii.  83. 


50  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND, 


LETTER  LXXII. 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lejithall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 
of  England:  These. 

Wexford,  14th  October,  1649.     . 

Sir, 

The  Army  marched  from  Dublin,  about  the  23rd  of  September, 
into  the  County  of  Wicklow,  where  the  Enemy  had  a  Garrison  about 
fourteen  miles  from  Dublin,  called  Killincarrick  ;  which  they  quitting, 
a  Company  of  the  Army  was  put  therein.  From  thence  the  Army 
marched  through  almost  a  desolated  country,  until  it  came  to  a 
passage  over  the  River  Doro,"^  about  a  mile  above  the  Castle  of 
Arcklow,  which  was  the  first  seat  and  honour  of  the  Marquis  of 
Ormond's  family.  Which  he  had  strongly  fortified  :  but  it  was,  upon 
the  approach  of  the  Army,  quitted  ; — wherein  we  left  another  Com- 
pany of  Foot. 

From  thence  the  Army  marched  towards  Wexford  ;  where  in  the 
way  was  a  strong  and  large  Castle,  at  a  town  called  Limbrick,  the 
ancient  seat  of  the  Esmonds  ;  where  the  Enemy  had  a  strong 
Garrison  ;  which  they  burnt  and  quitted,  the  day  before  our  coming 
thither.  From  thence  we  marched  towards  F^rns,  an  episcopal  seat, 
where  was  a  Castle  ;  to  which  I  sent  Colonel  Reynolds  with  a  party 
to  summon  it.  Which  accordingly  he  did,  and  it  was  surrendered 
to  him  ;  where  we  having  put  a  company, — advanced  the  Army  to  a 
passage  over  the  River  Slaney,  which  runs  down  to  Wexford  ;  and 
that  night,  we  marched  into  the  fields  of  a  Village  called  Enniscorthy, 
belonging  to  Mr.  Robert  Wallop  ;t  where  was  a  strong  Castle  very 
well  manned  and  provided  for  by  the  Enemy  ;  and,  close  under  it,  a 
very  fair  House  belonging  to  the  same  worthy  person, — a  Monastery 
of  Franciscan  Friars,  the  considerablest  in  all  Ireland  :  they  ran  away 
the  night  before  we  came.  We  summoned  the  Castle  ;  and  they  re- 
fused to  yield  at  the  first  ;  but  upon  better  consideration,  they  were 
willing  to  deliver  the  place  to  us  :  which  accordingly  they  did  ; 
leaving  their  great  guns,  arms,  ammunition  and  provisions  behind 
them. 

Upon  Monday,  the  First  of  October,  we  came  before  Wexford. 
Into  which  the  Enemy  had  put  a  Garrison,  consisting  of '  part  of ' 
their  Army  ;  This  Town  having,  until  then,  been  so  confident  of  their 
own  strength  as  that  they  would  not,  at  any  time,  suffer  a  Garrison 
to  be  imposed  upon  them.  The  Commander  that  brought  in  those 
forces  was  Colonel  David  Synott  ;  who  took  upon  him  the  command 

*  River  Dorrha  :  it  is  now  called  Avoca;  and  well  known  to  musical  persons. 

f  Wallop  is  Member  ^' recruiter ')  for  Andover ;  a  King's-Judge  ;  Member  of 
the  Council  of  State  ;  now  and  afterwards  a  conspicuous  rigorous  republican  man. 
He  has  advanced  money,  long  since,  we  suppose,  for  the  Public  Service  in  Ireland; 
and  obtained  in  payment  this  '  fair  House,'  and  Superiority  of  Knniscorthy  ;  pro- 
perties the  value  or  no-value  of  which  will  much  depend  on  the  Lord  Lieutenant's 
success  at  present. — Wallop's  representative,  a  Peer  of  the  Realm,  is  still  owner 
here,  as  it  has  proved. 


^^ 


WEXFORD.  51 


of  the  place.     To  whom  I  sent  a  Summons ;  between  whom  and  me 
there  passed  answers  and  replies  : 

"  For  the  Lord  General  Cromwell. 

"Sir, — I  received  your  Letter  of  Summons  for  the  delivery  of  this 
"  Town  into  your  hands.  Which  standeth  not  with  my  honour  to  do 
"  of  myself ;  neither  will  I  take  it  upon  me,  without  the  advice  of  the 
"  re^t  of  the  Officers,  and  Mayor  of  this  Corporation  ;  this  Town 
"  being  of  so  great  consequence  to  all  Ireland.  Whom  I  will  call 
"  together,  and  confer  with  ;  and  return  my  resolution  to  you,  to- 
"  morrow  by  twelve  of  the  clock. 

"  In  the  meantime,  if  you  be  so  pleased,  I  am  content  to  forbear 
"  all  acts  of  hostility,  so  you  permit  no  approach  to  be  made.  Ex- 
"  pecting  your  answer  in  that  particular,  I  remain, — my  Lord, — your 
"  Lordship's  servant, 

"  D.  Synott.'' 

"  To  the  Cojnmander-m-chie/  of  the  Town  of  Wexford. 

"  Sir, — I  am  contented  to  expect  your  resolution  by  twelve  of  the 
"  clock  tomorrow  morning.  Because  our  tents  are  not  so  good  a 
"  covering  as  your  houses,  and  for  other  reasons,  I  cannot  agree  to  a 
"  cessation.     I  rest, — your  servant, 

"  Oliver  Cromwell." 

Whilst  these  papers  were  passing  between  us,  I  sent  the  Lieutenant- 
General*  with  a  party  of  dragoons,  horse  and  foot,  to  endeavour  to 
reduce  their  Fort,  which  lay  at  the  mouth  of  their  harbour,  about  ten 
miles  distant  from  us.  To  which  he  sent  a  troop  of  dragoons  ;  but  the 
enemy  quitted  their  Fort,  leaving  behind  them  about  seven  great  guns; 
betook  themselves,  by  the  help  of  their  boat,  to  a  Frigate  of  twelve 
guns  lying  in  the  harbour,  within  cannon-shot  of  the  Fort.  The 
dragoons  possessed  the  Fort  :  and  some  seamen  belonging  to  your 
Fleet  coming  happily  in  at  the  same  time,  they  bent  their  guns  at  the 
Frigate,  and  she  immediately  yielded  to  mercy,— both  herself,  the 
soldiers  that  had  been  in  the  Fort,  and  the  seamen  that  manned  her. 
And  whilst  our  men  were  in  her,  the  Town,  not  knowing  what  had 
happened,  sent  another  vessel  to  her  ;  which  our  men  also  took. 

The  Governor  of  the  Town  having  obtained  from  me  a  safe-conduct 
for  the  four  persons  mentioned  in  one  of  the  papers,  to  come  and  treat 
with  me  about  the  surrender  of  the  Town,  I  expected  they  should 
have  done  so.  But  instead  thereof,  the  Earl  of  Castlehaven  brought 
to  their  relief,  on  the  north  side  of  the  river,t  about  five  hundred  foot. 
Which  occasioned  their  refusal  to  send  out  any  to  treat  ;  and  caused 
me  to  revoke  my  sate-conduct,  not  thinking  it  fit  to  leave  it  for  them 
to  make  use  of  it  when  they  pleased.  Our  cannon  being  landed,;!;  and 
we  having  removed  all  our  quarters  to  the  south-east  end  of  the  Town, 
next  the  Castle, 'which  stands  without  the  Walls,'— it  was  generally 
agreed  that  we  should  bend  the  whole  strength  of  our  artillery    upon 

*  ^lichael  Jones.  f  Carte,  ij.  92,  ij:  6th  October  (ib.), 


52  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

the  Castle  ;  being  persuaded  that  if  we  got  the  Castle,   the  Town 
would  easily  follow. 

Upon  Thiirsday  the  nth  instant  (our  batteries  being  finished  the 
night  before)  we  began  to  play  betimes  in  the  morning  ;  and  having 
spent  near  a  hundred  shot,  the  (jovernor's  stomach  came  down  ;  and 
he  sent  to  me  to  give  leave  for  four  persons,  intrusted  by  him,  to  come 
unto  me,  and  offer  terms  of  surrender.  Which  I  condescending  to, 
two  Field-Officers  with  an  Alderman  of  the  Town,  and  the  Captain  of 
the  Castle,  brought  out  the  Propositions  enclosed, — which  for  their 
abominableness,  manifesting  also  the  impudency  of  the  men,  I 
thought  fit  to  present  to  your  view.  Together  with  my  Answer  ;* — 
which  indeed  had  no  effect.  For  whilst  I  was  preparing  of  it  ;  study- 
ing to  preserve  the  Town  from  plunder,  that  it  might  be  of  the  more 
use  to  you  and  your  Army,  —the  Captain,  who  was  one  of  the  Com- 
missioners, being  fairly  treated,  yielded  up  the  Castle  to  us.  Upon  the 
top  of  which  our  men  no  sooner  appeared,  but  the  Enemy  quitted  the 
Walls  of  the  Town  ;  which  our  men  perceiving,  ran  violently  upon 
the  Town  with  their  ladders,  and  stormed  it.  And  when  they  were 
come  into  the  market-place,  the  Enemy  making  a  stiff  resistance,  our 
forces  brake  them ;  and  then  put  all  to  the  sword  that  came  in  their 
way.  Two  boatfuls  of  the  Enemy  attempting  to  escape,  being  over- 
prest  with  numbers,  sank  ;  whereby  were  drowned  near  three 
hundred  of  them.  I  believe,  in  all,  there  was  lost  of  the  Enemy  not 
many  less  than  Two  thousand  ;  and  I  believe  not  Twenty  of  your's 
from  first  to  last  of  the  siege.  And  mdeed  it  hath,  not  without  cause, 
been  deeply  set  upon  our  hearts.  That,  we  intending  better  to  this 
place  than  so  great  a  ruin,  '  oping  the  Town  might  be  of  more  use  to 
you  and  your  Army,  yet  (iod  would  not  have  it  so  ;  but,  by  an  unex- 
pected providence,  in  His  righteous  justice,  brought  a  just  judgment 
upon  them  ;  causing  them  to  become  a  prey  to  the  soldier  who  in  their 
piracies  had  made  preys  of  so  many  families,  and  now  with  their 
iDloods  to  answer  the  cruelties  which  they  had  exercised  upon  the  lives 
of  divers  poor  Protestants  !  Two  '  instances  '  of  which  I  have  been 
lately  acquainted  with.  About  seven  or  eight  score  poor  Protestants 
were  by  them  put  into  an  old  vessel ;  which  being,  as  some  say,  bulged 
by  them,  the  vessel  sunk,  and  they  were  all  presently  drowned  in  the 
Harbour.  The  other  '  instance '  was  thus  :  They  put  divers  poor 
Protestants  into  a  Chapel  (-/hich,  since,  they  have  used  for  a  Mass- 
house,  and  in  which  one  or  -  lore  of  their  priests  were  now  killed), 
where  they  were  famished  to  death. 

The  soldiers  got  a  very  good  booty  in  this  place  ;  and  had  not  theyf 
had  opportunity  to  carry  their  goods  over  the  River,  whilst  we 
besieged  it,  it  would  have  been  much  more  : — I  could  have  wished 
for  their  own  good,  and  the  good  of  the  Garrison,  they  had  been  more 
moderate.^  Some  things  which  were  not  easily  portable,  we  hope 
we  shall  make  use  of  to  your  behoof.  There  are  great  quantities  of 
iron,  hides,  tallow,  salt,  pipe-  and  barrel-staves  ;  which  are  under 
commissioners'  hands,  to  be  secured.     We  believe  there  are  near  a 

*  l^low  lost.  t  The  Townsfolk.          i    Not  forged  us  to  storm  thera, 


WEXFORD.  55 


hundred  cannon  in  the  Fort,  and  elsewhere  in  and  about  the  Town. 
Here  is  hkewise  some  very  good  shipping  :  here  are  three  vessels, 
one  of  them  of  thirty-four  guns,  which  a  week's  time  would  fit  to  sea  ; 
there  is  another  of  about  twenty  guns,  very  near  ready  likewise.  And 
one  other  Frigate  of  twenty  guns,  upon  the  stocks  ;  made  for  sailing  ; 
which  is  built  up  to  the  uppermost  deck  :  for  her  handsomeness' 
sake,  I  have  appointed  the  workmen  to  finish  her,  here  being  materials 
to  do  it,  if  you  or  the  Council  of  State  shall  approve  thereof.  The 
Frigate,  also,  taken  beside  the  Fort,  is  a  most  excellent  vessel  for 
sailing.     Besides  divers  other  ships  and  vessels  in  the  Harbour. 

This  Town  is  now  so  in  your  power,  that  of  the  former  inhabitants, 
I  believe,  scarce  one  in  twenty  can  challenge  any  property  in  their 
houses.  Most  of  them  are  run  away,  and  many  of  them  killed  in  this 
service.  And  it  were  to  be  wished,  that  an  honest  people  would  come 
and  plant  here  ; — where  are  very  good  houses,  and  other  accommoda- 
tions fitted  to  their  hands,  which  may  by  your  favour  be  made  of 
encouragement  to  them.  As  also  a  seat  of  good  trade,  both  inward 
and  outward  ; — and  of  marvellous  great  advantage  in  the  point  of  the 
herring  and  other  fishing.  The  Town  is  pleasantly  seated  and  strong, 
having  a  rampart  of  earth  within  the  wall,  near  fifteen  feet  thick. 

Thus  it  hath  pleased  God  to  give  into  your  hands  this  other  mercy. 
For  which,  as  for  all,  we  pray  God  may  have  all  the  glory.     Indeed 
your  instruments  are  poor  and  weak,  and  can  do  nothing  but  through 
believing, — and  that  is  the  gift  of  God  also. 
I  humbly  take  leave,  and  rest, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

*  P.S.*  A  day  or  two  before  our  Battery  was  planted,  Ormond,  the 
Earl  of  Castlehaven,  the  Lord  of  Ardes  and  Clanneboyes  were  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Water,  with  about  i,8oo  horse  '  and  '  1,500  foot  ;  and 
offered  to  put  in  four  or  five  hundred  foot  more  into  the  Town  ;  which 
the  Town  refusing,  he  marched  away  in  all  haste.  I  sent  the  Lieutenant- 
General  after  him,  with  about  1,400  horse  ;  but  the  Enemy  made  from 
him.* 

Young  Charles  II.,  who  has  got  to  the  Isle  of  Jersey,  decidedly  in- 
clining towards  Ireland  as  yet,  will  probably  be  staggered  by  these 
occurrences,  when  the  news  of  them  reaches  him.  Not  good  quarters 
Ireland  at  present !  The  Scots  have  proclaimed  him  King  ;  but 
clogged  it  with  such  conditions  about  the  Covenant,  about  Malignants, 
and  what  not,  as  nothing  but  the  throat  of  an  ostrich  could  swallow. 
The  poor  young  King  is  much  at  a  loss  ;+ — must  go  somewhither,  and 
if  possible  take  some  Mrs.  Barlow  with  him  !  Laird  Winram,  Senator 
of  the  College  of  justice,  is  off  to  deal  with  him  ;:|:  to  see  if  he  cannot 
help  him  down  with  the  Covenant :  the  Laird's  best  ally,  I  think,  will 
be  Oliver  in  Ireland.  At  Edinburgh  these  are  the  news  from  that 
quarter  : 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  pp.  65-7). 

f  Carte's  Ormond  Papers,  i.  316,  &'c. 

%  II  October,  1649,  Balfour's  Historical  Works  (Edinb,  1825),  Ui.  43S. 


54  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


'  In  October  and  November  this  year  there  ran  and  were  spread 
i  frequent  rumours  that  Lieutenant-General  Oliver  Cromwell  was 
(  routed  in  Ireland,  yea  killed  ;  and  again  that  he  bore  all  down  be- 
i  fore  him  like  ane  impetuous  torrent  :  how  that  he  had  taken  Tradaffe 
»  and  Washeford/  Tredah  and  Wexford  ;  '  and  there,  neither  sparing 
I  sex  nor  age,  had  exercised  all  the  cruelties  of  a  merciless  inhuman 
i  and   bloody   butcher,    even    brutishly  against    Nature.      On    these 

<  rumours  Will   Douglas/  no  great  shakes  at  metre,  '  did  write  these 

<  lines : 

"  Cromwell  is  dead,  and  risen  ;  and  dead  again, 
And  risen  tiie  third  time  after  he  was  slain  : 
No  wonder  !  For  lies  mes^senger  of  Hell  :  — 
And  now  he  buffets  us,  now  posts  to  tell 
What's  past ;   and  for  more  game  new  counsel  takes 
Of  his  good  friend  the  Devil,  who  keeps  the  stakes."  '* 


LETTER  LXXIII. 


Under  date  5th  November,  1649,  we  read  in  the  old  Newspapers  : 
Our  affairs  here  have  made  this  progress  :  Wexford  being  settled 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Cooke,  our  Army  stayed  not  long  there ; 
but  hasted  further  unto  Ross.  Which  is  a  walled  Town,  situated 
upon  the  river  Barrow,  a  very  pleasant  and  commodious  river,  bear- 
ing vessels  of  a  very  considerable  burden.  Upon  Wednesday, 
the  17th  of  this  instant  October,  we  sat  down  before  Ross  ;  and 
my  Lord  Lieutenant,  the  same  day,  sent  in  this  following  Sum- 
mons :' 

For  the  Commander-in-chief  171  Ross:   These. 

17th  October,  1649. 
Sir, 

Since  my  coming  into  Ireland,  [  have  this  witness  for  myself, 
Th.it  I  have  endeavoured  to  avoid  effusion  of  blood  ;  having  been 
before  no  place,  to  which  such  terms  have  not  been  first  sent  as  might 
have  turned  to  the  good  and  preservation  of  those  to  whom  they  were 
offered  :  this  being  my  principle,  that  the  people  and  places  where  I 
come  may  not  suffer,  except  through  their  own  wilfulness. 

To  the  end  I  may  observe  the  like  course  with  this  place  and  people 
therein,  I  do  hereby  summon  you  to  dehver  the  Town  of  Ross  into  my 
hands,  to  the  use  of  the  Parliament  ot  England  Expecting  your 
speedy  answer,  I  rest, 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.+ 

*■  The  trumpeter  that  carried  this  summons  was  denied  entrance  into 

*  the  Town.     They  received  his  paprr  at  the  gates  ;  and  told  him  that 

*  an  answer  should  be  returned  thereunto  by  a  drummer  of  their  own. 

*  Balfour's  Historical  Works,  iii.  p.  433. 
I  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  67), 


*  Hereupon  we  prepared  our  batteries,  and  made  ready  for  a  storm. 
'  Ormond  himself,  Ardes,  and  Castlehaven  were  on  the  other  side  of 
'  the  River  ;  and  sent  in  supphes  of  1.500  foot,  the  day  before  it  was 
'  surrendered  to  us  ;  1,000  loot  being  in  it  before  we  came  unto  it. 
'  Castlehaven  was  in  it  that  morning  they  delivered  it,  and  Inchiquin 
'  too  had  been  there  not  above  two  or  three  days  before  our  advance 
'  thither.     They  boated  over  their  men  into  the  Town  in  our  sight  ; 

<  and  yet  that  did  not  discourage  us  in  making  ready  all  provisions 
'  fitting  for  a   storm.     On   Friday,  the  19th   of  this  instant,  our  great 

<  pieces  began  to  play,  and  early  in  the  morning  the  Governor  sent 
(  out  his  answer  to  my  Lord  Lieutenant's  Summons  : 

"  I^or  General  Crojnwell,  or,  i?t  his  absence.  For  the  Coimnander-in- 
"  chief  of  the  Army  now  eticamped  before  Ross. 

"  Ross,  19th  October,  1649. 

"  Sir, — I  received  a  Summons  from  you,  the  first  day  you  appeared 
*'  before  this  place  ;  which  should  have  been  answered  ere  now,  had 
"  not  other  occasions  interrupted  me.  And  although  I  am  now  in 
"  far  better  condition  to  defend  this  place  than  I  was  at  that  time,  yet 
"  am  I,  upon  the  considerations  offered  in  your  Summons,  content  to 
"  entertain  a  Treaty  ;  and  to  receive  from  you  those  conditions  that 
''  may  be  safe  and  honourable  for  me  to  accept  of.  Which  if  you 
"  listen  to,  I  desire  that  pledges  on  both  sides  may  be  sent,  for  per- 
''  formance  of  such  Articles  as  shall  be  agreed  upon  ;  and  that  all 
"  acts  of  hostility  may  cease  on  both  sides,  and  each  party  keep* 
"  within  their  distance.  To  this  your  immediate  resolution  is  expected 
♦'  by, — Sir,  your  servant, 

"  Lucas  Taaff." 

*  Hereunto  my  Lord  immediately  returned  this  Answer,' — which 
counts  here  as  our  Seventy-fourth  Letter  : 

LETTER  LXXIV. 

For  the  Governor  of  Ross  :  These, 

19th  October,  1649. 

Sir, 

If  you  like  to  march  away  with  those  under  your  command, 
with  their  arm.s,  bag  and  baggage,  and  with  drums  and  colours,  and 
shall  deliver  up  the  Town  to  me,— I  shall  give  caution  to  perform 
these  conditions  ;  expecting  the  like  from  you.  As  to  the  inhabitants, 
they  shall  be  permitted  to  live  peaceably,  free  from  the  injury  and 
violence  of  the  so  diers. 

If  you  like  hereof,  you  can  tell  how  to  let  me  know  your  mmd,  not- 
withstanding my  ?r>j-«/of  a  cessation.  By  these  you  will  see  the 
reality  of  my  intentions  to  save  blood,  and  to  preserve  the  place  from 
ruin.     I  rest, 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  68). 


^6  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


*  Our  batteries  still  continued,  and  made  a  great  breach  in  the 
*  Wall.  Our  rrien  were  drawn  out  in  readiness  to  storm.  Lieu- 
'  tenant-Colonel  Ingoldsby  being-  by  lot  chosen  to  lead  them  ;  but 
'  the  Governor  being  willing  to  embrace  conditions,  sent  out  this 
'  his  Reply  : 

For  General  Cromwell ,'  These. 

"  Ross,  19th  October,  1649. 

"  Sir, — There  wants  but  httle  of  what  I  would  propose  ; — which  is, 
"  That  such  Townsmen  as  have  a  desire  to  depart,  may  have  liberty 
"  within  a  convenient  time  to  carry  away  themselves  and  goods  : 
"  and  liberty  of  conscience  to  such  as  shall  stay  :  and  that  I  may 
"  carry  away  such  artillery  and  ammunition  as  I  have  in  my  com- 
"  mand.  If  you  be  inclined  to  this,  I  will  send,  upon  your  honour 
"  as  a  safe-conduct,  an  Officer  to  conclude  with  you.  To  which  your 
"  immediate  answer  is  expected  by,— Sir,  your  servant, 

"  Lucas  Taaff." 

*  Hereunto  my  Lord  gave  this  return/ — our  Seventy-fifth  Letter  : 


LETTER   LXXV. 
For  the  Governor  of  Ross  :   These. 

19th  October,  1649. 

Sib, 

To  what  I  formerly  offered,"^  I  shall  make  good.  As  for  your 
carrying  away  any  artillery  or  ammunition,  that  you  brought  not  with 
you,  or  '  that '  hath  not  come  to  you  since  you  had  the  command  of 
that  place, — I  must  deny  you  that ;  expecting  you  to  leave  it  as  you 
found  it. 

'As' for  that  which  you  mention  concerning  liberty  of  conscience, 
I  meddle  not  with  any  man's  conscience.  But  if  by  liberty  of  con- 
science, you  mean  a  liberty  to  exercise  the  Mass,  I  judge  it  best  to 
use  plain  dealing,  and  to  let  you  know,  Where  the  Parliament  of  Eng- 
land have  power,  that  will  not  be  allowed  of.  As  for  such  of  the 
Townsmen  who  desire  to  depart,  and  carry  away  themselves  and 
goods  (as  you  express),  I  engage  myself  they  shall  have  three  months' 
time  so  to  do  ;  and  in  the  mean  time  shall  be  protected  from  violence 
in  their  persons  and  goods,  as  others  under  the  obedience  of  the 
Parliament. 

If  you  accept  of  this  offer,  I  engage  my  honour  for  a  punctual  per- 
formance hereof.     I  rest,    - 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELUf 

*  '  To,'  He,  t  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  68). 


/iOSS.  57 


*  The  Governor  returned  this  Answer  - 

"For  General  Cromwell;  These. 

"  October  19th,  1649. 

*'  Sir, — I  am  content  to  yield  up  this  place  upon  the  terms  ofifered 
'•  in  your  last  and  firat  Letters.  And  if  you  please  to  send  your 
"  safe-conduct  to  such  as  I  appoint  to  perfect  these  conditions, 
"  I  shall  on  receipt  thereof  send  them  to  you.  In  the  interval, 
"  — To  cease  all  acts  of  hostility,  and  that  all  parties  keep  their  own 
"  ground,  until  matters  receive  a  full  end.  And  so  remains, — Sir,  your 
"  servant, 

'•  Lucas  Taaff." 

*  Hereunto  my  Lord  replied  thus  :' — 

LETTER  LXXVL 

For  the  Governor  of  Ross  :  These. 

October  19th,  1649. 

Sir, 

You  have  my  hand  and  honour  engaged  to  perform  what  I 
offered  in  my  first  and  last  Letters  ;  which  I  shall  inviolably  observe. 
I  expect  you  to  send  me  immediately  four  persons  of  such  quality  as 
may  be  hostages  for  your  performance  ;  for  whom  you  have  this 
safe-conduct  enclosed,  into  which  you  may  insert  their  names. 
Without  which  I  shall  not  cease  acts  of  hostility.  If  any  thing 
happen  by  your  delay,  to  your  prejudice,  it  will  not  be  my 
fault.  Those  you  send  may  see  the  conditions  perfected.  Whilst 
I  forbear  acts  of  hostility,  I  expect  you  forbear  all  actings  within.  I 
rest, 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*This,'  says  the  old  Newspaper,  'was  the  last  message  between  them 
'  the  Governor  sending  out  his  four  hostages  to  compose  and  perfect 
'  the  Agreement,  our  batteries  ceased  ;  and  our  intentions  to  storm 

*  the  Town  were  disappointed.  Thus  within  three  days  we  had  pos- 
'  session  of  this  place  without  the  effusion  of  blood.     A  very  consider- 

*  able  place,  and  a  very  good  quarter  for  the  refreshment  of  our 
'  soldiers.  The  Enemy  marched  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  River, 
'  and  did  not  come  out  of  that  side  of  the  Town  where  we  had  en- 

*  camped,' — which  I  think  was  a  judicious  movement  of  theirs.  What 
English  were  in  the  Garrison,  some  Five  or  six  hundred  here,  do,  as 
their  common  custom  is,  'join  us.'  Munster  Royahst  Forces,  poor 
Ormond  men,  they  had  rather  live,  than  be  slain  in  such  a  Cause  as 
this  has  grown. 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  69). 


58  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


LETTER  LXXVII. 

Here  is  Cromwell's  official  account  of  the  same  business,  in  a 
Letter  to  Lenthall 

*  For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 

of  Ejtj(land :  These.' 

Ross,  25th  October,  1649. 

Sir, 

Since  my  last  from  Wexford,  we  marched  to  Ross  ;  a  walled 
Town,  situated  upon  the  Barrow  ;  a  port-town,  up  to  which  a  ship  of 
seven  or  eight  hundred  tons  may  come. 

We  came  before  it  upon  Wednesday  the  17th  instant,  with  three 
pieces  of  cannon.  That  evening  I  sent  a  Summons  ;  Major-General 
Taaff,  being  Governor,  refused  to  admit  my  trumpet  into  the  Town  ; 
but  took  the  Summons  in,  returning  me  no  answer.  I  did  hear  that 
near  1,000  foot  had  been  put  into  this  place  some  few  days  before  my 
coming  to  it.  The  next  day  was  spent  in  making  preparations  for  our 
battery  ;  and  in  our  view  there  were  boated  over  from  the  other  side 
of  the  river,  of  Enghsh,  Scots,  and  Irish,  1,500  more,  Ormond,  Castle- 
haven,  and  the  Lord  of  Ardes,  being  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  to 
cause  it  to  be  done. 

That  night  we  planted  our  battery  ;  which  began  to  play  very  early 
the  next  morning.  The  Governor  immediately  sent  forth  an  Answer 
to  my  Summons  ;  copies  of  all  which  I  make  bold  herewith  to  trouble 
you  'with  ;'  *  the  rather  because  you  may  see  how  God  pulls  down 
proud  stomachs.  The  Governor  desired  commissioners  might  treat, 
and  that  in  the  meantime  there  might  be  a  ceasing  of  acts  of  hostility 
on  both  sides.  Which  I  refused  ;  sending  in  word.  That  if  he  would 
march  away  with  arms,  bag  and  baggage,  and  give  me  hostages  for 
performance,  he  should.  Indeed  he  might  have  done  it  without  my 
leave,  by  the  advantage  of  the  River.  He  insisted  upon  having  the 
cannon  with  him  ;  which  I  would  not  yield  unto,  but  required  the 
leaving  the  artillery  and  ammunition  ;  which  he  was  content  to  do, 
and  marched  away,  leaving  the  great  artillery,  and  the  ammunition  in 
the  stores  to  me. — When  they  marched  away,  at  least  500  English, 
many  of  them  of  the  Munster  forces,  came  to  us. 

Ormond  is  at  Kilkenny,  Inchiquin  in  Munster,  Henry  O'Neil,  Owen 
Roe's  Son,  is  come  up  to  Kilkenn\ ,  with  near  2,000  horse  and  foot, 
with  whom  and  Ormond  there  is  now  a  perfect  conjunction.  So  that 
now,  I  trust,  some  angry  friends  will  think  it  high  time  to  take  off 
their  jealousyf  from  those  to  whom  they  ought  to  exercise  more 
charity. 

The  rendition  of  this  Garrison  was  a  seasonable  mercy,  as  giving- 
us  an  opportunity  towards   Munster ;  and  is  for  the  present  a  very 

*  We  have  just  read  them. 

t  Jealousy  of  the  Parliament's  having  countenanced  Monk  in  his  negotiations 
with  Owen  Roe  and  the  Old-Irish  of  the  Massacre. 


JOSS.  59 

good  refreshment  for  our  men.  We  are  able  to  say  nothing  as  to  all 
this,  but  that  the  Lord  is  still  pleased  to  own  a  company  of  poor 
worthless  creatures  ;  for  which  we  desire  His  name  to  be  magnified, 
and  '  that '  the  hearts  of  all  concerned  may  be  provoked  to  walk 
\/orthy  of  such  continued  favours.     This  is  the  earnest  desire  of 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

P.S.  Colonel  Horton  is  lately  dead  of  the  Country-disease,  leaving 
a  Son  behind  him.  He  was  a  person  of  great  integrity  and  courage. 
His  former  services,  especially  that  of  the  last  summer,  I  hope  will  be 
had  in  remembrance.* 

Poor  Horton  ;  he  beat  the  Welsh  at  St.  Fagan's,  and  did  good  ser- 
vice '  last  summer  ;'  and  now  he  is  dead  of  the  '  Country-disease,' — a 
pestilence,  raging  in  the  rear  of  Famine  and  the  Spoil  of  War. 
Famine  has  long  reigned.  When  the  War  ended,  Ludlow  tells  us,  it 
was  found  necessary  to  issue  a  Proclamation  that  '  no  lambs  or  calves 
should  be  killed  for  one  year,'  the  stock  of  cattle  being  exhausted. 
Such  waste  had  there  been,  continues  he,  in  burning  the  possessions 
of  the  English,  many  of  the  Natives  themselves  were  driven  to  starva- 
tion ;  'and  1  have  been  informed  by  persons  deserving  credit,  that  the 

*  same  calamity  fell  upon  them  even  in  the  first  year  of  the  Rebellion, 

*  through   the   depredations   of  the  Irish;  and  that  they  roasted  men, 

*  and  ate  them,  to  supply  their  necessities.'f  Such  a  War  is  worth 
ending  at  some  cost  ! — In  the  Lord  Lieutenant's  Army,  we  learn  else- 
where, there  was  an  abundant  supply,  the  country  crowding  in  as  to  a 
good  market,  where  sure  prices  were  given,  and  fair  dealing  enforced; 
all  manner  of  depredators  being,  according  to  the  paper  Proclama- 
tion, hanged  in  very  authentic  hemp.  '  Much  better  supplied  than  any 
of  the  Irish  Armies  had  ever  been.'J 


LETTER    LXXVIIL 


Here  is  a  small  glimpse  of  domesticity  again,  due  to  the  Pusey 
Seventeen  ;  very  welcome  to  us  in  these  wild  scenes.  Mayor  has 
endorsed  it  at  Hursley,  '  Received  12th  December,  1649.'  'Cousin 
Barton,'  I  suppose,  is  the  Barton  who  boggled  at  some  things  in  the 
Marriage-Contracts ;  a  respectable  man,  though  he  has  his  crotchets 
now  and  then. 

For  my  beloved  Brother,  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire^  at 
Hursley  :  These. 

Ross,  13th  November,  1649. 

Dear  Brother, 

I  am  not  often  at  leisure,  nor  now,  to  salute  my  friends  ;  yet 
unwilling  to  lose  this  opportunity.     I  take  it,  only  to  let  you  know  that 

*  Newspapers  (in  Pari.   History,  xix.  224-6). 
\  Ludlow,  i.  338,  9.  \  Carte,  ii.  90, 


6o  CAMPAIGN  W  IRELANV. 


you  and  your  Family  are  often  in  my  prayers.  As  for  Dick,  I  do  not 
much  expect  it  from  him,  knowing  his  idleness  ;  but  I  am  angry  with 
my  Daughter  as  a  promise-breaker.  Pray  tell  her  so  ; — but  I  hope 
she  will  redeem  herself 

It  has  pleased  the  Lord  to  give  us  (since  the  taking  of  Wexford  and 
Rossi  a  good  interest  in  Munster,  by  the  accession*  of  Cork  and 
Youghal,  which  are  both  submitted  ;  their  Commanders  are  now  with 
me.  Divers  other  lesser  Garrisons  are  come  in  also.  The  Lord  is 
wondelful  in  these  things  ;  it's  His  hand  alone  does  them  :  O  that  all 
the  praise  might  be  ascribed  to  Him  ! 

I  have  been  crazy  in  my  health  ;  but  the  Lord  is  pleased  to  sustain 
me.  I  beg  your  prayers.  I  desire  you  to  call  upon  my  Son  to  mind 
the  things  of  God  more  and  more  :  alas,  what  profit  is  there  in  the 
things  of  this  world  ;— except  they  be  enjoyed  in  Christ,  they  are 
snares.  I  wish  he  may  enjoy  his  Wife  so,  and  she  him  ;  I  wish  I  may 
enjoy  them  both  so. 

My  service  to  my  dear  Sister  *  and  '  Cousin  Ann  ;  my  blessing  to 
my  Children,  and  love  to  my  Cousin  Barton  and  the  rest. 

Sir,  I  am 
Your  affectionate  brother  and  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 


LETTER  LXXIX. 

The  '  General  Blake '  of  this  Letter  is  Admiral  Blake  :  he,  co- 
operating with  Oliver,  now  dominates  these  waters  Prince  Rupert, 
with  the  residue  of  the  Revolted  Ships,  is  lying  close,  for  shelter  from 
him,  under  the  guns  of  Kinsale  ;— verging,  poor  Prince,  to  a  fugitive 
roaming  sea-life,  very  like  Piracy  in  some  of  its  features.  He 
abandoned  it  as  desperate,  before  long.  Poor  Prince  Maurice, 
sea-roving  in  like  fashion,  went  to  the  bottom  ;  sank,  in  the  West 
Indies,  mouse  and  man  ;  and  ended,  none  knows  exactly  where, 
when,  or  how.  Rupert  invented,  or  helped  to  invent,  '  pinchbeck ' 
in  subsequent  years,  and  did  no  other  service  to  the  public  that  I 
know  of. 

The  defection  of  Cork  and  Youghal,  full  of  English  influences  and 
complex  distractions,  followed  naturally  on  Cromwell's  successes.  In 
Lady  Fanskawc's  Memoirs  is  a  vivid  account  of  the  universal  hurly- 
burly  that  took  place  at  Cork,  on  the  verge  of  this  occurrence  there  : 
tremulous  mstant  decision  what  you  will  do,  which  side  you  will  join; 
swift  packing  in  the  dead  of  night  ;  swift  riding  off,  in  any  carriage, 
cart,  or  ass-cart  you  can  bargain  with  for  love  or  money!  Poor  Lady 
Fanshawe  got  to  Galway,  there  to  try  it  yet  a  little  longer. 

*  'access,'  orig. 

t  Harris,  p.  511 ;  one  of  the  Pusey  set,  preserved  by  Dunch,  as  intimatec^ 


I^OSS.  6 1 


For  the  Honourable  William  Lenihall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 
of  England:   These. 

Ross,  14th  November,  1649. 

Sir, 

About  a  fortnight  since,  I  had  some  good  assurance  that  Cork 
was  returned  to  its  obedience  ;  and  had  refused  Inchiquin,  who  did 
strongly  endeavour  to  redintegrate  himself  there,  but  without  success.* 
I  did  hear  also  that  Colonel  Townsend  was  coming  to  me  with  their 
submission  and  desires,  but  was  interrupted  by  a  Fort  at  the  mouth 
of  Cork  Harbour.  But  having  sufficient  grounds  upon  the  former  in- 
formation, and  other  confirmation  out  of  the  Enemy's  camp  that  it 
was  true,  I  desired  General  Blake,  who  was  here  ^^ith  me,  that  he 
would  repair  thither  in  Captain  Mildmay's  frigate,  called  the  Non- 
such. Who,  when  they  came  thither,  received  such  entertainment  as 
these  enclosed  will  let  you  see. 

In  the  meantime  the  Garland,  one  of  your  third-rate  Ships,  coming 
happily  into  Waterford  Bay,  I  ordered  her,  and  a  great  Prize  lately 
taken  in  that  Bay,  to  transport  Colonel  Phayrt  to  Cork  ;  whitherward 
he  went,  having  along  with  him  near  Five-hundred  foot,  which  I 
spared  him  out  of  this  poor  Army,  and  ^1,500  in  money  ;^ — giving 
him  such  instructions  as  were  proper  for  the  promoting  of  your  inte- 
rest there.  As  they  went  with  an  intention  for  Cork,  it  pleased  God 
the  wind  coming  cross,  they  were  forced  to  ride  ofi'  from  Dungarvan. 
Where  they  met  Captain  Mildmay  rciiirtiing  with  the  Nonsuch 
Frigate,  with  Colonel  Townsend  aboard,  coming  to  me  ;  who  adver- 
tised them  that  Youghal  had  also  declared  for  the  Parliament  of 
England.  Whereupon  they  steered  their  course  thither;  and  sent 
for  Colonel  Gifford,  Colonel  Warden,  Major  Purden  (who  with  Colonel 
Townsend  have  been  very  active  instruments  for  the  return  both  of 
Cork  and  Youghal  t  their  obedience,  having  some  of  them  adAcn- 
tured  there  lives  twice  or  thrice  to  efiect  it),  and  the  Mayor  of  Youghal 
aboard  them  ;  whc .  accordingly,  immediately  came  and  made  tender 
of  some  propositions  to  be  offered  to  me.  But  my  Lord  Broghil 
being  on  board  the  Ship,  assuring  them  it  would  be  more  for  their 
honour  and  advantage  to  desire  no  rorditions,  they  said  they  would 
submit.  Whereupon  my  Lord  Broghil.  Sir  William  Fenton,  and 
Colonel  Phayr,  went  to  the  Town  ;  and  were  received,— I  shall  give 
you  my  Lord  Broghil's  own  words,— "  tiv///  all  the  real  demonstrations 
of  gladness  aft  overjoyed  people  were  capable  ofP 

Not  long  after,  Colonel  Phayr  landed  his  foot.  And  by  the  endea- 
vours of  the  noble  person;]:  afore  mentioned,  and  the  rest  of  the  gen- 
tlemen, the  Garrison  is  put  in  good  order  ;  and  the  Munster  officers 
and  soldiers  in  that  Garrison  in  a  way  of  settlement.  Colonel  Phayr 
intends,  as  I  hear,  to  leave  Two-hundred  men  there,  and  to  march 
with  the  rest  overland  to  Cork.     1   hear  by   Colonel  Townsend,  and 

*  See  Carte,  ii.  91.  t  He  of  the  King's  Death-Warrant. 

X  Lord  Broghil  The  somewhat  romantic  story  of  Cromwell's  first  visit  to  him, 
and  chivalrous  conquest  of  him,  at  his  lodgings  in  London,  '  in  the  dusk  of  the 
evening,'  is  in  CoUinss  Peerage  (I.ondon,  1741),  iv,  253;  and  in  piany  other 
P90ks  ;  copied  from  Morrice's  ^ifc  of  Orrery, 


62  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

the  rest  of  the  gentlemen  that  were  employed  to  me,  that  Baltimore, 
Castlehaven,  Cappoquin,  and  some  other  places  of  hard  names,  are 
come  in  ;  as  also  that  there  are  hopes  of  other  places. 

From  Sir  Charles  Coot,  Lord  President  of  Connaught,  I  had  a 
Letter,  about  three  or  four  days  since,  that  he  is  come  over  the  Bann, 
and  hath  taken  Coleraine  by  storm  ;  and  that  he  is  in  conjunction 
with  Colonel  Venables,— who  I  hear  hath  besieged  Carrickfergus  ; 
which  if  through  the  mercy  of  God  it  be  taken,  I  know  nothing  consider- 
able in  the  North  of  Ireland,  but  Charlemont,  that  is  not  in  your  hands. 

We  lie  with  the  Army  at  Ross;  where  we  have  been  making  abridge 
over  the  Barrow,  and  '  have '  hardly  yet  accomplished  *  it '  as  we  could 
wish.  The  Enemy  lies  upon  the  Nore,  on  the  land  between  the 
Barrow  and  it  ;  having  gathered  together  all  the  force  they  can  get. 
Owen  Roe's  men,  as  they  report  them,  are  Six-thousand  foot,  and 
about  Four-thousand  horse,  beside  their  own  Army  '  in  this  quarter  ; ' 
and  they  give  out  they  will  have  a  day  for  it  : — which  we  hope  the 
Lord  in  His  mercy  will  enable  us  to  give  them,  in  His  own  good 
time.     In  whom  we  desire  our  only  trust  and  confidence  may  be. 

Whilst  we  have  lain  here,  we  have  not  been  without  some  sweet 
taste  of  the  goodness  of  God.  Your  ships  have  taken  some  good 
prizes.  The  last  was  thus  :  There  came-in  a  Dunkirk  man-of- 
war  with  32  guns  ;  who  brought  in  a  Turkish  man-of-war 
whom  she  had  taken,  and  another  ship  of  10  guns  laden  with  poor- 
john  and  oil.  These  two  your  ships  took.  But  the  man-of-war 
whose  prizes  these  two  were,  put  herself  under  the  Fort  of  Dun- 
cannon,  so  that  your  ships  could  not  com.e  near  her.  It  pleased 
God  we  had  two  demi-cannon  with  the  foot,  on  the  shore  ;  which 
being  planted,  raked  her  through,  killing  and  wounding  her  men  ; 
so  that  after  ten  shot  she  weighed  anchor,  and  ran  into  your  Fleet, 
with  a  flag  of  submission,  surrendering  herself  She  was  well  manned, 
the  prisoners  taken  being  Two-hundred  and  thirty. — I  doubt  the 
taking  prisoners  of  this  sort  will  cause  the  wicked  trade  of  Piracy  to 
be  endless.  They  were  landed  here  before  I  was  aware  :  and  a 
hundred  of  them,  as  I  hear,  are  gotten  into  Duncannon,  and  have 
taken  up  arms  there  ;  and  I  doubt  the  rest,  that  are  gone  to  Water- 
ford,  will  do  us  no  good.  The  seamen,  being  so  full  of  prizes  and  un- 
provided of  victual,  knew  not  how  otherwise  to  dispose  of  them. 

Another  '  mercy  '  was  this.  We,  having  left  divers  sick  men,  both 
horse  and  foot,  at  Dublin, — hearing  many  of  them  were  recovered, 
sent  them  orders  to  march  up  to  us  ;  which  accordingly  they  did. 
C  oming  to  Arcklow,  on  Monday  the  first  of  this  instant,  being  about 
"50  horse  and  about  800  foot, — the  Enemy,  hearing  of  them  (through 
the  great  advantage  they  have  in  point  of  intelligence),  drew  together 
a  body  of  horse  and  foot  near  3,000,  which  Inchiquin  commanded. 
There  went  also,  with  this  party.  Sir  Thomas  Armstrong,  Colonel 
Trevor,  and  most  of  their  great  ranters.*     We  sent  fifteen  or  sixteen 

*  Braggarts,  great  guns.  Trevor  had  given  Venables,  as  above  hinted,  a 
dangerous  camisado  in  the  North  lately;  and  was  not  far  from  ruining  him,  had 
the  end  corresponded  with  the  beginning  (see  Carte,  ii.  89).  To  which  Cromwell 
^liudes,  by  and  by,  in  this  Letter,  Lord  Inchic^uin,  a  man  of  Royalist- Presbyterj^ 


I^OSS.  63 

troops  to  their  rescue,  near  eight  hours  too  late.  It  pleased  God  we 
sent  them  word  by  a  nearer  way,  To  march  close,  and  be  circumspect, 
and  to  make  what  haste  they  could  to  Wexford,  by  the  sea-side.  They 
had  marched  near  eighteen  miles,  and  were  come  within  seven  miles 
of  Wexford  (ths  foot  being  miserably  wearied),  when  the  Enemy  gave 
the  scouts  of  the  rearguard  an  alarm.  Whereupon  they  immediately 
drew  up  in  the  best  order  they  could  upon  the  sands,  the  sea  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  rocks  on  the  other  ;  where  the  Enemy  made  a  very 
furious  charge;  'and'  overbearing  our  horse  with  their  numbers, 
which,  as  some  of  their  prisoners  confess,  were  Fifteen-hundred  of 
their  best  horse,  forced  them  in  some  disorder  back  to  the  foot.  Our 
foot  stood  ;  forbearing  their  firing  till  the  Enemy  was  come  almost 
within  pistol-shot,  and  then  let  fly  very  full  in  the  faces  of  them  : 
whereby  some  of  them  began  to  tumble  ;  the  rest  running  off  in  a  very 
greit  disorder: — and  'they'  faced  not  about  until  they  got  above 
musket-shot  off.  Upon  this  our  horse  took  encouragement  ;  drawing 
up  again  ;  bringing  up  some  foot  to  flank  them.  And  a  gentleman  of 
ours,  that  had  charged  through  before,  being  amongst  them  undis- 
cerned,  having  put  his  signal  into  his  hat  as  they  did, — took  his  oppor- 
tunity and  came  off;  letting  our  men  know,  That  the  Enemy  was  in 
great  confusion  and  disorder,  and  that  if  they  could  attempt  another 
charge,  he  was  confident  good  might  be  done  oti  them.  It  pleased 
God  to  give  our  men  courage  :  they  advanced  ;  and,  falling  upon  the 
Enemy,  totally  routed  them  ;  took  two  colours  and  divers  prisoners, 
and  killed  divers  upon  the  place  and  in  the  pursuit.  I  do  not  hear 
that  we  have  two  men  killed  ;  and  but  one  mortally  wounded,  and  not 
five  that  are  taken  prisoners. 

The  quick  march  of  our  party  made  Inchiquin  that  he  could  reach 
them  with  nothing  but  his  horse,  hoping  to  put  them  to  a  stand  until 
his  foot  came  up  ;  which  if  he  had  done,  there  had  probably  been  no 
saving  of  a  man  of  this  party.  Without  doubt  Inchiquin,  Trevor,  and 
the  rest  of  those  people,  who  are  very  good  at  this  work,  had  swallowed 
up  this  party  !  And  indeed  it  was,  in  human  probability,  lost  ;  but 
God,  that  defeated  Trevor  in  his  attempt  upon  Venables  (which 
Trevor,  as  I  hear  this  night  from  the  Enemy's  camp,  was  shot  through 
the  belly,  in  this  service,  and  is  carried  to  Kilkenny, — and  Sir  Thomas 
Armstrong  is  also  wounded),  hath  disappointed  them,  and  poured 
shame  upon  them  in  this  defeat  ;  giving  us  the  lives  of  a  company  of 
our  dear  friends,  which  I  hope  will  be  improved  to  His  glory  and  their 
Country's  good. 

Sir,  having  given  you  this  account,  I  shall  not  trouble  you  much 
with  particular  desires.  Those  I  shall  humbly  present  to  the  Council 
of  State.  Only,  in  the  general,  give  me  leave  humbly  to  offer  what  in 
my  judgment  I  conceive  to  be  for  your  service,  with  a  full  submission 
to  you.  We  desire  recruits.  It  is  not  good  not  to  follow  providences.* 
Your  recruits,  and  the  forces  desired  will  not  raise  your  charge,  if  your 

tendencies,  has  fought  long,  on  various  sides.  The  name  Armstrong  is  not  yet 
much  of  a  '  ranter  ; '  but  a  new  Sir  Thomas  will  become  famous  under  Titus  Oates. — 
Ludlow  gives  a  curious  account  of  this  same  running-fight  on  (he  §e9,-b^aQh 
of  Arcklow  (i.  309). 

^'  Bgckonings  of  Providence, 


64  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND, 


assignments  already  for  the  forces  here  do  come  to  our  hands  m  tin:e. 
I  should  not  doubt  '  tut '  by  the  addition  of  assessments  here,  to  have 
your  charge  in  some  reasonable  measure  borne  ;  and  the  soldier 
upheld,  without  too  much  neglect  or  discouragement, — which  sickness, 
in  this  country  so  ill  agreeing  with  their  bodies,  puts  upon  them  ;  and 
*  which '  this  Winter's-action,  I  believe  not  heretofore  known  by 
EngHsh  in  this  country,  subjects  them  to.  To  the  praise  of  God  1 
speak  it,  I  scarce  know  one  officer  of  forty  amongst  us  that  hath  not 
been  sick. 

Wherefore  I  humbly  beg,  that  the  monies  desired  may  be  seasonably 
sent  over  ;  and  those  other  necessaries,  clothes,  shoes,  and  stockings, 
formerly  desired;  that  so  poor  creatures  may  be  encouraged*  and, 
through  the  same  blessed  Presence  that  has  gone  along  with  u  , 
I  hope,  before  it  be  long,  to  see  Ireland  no  burden  to  England,  but  .. 
profitable  part  of  its  Commonwealth.  And  certainly  the  extendin., 
your  help  in  this  way,  at  this  time,  is  the  most  profitable  mear.3 
speedily  to  effect  it. 

Craving  pardon  for  this  trouble,  I  rest. 

Your  most  humble  and  faithful  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 


LETTER  LXXX. 

Commons  Journals,  12°  Decembris,  1649  :  '  A  Letter  from  the  Lord 
*  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  was  this  day  read.  Ordered,  That  the  said 
'  Letter  be  forthwith  printed  and  published  ; ' — Lord  Mayor  to  be  sure 
and  send  it  to  all  the  Ministers  next  Lord's  Day,  who  are  to  be,  as  they 
best  may,  the  voice  of  our  devout  thankfulness  for  'these  great 
mercies.'  Here  is  the  Letter  still  extant  for  posterity, — with  or  without 
the  thankfulness. 

We  cannot  give  the  exact  day  of  date.  The  Letter  exists,  separate, 
or  combined  with  other  matter,  in  various  old  Pamphlets  ;  but  is 
nowhere  dated  ;  and  in  fact,  as  the  Entry  in  the  Commons  Journal 
may  indicate,  was  never  dated  either  as  to  place  or  time.  The  place 
we  learn  by  the  context :  tVie  time  was  after  Saturday,  November  24th,t 
and  before  December  had  yet  begun  ; — probably  enough,  Sunday, 
November  25th. 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 
of  England:   These. 

'  Before  Waterford, —November,  1649.' 

Mr.  Speaker, 

The  Enemy  being  quartered  between  the  two  rivers  of  Nore  and 
Barrow,  and  masters  of  all  the  passages  thereupon  ;  and  giving  out  their 
resolutions  to  fight  us,  thereby,  as  we  conceivied,  labouring  to  get 
reputation  in  the   countries,   and   occasion   more   strength, — it  was 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwellianri,  pp,  69-71). 

"j-  Sse^oslea,  j^p.  492,  3  ;  and  Whitlocke,  2d  edition,  p.  43^. 


BEFORE   WATERFORD,  65 


thought  fit  our  Army  should  march  towards  them.  Which  accordingly 
upon  Thursday  the  15th  instant  was  done.  The  Major- General  and 
Lieutenant-General*  (leaving  me  very  sick  at  Ross  behind  them),  with 
two  battering  guns,  advanced  towards  Inistioge  ;  a  little  walled  Town 
about  five  miles  from  Ross,  upon  the  Nore,  on  the  south  side  thereof, 
which  was  possessed  by  the  Enemy.  But  a  party  of  our  men  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Abbot,  the  night  before,  approaching  the 
gates,  and  attempting  to  fire  the  same,  the  Enemy  ran  away  through 
the  River,  leaving  good  store  of  provisions  behind  them. 

Our  Commanders  hoped  by  gaining  this  Town  to  have  gained  a 
pass.f  But  indeed  there  fell  so  much  sudden  wet  as  made  the  River 
unpassable,  by  that  time  the  Army  was  come  up.  Whereupon, 
hearing  that  the  Enemy  lay  about  two  miles  off  upon  the  River,  near 
Thomastown,  a  pretty  large  walled  Town  upon  the  Nore,  on  the  north 
side  thereof,  having  a  'bridge  over  the  River, — our  Army  marched 
thither.  But  the  Enemy  had  broken  the  bridge,  and  garrisoned  the 
Town  ;  and  in  the  view  of  our  Army,  marched  away  to  Kilkenny, — 
seeming,  though  I  believe  they  were  double  our  number,  to  decline 
an  engagement.  Which  they  had  the  power  to  have  necessitated  us 
unto;  but  'which  it'  was  noways  in  our  power,  if  they  would  stand 
upon  the  advantage  of  the  Passes,  to  engage  them  unto  ; — nor  indeed 
*  was  it  in  our  power '  to  continue  two  days  longer,  having  almost 
spent  all  the  bread  they;];  carried  with  them. 

Whereupon,  seeking  God  for  direction,  they  resolved  to  send  a 
good  party  of  horse  and  dragoons  under  Colonel  Reynolds  to  Carrick  ; 
and  to  march  the  residue  of  the  Army  back  towards  Ross,— to  gain 
more  bread  for  the  prosecution  of  that  design,  if  by  the  blessing  of 
God  it  should  take.  Colonel  Reynolds  marching  with  twelve  troops 
of  horse,  and  three  troops  of  dragoons,  came  betimes  in  the  morning 
to  Carrick.  Where,  dividing  himself  into  two  parties, — whilst  they 
were  amazed  with  the  one,  he  entered  one  of  the  Gates  with  the  other. 
Which  their  soldiers  perceiving,  divers  of  them  and  their  officers  es- 
caped over  the  River  in  boats  :  about  an  hundred  officers  and  soldiers 
*were'  taken  prisoners,  without  the  loss  of  one  man  on  our  part.  In 
this  place  is  a  very  good  Castle,  and  one  of  the  ancientest  seats  be- 
longing to  the  Lord  of  Ormond,  in  Ireland  :  the  same§  was  rendered 
without  any  loss  also,  where  were  good  store  of  provisions  for  the  re- 
freshing of  our  men. 

The  Colonel  giving  us  speedy  intelligence  of  God's  mercy  in  this, 
we  agjeed  to  march,  with  all  convenient  speed,  the  residue  of  the 
Army  up  thither.  Which  accordingly  was  done,  upon  Wednesday 
and  Thursday  the  21st  and  2 2d  of  this  instant  ;  and  through  God's 
mercy.  I  was  enabled  to  bear  them  company.  Being  come  hither,  we 
did  look  at  it  as  an  especial  good  hand  of  Providence  to  give  us  this 
place ,  inasmuch  as  it  gives  us  a  passage  over  the  River  Suir  to  the 
City  of  Waterford,  and  indeed  into  Munster  to  our  shipping  and  pro- 
visions, which  before  were  beaten  from  us  out  of  Waterford  Bay  by 

*  Ireton  and  Jones.  f  A  ford  over  the  River. 

X  '  they  '  and  '  them '  mean  we  and  us :  the  swift-rushing  sentence  here  alters 
its  personahty  from  first  person  to  third,  and  so  goes  on, 
§  The  Castle. 
VOL.  11. 


66  •  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

the  Enemy's  guns.  It  hath  given  us  also  opportunity  to  besiege  or 
block  up  Waterford  ;  and  we  hope  our  gracious  God  will  therein  direct 
us  also.  It  hath  given  us  also  the  opportunity  of  our  guns,  ammunition, 
and  victual  ;  and  indeed  quarter  for  our  horse,  which  could  not  have 
subsisted  much  longer  :  so  sweet  a  mercy  was  the  giving  of  this  httle 
place  unto  us. 

Having  rested  there  a  night,  and  by  noon  of  the  next  day  gotten 
our  Army  over  the  River  ; — leaving  Colonel  Reynolds  with  about  One- 
hundred  and  fifty  foot,  his  own  six  troops  of  horse,  and  one  troop  of 
dragoons,  with  a  very  little  ammunition  according  to  the  smallness  of 
our  marching  store  ; — we  marched  away  towards  Waterford,  upon 
Friday  the  23d  ;  and  on  Saturday  about  noon  came  before  the  City. 
The  Enemy,  being  not  a  little  troubled  at  this  unsuspected  business 
(which  indeed  was  the  mere  guidance  of  God),  marched  down  with 
great  fury  towards  Carrick,  with  their  whole  Army,  resolving  to 
swallow  it  up  :  and  upon  Saturday  the  24th,  assault  the  place  round, 
thinking  to  lake  it  by  storm.  But  God  had  otherwise  determined. 
For  the  troopers  and  the  rest  of  the  soldiers,  with  stones*  did  so  pelt 
them,  they  'were  forced  to  draw  off;  after'  continuing  near  four  hours 
under  the  walls  ;  '  after '  having  burnt  the  Gates,  which  our  men 
barricaded  up  with  stones  ;  and  likewise  '  having '  digged  under  the 
walls,  and  sprung  a  small  mine,  which  flew  in  their  own  faces.  But 
they  left  about  forty  or  fifty  men  dead  under  the  Walls  ;  and  have 
drawn  off,  as  some  say,  near  400  more,  which  they  buried  up  and 
down  the  fields  ;  besides  what  are  wounded.  And,  as  Inchiquin 
himself  confessed  in  the  hearing  of  some  of  their  soldiers  lately  come 
to  us,  '  this '  hath  lost  him  above  a  thousand  men. — The  Enemy  was 
drawing  off  his  dead  a  good  part  of  the  night.  They  were  in  such 
haste  upon  the  assault,  that  they  killed  their  own  trumpeter  as  he  was 
returning  with  an  Answer  to  the  Summons  sent  by  them.  Both  in  the 
taking  and  defending  of  this  place  Colonel  Reynolds  his  carriage  was 
such  as  deserves  much  honour. f 

Upon  our  coming  before  Waterford,  I  sent  the  Lieutenant-General 
with  a  regiment  of  horse,  and  three  troops  of  dragoons,  to  endeavour 
the  reducing  of  the  Passage  Fort  :  a  very  large  Fort  with  a  Castle  in 
the  midst  of  it,  having  five  guns  planted  in  it,  and  commanding  the 
River  better  t'nan  Duncannon  ;  it  not  being  much  above  musket-shot 
over,  where  this  Fort  stands  ;  and  we  can  bring  up  hither  ships  of 
three  hundred  tons,  without  any  danger  from  Duncannon.  Upon  the 
attempt,  though  our  materials  were  not  very  apt  for  the  business,  yet 
the  Enemy  called  for  quarter, — and  had  it,  and  we  the  place.  We 
also  possessed  the  guns  which  the  Enemy  had  planted  to  beat  our 
ships  out  of  the  Bay,  two  miles  below.  By  the  taking  of  this  Fort,  we 
shall  much  straiten  Duncannon  from  provisions  by  water,  as  we  hope 
they  are  not  in  a  condition  to  get  much  bv  land  :  besides  the  ad- 
vantage it  is  to  us  to  have  provisions  to  come  up  the  River. 

It  hath  pleased  the  Lord,  whilst  these  things  have  been  thus  trans- 
acting here,  to  add  to  your  interest  in  Munster,  Bandon  Bridge  ;  the 

*  Having  only  '  a  very  little  ammunition'  and  small  use  of  guns  (see  Whitlocke 
p.  418  :  Ludlow,  &c.). 
f  We  shall  hear  of  Reynolds  again. 


BEFORE  WATERFORD,  67 


Town  (as  we  hear)  upon  the  matter,  thrusting  out  young  Jephson,* 
who  was  their  Governor  ;  or  else  he  deserting  it  upon  that  jealousy. 
As  also  Kinsale,  and  the  Fort  there  : — out  of  which  Fort  Four-hundred 
men  marched  upon  articles,  when  it  was  surrendered.  So  that  now, 
by  the  good  hand  of  the  Lord,  your  interest  in  Munster  is  near  as 
good  already  as  ever  it  was  since  this  War  began.  I  sent  a  party 
about  two  days  ago  to  my  Lord  of  Broghil ;  from  whom  I  expect  to 
have  an  account  of  all. 

Sir,  what  can  be  said  in  these  things  ?  Is  it  an  arm  of  flesh  that 
hath  done  these  things  ?  Is  it  the  wisdom,  and  counsel,  or  strength 
of  men  ?  It  is  the  Lord  only.  God  will  curse  that  man  and  his  house 
that  dares  to  think  otherwise  I  Sir,  you  see  the  work  is  done  by  a 
Divine  leading.  God  gets  into  the  hearts  of  men,  and  persuades  them 
to  come  under  you.  I  tell  you,  a  considerable  part  of  your  Army  is 
fitter  for  an  hospital  than  the  field  :  if  the  Enemy  did  not  know  it,  I 
should  have  held  it  impolitic  to  have  writ  this.  They  know  it,  yet 
they  know  not  what  to  do. 

I  humbly  beg  leave  to  offer  a  word  or  two.  I  beg  of  those  that  are 
faithful,  that  they  give  glory  to  God.  I  wish  it  may  have  mfluence 
upon  the  hearts  and  spirits  of  all  those  that  are  now  in  place  of 
Government,  in  the  greatest  trust,-  that  they  may  all  in  heart  draw 
near  to  God  ;  giving  Him  glory  by  holiness  of  life  and  conversation  ; 
*and'  that  these  unspeakable  mercies  may  teach  dissenting  brethren 
on  all  sides  to  agree,  at  least,  in  praising  God.  And  if  the  Father  ot 
the  family  be  so  kind,  wh/  should  there  be  such  jarrings  and  heart- 
burnings amongst  the  children .?  And  if  it  will  not  be  received  That 
these  are  the  seals  of  God's  approbation  of  your  great  Change  of 
Government,— which  indeed  was  no  more  yours  than  these  victories 
and  successes  are  ours,— yet  let  them  with  us  say,  even  the  most  un- 
satisfied heart  amongst  them.  That  both  are  the  righteous  judgments 
and  mighty  works  of  God.  That  He  hath  pulled  the  mighty  from  his 
seat,  and  calls  to  an  account  'for'  innocent  blood.  That  He  thus 
breaks  the  enemies  of  His  Church  in  pieces.  And  let  them  not  be 
sullen,  but  praise  the  Lord", — and  think  of  us  as  they  please  ;  and  we 
shall  be  satisfied,  and  pray  for  them,  and  wait  upon  our  God.  And 
we  hope  we  shall  seek  the  welfare  and  peace  of  our  native  Country  : 
and  the  Lord  give  them  hearts  to  do  so  too.  Indeed,  Sir,  I  was  con- 
strained in  my  bowels  to  write  this  much.  I  ask  your  pardon,  and 
rest, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.! 

An  Able  Editor  in  the  old  Newspapers  has  been  inexpressibly- 
favoured  with  the  sight  of  a  Letter  to  '  an  Honourable  Member  of  the 
Council  of  State  ;'  Letter  dated  '  Cork,  i8th  December,  1649  ;'  wherein 
this  is  what  we  still  read  :  '  Yesterday  my  Lord  Lieutenant  came, 
'  from  Youghal  the  head-quarter,  unto   Cork  ;  my   Lord  Broghil,  Sir 

*  'Young  Jephson,'  I  suppose,  is  the  son  of  Jephson,  Member  for  Stockbridge, 
Hants  ;  one  of  those  whom  Pride  purged  away  ; — not  without  reason,  as  is  here 
seen. 

f  Newspapers  (in  CromwelUana,  pp.  71-73). 

D  2 


68  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

*■  William   Fenton,   and   divers   other  Gentlemen  and    Commanders 

*  attending  his  Excellency.  Who  hath  received  here  very  hearty  and 
'noble  entertainment.  To-morrow  the  Major-General'  Ireton  'is 
'■  expected  here  :— both  in  good  health,  God  be  praised.     This  week,  I 

*  believe,  they  will  visit  Kinsale,  Bandon  Bridge,  and  other  places  in 

*  this   Province  that  have  lately  declared  for  us,  and   that  expect  a 

*  return  of  his  affection  and  presence,  which  joys  many.  Some  report 
'  here  that  the  Enemy  burns  towns  and  provisions  near  our  quarters  : 

*  but  the  example  may  at  length  turn  to  their  own  greatest  prejudice. 

*  Colonel  Deane  and  Colonel  Blake,  our  Sea-generals,  are  both  riding 

*  in  Cork  Harbour.'"^ 

Dated  on  the  morrow  is  this  Letter  : 


LETTER  LXXXr. 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament  of 
England:    These. 

Cork,  19th  December,  1649. 

Mr.  Speaker, 

Not  long  after  my  last  to  you  from  before  Waterford,— by 
reason  of  the  tempestuousness  of  the  weather,  we  thought  fit,  and  it 
was  agreed.  To  march  away  to  Winter-quarters,  to  refresh  our  men 
until  God  shall  please  to  give  further  opportunity  for  action. 

We  m.arched  off,  the  2d  of  this  instant ;  it  being  so  terrible  a  day  as 
ever  I  marched  in  all  my  life.  Just  as  we  marched  off  in  the  morning, 
— unexpected  to  us,  the  Enemy  had  brought  an  addition  of  near  Two- 
thousand  horse  and  foot  to  the  increase  of  their  Garrison  :  which  we 
plainly  saw  at  the  other  side  of  the  water.  We  marched  that  night 
some  ten  or  twelve  miles  through  a  craggy  country,  to  Kilmac  Thomas  ; 
a  Castle  some  eight  miles  from  Dungarvan.  As  we  were  marching 
off  in  the  morning  from  thence,  the  Lord  Broghil, — I  having  sent 
before  to  him  to  march  up  to  me,-  sent  a  party  of  horse,  to  let  me 
know.  He  was,  with  about  Twelve  or  Thirteen  hundi'ed  of  the  Munster 
horse  and  foot,  about  ten  miles  off,  near  Dungarvan,  which  was  newly 
rendered  to  him. 

In  the  midst  of  these  good  successes,  wherein  the  kindness  and 
mercy  of  God  hath  appeared,  the  Lord,  in  wisdom,  and  for  gracious 
ends  best  known  to  Himself,  hath  interlaced  some  things  M-hich  may 
give  us  cause  of  serious  consideration  what  His  mind  therein  may  be. 
And  we  hope  we  wait  upon  Him,  desiring  to  know,  and  to  submit  to 
His  good  pleasure.  The  noble  Lieutenant-General,t — whose  finger, 
to  our  knowledge,  never  ached  in  all  these  expeditions, — fell  sick  ;  we 
doubt,  upon  a  cold  taken  upon  our  late  wet  march,  and  ill  accommo- 
dation :  and  went  to  Dungarvan,  where,  struggling  some  four  or  five 
days  with  a  fever,  he  died  ;  having  run  his  course  with  so  much 
honour,  courage,  and  fidelity,  as  his  actions  better  speak  than  my  pen. 
What  England  lost  hereby,  is  above  me  to  speak.  I  am  sure,  I  lost  a 
noble  friend,  and  companion  in  labours.     You  see  how  God  mingles 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  73). 

t  Michael  lones  :  Ludlow  (i.  304)  is  a  little  misinformed. 


CORiC,  69 


out  the  cup  unto  us.  Indeed  we  are  at  this  ♦ime  a  crazy  company  : — 
yet  we  live  in  His  sight  ;  and  shall  work  the  time  that  is  Jippointed 
us,  and  shall  rest  after  that  in  peace.* 

But  yet  there  hath  been  some  sweet  at  the  bottom  of  the  cup ; — of 
which  I  shall  now  give  you  an  account.  Being  informed  that  the 
Enemy  intended  to  take  in  the  Fort  of  Passage,  and  that  Lieutenant- 
General  Ferral  with  his  Ulsterst  was  to  march  out  of  Waterford,  with 
a  considerable  party  of  horse  and  foot,  for  that  service, — I  ordered 
Colonel  Zanchy,  who  lay  on  the  north  side  of  the  Blackwater,  To 
march  with  his  regiment  of  horse,  and  two  pieces  of  two  troops  of 
dragoons  to  the  relief  of  our  friends.  Which  he  accordingly  did  ;  his 
party  consisting  in  all  of  about  three-hundred  and  twenty.  When  he 
came  some  few  miles  from  the  place,  he  took  some  of  the  Enemy's 
stragglers  in  the  villages  as  he  went ;  all  which  he  put  to  the  sword  : 
seven  troopers  of  his  killed  thirty  of  them  in  one  house.  When  he 
came  near  the  place,  he  found  the  Enemy  had  close  begirt  it,  with 
about  five-hundred  Ulster  foot  under  Major  O'Neil  ;  Colonel  Wogan 
also,  the  Governor  of  Duncannon,  with  a  party  of  his,  with  two  great 
battering  guns  and  a  mortar-piece,  and  Captain  Browne,  the  Governor 
of  Ballihac,  were  there.  Our  men  furiously  charged  them  ;  and  beat 
them  from  the  place.  The  Enemy  got  into  a  place  where  they  might 
draw  up  ;  and  the  Ulsters,  who  bragged  much  of  their  pikes,  made 
indeed  for  the  time  a  good  resistance  :  but  the  horse,  pressing  sorely 
upon  them,  broke  them  ;  killed  near  an  Hundred  upon  the  place  ; 
took  Three-hundred  and  fifty  prisoners, — amongst  whom.  Major 
O'Neil,  and  the  Officers  of  Five  hundred  Ulster  foot,  all  but  those 
which  were  killed.  The  renegado  Wogan  with  twenty-four  of 
Ormond's  kurisees,  and  the  Governor  of  Ballihac,  &c.  Concerning 
some  of  these,  I  hope  I  shall  not  trouble  your  justice. 

This  mercy  was  obtained  without  the  loss  of  one  on  our  part,  only 
one  shot  in  the  shoulder.  Lieutenant- General  Ferral  was  come  up 
very  near,  with  a  great  party  to  their  relief ;  but  our  handful  of  men 
marching  toward  him,  he  shamefully  hasted  away,  and  recovered 
Waterford.  It  is  not  unworthy  taking  notice.  That  having  appointed 
a  Day  of  public  Thanksgiving  throughout  our  territories  in  Ireland,  as 
well  as  a  week's  warning  would  permit,  for  the  recovery  of  Munster, — 
which  proves  a  sweet  refreshment  to  us,  even  prepared  by  God  for  us, 
after  our  weary  and  hard  labour, — That  that  very  day,  and  that  very 
time,  while  men  were  praising  God,  was  this  deliverance  wrought. 

Though  the  present  state  of  affairs  bespeaks  a  continuance  of 
charge,  yet  the  same  good  hand  of  Providence,  which  hath  blessed 
your  affairs  hitherto,  is  worthy  to  be  followed  to  the  uttermost.  And 
who  knows,  or  rather  who  hath  not  cause  to  hope,  that  He  may  in 
His  goodness,  put  a  short  period  to  your  whole  charge.  Than  which 
no  worldly  thing  is  more  desired,  and  endeavoured  by 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. J 

*  Yes,  my  brave  one  •  even  so  !  f  Ulster-men. 

J  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  pp.  73,  74). 


^(i  CAMPAIGN  In  Ireland, 

Ormond  witnessed  this  defeat  at  Passage,  from  some  steeple,  cr 
'  place  of  prospect '  in  Waterford  ;  and  found  the  '  Mayor/  whom  he 
sent  for,  a  most  unreasonable  man."* 

'  The  renegado  Wogan  :'  Captain  Wogan,  once  in  the  Parliament 
service,  joined  himself  to  Hamilton  and  the  Scots  in  1648  ;  'bringing 
'a  gallant  troop  along  with  him.'  His  maraudings,  pickeerings,  on- 
slaughts, and  daring  chivalries  became  very  celebrated  after  that.  He 
was  not  slain  or  hanged  here  at  Passage  ;  there  remained  for  him 
yet,  some  four  years  hence,  his  grand  feat  which  has  rendered  all  the 
rest  memorable  :  '  that  of  riding  right  through  England,  having  ren- 
'  dezvoused  at  Barnet,  with  a  Party  of  Two-hundred  horse,'  to  join 
Middleton's  new  Scotch  Insurrection  in  the  Highland  Hills  ;  where 
he,  soon  after,  died  of  consumption  and  some  slight  hurt.f — V\  hat 
'  kurisees'  are,  I  do  not  know  :  some  nickname  for  Ormond's  men, — 
whom  few  loved  ;  whom  the  Mayor  of  Waterford,  this  very  day,  would 
not  admit  into  his  Town  even  for  the  saving  of  Passage  Fort.J  With 
certain  of  these  'j'^z/'r  justice  '  need  not  be  troubled. 

This  Letter,  with  two  others,  one  from  Ireton  arxl  one  from  Broghil, 
all  dated  Cork,  19th  December,  were  not  received  in  the  Commons 
House  till  Tuesday,  8th  January  ;  such  were  then  the  delays  of  the 
winter  post.  On  which  same  day  it  is  resolved.  That  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland  be  desired  to  come  over,  and  give  his  attend- 
ance here  in  Parliament.  §  Speaker  is  ordered  to  write  him  a  letter 
to  that  effect. 

'The  ground   of  this  resolution,'  says   Whitlocke,  'was  That  the 

*  news  of  the  King's  coming  to  Scotland  became  more  probable  than 
'  formerly.'     Laird  Winram's  dealings  with  him,  and  Cromwell's  suc- 

*  cesses,  and  the  call  of  Necessity  are  proving  effectual !  '  And,'  con- 
tinues Whitlocke,  'the  proceedings  of  the  Scots  in  raising  of  new 
'  forces  gave  an  alarm  to  the  Parliament  :  and  some  of  their  Members 
'  who  had  discoursed  with  the  Lord  General  Fairfax  upon  those 
'  matters,  and  argued  how  necessary  it  would  be  to  send  an  Army 
'  into  Scotland  to  divert  the  war  from  England, — had  found  the 
'  General  wholly  averse  to  any  such  thing  ;  and,  by  means  of  his 
'  Lady,  who  was  a  strict  Presbyterian,  to  be  more  a  friend  to  the 
'  Scots  than  they,'  those  Members  '  wished.  Therefore  they  thought 
'  this  a  fit  time  to  send  for  the  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  the  rather  as  his 

*  Army  was  now  drawn  into  winter-quarters.'|| 

The  Lord  Lieutenant  thought,  or  was  supposed  to  think,  of  comply- 
ing straightway,  as  the  old  Newspapers  instruct  us  ;  but  on  better 
counsel,  the  Scotch  peril  not  being  very  imminent  as  yet,  decided 
'to  settle  Ireland  in  a  safe  posture'  first.  Indeed  the  Letter  itself  is 
long  in  reaching  him  ;  and  the  rumour  of  it,  which  arrives  much 
sooner,  has  already  set  the  Enemy  on  false  schemes,  whereof  advan- 
tage might  be  taken.  IF  The  Lord  Lieutenant  has  been  rehabilitating 
Courts  of  Justice  in  Dublin,  settling  contributions,  and  doing  much 

*  Charte,  ii.  103  ;  whose  account  is  otherwise  very  deficient. 

f  Clarendon,  iii.  679 ;  Whitlocke,  Heath's  Chronicle,  &c. 

X  Carte,  ibid.  §  Commons  Journals,  vi.  343,  4. 

II  Whitlocke,  p.  422.  ^  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  'j'j)» 


Castletown:  71 


other  work  :  and  now,  the  February  or  even  January  weather  being 
unusually  good,  he  takes  the  field  again,  in  hopes  of  perhaps  soon 
finishing.  The  unhappy  Irish  are  again  excommunicating  one  an- 
other ;  the  Suprerre  Council  of  Kilkenny  is  again  one  wide  howl ;  and 
Ormond  is  writing  to  the  Kin  ;  to  recall  him.  Now  is  the  Lieutenant's 
time  ;  the  February  weather  being  good  ! 


LETTER   LXXXn. 


Here  is  another  small  excerpt  from  Bulstrode,  which  we  may  take 
along  with  us  ;  a  small  speck  of  dark  Ireland  and  its  affairs  rendered 
luminous  for  an  instant.  To  which  there  is  reference  in  this  Letter. 
We  saw  Enniscorthy  taken  on  the  last  day  of  September,  the  '  Castle 
and  Village  of  Enniscorthy,'  'which  belongs  to  Mr.  Robert  Wallop  ;' 
a  Garrison  was  settled  there  ;  and  this  in  some  three  months  time  is 
what  becomes  of  it. 

January  9th,  1649,  Letters  reach  Bulstrode,  perhaps  a  fortnight 
after  date,  *  That  the  Enemy  surprised  Enniscorthy  Castle  in  this 
'  manner  :  Some  Irish  Gentlemen  feasted  the  Garrison  Soldiers  ;  and 

*  sent-in  women  to  sell  them  strong-water,  of  which  they  drank  too 
'  much  ;  and  then  the  Irish  fell  upon  them,  took  the  Garrison,  and 
'  put  all  the  Officers  and  Soldiers  to  the  sword.'  Sharp  practice  on 
the  part  of  the  Irish  Gentlemen  ;  and  not  well-advised  !  Which  con- 
strained the  Lord  Lieutenant,  when  he  heard  of  it,  to  order  '  that  the 

*  Irish'  Papist  suspected  Irish,  *  should  he  put  out  of  such  Garrisons 
*as  were  in  the  power  of  Parliament,'* — ordered  to  seek  quarters  else- 
where. 

For  the  Honourable  Wtllta?n  Le?tthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 
of  England :  These. 

Castletown,  15th  February,  1649. 

Mr.  Speaker, 

Having  refreshed  our  men  for  some  short  time  in  our  Winter- 
quarters,t  and  health  being  pretty  well  recovered,  we  thought  fit  to 
take  the  field  ;  and  to  attempt  such  things  as  God  by  His  providence 
should  lead  us  to  upon  the  Enemy. 

Our  resolution  was  to  fall  into  the  Enemy's  quarters  two  ways. 
The  one  party,  being  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  troops  of  horse  and 
dragoons  and  about  two-thousand  foot,  were  ordered  to  go  up  by  the 
way  of  Carrick  into  the  County  of  Kilkenny  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Reynolds  ;  whom  Major  General  Ireton  was  to  follow  with  a 
reserve.  I  myself  was  to  go  by  the  way  of  Mallow  %  over  the  Black- 
water,  towards  the  County  of  Limerick  and  the  County  of  Tipperary, 
with  about  twelve  troops  of  horse,  and  three  troops  of  dragoons,  and 
between  two  and  three  hundred  foot. 

I    began  my   march   upon   Tuesday    the    Nine-and-twentieth  of 

*  Whitiocke,  p.  421.  f  Youghal  had  been  the  head-quarter, 

X  '  Muyallo '  he  writes,  and  '  Mayallo.' 


72  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


January,  from  Youghal  :  and  upon  Thursday  the  One-and-thirtieth,  I 
possessed  a  Castle  called  Kilkenny,  upon  the  edge  of  the  County  of 
.Limerick  ;  where  1  left  thirty  loot.  From  thence  I  marched  to  a 
Strong-house  belonging  to  Sir  Richard  Everard  (called  Clogheen),* 
who  is  one  of  the  Supreme  Council  ;  where  I  left  a  troop  of  horse 
and  some  dragoons.  From  thence  1  marched  to  Roghill  Castle,  which 
was  possessed  by  some  Ulster  foot,  and  a  party  of  the  Enemy's  horse  ; 
which  upon  summons  (I  having  taken  the  Captain  of  horse  prisoner 
before)  was  rendered  to  me.  These  places  being  thus  possessed  gave 
us  much  command  (together  with  some  other  holds  we  have)  of  the 
White-Knights'  and  Roche's  Country  ;  and  of  all  the  land  from  Mallow 
to  the  Suir-side  ; — especially  by  'help  of  another  Castle  called  Old 
Castletown, 'which,'  since  my  march,  'was'  taken  by  my  Lord  of 
Broghil.  Which  I  had  sent  to  his  Lordship  to  endeavour  ;  as  also  a 
Castle  of  Sir  Edward  Fitzharris,  over  the  Mountains  in  the  County  of 
Limerick  ; — I  having  left  his  Lordship  at  Mallow,  with  about  six  or 
seven  hundred  horse,  and  four  or  five  hundred  foot,  to  protect  those 
parts,  and  your  interest  in  Munster  ;  lest  while  we  were  abroad, 
Inchiquin,  whose  forces  lay  about  Limerick  and  the  County  of  Kerry, 
should  fall  in  behind  us.  His  Lordship  drew  two  cannon  to  the  fore- 
said Castle  ;  which  having  summoned,  they  refused.  His  Lordship, 
having  bestowed  about  ten  shot  upon  it,  which  made  their  stomachs 
come  down, — he  gave  all  the  soldiers  quarter  for  life  ;  and  shot  all 
the  Officers,  being  six  in  number,  to  death.  Since  the  taking  of  these 
Garrisons,  the  Irish  have  sent  their  commissioners  to  compound  for 
their  contribution  as  far  as  the  walls  of  Limerick. 

I  marched  from  Roghill  Castle  over  the  Suir,  with  very  much  diffi- 
culty ;  and  from  thence  to  Fethard,  almost  in  the  heart  of  the  County 
of  Tipperary  ;  where  was  a  Garrison  of  the  Enemy.  The  Town  is 
most  pleasantly  seated  ;  having  a  very  good  Wall  with  round  and 
square  bulwarks,  after  the  old  manner  of  fortifications.  We  came 
thither  in  the  night,  and  in  deed  were  very  much  distressed  by  sore  and 
tempestuous  wind  and  rain.  After  a  long  march,  we  knew  not  well 
how  to  dispose  of  ourselves  ;  but  finding  an  old  Abbey  in  the  suburbs, 
and  some  cabins  and  poor  houses, — we  got  into  them,  and  had  oppor- 
tunity to  send  '  the  Garrison  '  a  summons.  They  shot  at  my  trumpet ; 
and  would  not  listen  to  him,  for  an  hour's  space  :  but  having  some 
Officers  in  our  party  whom  they  knew,  I  sent  them.  To  let  them 
know  I  was  there  with  a  good  part  of  the  Army.  We  shot  not  a  shot 
at  them  ;  but  they  were  very  angry,  and  fired  very  earnestly  upon  us  ; 
telling  us.  That  it  was  not  a  time  of  night  to  send  a  summons  But  yet 
in  the  end  the  Governor  was  willing  to  send  out  two  commissioners, — 
I  think  rather  to  see  whether  there  was  a  force  sufficient  to  force  him, 
than  to  any  other  end.  After  almost  a  whole  night  spent  in  treaty, 
the  Town  was  delivered  to  me  the  next  morning,  upon  terms  which 
we  usually  call  honourable  ;  which  I  was  the  willinger  to  give,  because 
1  had  little  above  Two-hundred  foot,  and  neither  ladders  nor  guns, 
nor  anything  else  to  force  them  that  night.  There  being  about  Seven- 
teen companies  of  the  Ulster  foot  in  Cashel,  above  five  miles  from 

*  '  Cloghern '  in  the  old  Newspaper  ;  but  it  seems  to  be  misprinted,  as  almost 
all  these  names  are.     '  Roghill '  I  find  nowhere  now  extant. 


CASTLETOWN.  73 

thence,  they  quit  it  in  some  disorder  ;  and  the  Sovereign  and  the 
Aldermen  sent  to  me  a  petition,  desiring  that  I  would  protect  them. 
Which  I  have  almost  made  a  quarter. 

From  thence  I  marched  towards  Callan  :  hearing  that  Colonel 
Reynolds  was  there,  with  the  Party  before  mentioned.  When  I  came 
thither,  I  found  he  had  fallen  upon  the  Enemy's  horse,  and  routed 
them  (being  about  a  hundred),  with  his  forlorn  ;  ^  he '  took  my  Lord 
of  Ossory's  Captain-Lieutenant,  and  another  Lieutenant  of  horse, 
prisoners  ;— and  one  of  those  who  betrayed  our  Garrison  of  Ennis- 
corthy  ;  whom  we  hanged.  The  Enemy  had  possessed  three  Castles 
in  the  Town  ;  one  of  them  belonging  to  one  Butler,  very  considerable  ; 
the  other  two  had  about  a  hundred  or  hundred-and-twenty  men  in 
them,— which  'latter'  he  attempted;  and  they,  refusing  conditions 
seasonably  offered,  were  put  all  to  the  sword.  Indeed  some  of  your 
soldiers  did  attempt  very  notably  in  this  service  : — I  do  not  hear 
there  were  six  men  of  ours  lost.  Butler's  Castle  was  delivered  up  on 
conditions,  for  all  to  march  away,  leaving  their  arms  behind  them. 
Wherein  I  have  placed  a  company  of  foot,  and  a  troop  of  horse, 
under  the  command  of  my  Lord  Colvil  ;  the  place  being  six  miles 
from  Kilkenny.  From  hence  Colonel  Reynolds  was  sent  with  his 
regiment  to  remove  a  Garrison  of  the  Enemy's  from  Knocktofer 
(being  the  way  of  our  communication  to  Ross)  ;  which  accordingly 
he  did. 

We  marched  back  with  the  rest  of  the  body  to  Fethard  and  Cashel : 
where  we  are  now  quartered, — having  good  plenty  both  of  horse  meat 
and  man's  meat  for  a  time  ;  and  being  indeed,  we  may  say,  even 
almost  in  the  heart  and  bowels  of  the  Enemy  ;  ready  to  attempt  what 
God  shall  next  direct.  And  blessed  be  His  name  only  for  this  good 
success  ;  and  for  this  '  also,'  That  we  do  not  find  our  men  ride  at  all 
considerably  sick  upon  this  expedition,  though  indeed  it  hath  been 
very  blustering  weather. — 

I  had  almost  forgot  one  business  :  The  Major-General  was  very 
desirous  to  gain  a  Pass  over  the  Suir  ;  where  indeed  we  had  none  but 
by  boat,  or  when  the  weather  served.  Wherefore,  on  Saturday  in  the 
evening,  he  marched  with  a  party  of  horse  and  foot  to  Ard finnan ;  where 
was  a  Bridge,  and  at  the  foot  of  it  a  strong  Castle.  Which  he,  about 
four  o'clock  the  next  morning,  attempted  ; — killed  about  thirteen  of 
the  Enemy's  outguard  ;  lost  but  two  men,  and  eight  or  ten  wounded  : 
the  Enemy  yielded  the  place  to  him,  and  we  are  possessed  of  it, — 
being  a  very  considerable  Pass,  and  the  nearest  to  our  Pass  at 
Cappoquin  over  the  Blackwater,  whither  we  can  bring  guns,  ammu- 
nition, or  other  things  from  Youghal  by  water,  and  '  then '  over 
this  Pass  to  the  Army.  The  County  of  Tipperary  have  sub- 
mitted to  ;^i,5oo  a-month  contribution,  although  they  have  six  or 
seven  of  the  Enemy's  Garrisons  yet  upon  them. 

Sir,  I  desire  the  charge  of  England  as  to  this  War  may  be  abated 
as  much  as  may  be,  and  as  we  know  you  do  desire,  out  of  your  care 
to  the  Commonwealth.  But  if  you  expect  your  work  to  be  done,  if 
the  marching  Army  be  not  constantly  paid,  and  the  course  taken  that 
hath  been  humbly  represented,  —indeed  it  will  not  be  for  the  thrift  of 


74  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND 

England,  as  far  as  England  is  concerned  in  the  speedy  reduction  of 
Ireland.  The  money  we  raise  upon  the  Countie.^  maintains  tl'c 
Garrison  forces  ;  and  hardly  that.  If  the  active  force  be  not  main 
tained,  and  all  contingencies  defrayed,  how  can  you  expect  to  have 
but  a  lingering  business  of  it.'*  Surely  we  desire  not  to  spend  a  shil- 
ling of  your  treasury,  wherein  our  consciences  do  not  prompt  us  We 
serve  you  ;  we  are  willing  to  be  out  of*  our  trade  of  war  ;  and  shall 
hasten,  by  God's  assistance  and  grace,  to  the  end  of  our  work,  as  the 
labourer  doth  to  be  at  his  rest.  This  makes  us  bold  to  be  earnest 
with  you  for  necessary  supplies  : — that  of  money  is  one.  And  there 
be  some  other  things,  -w'lich  indeed  I  do  not  think  for  your  service 
to  speak  of  publicly,  whicii  I  shall  humbly  represent  to  the  Council 
of  State, — wherewith  I  desire  wf^  may  l^e  accommodated. 

Sir,  the  Lord,  wlio  doth  all  these  things,  gives  hopes  of  a  speedy 
issue  to  this  business  ;  and,  I  am  persuaded,  will  graciously  appear 
in  it.  And  truly  there  is  no  fear  of  the  strength  and  combination  of 
enemies  round  about,  nor  of  slanderous  tongues  at  home.  God  hath 
hitherto  fenced  you  against  all  those,  to  wonder  and  amazement ; 
they  are  tokens  of  your  prosperity  and  success  : — only  it  will  be  good 
for  you,  and  us  that  serve  you,  to  fear  the  Lord  ;  to  fear  unbelief,  self- 
seeking,  confidence  in  an  arm  of  flesh,  and  opinion  of  any  instruments 
that  they  are  other  than  as  dry  bones.  That  God  be  merciful  in  these 
things,  and  bless  you,  is  the  humble  prayer  of.  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.! 

Commons  Journals,  2<)th.  February,  1649-50:  'A  Letter  from  the 
'  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  from  Castletown,  15°  Februarii,  1649, 
'  was  this  day  read  ;  and  ordered  to  be  forthwith  printed  and  pub- 
lished. Ordered,  That  a  Letter  of  Thanks  be  sent  to  the  Lord  Lieu- 
*' tenant  of  Ireland  ;  and  that  Mr.  Scott  do  prepare  the  Letter;  and 
'  that  Mr.  Speaker  do  sign  the  same.  Resolved,  That  the  Lord 
*  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  have  the  use  of  the  Lodgings  called  the  Cock- 
'  pit,  of  the  Spring  Garden  and  St.  James's  House,  and  the  command 
'of  St.  James's  Park.' 

This  Letter  of  Thanks,  and  very  handsome  Resolution  did,  as  we 
shall  find,  come  duly  to  hand.  The  Cockpit  was  then  and  long  after- 
wards a  sumptuous  Royal  'Lodging'  in  Whitehall;  Henry  the 
Eighth's  place  of  cock-fighting  : — stood  till  not  very  long  ago,  say  the 
Topographers,  where  the  present  Privy-Council  Office  is.  The  Crom- 
well Family  hereupon  prepared  to  remove  thither ;  not  without  re- 
luctance on  Mrs.  Cromwell's  part,  as  Ludlow  intimates. 

*  to  have  done  with. 

t  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  77) ;  see  also  Commons  Journals,  25  Febru- 
ary, 1649-50. 


CASHEL.  75 


LETTER   LXXXIII. 

*  For  the  Ho7iour able  John  Bradshaw,  E squire ^  President  of  the  Council 
of  State :   These.^ 

Cashel,  5th  March,  1649. 

'Sir,' 

■^  *  *  It  pleaseth  God  still  to  enlarge  your  interest  here. 
The  Castle  of  Cahir,  very  considerable,  built  upon  a  rock,  and  seated 
in  an  island  in  the  midst  of  the  Suir,  was  lately  rendered  to  me.  It 
cost  the  Earl  of  Essex,  as  I  am  informed,  about  eight  weeks  siege 
with  his  army  and  artillery.*  It  is  now  yours  without  the  loss  of  one 
man.  So  also  in  the  Castle  of  Kiltinan  ;  a  very  large  and  strong 
Castle  of  the  Lord  of  Dunboyne's  :  this  latter  I  took  in  with  my 
cannon,  without  the  loss  of  a  man. 

We  have  taken  the  Castle  of  Golden  Bridge,  another  pass  upon 
the  Suir  ;  as  also  the  Castle  of  Dundrum,  at  which  we  lost  about  six 
men, — Colonel  Zanchy,  who  commanded  the  party,  being  shot 
through  the  hand.  We  have  placed  another  strong  Garrison  at 
Ballynakill,  upon  the  edge  of  King's  and  Queen's  Counties.  We  have 
divers  Garrisons  in  the  County  of  Limerick ;  and  by  these  we  take 
away  the  Enemy's  subsistence,  and  diminish  their  contributions.  By 
which  in  time,  I  hope  they  will  sink. 

*        *        * 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 


LETTER  LXXXIV. 


Henry  Cromwell,  *  Colonel  Henry,'  and  the  Lord  Broghil  are 
busy  with  Inchiquin  in  Limerick  County,  to  good  purpose ;  as  other 
Colonels  are  with  other  rebels  elsewhere,  everywhere ;  and  '  our 
Enemies  will  not  stand,  but  have  marched  to  Kilkenny.'  Kilkenny 
once  taken,  '  it  is  not  thought  they  will  be  able  to  recruit  their  Armyj 
or  take  the  field  again  this  summer.' 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament  of 
England:  These. 

Carrick,  2d  April,  1650. 

Mr.  Speaker, 

I  think  the  last  Letter  I  troubled  you  with,  was  about  the 
taking  of  Cahir,  since  which  time  there  were  taken,  by  beating  up 
their  quarters,  two  Colonels,  a  Lieutenant-Colonel,  Major,  and  divers 
Captains,  all  of  horse  :  Colonel  Johnson,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Laug- 
hern,  and  Major  Simes,  were  shot  to  death,  as  having  served  under 
the  Parliament,  but  now  taken  up  arms  with  the  Enemy. 

*  In  1599  (Camden  ;  in  Kennet,  ii.  614) ,  but  the  '  eight  weeks  are  by  no 
means  mentioned  in  Camden  !  The  ruins  of  the  Castle  now  stand  *  on  a  rock 
ovcrlooknig    the  River,    the    'island,'    I  conclude,  had  been  artificial. 

t  .Xt'wspnpers,  in  Cromwelliana,  p.  'j'j  .  see  also  Commons  Journals  (vi.  381), 
li.  Ai.uch,  1649-50. 


76  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


Hearing  that  Castlehaven  and  Lieutenant-General  Ferral  were 
about  Kilkenny,  with  their  Army  lying  there  quartered,  and  about 
Carlow  and  Leighlin  Bridge  ;  and  hearing  also  that  Colonel  Hewson, 
with  a  good  Party  from  Dublin,  was  come  as  far  as  Ballysonan,*  and 
had  taken  it,— we  thought  tit  to  send  an  express  to  him.  To  march  up 
towards  us  for  a  conjunction.  And  because  we  doubted  the  sufficiency 
of  his  Party  to  march  with  that  security  that  were  to  be  wished, 
Colonel  Shilbourn  was  ordered  to  go  with  some  troops  of  horse  out  of 
the  County  of  Wexford,  which  was  his  station,  to  meet  him.  And  be- 
cause the  Enemy  was  po  sessed  of  the  fittest  places  upon  the  Barrow 
for  our  conjunction,  we  sent  a  Party  of  seven  or  eight  hundred  horse 
and  dragoons,  and  about  five  hundred  foot;  to  attempt  upon  Castle- 
haven in  the  rear,  if  he  should  have  endeavoured  to  defend  the  places 
against  Colonel  Ilewson. 

Our  Party,  being  a  light  nimble  Party,  was  at  the  Barrow-side  before 
Colonel  Hewson  could  be  heard  of;  and  possessed  a  House,  by  the 
Graigue  :  they  marched  towards  Laughlin,  and  faced  Castlehaven  at  a 
pretty  distance  ;  but  he  shewed  no  forwardness  to  engage.  Our  Party 
not  being  able  to  hear  of  Colonel  Hewson,  came  back  as  far  as 
Thomastown,  a  small  walled  Town,  and  a  pass  upon  the  Nore,  be- 
tween Kilkenny  and  Ross.  Which  our  men  attempting  to  take,  the 
Enemy  made  no  great  resistance  ;  but,  by  the  advantage  of  the 
bridge,  quitted  the  Town,  and  fled  to  a  Castle  about  half  a  mile  dis- 
tant off,  which  they  had  formerly  possessed.  That  night  the  President 
of  Munster  t  and  myself  came  up  to  the  Party.  We  summoned  the 
Castle  ;  and,  after  two  days,  it  was  surrendered  to  us  :  the  Enemy 
leaving  their  arms,  drums,  colours,  and  ammunition  behind  them,  and 
engaging  never  to  bear  arms  more  against  the  Parliament  of  England. 
We  lay  still  after  this  about  two  or  three  days.  The  President  went 
back  to  Fethard,  to  bring  up  some  great  guns,  with  a  purpose  to 
attempt  upon  the  Granny,;]:  and  some  Castles  thereabouts,  for  the 
better  blocking  up  of  Waterford  ;  and  to  cause  to  advance  up  to  us 
some  more  of  our  foot.  In  the  end  we  had  advertisement  that  Colonel 
Hewson  was  come  to  Leighlin  ;  where  was  a  very  strong  Castle  and 
pass  over  the  Barrow.  I  sent  him  word  that  he  should  attempt  it ; 
which  he  did  ;  and,  after  some  dispute,  reduced  it.  By  which  means 
we  have  a  good  pass  over  the  Barrow,  and  intercourse  between  Mun- 
ster and  Leinster.  I  sent  Colonel  Hewson  word  that  he  should  march 
up  to  me;  and  we,  advancing  likewise  with  our  Party,  met  'him,' — 
near  by  Gowran  ;  a  populous  Town,  where  the  Enemy  had  a  very 
strong  Castle,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Hammond  ;  a  Kentish- 
man,  who  was  a  principal  actor  in  the  Kentish  lnsurrection,§  and  did 
manage  the  Lord  Capel's  business  at  his  Trial.  I  sent  him  a  civil 
invitation  to  deliver  up  the  Castle  unto  me  ;  to  which  he  returned  me 
a  very  resolute  answer,  and  full  of  height.  We  planted  our  artillery  ; 
and  before  we  had  made  a  breach  considerable,  the  Enemy  beat  a 
parley  for  a  treaty  ;  which  I,  having  offered  so  fairly  to  him,  refused  ; 

'  See  Whitlocke,  p.  430  ;  Carte,  ii.  113. 
■f    Ireton  (Commons  Journals,  4  December,  1649). 
X  Now  a  ruin  near  Waterford  ,  he  spells  it    Granno. 
§  In  1648.     None  oi  our  Hammonds. 


CARRICK.  77 


but  sent  him  in  positive  conditions,  That  the  soldiers  should  have 
their  Hves,  and  the  Commission  Officers  to  be  disposed  of  as  should 
be  thought  fit  .  which  in  the  end  was  submitted  to.  The  next  day,  the 
Colonel,  the  Major,  and  the  rest  of  the  Commission  Officers  were  shot 
to  death  ;  all  but  one,  who,  being  a  very  earnest  instrument  to  have 
the  Castle  delivered,  was  pardoned.  In  the  same  Castle  also  we  took 
a  Popish  Priest,  who  was  chaplain  to  the  Catholics  in  this  regiment  ; 
who  was  caused  to  be  hanged.  I  trouble  you  with  this  the  rather, 
because  this  regiment  was  the  Lord  of  Ormond's  own  regiment.  In 
this  Castle  was  good  store  of  provisions  for  the  Army. 

After  the  taking  of  this  Castle,  it  was  agreed  amongst  us  to  march 
to  the  City  of  Kilkenny.  Which  we  did  upon  Friday,  the  22nd  of 
March :  and  coming  with  our  body  within  a  mile  of  the  Town,  we  ad- 
vanced with  some  horse  very  near  unto  it  ;  and  that  evening  I  sent 
Sir  Walter  Butler  and  the  Corporation  a  Letter.  We  took  the  best 
view  we  could  where  to  plant  our  batteries,;  and  upon  Monday  the 
25th,  our  batteries,  consisting  of  three  guns,  began  to  play.  After 
near  a  hundred  shot,  we  made  a  breach,  as  we  hoped  stormable.  Our 
men  were  drawn  out  ready  for  the  attempt  ;  and  Colonel  Ewer  '  was ' 
ordered,  with  about  one-thousand  foot,  to  endeavour  to  possess  the 
Irish-Town,  much  about  the  time  of  our  storming  ; — which  he  accord- 
ingly did,  with  the  loss  of  not  above  three  or  four  men.  Our  men 
upon  the  signal  fell  on  upon  the  breach  :  which  indeed  was  not  per- 
formed with  usual  courage  nor  success  ;  for  they  were  beaten  off,  with 
the  loss  of  one  Captain,  and  about  twenty  or  thirty  men  killed  and 
wounded.  The  Enemy  had  made  two  retrenchments  or  counter- works, 
which  they  had  strongly  palisadoed  ;  and  both  of  them  did  so  com- 
mand our  breach,  that  indeed  it  was  a  mercy  to  us  we  did  not  farther 
contend  for  an  entrance  there  ;  it  being  probable  that,  if  we  had,  it 
would  have  cost  us  very  dear. 

Having  possessed  the  Irish-Town  ;  and  there  being  another  Walled 
Town  on  the  other  side  of  the  River,  eight  companies  of  foot  were 
sent  over  the  River  to  possess  that.  Which  accordingly  was  effected, 
and  not  above  the  like  number  lost  that  were  in  possessing  the  Irish- 
Town.  The  officer  that  commanded  this  party  in  chief,  attempted  to 
pass  over  the  Bridge  into  the  City,  and  to  fire  the  Gate  ;  which  indeed 
was  done  with  good  resolution  ; — but,  lying  too  open  to  the  Enemy's 
shot,  he  had  forty  or  fifty  men  killed  and  wounded  ;  which  was  a  sore 
blow  to  us  We  made  our  preparations  for  a  second  battery  ;  which 
was  well  near  perfected  :  'but'  the  Enemy,  seeing  himself  thus  be- 
girt, sent  for  a  Treaty  ;  and  had  it  ;  and,  in  some  hours,  agreed  to 
deliver  up  the  Castle  upon  the  Articles  enclosed.  Which,  '  accord- 
ingly,' we  received  upon  Thursday  the  28th  of  March. — We  find  the 
Castle  exceeding  well  fortified  by  the  industry  of  the  Enemy  ;  being 
also  very  capacious  :  so  that  if  we  had  taken  the  Town,  we  must  have 
had  a  new  work  for  the  Castle,  which  might  have  cost  much  blood 
and  time.  So  that,  we  hope,  the  Lord  hath  provided  better  for  us  ; 
and  we  look  at  it  as  a  gracious  mercy  that  we  have  the  place  for  you 
upon  these  terms."'*' 

*  Carte,  ii.  113. 


78  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

Whilst  these  affairs  were  transacting,  a  Lieutenant-Colonel,  three 
Majors,  eight  Captains,  being  English,  Welsh  anil  Scotch  with  others, 
possessed  of  Cantwell  Castle,* — a  very  strong  Castle,  situated  in  a 
bog,  well  furnished  with  provisions  of  corn,— were  ordered  by  Sir 
Walter  Butler  to  come  to  strengthen  the  Garrison  of  Kilkenny.  But 
they  sent  two  Officers  to  me,  to  offer  me  the  place,  and  their 
service,— that  they  might  have  passes  to  go  beyond  sea  to  serve 
foreign  states,  with  some  money  to  bear  their  charges  :  the  last 
whereof  '  likewise  '  I  consented  to  ;  they  promising  to  do  nothing  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  Parliament  of  England.  Colonel  Abbot  also 
attempted  Ennisnag  ;  where  were  gotten  a  company  of  rogues  which 
'had'  revolted  from  Colonel  Jones  f  The  Soldiers  capitulated  for 
life,  and  their  two  Officers  were  hanged  for  revolting  Adjutant- 
General  Sadler  was  commanded  with  two  guns  to  attempt  some 
Castles  in  the  County  of  Tipperary  and  Kilkenny  ;  which  b  ing 
reduced  '  would  '  exceedingly  tend  to  the  blocking-up  of  two  con- 
siderable Towns.  He  summoned  Pulkerry,  a  Garrison  under  Clonmel  ; 
battered  it ;  they  refusing  to  come  out,  stormed  it  ;  put  thirty  or 
forty  of  them  to  the  sword,  and  the  rest  remaining  obstinate  were 
fired  in  the  Castle.  He  took  Ballopoin  ;  the  Enemy  marching  away, 
leaving  their  arms  behind  them  He  took  also  the  Granny  and 
Donkill,  two  very  considerable  places  to  Waterford,  upon  the  same 
terms. — We  have  advanced  our  quarters  towards  the  Enemy,  a  con- 
siderable way  above  Kilkenny  ;  where  we  hope,  by  the  gaining  of 
[ground,  to  get  subsistence  ;  and  still  to  grow  upon  the  Enemy,  as  the 
LcmtI  shall  bless  us. 

Sir,  I  may  not  be  wanting  to  tell  you,  and  renew  it  again,  That  our 
hardships  are  not  a  few  ;  that  I  think  in  my  conscience,  if  monies  be 
not  supplied,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  carry  on  your  work  : — I  would 
not  say  this  to  you,  if  I  did  not  reckon  it  my  duty  so  to  do.  But  if  it 
be  supplied,  and  that  speedily,  I  hope,  through  the  good  hand  of  the 
Lord,  it  will  not  be  long  before  England  will  be  at  an  end  of  this 
charge  ;— for  the  saving  of  which,  I  beseech  you  help  as  soon  as  you 
can  !  Sir,  our  horse  have  not  had  one  month's  pay  of  five.  We  strain 
what  we  can  that  the  foot  may  be  paid,  or  else  they  would  starve. 
Those  Towns  that  are  to  be  reduced,  especially  one  or  two  of  them, 
if  we  should  proceed  by  the  rules  of  other  states,  would  cost  you  more 
money  than  this  Army  hath  had  since  we  came  over.  I  hope,  through 
the  blessing  of  God,  they  will  come  cheaper  to  you  :  but  how  we  should 
be  able  to  proceed  in  our  attempts  without  reasonable  supply,  is 
humbly  submitted  and  represented  to  you.  I  think  I  need  not  say, 
that  a  speedy  period  put  to  this  work  will  break  the  expectation  of 
all  your  enemies.  And  seeing  the  Lord  is  not  wanting  to  you,  I 
mor.t  humbly  beg  it,  that  you  would  not  be  wanting  to  yourselves. 

In  the  last  place,  it  cannot  be  thought  but  the  taking  of  these 
places,  and  keeping  but  what  is  necessary  of  them,  must  needs  swallow 
up  our  foot  :  and  I  may  humbly  repeat  it  again.  That  I  do  not  know 
o;  much  above  two-thousand  of  your  five-thousand   recruits  come  to 

*  Of  Cantwell,  Pulkerry,  Ballopoin  and   Donkill,  in  this  paragraph,  I  can  hear 
no  tidings. 
f  The  late  Michael  Jones 


CARRICK,  79 


us.  Having  given  you  this  account  concerning  your  affairs,  I  am  now 
obliged  to  give  you  an  account  concerning  myself,  which  I  shall  do 
with  all  clearness  and  honesty. 

I  have  received  divers  private  intimations  of  your  pleasure  to  have 
me  come  in  person  to  wait  upon  you  in  England  ;  as  also  copies  of 
Votes  of  the  Parliament  to  that  purpose.  But  considering  the  way 
they  came  to  me  was  but  '  by '  private  intimations,  and  the  Votes 
did  refer  to  a  Letter  to  be  signed  by  the  Speaker, — I  thought  it  would 
have  been  too  much  forwardness  in  me  to  have  left  my  charge  here, 
until  the  said  Letter  came  ;  it  being  not  fit  for  me  to  prophesy  whether 
the  Letter  would  be  an  absolute  command,  or  having  limitations  with 
a  liberty  left  by  the  Parliament  to  me,  to  consider  in  what  way  to 
yield  my  obedience.  Your  Letter  came  to  my  hands  upon  Friday  the 
22d  of  March,  the  same  day  that  I  came  before  ihe  City  of  Kilkenny, 
and  when  I  was  near  the  same.  And  I  understood  by  Dr.  Cartwright, 
who  delivered  it  to  me,  that  reason  of  cross  winds,  and  the  want  of 
shipping  in  the  West  of  England  where  he  was  hindered  him  from 
coming  with  it  sooner  ;  it  bearing  date  the  8th  of  January,  and  not 
coming  to  my  hands  until  the  2:d  of  March. 

The  Letter  supposed  your  Army  in  Winter-quarters,  and  the  tims 
of  the  year  not  suitable  for  present  action  ;  making  this  as  the  reason 
of  your  command.  And  your  Forces  have  been  in  action  ever  since  the 
29th  of  January  ;  and  your  Letter,  which  was  to  be  the  rule  of  my 
obedience,  coming  to  my  hands  after  our  having  been  so  long  in 
action, — with  respect  had  to  the  reasons  you  were  pleased  to  use 
therein,  '  I  knew  not  what  to  do.'  And  having  received  a  Letter 
signed  by  yourself,  of  the  26th  of  February,*  which  mentions  not  a 
word  of  the  continuance  of  your  pleasure  concerning  my  coming  over, 
I  did  humbly  conceive  it  much  consisting  with  my  duty,  humbly  to 
beg  a  positive  signification  what  your  willis  ;  professing  (as  before 
the  Lord)  that  I  am  most  ready  to  obey  your  commands  herein 
with  all  alacrity  ;  rejoicing  only  to  be  about  that  work  which  I  am 
called  to  by  those  whom  God  hath  set  over  me,  which  I  acknowledge 
you  to  be  ;  and  fearing  only  in  obeying  you  to  disobey  you. 

I  most  humbly  and  earnestly  beseech  you  to  judge  for  me,  Whether 
your  Letter  doth  not  naturally  allow  me  the  liberty  of  begging  a 
more  clear  expression  of  your  command  and  pleasure.  Which,  when 
vouchsafed  unto  me,  will  find  most  ready  and  cheerful  obedience 
from, 

Sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

♦  See  Letter  LXXXII. 

t  Newspapers  (in  Cromj^^llrtna,  pp.  78-81). 

.tb 


CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


LETTER  LXXXV. 

Here,  of  the  same  date,  is  a  Letter  to  Mayor  ;  which  concludes 
what  we  have  in  Ireland. 

For  my  very  loving  Brother^  Richard  Mayor^  Esquire^  at  Hursley  in 
Hampshire:  These, 

Carrick,  ad  April,  1650. 

Dear  Brother, 

For  me  to  write  unto  you  the  state  of  our  affaiis  here  were  more 
indeed  than  I  have  leisure  well  to  do  ;  and  therefore  I  hope  you  do 
not  expect  it  from  me  ;  seeing  when  I  write  to  the  Parliament  I 
usually  am,  as  becomes  me,  very  particular  with  them  ;  and  usually 
from  thence  the  knowledge  thereof  is  spread. 

Only  this  let  me  say,  which  is  the  best  intelligence  to  Friends  that 
arc  truly  Christian  :  The  Lord  is  pleased  still  to  vouchsafe  us  His 
presence,  and  to  prosper  His  own  work  in  our  hands  ;  which  to  us  is 
the  more  eminent  because  truly  we  are  a  company  of  poor  weak 
worthless  creatures.  Truly  our  work  is  neither  from  our  own  brains 
nor  from  our  courage  and  strength  :  but  we  follow  the  Lord  who 
goeth  before,  and  gather  what  He  scattereih,  that  so  ah  may  appear 
to  l>e  from  Him. 

Th '  takin<jj  of  the  City  of  Kilkenny  hath  been  one  of  our  last 
works  ;  which  indeeti  I  believe  hath  been  a  great  discomposing  the 
Enciny,— it's  so  much  in  their  bowels.  We  have  taken  many  con- 
siderable places  lately,  without  much  loss.  What  can  we  say  to  these 
things  !  if  Ciod  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us?  Who  can  fight 
against  the  Lord  and  prosper  ?  Who  can  resist  His  will  ?  The  Lord 
keep  us  in  his  love. 

I  desire  your  prayers  ;  your  Family  is  often  in  mine.  I  rejoice  to 
hear  how  it  hath  pleased  the  Lord  to  deal  with  my  Daughter.  -  The 
Lord  bless  her,  and  sanctify  all  His  dispensations  to  them  and  us.  I 
have  committed  my  Son  to  you  ;  I  pray  counsel  him.  Some  Letters  I 
have  lately  had  from  him  have  a  good  savour  :  The  Lord  treasure 
up  grace  there,  that  out  of  that  treasury  he  may  bring  forth  good 
things. 

Sir,  I  desire  my  very  entire  affection  may  be  presented  to  my  dear 
Sister,  my  Cousm  Ann  and  the  rest  of  my  Cousins, — and  to  idle 
Dirk  \  ^"  ^'^  "  '>.>M  » -M.  <;ce  him.     Sir,  I  rest. 

Your  most  loving  Brother, 

Oliver  CROMWELut 

In  the  end  of  this  month,  *  >  '-^  '"  csident  Frigate,'  President  Brad- 
shaw  Frigate,  sails  from  MiK^J^      laven  *  to  attend  his  Excellency's 

tVi     ! 

*  In  i\  hopeful  wny,  I  conclude  !  v  rTJiard's  first  child,  according  to  NoWc'a 
w^gisiers,  Wixs  npi  bom  till  3rd  Noveinb«r,  1652  (Noble  i.  189)  ;  a  boy,  who  ii«l 
wiihin  three  weeks.    Noble's  registers,  as  we  sluUl  soon  see,  are  veiy  ddfeciive. 

t  Harris,  p.  5xa, 


RETURN  TO  ENGLAND,  8t 


•pleasure/  and  bring  him  home  if  he  see  good  to  come.  lie  has  still 
one  storm  to  do  there  first ;  that  of  Clonmel,  where 'Two-thousand 

*  loot,  all  Ulster  men,'  are  gathered  for  a  last  strug^;le  ;- the  death- 
agony  of  this  War,  after  which  it  will  fairly  die,  and  be  buried.  A 
very  fierce  storm,  and  fire-whirlwind  of  last  agony  ;  v  hereof  take  \hH 
solid  account  by  an  eye-witness  and  hand-actor  ;  and  so  leave  tl»is 
part  of  our  subject.  The  date  is  loth  May,  1650;  *a  Letter  (rem 
Clonmel  in  Ireland  : ' 

"Worthy  Sir,— Yesterday,"  Thursday,  9th  May/*wc  stormed  Clon- 
'•mel  :  in  which  work  both  cfiictrs  and  soldi«  rs  did  as  much  aid 
"  nu)re  than  could  be  expected.  We  had,  with  our  guns,  made  a 
*' breach  in  their  works  ;— where,  alter  an  hot  fight,  we  gave  back  a 
**  while  ;  but  presently  charged  up  to  the  same  ground  again.  Bit 
"the  Enemy  had  made  themselves  exceeding  strong,  by  double- woik^ 
**  and  traverse,  which  were  worse  to  enter  than  the  breach  ;  when  wc 
"  came  up  to  it,  they  had  cross-works,  and  w  ere  strongly  flanked  from 
*•  the  houses  within  their  works.  The  Enemy  defentled  thtmsehes 
** against  U6  that  dav,  until  towards  the  evening,  our  men  all  the 
*•  while  keeping  up  close  to  their  breach  ;  and  many  on  both  side  s 
'  were  slain."  The  fierce  death-wrestle,  in  the  breaches  here,  lasted 
four  hours  :  so  many  hours  of  hot  storm  and  continuous  tug  of  war, 
*■  and  many  men  were  slain."  "  At  night,  the  Enemy  drew  out,  on 
'•  the  other  sUle,  and  marched  away  undiscovered  to  us  ;  and  the 
'•  Inhabitants  of  Clonmel  sent  out  for  a  parley.  Upon  whith, 
'Articles  were  agreed  on,  before  we  knew  the  Enen.y  was  gone. 
*•  After  signing  of  the  Conditions,  we  discovered  the  Enemy  to  be 
"  gone ;  and,  very  earh  this  morning,  pursued  them  ;  and  fell  upon 
*' their  rear  of  stragglers,  and  killed  above  200,— besides  those  we 
"  slew  in  the  storm.  We  entered  Clonmel  this  morning,  and  have 
*•  kept  our  Conditions  with  them  The  place  is  eonsiderable  ;  and 
*'  very  advantageous  to  the  reducing  of  these  parts  wholly  to  the 
*'  Parliament  of  England."*     Whitlocke  has  heard  by  ether  Letters, 

*  That  they  found  in  Clonmel  the  stoutest  Enemy  this  Army  had  ever 
'met  in  Ireland  ;  and  that  there  was  ne\er  seen  so  hot  a  storm  of  so 
'  long  continuance,  and  so  gallantly  defended,  either  in  England  or 
Mreland.'f 

The  Irish  Commander  here  was  Hugh  O'Neil,  a  kinsman  of  Owen 
Roe's  : — vain  he  too,  this  new  brave  O'Neil  !  It  is  a  lost  Cause.  It 
is  a  Cause  he  has  not  yet  seen  into  the  secret  of,  and  cannot  prosper 
in.  Fiery  fighting  cannot  prosper  in  it  ;  no,  there  needs  something 
other  first,  which  has  never  yet  been  done  !  Let  the  O'Neil  go  else- 
whither, with  his  fighting  talent  ;  here  it  avails  nothing,  and  less.  To 
the  surrendered  Irish  Officers  the  Lord  Lieutenant  granted  numerous 
permissions  to  embody  regiments,  and  go  abroad  w  ith  them  mto  any 
Country  not  at  war  with  England.  Some  '  Five-and  forty  thousand* 
Kurisees,  or  whatever  name  they  had,  went  in  this  way  to  France,  to 
Spain,  and  fought  there  far  off ;  and  their  own  land  had  peace. 

The  Lord  Lieutenant  would  fain  have  seen  Waterford  surrender 
•  N{vsp,  {M-    (r,  •  fcmwelliana.  p-  30'  t  Whitlocke,  p.  ^\^ 


82  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 


before  he  went  •  but  new  Letters  arrive  from  the  Parliament  :  affairs 
in  Scotland  threaten  to  become  pressing.  He  appoints  Ireton  his 
Deputy,  to  finish  the  business  here  ;  rapidly  makes  what  survey  of 
Munster,  what  adjustnient  of  Ireland,  mihtary  and  civil,  is  possible  ; — 
steps  on  board  the  President  Frigate,  in  the  last  days  oi  May,  and 
spreads  sail  for  England.  He  has  been  some  nine  months  in  Ireland; 
leav^es  a  very  handsome  spell  of  work  done  there. 

At  Bristol,  after  a  rough  passage,  the  Lord  Lieutenant  is  received 
with  all  the  honours  and  acclamations,  '  the  great  guns  firing  thrice  ; ' 
hastens  up  to  London,  where,  on  Friday  31st  May,  all  the  world  is  out 
to  welcome  him.  Fairfax,  and  chief  Officers,  and  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment, with  solemn  salutation,  on  Hounslow  Heath  :  from  Hounslow 
Heath  to  Hyde  Park,  where  are  Trainbands  and  Lord  Mayors  ;  to 
Whitehall  and  the  Cockpit,  where  are  better  than  these,— it  is  one 
wide  tumult  of  salutation,  congratulation,  artillery-volleying,  human 
shouting  ;  — Hero-worship  after  a  sort,  not  the  best  sort.  It  was  on 
this  occasion  that  Oliver  said,  or  is  reported  to  nave  said,  when  some 
sycophantic  person  observed,  "  What  a  crowd  come  out  to  see  your 
Lcrtdship's  triumph  I  "— "  Yes,  but  if  it  were  to  see  me  hanged,  how 
many  would  there  te  !  ''* 

Such  is  what  the  Irish  common  people  still  call  the  "  Curse  of  Crom- 
well ; "  this  is  the  summary  of  his  work  in  that  country.  The  remains 
of  the  War  were  finished  out  by  Ireton,  by  Ludlow  :  Ireton  died  of 
fever,  at  Limerick,  in  the  end  of  the  second  year  ;t  and  solid  Ludlow, 
who  had  been  with  him  for  some  ten  months,  succeeded.  The  ulterior 
arrangements  for  Ireland  were  those  of  the  Commonwealth  Parlia- 
ment and  the  proper  Official  Persons  ;  not  specially  Oliver's  arrange- 
ments, though  of  course  he  remained  a  chief  authority  in  that  matter, 
and  nothing  could  well  be  done  that  he  with  any  emphasis  deliberately 
condemned. 

There  goes  a  wild  story,  due  first  of  all  to  Clarendon,  I  think,  who 
is  the  author  of  many  such,  How  the  Parliament  at  one  time  had 
decided  to  '  exterminate  '  all  the  Irish  population  ;  and  then,  finding 
this  would  not  quite  answer,  had  contented  itself  with  packing  them 
all  off"  into  the  Province  of  Connaught,  there  to  live  upon  the  moor- 
lands ;  and  so  had  pacified  the  Sister  Island. J  Strange  rumours  no 
doubt  were  afloat  in  the  Council  of  Kilkenny  and  other  such  quarters, 
and  were  kept  up  for  very  obvious  purposes  in  those  days  ;  and  my 
Lord  of  Clarendon  at  an  after  date,  seeing  Puritanism  hung  on  the 
gallows  and  tumbled  in  heaps  in  St.  Margaret's,  thought  it  safe  to 
write  with  considerable  latitude  respecting  its  procedure.  My  Lord 
had,  in  tact,  the  story  all  his  own  way  for  about  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ;  and,  during  that  time,  has  set  afloat  through  vague  heads  a 
great  many  things.  His  authority  is  rapidly  sinking  :  and  will  now 
probably  sink  deeper  than  even  it  deserves. 

The  real  procedure  of  the  Puiitan  Commonwealth  towards  Ireland 

*  Newspapers  (in  Kimber,  p.  148  ;  Whitelocke,  p.  441). 

f  26  November,  1651  (Wood  in  voce) ;    Ludlow  had  arrived  in  January  of  the 
same  year  (Memoirs,  i.  322,  332,  &'c.). 
X  Continuation  of  Clarendon's  Life  (Oxford,  176),  pp.  116,  &c.  &g. 


RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  %\ 


is  not  a  matter  of  conjecture,  or  of  report  by  Lord  Clarendon  ;  the 
documentary  basis  and  scheme  of  it  still  stands  in  black-on-white, 
and  can  be  read  by  all  persons.*  In  this  document  the  reader  w  ill 
find,  set  forth  in  authentic  business-form,  a  Scheme  of  Settlement 
somewhat  dilTerent  from  that  of  '  extermination  ; '  which,  if  be 
curiaas  in  that  matter,  he  ought  to  consult.  First,  it  appears  by  this 
Document,  'all  husbandmen,  ploughmen,  labourers,  artificers  and 
'others  of  the  meaner  sort'  of  the  Irish  Nation  are  to  be,— not  exter- 
minated ;  no,  but  rendered  exempt  from  punishment  and  question, 
as  to  these  Eight  Years  of  blood  and  misery  now  ended  :  which  is  a 
very  considerable  exception  from  the  Clarendon  Scheme  !  Next,  as 
to  the  Ringleaders,  the  rebellious  Landlords,  and  Papist  Aristocracy  ; 
as  to  these  also,  there  is  a  carefully  graduated  scale  of  punishments 
established,  that  punishment  and  guilt  may  in  some  measure  corres- 
pond. Ail  that  can  be  proved  to  have  been  concerned  in  the  Massacre 
of  Forty-one  ;  for  these,  and  for  certain  other  persons  of  the  turncoat 
species,  whose  names  are  given,  there  shall  be  no  pardon  : — '  exter- 
mination,' actual  death  on  the  gallows,  or  perpetual  banishment  and 
confiscation  for  these  ;  but  not  without  legal  inquiry  and  due  trial  first 
had,  for  these,  or  for  any  one.  Then  certain  others,  who  have  been  in 
arms  at  certain  dates  against  the  Parliament,  but  not  concerned  in 
the  Massacre  :  these  are  declared  to  have  forfeited  their  estates  ;  but 
lands  to  the  value  of  one-third  of  the  same,  as  a  modicum  to  live  upon, 
shall  be  assigned  them,  where  the  Parliament  think  safest,— in  the 
moorlands  of  Connaught,  as  it  turned  out.  Then  another  class,  who 
are  open  Popists  and  have  not  manifested  their  good  affection  "to  the 
Parliament  :  these  are  to  forfeit  one-third  of  their  estates  ;  and  con- 
tinue quiet  at  their  peril.  Such  is  the  Document  ;  which  was  regularly 
acted  on  ;  fulfilled  with  as  much  exactness  as  the  case,  now  in  the 
hands  of  very  exact  men,  admitted  of.  The  Catholic  Aristocracy  of 
Ireland  have  to  undergo  this  fate,  for  their  share  in  the  late  miseries  ; 
this  and  no  other  :  and  as  for  all  'ploughmen,  husbandmen,  artificers 
'  and  people  of  the  meaner  sort,'  they  are  to  live  quiet  where  they  are, 
and  have  no  questions  asked. 

In  this  way,  not  in  the  way  of  '  extermination,'  was  Ireland  settled 
by  the  Puritans.  Five-and-forty  thousand  armed  '  kurisees '  are 
fighting,  not  without  utility  we  hope,  far  off  in  foreign  parts.  Incurably 
turbulent  ringleaders  of  revolt  are  sent  to  the  moorlands  of  Connaughi. 
Men  of  the  Massacre,  where  they  can  be  convicted,  of  which  some 
instances  occur,  are  hanged.  The  mass  of  the  Irish  Nation  lives 
quiet  under  a  neiv  Land  Aristocracy  ;  new,  and  in  several  particulars 
very  much  improved  indeed  :  under  these  lives  now  the  mass  of  the 
Irish  Nation  ;  ploughing,  delving,  hammering ;  with  their  wages 
punctually  paid  them  ;  with  the  truth  spoken  to  them,  and  the  truth 
done  to  them,  so  as  they  had  never  before  seen  it  since  they  were  a 
Nation  !  Clarendon  himself  admits  that  Ireland  flourished,  to  an  un- 
exampled extent,  under  this  arrangement.  One  can  very  well  believe 
it.  What  is  to  hinder  poor  Ireland  from  flourishing,  if  you  will  do  the 
truth  to  it  and  speak  the  truth,  instead  of  doing  the  falsity  and  speaking 
the  f.ihity  ? 

*  t^QQbell,  Part  ii.  p.  197  {12  A  gust,  1652);   see  also  p.  317  (27june,  1656), 


S4  CAMPAIGN  IN  IRELAND. 

Ireland,  under  this  arrangement,  would  have  grown  up  gradually 
into  a  sober  diligent  drabcoloured  population  ;  devoloping  itself, 
most  probably,  in  some  form  of  Calvinistic  Protestantism.  For  there 
was  hereby  a  Protestant  Church  of  Ireland,  of  the  most  irrefragable 
nature,  preaching  daily  in  all  its  actions  and  procedure  a  real  Gospel 
of  Veracity,  of  piety,  of  fair  dealing  and  good  order  to  all  men  ; 
and  certain  other  '  Protestant  Churches  of  Ireland,'  and  unblessed 
real-imaginary  Entities,  of  which  the  human  soul  is  getting  weary, 
had  of  a  surety  never  found  footing  there  !  But  the  Ever-blessed 
Restoration  came  upon  us.  All  that  arrangement  was  torn  up  by  the 
roots  ;  and  Ireland  was  appointed  to  develop  itself  as  we  have  seen. 
Not  in  the  drabcoloured  Puritan  way  ;— in  what  other  way  is  still  a 
terrible  dubiety,  to  itself  and  to  us  !  It  will  be  by  some  Gospel  of 
Veracity,  I  think,  when  the  Heavens  are  pleased  to  send  such.  This 
'  Curse  of  Cromwell,'  so-called,  is  the  only  Gospel  of  that  kind  I  can 
yet  discover  to  have  ever  been  fairly  afoot  there. 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART  VI. 

WAR    WITH    SCOTLAND. 

1650-1651. 


87 


WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

The  Scotch  People,  the  first  beginners  of  this  grand  Puritan  Re- 
volt, which  we  may  define  as  an  attempt  to  bring  the  Divine  Law  of 
the  Bible  into  actual  practice  in  men's  affairs  on  the  Earth,  are  still 
one  and  all  resolute  for  that  object  ;  but  they  are  getting  into  sad 
difficulties  as  to  reaHsing  it.  Not  easy  to  realise  such  a  thing  :  besides 
true  will,  there  need  heroic  gifts,  the  highest  that  Heaven  gives,  for 
realising  it !  Gifts  which  have  not  been  vouchsafed  the  Scotch 
People  at  present.  The  letter  of  their  Covenant  presses  heavy  on 
these  men  ;  traditions,  formulas,  dead  letters  of  many  things  press 
heavy  on  them.  On  the  whole,  they  too  are  out  what  we  call  Pedants 
in  conduct,  not  Poets  :  the  siieepskin  record  failing  them,  and  old 
use-and-wont  ending,  they  cannot  farther  ;  they  look  into  a  sea  of 
troubles,  shoreless,  starless,  on  which  there  seems  no  navigation 
possible. 

The  faults  or  misfortunes  of  thfe  Scotch  People,  in  their  Puritan 
business,  are  many  :  but  properly  there  grand  fault  is  this,  That  they 
have  produced  for  it  no  sufficiently  heroic  man  among  them.  No 
man  that  hag  an  eye  to  see  beyond  the  letter  and  the  rubric ;  to  discern, 
across  many  consecrated  rubrics  of  the  Pr  \  the  inarticulate  divine- 
ness  of  the  Present  and  the  Future,  and  dare  all  perils  in  the  faith  of 
that  !  With  Oliver  Cromwell  born  a  Scotchman  ;  with  a  Hero  King 
and  a  unanimous  Hero  Nation  at  his  back,  it  might  have  been  far 
otherwise.  With  Oliver  born  Scotch,  one  sees  not  but  the  whole 
world  might  have  become  Puritan  ;  might  have  struggled,  yet  a  long 
while,  to  fashion  itself  according  to  that  divine  Hebrew  Gospel, — to 
the  exclusion  of  other  Gospels  not  Hebrew,  which  also  are  divine, 
and  will  have  their  share  of  fulfilment  here  ! — But  of  such  issue  there 
is  no  danger.  Instead  of  inspired  Olivers,  glowing  with  direct  insight 
and  noble  daring,  we  have  Argyles,  Loudons,  and  narrow,  more  or 
less  opaque  persons  of  the  Pedant  species.  Committees  of  Estates, 
Committees  of  Kirks,  much  tied  up  in  formulas,  both  of  them  :  a 
bigoted  Theocracy  without  the  Inspiration  ;  which  is  a  very  hopeless 
phenomenon  indeed  !  The  Scotch  people  are  all  willing,  eager  of 
heart  ;  asking,  Witherward  ?  But  the  Leaders  stand  aghast  at  the 
new  forms  of  danger  ;  and  in  a  vehement  discrepant  manner  some 
calling.  Halt  !  others  calling.  Backward  !  others.  Forward  ! — huge 
confusion  ensues.  Confusion  which  will  need  an  Oliver  to  repress  it ; 
to  bind  ii  up  in  tight  manacles,  if  not  otherwise  ;  and  say,  "  There, 
sit  there  and  consider  thyself  a  little  !" — 

The  meaning  of  the  Scotch  Covenant  was.  That  God's  divine  Law 
of  the  Bible  should  be  put  in  practice  in  these  Nations  ;  verily  it^  and 


tVAR  IVITH  SCOTLAND, 


not  the  Four  Surplices  at  Allhallowtide,  or  any  Formula  of  cloth  or 
sheepskin  here  or  elsewhere  which  merely  pretended  to  be  it :  but 
then  the  Covenant  says  expressly,  there  is  to  be  a  Stuart  King  in  the 
business  :  we  cannot  do  without  our  Stuart  King  !  Given  a  divine 
Law  of  the  Bible  on  one  hand,  and  a  Stuart  King,  Charles  First  or 
Charles  Second,  on  the  other  :  alas,  did  History  ever  present  a  more 
irreducible  case  of  equations  in  this  world  !  I  pity  the  poor  Scotch 
Pedant  Governors  ;  still  more  the  poor  Scotch  people  who  had 
no  other  to  follow  !  Nay,  as  for  that,  the  People  did  get  through,  in 
the  end  ;  such  was  their  indomitable  pious  constancy,  and  other  worth 
and  fortune  :  and  Presbytery  became  a  Fact  among  them,  to  the 
whole  length  possible  for  it  ;  not  without  endless  results.  But  for  the 
poor  Governors  this  irreducible  case  proved,  as  it  were,  fatal  !  They 
have  never  since,  if  we  will  look  narrowly  at  it,  govt  rned  Scotland, 
or  even  well  known  that  they  were  there  to  attempt  governing  it. 
Once  they  lay  on  Dunse  Hill,  'each  Earl  with  his  Regiment  of 
Tenants  round  h'wa,'  For  Chrisfs  Croiuii  and  Covenant ;  and  never 
since  had  they  any  noble  National  act  which  it  was  given  them  to  do. 
Growing  desperate  of  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant,  they,  in  the 
next  generation  when  our  Annus  J\lirabilis  arrived,  hurried  up  to 
Court,  looking  out  from  other  Crowns  and  Covenants  ;  deserted 
Scotland  and  her  Cause,  somewhat  basely  ;  took  to  booi7ig  and  booing 
for  Causes  of  their  own,  unhappy  mortals  ; — and  Scotland  and  all 
Causes  that  were  Scotland's  have  had  to  go  on  very  much  without 
iheni  ever  since  !  Which  is  a  very  fatal  issue  indeed,  as  I  reckon  ; — 
and  the  time  for  settlement  of  accounts  about  it,  which  could  not  fail 
always,  and  seems  now  fast  drawing  nigh,  looks  very  ominous  to  me. 
For  in  fact  there  is  no  creature  more  fatal  than  your  Pedant  ;  safe 
as  he  esteems  himself,  the  terriblest  issues  spring  from  him.  Human 
crimes  are  many :  but  the  crime  of  being  deaf  to  the  God's  Voice,  of 
being  blind  to  all  but  parchments  and  antiquarian  rubrics  when  the 
Divine  Handwriting  is  abroad  on  the  sky, — certainly  there  is  no 
crime  which  the  Supreme  Powers  do  more  terribly  avenge  ! 

But  leaving  all  that, — the  poor  Scotch  Governors,  we  remark,  in 
that  old  crisis  of  theirs,  have  come  upon  the  desperate  expedient  of 
getting  Charles  Second  to  adopt  the  Covenant  the  best  he  can. 
Whereby  our  parchment  formula  is  indeed  saved  ;  but  the  divine  fact 
has  gone  terribly  to  the  wall !  The  Scotch  Governors  hope  otherwise. 
By  treaties  at  Jersey,  treaties  at  Breda,  they  and  the  hard  Law  of 
Want  together  have  constrained  this  poor  young  Stuart  to  their 
detested  Covenant  ;  as  the  Frenchman  said,  they  have  '  compelled 
him  to  adopt  it  voluntarily.'  A  fearful  crime,  thinks  Oliver,  and  think 
we.  How  dare  you  enact  such  mummery  under  High  Heaven  !  ex- 
claims he.  You  will  prosecute  Malignants  ;  and,  with  the  aid  of  some 
poor  varnish,  transparent  even  to  yourselves,  you  adopt  into  your  bosom 
the  Chief  Malignant .?  My  soul  come  not  into  your  secret  ;  mine 
honour  be  not  united  unto  you  ! — 

In  fact,  his  new  Sacred  Majesty  is  actually  under  way  for  the 
Scotch  Court  ;  will  become  a  Covenanted  King  there.  Of  himself  a 
likely  enough  young  man  ; — very  unfortunate  he  too.  Satisfactorily 
descended  from  the   Steward  of    Scotland  and  Catherine  Muir  of 


IVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


Caldwell  (whom  some  have  called  an  improper  female)  ;'^  satisfactory 
in  this  respect,  but  in  others  most  unsatisfactory.  A  somewhat  loose 
young  man  ;  has  Buckingham,  Wilmot  and  Company,  at  one  hand  of 
him,  and  painful  Mr.  Livingston  and  Presbyterian  ruling-elders  at  the 
other  ;  is  hastening  now,  as  a  Covenanted  King,  towards  such  a 
Theocracy  as  we  described.  Perhaps  the  most  anomalous  piieno- 
menon  ever  produced  by  Nature  and  Art  working  together  in  this 
World  ! — He  had  sent  Montrose  before  him,  poor  young  man,  to  try 
if  war  and  force  could  effect  nothing  ;  whom  instantly  the  Scotch 
Nation  took,  and  tragically  hanged.f  They  now,  winking  hard  at  that 
transaction,  proffer  the  poor  young  man  their  Covenant  ;  compel  him 
to  siern  it  voluntarily,  and  be  Covenanted  King  over  them. 

The  result  of  all  which  for  the  English  Commonwealth  cannot  be 
doubtful.  What  Declarations,  Papers,  Protocols,  passed  on  the 
occasion, — numerous,  flying  thick  between  Edinburgh  and  London  in 
late  months,— shall  remain  unknown  to  us.  The  Commonwealth  has 
brought  Cromwell  home  from  Ireland  ;  and  got  forces  ready  for  him  : 
that  IS  the  practical  outcome  of  it.  The  Scotch  also  have  got  forces 
ready  ;  will  either  invade  us,  or  (which  we  decide  to  be  preferable)  be 
invaded  by  us.;};  Cromwell  must  now  take  up  the  Scotch  coil  of 
troubles,  as  he  did  the  Irish,  and  deal  with  that  too.  Fairfax,  as  we 
heard,  was  unwilling  to  go  ;  Cromwell,  urging  the  Council  of  State  to 
second  him,  would  fain  persuade  Fairfax  ;  gets  him  still  nominated 
Commander-in-chief ;  but  cannot  persuade  him  ;— will  himself  have  to 
be  Commander-in-chief,  and  go. 

In  Whitlocke  and  Ludlow§  there  is  record  of  earnest  intercessions, 
solemn  conference  held  with  Fairfax  in  Whitehall,  duly  prefaced  by 
prayer  to  Heaven  ;  intended  on  Cromwell's  part  to  persuade  Fairfax 
that  it  is  his  duty  again  to  accept  the  chief  command,  and  lead  us 
into  Scotland  Fairfax,  urged  by  his  Wife,  a  Vere  of  the  fighting 
Veres,  and  given  to  Presbyterianism,  dare  not  and  will  not  go  ; — sends 
*Mr.  Rushworth,  his  Secretary,'  on  the  morrow,  to  give  up  his  Com- 
mission,||  that  Cromwell  himself  may  be  named  General-in-chief  In 
this  preliminary  business,  says  Ludlow,  '  Cromwell  acted  his  part  so 
to  the  life  that  I  really  thought  he  wished  Fairfax  to  go.'  Wooden- 
headed  that  I  was,  I  had  reason  to  alter  that  notion  by  and  by  ! 

Wooden  Ludlow  gives  note  of  another  very  singular  interview  he 
himself  had  with  Cromwell,  '  a  little  after,'  in  those  same  days  or 
hours.  Cromwell  whispered  him  in  the  House;  they  agreed  'to 
meet  that  afternoon  in  the  Council  of  State'  in  Whitehall,  and  there 
withdraw  into  a  private  room  to  have  a  little  talk  together.  Oliver 
had  cast  his  eye  on  Ludlow  as  a  fit  man  for  Ireland,  to  go  and  second 
Ireton  there  ;  he  took  him,  as  by  appointment,  into  a  private  room, 
*  the  Queen's  Guard-chamber'  to  wit;  and   there  very  largely  ex- 

*  Horseloads  of  Jacobite,  Anti-Jacobite,   Pamphlets;   Goodall,  Father  Innes, 
&c.  &c.     How  it  was  settled,  I  do  not  recollect, 
f  Details  of  the  business,  in  Balfour,  iv.  9-22. 
X  Commons  Journals,  26th  June,  1650. 
§  Whitlocke,  pp.  444-6  (25th  June,  1650);  Ludlow,  i.  317. 
II  Commons  Journals,  ubi  supra. 


9d  tVAJ^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

pressed  himself.  He  testified  the  great  value  he  had  for  me,  Ludlow  ; 
combatted  my  objections  to  Ireland  ;  spake  somewhat  against  Lawyers, 
what  a  tortuous  ungodly  jungle  English  Law  was  ;  spake  of  the 
good  that  might  be  done  by  a  good  and  brave  man  ; — spake  of  the 
great  Providences  of  God  now  abroad  on  the  Earth  ;  in  particular 

*  talked  for  almost  an  hour  upon  the  Hundred-and-tenth  Psalm;' 
which  to  me,  in  my  solid  wooden  head,  seemed  extremely  singular  !* 

Modern  readers,  not  in  the  case  of  Ludlow,  will  find  this  fact  illus- 
trative of  Oliver.  Before  setting  out  on  the  Scotch  Expedition,  and 
just  on  the  eve  of  doing  it,  we  too  will  read  that  Psalm  of  Hebrew 
David's,  which  had  become  English  Oliver's  :  we  will  fancy  in  our 
minds,  not  without  reflections  and  emotions,  the  largest  soul  in 
England  looking  at  this  God's  World  with  prophet's  earnestness 
through  that  Hebrew  Word, — two  Divine  Phenomena  accurately 
coi respondent  for  Oliver  ;  the  one  accurately  the  prophetic  symbol,  and 
articulate  interpretation  of  the  other.  As  if  the  Silences  had  at 
length  found  utterance,  and  this  was  their  Voice  from  out  of  old 
Eternity  : 

*  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord  :  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand  until  I 
'  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool.     The  Lord  shall  send  the  rod  of 

*  thy  strength  out  of  Zion  :  rule  thou  in  the  midst  of  thine  enemies. 

*  Thy  people  shall  be  willing  in  the  day  of  thy  power ;  in  the  beauties 

*  of  hoHness,  from  the  womb  of  the  morning  :  thou  hast  the  dew  of 

*  thy  youth.     The  Lord  hath  sworn,  and  will  not  repent,  Thou  art  a 

*  priest  forever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.     The  Lord,  at  thy 

*  right  hand,  shall  strike  through  King's  in  the  day  of  his  Wrath. 

*  He  shall  judge  among  the  Heathen  ;  he  shall  fill  the  places  with 

*  the  dead  bodies  ;  he  shall  wound  the  heads  over  many  countries. 

*  He  shall  drink -of  the  brook  in  the  way  :  therefore  shall  he  lift  up 
'  the  head.' 

In  such  spirit  goes  Oliver  Cromwell  to  the  Wars.  *  A  god-intoxi- 
cated man,'  as  Novalis  elsewhere  phrases  it.  I  have  asked  myself.  If 
anywhere  in  Modern  European  History,  or  even  in  Ancient  Asiatic, 
there  was  found  a  man  practising  this  mean  World's  affairs  with  a 
heart  more  filled  by  the  Idea  of  the  Highest  ?  Bathed  in  the  Eternal 
Splendours, — it  is  so  he  walks  our  dim  Earth  :  this  man  is  one  of 
few.  He  is  projected  with  a  terrible  force  out  of  the  Eternities,  and 
in  the  Times  and  their  arenas  there  is  nothing  that  can  withstand 
him.  It  is  great ; — to  use  it  is  tragic  ;  a  thing  that  should  strike  us 
dumb  }  My  brave  one,  thy  old  noble  Prophecy  is  divine  ;  older  than 
Hebrew  David ;  old  as  the  Origin  of  Man ;— and  shall,  though  in 
wider  ways  than  thou  supposest,  be  fulfilled  ! — 

*  Ludlow,  i.  319. 


ALNWICK.  (^i 


LETTERS   LXXXVI.— XC. 

On  Wednesday,  2(ith  June,  1650,  the  Act  appointing  *That  Oliver 
'  Cromwell,  Esquire,  be  constituted  Captain-General  and  Commander- 

*  in-chief   of  all  the  Forces  raised  or  to  be  raised   by  authority  of 

*  Parliament  within  the  Commonwealth  of  England  '*  was  passed. 

*  Whereupon,'  says  Whitlocke,  '  great  ceremonies  and  congratulations 

*  of  the  new  General  were  made  to  him  from  all  sorts  of  people  ;  and 
'  he  went  on  roundly  with  his  business.'  Roundly,  rapidly  ;  for  in 
three  days  more,  on  Saturday  the  29th, '  the  Lord  General  Cromwell 

*  went  out  of  London  towards  the  North  :  and  the  news  of  him  march- 

*  ing  northward  much  startled  the  bcots.'f 

He  has  Lambert  for  Major-General,  Cousin  Whalley  for  Commis- 
sary-General ;  and  among  his  Colonels  are  Overton  whom  we  knew 
at  Hull,  Pride  whom  we  have  seen  in  Westminster  Hall ;  and  a  taci- 
turn man,  much  given  to  chewing  tobacco,  whom  we  have  transiently 
seen  in  various  places,  Colonel  George  Monk  by  name.;]:  An  ex- 
cellent officer  ;  listens  to  what  you  say,  answers  often  by  a  splash  of 
brown  juice  merely,  but  punctually  does  what  is  doable  of  it.  Pudding- 
headed  Hodgson  the  Yorkshire  Captain  is  also  there  ;  from  whom 
perhaps  we  may  glean  a  rough  lucent-point  or  two.  The  Army,  as 
my  Lord  General  attracts  it  gradually  from  the  right  and  left  on  his 
march  northward,  amounts  at  Tweedside  to  some  Sixteen-thousand 
horse  and  foot.§  Rushworth  goes  with  him  as  Secretary  ;  historical 
John  ;  having  now  done  with  Fairfax  :— but,  alas,  his  Papers  for  this 
Period  are  all  lost  to  us  :  it  was  not  safe  to  print  them  with  the 
others  ;  and  they  are  lost !  The  Historical  ColLctiofis,  with  their 
infinite  rubbish  and  their  modicum  of  jewels,  cease  at  the  Trial  of  the 
King  ;  leaving  us,  fallen  into  far  worse  hands,  to  repent  of  our  im- 
patience, and  regret  the  useful  John  ! 

The  following  Letters,  without  commentary,  which  stingy  space 
will  not  permit,  must  note  the  Lord  General's  progress  for  us  as 
they  can  ;  and  illuminate  with  here  and  there  a  rude  gleam  (tf  direct 
light  at  first-hand,  an  old  scene  very  obsolete,  confused,  unexplored 
and  dim  for  us. 

*  Commons  Journals,  in  die.  f  Whitelocke,  pp.  446,  7. 

X  Life  of  Monk,  by  Gamble,  his  Chaplain. 

§  Train,  690;  horse,  5,415;  foot,  10,249;  in  toto,  16,354  (Cromwelliana, 
p.  85). 


\^' 


92 


Pl^'A/^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


LETTER   LXXXVI. 

Dorothy  Cromwell,  we  are  happy  to  find,  has  a  *  little  brat ; ' — > 
iDiit  the  poor  little  thing  must  have  died  soon  :  in  Noble's  inexact 
lists  there  is  no  trace  of  its  ever  having  lived.  The  Lord  General  has 
got  into  Northumberland.  He  has  a  good  excuse  for  being  '  silent 
this  way,' — the  way  of  Letters. 

For  my  very  loving  Brother^  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire,  at  his 
House  at  Hursley  :  These. 

Alnwick,  17th  July,  1650. 

Dear  Brother, 

The  exceeding  crowd  of  business  I  had  at  London  is  the  best 
excuse  I  can  make  for  my  silence  this  way.  Indeed,  Sir,  my  heart 
beareth  me  witness  I  want  no  affection  to  you  or  yours  ;  you  are  all 
often  in  my  poor  prayers. 

I  should  be  glad  to  hear  how  the  little  Brat  doth.  I  could  chide 
both  Father  and  Mother  for  their  neglects  of  me  :  I  know  my  Son  is 
idle,  but  I  had  better  thoughts  of  Doll.  I  doubt  now  her  Husband 
hath  spoiled  her  ;  pray  tell  her  so  from  me.  If  I  had  as  good  leisure 
as  they,  I  should  write  sometimes.  If  my  Daughter  be  breeding,  I 
will  excuse  her  ;  but  not  for  her  nursery  !  The  Lord  bless  them. 
I  hope  you  give  my  Son  good  counsel ;  I  believe  he  needs  it.  He  is 
in  the  dangerous  time  of  his  age,  and  it's  a  very  vain  world.  O  how 
good  it  is  to  close  with  Christ  betimes  ;  there  is  nothing  else  worth  the 
looking  after.  I  beseech  you  call  upon  him, — I  hope  you  will  discharge 
my  duty  and  your  own  love  :  you  see  how  I  am  employed.  I  need  pity. 
I  know  what  I  feel.  Great  place  and  business  in  the  world  is  not  worth 
the  looking  after  ;  I  should  have  no  comfort  in  mine  but  that  my  hope 
is  in  the  Lord's  presence.  I  have  not  sought  these  things  ;  truly  I  have 
been  called  unto  them  by  the  Lord  ;  and  therefore  am  not  without 
some  assurance  that  He  will  enable  His  poor  worm  and  weak  servant 
to  do  His  will,  and  to  fulfil  my  generation.  In  this  I  desire  your 
prayers.  Desiring  to  be  lovingly  remembered  to  my  dear  Sister,  to 
our  Son  and  Daughter,  to  my  Cousin  Ann  and  the  good  Family,  I 
rest,       • 

Your  very  affectionate  Brother, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

On  Monday,  22d  July,  the  Army,  after  due  rendezvousing  and 
reviewing,  passed  through  Berwick  ;  and  encamped  at  Mordington 
across  the  Border,  where  a  fresh  stay  of  two  days  is  still  necessary. 
Scotland  is  bare  of  resources  for  us.  That  night,  '  the  Scotch  beacons, 
*  were  all  set  on  fire  ;  the  men  fled,  and  drove  away  their  cattle.'  Mr. 
Bret  his  Excellency's  Trumpeter  returns  from  Edinburgh  without 
symptom  of  pacification.     '  The  Clergy  represent  us  to  the  people  as 

♦  Harris,  p.  513 :  one  of.  the  Pusey  stock. 


ALNWICK.  93 


if  we  were  monsters  of  the  world.'     "  Army  of  Sectaries  and  Blasphe- 
mers," is  the  received  term  for  us  among  the  Scots.* 

Already  on  the  march  hitherward,  and  now  by  Mr.  Bret  in  an 
official  way,  have  due  manifestos  been  promulgated  :  Declaration  To 
all  that  are  Sahtfs  and  Partakers  of  the  Faith  of  God\'i  Elect  in  Scot- 
land^ and  Proclamation  To  the  People  of  Scotland  in  general.  Asking 
of  the  mistaken  People,  in  mild  terms.  Did  you  not  see  us,  and  try  us, 
what  kind  of  men  we  were,  when  we  came  among  you  two  years  ago  ? 
Did  you  find  us  plunderers,  murderers,  monsters  of  the  world  ?  'Whose 
ox  have  we  stolen  ?'  To  the  mistaken  Saints  of  God  in  Scotland,  again, 
the  Declaration  testifies  and  argues,  in  a  grand  earnest  way,  That  in 
Charles  Stuart  and  his  party  there  can  be  no  salvation  ;  that  we  seek 
the  real  substance  of  the  Covenant,  which  it  is  perilous  to  desert  for 
the  mere  outer  form  thereof; — on  the  whole  that  we  are  not  sectaries 
and  blasphemers  ;  and  that  it  goes  against  our  heart  to  hurt  a  hair  of 
any  sincere  servant  of  God. — Very  earnest  Documents  ;  signed  by 
John  Rushworth  in  the  name  of  General  and  Officers  ;  often  printed 
and  reprinted.f  They  bear  Oliver's  sense  in  feature  of  them  ;  but  are 
not  distinctly  of  his  composition  :  wherefore,  as  space  grows  more  and 
more  precious,  and  01iver!s  sense  will  elsewhere  sufficiently  appear, 
we  omit  them. 

•'The  Scots,'  says  Whitlocke,!  'are  all  gone  with  their  goods 
towards  Edinburgh,  by  command  of  the  Estates  of  Scotland,  upon 
penalty  if  they  did  not  remove  ;  so  that  mostly  all  the  men  are  gone. 
But  the  wives  stay  behind  ;  and  some  of  them  do  bake  and  brew,  to 
provide  bread  and  drink  for  the  English  Army.'  The  public  func- 
tionaries '  have  told  the  people,  "  That  the  English  Army  intends  to 
put  all  the  men  to  the  sword,  and  to  thrust  hot  irons  through  the 
women's  breasts  ;"  which  much  terrified  them,  till  once  the  General's 
proclamations  were  published.'  And  now  the  wives  do  stay  behind, 
and  brew  and  bake, — poor  wives  ! 

That  Monday  night  while  we  lay  at  Mordington,  with  hard  accom- 
modation out  of  doors  and  in, — my  puddingheaded  friend  informs  me 
of  a  thing.  The  General  has  made  a  large  Discourse  to  the  Officers 
and  Army,  now  that  we  are  across  ;  speaks  to  them  "  as  a  Christian 
and  a  Soldier,  To  be  doubly  and  trebly  diligent,  to  be  wary  and 
worthy,  for  sure  enough  we  have  work  before  us  !  But  have  we  not 
had  God's  blessing  hitherto  ?  Let  us  go  on  faithfully,  and  hope  for 
the  like  still  !"§  The  Army  answered  'with  acclamations,'  still  audible 
to  me. — Yorkshire  Hodgson  continues  : 

'  Well ;  that  night  we  pitched  at  Mordington,  about  the  House.  Our 
Officers,'  General  and  Staff  Officers,  '  hearing  a  great  shout  among 
the  soldiers,  looked  out  of  window.  They  spied  a  soldier  with  a 
Scotch  kirn '  (churn)  '  on  his  head.  Some  of  them  had  been  purvey- 
ing abroad,  and  had  found  a  vessel  filled  with  Scotch  cream  :  bring- 
ing the  reversion  of  it  to  their  tents,  some  got  dishfuls,  and  some 
hatfuls  ;  and  the  cream  being  now  low  in  the  vessel,  one  fellow  would 

*  Balfour,  iv.  97,  "loo,  &c.  :  '  Cromwell  the  Blasphemer'  (ib.  88). 
f  Newspapers  (in  Parliamentary  History,  xix.  298,  310)  ;  Commons  Journals, 
19  July,  1650. 
"^  p.  450,  §  Hodgson,  p.  130  ;  Whitlocke,  p.  450. 


94  WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


*have  a  modest  drink,  and  so  lifts  the  kirn  to  his  mouth :  but  another 

*  canting  it  up,  it  falls  over  his  head  ;  and  the  man  is  lost  in  it,  all 

*  the  cream  trickles  down  his  apparel,  and  his  head  fast  in  the  tub  ! 
'This  was  a  merriment  to  the  Officers  ;  as  Oliver  loved  an  innocent 
'jest.' 

A  >veek  after,  we  find  the  General  very  serious  ;  writmg  thus  to  the 
Lord  President  Bradshaw. 


LETTER  LXXXVn. 


'  COPPERSPATH,'  of  which  the  General  here  speaks,  is  the  country- 
pronunciation  of  Cockburnspath  ;  name  of  a  wild  rock-and-river 
chasm,  through  which  the  great  road  goes,  some  miles  to  the  east- 
ward of  Dunbar.  Of  which  we  shall  hear  again.  A  very  wild  road 
at  that  time,  as  may  still  be  seen.  The  ravine  is  now  spanned  by  a 
beautiful  Bridge,  called  P^^j^  Bridge,  or  Path's  Bridge,  which  pleasure- 
parties  go  to  visit. 

To  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  President  of  the  Council  of  State : 

These. 

Musselburgh,  30th  July,  1650. 

My  Lord, 

We  marched  from  Berwick  upon  Monday,  being  the  22nd  of 
July  ;  and  lay  at  my  Lord  Mordmgton's  house,  Monday  night, 
Tuesday,  and  Wednesday.  On  Thursday  we  marched  to  Coppers- 
path  ;  on  Friday  to  Dunbar,  where  we  got  some  small  pittance  from 
our  ships  ;  from  whence  we  marched  to  Haddington. 

On  the  Lord's  day,  hearing  that  the  Scottish  Army  meant  to  meet 
us  at  Gladsmoor,  we  laboured  to  possess  the  Moor  before  them  ;  and 
beat  our  drums  very  early  in  the  morning.  But  when  we  came  there 
no  considerable  body  of  the  Army  appeared.  Whereupon  Fourteen- 
hundred  horse,  under  the  command  of  Major-General  Lambert  and 
Colonel  Whalley,  were  sent  as  a  vanguard  to  Musselburgh,  to  see 
likewise  if  they  could  find  out  and  attempt  any  thing  upon  the 
Enemy;  I  marching  in  the  heel  of  them  with  the  residue  of 
the  Army.  Our  party  encountered  with  some  of  their  horse ; 
but  they  could  not  abide  us.  We  lay  at  Musselburgh,  encamped 
close,  that  night ;  the  Enemy's  Army  lying  between  Edinburgh  and 
Leith,  about  four  miles  from  us,  entrenched  by  a  Line  flankered  from 
Edinburgh  to  Leith  ;  the  guns  also  from  Leith  scouring  most  part  of 
the  Line,  so  that  they  lay  very  strong. 

Upon  Monday,  29th  instant,  we  were  resolved  to  draw  up  to  them, 
to  see  if  they  would  fight  with  us.  And  when  we  came  upon  the  place, 
we  resolved  to  get  our  cannons  as  near  them  as  we  could  ;  hoping 
thereby  to  annoy  them.  We  likewise  perceived  that  they  had  some 
force  upon  a  Hill  that  overlooks  Edinburgh,  from  whence  we  might 
be  annoyed  ;  '  and'  did  resolve  to  send  up  a  party  to  possess  the  said 
Hill  ;— which  prevailed  :  but,  upon  the  whole,  we  did  find  that  their 
Army  were  not  easily  to  be  attempted.  Whereupon  we  lay  still  all  thg 


MUSSELBURGH,  95 

said  day  ;  which  proved  to  be  so  sore  a  day  and  night  of  rain  as  I 
have  seldom  seen,  and  greatly  to  our  disadvantage  ;  the  Enemy 
having  enough  to  cover  them,  and  we  nothing  at  all  considerable* 
Our  soldiers  did  abide  this  difficulty  with  great  courage  and  resolu- 
tion, hoping  they  should  speedily  come  to  fight.  In  the  morning,  the 
ground  being  very  wet,  '  and '  our  provisions  scarce,  we  resolved  to 
draw  back  to  our  quarters  at  Musselburgh,  there  to  refresh  and 
revictual. 

The  Enemy,  when  we  drew  off,  fell  upon  our  rear  ;  and  put  them 
into  some  little  disorder ;  but  our  bodies  of  horse  being  in  some 
readiness,  came  to  a  grabble  with  them  ; — where  indeed  there  was  a 
gallant  and  hot  dispute  ;  the  Major-Generalf  and  Colonel  Whalley 
being  in  the  rear ;  and  the  Enemy  drawing  out  great  bodies  to  second 
their  first  affront.  Our  men  charged  them  up  to  the  very  trenches, 
and  beat  them  in.  The  Major- General's  horse  was  shot  in  the  neck 
and  head  ;  himself  run  through  the  arm  with  a  lance,  and  run  into 
another  place  of  his  body, —was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Enemy,,  but 
rescued  immediately  by  Lieutenant  Empson  of  my  regiment.  Colonel 
Whalley,  who  was  then  nearest  to  the  Major-General,  did  charge  very 
resolutely ;  and  repulsed  the  Enemy,  and  killed  divers  of  them  upon 
the  place,  and  took  some  prisoners,  without  any  considerable  loss. 
Which  indeed  did  so  amaze  and  quiet  them,  that  we  marched  off  to 
Musselburgh,  but  they  dared  not  send  out  a  man  to  trouble  us.  We 
hear  their  young  King  looked  on  upon  all  this,  but  was  very  ill 
satisfied  to  see  their  men  do  no  better. 

We  came  to  Musselburgh  that  night ;  so  tired  and  wearied  for 
want  of  sleep,  and  so  dirty  by  reason  of  the  wetness  of  the  weather, 
that  we  expected  the  Enemy  would  make  an  infall  upon  us.  Which 
accordingly  they  did,  between  three  and  four  of  the  clock  this  morn- 
ing ;  with  fifteen  of  their  most  select  troops,  under  the  command  of 
Major-General  Montgomery  and  Strahan,  two  champions  of  the 
Church  :— upon  which  business  there  was  great  hope  and  expectation 
laid.  The  Enemy  came  on  with  a  great  deal  of  resolution  ;  beat  in 
our  guards,  and  put  a  regiment  of  horse  in  some  disorder  :  but  our 
men,  speedily  taking  the  alarm,  charged  the  Enemy  ;  routed  them, 
took  many  prisoners,  killed  a  great  many  of  them  ;  did  execution 
'  to '  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  Edinburgh  ;  and,  I  am  informed, 
Strahant  was  killed  there,  besides  divers  other  Officers  of  quality. 
We  took  the  Major  to  Strahan's  regiment,  Major  Hamilton ;  a 
Lieutenant-Colonel,  and  divers  other  Officers^  and  persons  of  quahty, 
whom  yet  we  know  not.  Indeed  this  is  a  sweet  beginning  of  your 
business,  or  rather  the  Lord's  ;  and  I  believe  is  not  very  satisfactory 
to  the  Enemy,  especially  to  the  Kirk  party.  We  did  not  lose  any  in 
this  business,  so  far  as  I  hear,  but  a  Cornet  ;  I  do  not  hear  of  four 
men  more.     The   Major-General  will,   I  believe,  within  few  days  be 

*  '  Near  a  little  village  named,  I  think,  Lichnagarie," — means,  Lang  Niddery 
(Hodgson,  p.  132), 

t  Lambert. 

X  We  shall  hear  of  Strahan  again,  not  'killed.'  This  Montgomery  is  the 
Earl  of  Eglinton's  son  Robert,  neither  i§  he  '  slain  '  (Douglas's  Scotch  Peerag^e, 
i.  ^o-^Y 


96  WAJ^  WnH  SCOTLAND. 

well  to  take  the  field.     And  I  trust  this  work,  which  is  the  Lord's,  will 
prosper  in  the  hands  of  His  servants. 

I  did  not  think  advisable  to  attempt  upon  the  Enemy,  lying  as  he 
doth  ,  but  surely  this  would  sufficiently  provoke  him  to  fight  if  he  had 
a  mind  to  it.  1  do  not  think  he  is  less  than  Six  or  Seven  thousand 
horse,  and  Fourteen  or  Fifteen  thousand  foot.  The  reason,  I  hear, 
that  they  give  out  to  their  people  why  they  do  not  fight  us,  is.  Because 
they  expect  many  bodies  of  men  more  out  of  the  North  of  Scotland  ; 
which  when  they  come,  they  give  out  they  will  then  engage.  But  I 
believe  they  would  rather  tempt  us  to  attempt  them  in  their  fastness, 
within  which  they  are  entrenched  ;  or  else  hoping  we  shall  famish  for 
want  of  provisions  ;— which  is  very  likely  to  be,  if  we  be  not  timely 
and  fully  supplied.     I  remain, 

My  Lord, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

*P.S.'  I  understand  since  writing  of  this  Letter,  that  Major- 
General  Montgomery  is  slain.* 

Cautious  David  Lesley  lies  thus  within  his  Line  'flankered'  from 
Leith  shore  to  the  Calton  Hill,  with  guns  to  'scour'  it ;  with  outposts 
or  flying  parties,  as  we  see,  stationed  on  the  back  slope  of  Salisbury 
Crags  or  Arthur's  Seat ;  with  all  Edinburgh  safe  behind  him,  and, 
indeed  all  Scotland  safe  behind  him  for  supplies  :  and  nothing  can 
tempt  him  to  come  out.  The  factions  and  distractions  of  Scotland, 
and  its  Kirk  Committees  and  State  Committees  and  poor  Covenanted 
King  and  Courtiers,  are  many  :  but  Lesley,  standing  steadily  to 
his  guns,  persists  here.  His  Army,  it  appears,  is  no  great  thing 
of  an  Army  :  '  altogether  governed  by  the  Committee  of  Estates  and 
Kirk,'  snarls  an  angry  6^«covenanted  Courtier,  whom  the  said  Com- 
mittee has  just  ordered  to  take  himself  away  again  ;  *  altogether 
'governed  by  the  Committee  of  Estates  and  Kirk,'  snarls  he, 
'  and  they  took  especial  care  in  their  levies  not  to  admit  any  Malig- 
^  nants  or  Engagers'  (who  had  been  in  Hamilton's  Engagement)  ; 
'placing  in  com.mand,  for  most  part.  Ministers'  Sons,  Clerks  and 
'other  sanctified  creatures,  who  hardly  ever  saw  or  heardof  any  sword 
'but  that  of  the  spirit  !  'f  The  more  reason  for  Lesley  to  lie  steadily 
within  his  Line  here.  Lodged  in  '  Bruchton  Village,'  which  means 
Broughton,  now  a  part  of  Edinburgh  New  Town  ;  there  in  a  cautious 
solid  manner  lies  Lesley  ;  and  lets  Cromwell  attempt  upon  him.  It 
is  his  history,  the  military  history  of  these  two,  for  a  month  to  come. 

Meanwhile  the  General  Assembly  have  not  been  backward  v  ith 
their  answer  to  the  Cromwell  Manifesto,  or  '  Declaration  of  tne 
English  Army  to  all  the  Saints  in  Scotland,'  spoken  of  above.  Nay, 
already  while  he  lay  at  Berwick,  they  had  drawn  up  an  eloquent 
Counter-Declaration  and  sent  it  to  him  ;  which  he,  again,  has  got 
'some  godly  Ministers'  of  his  to  declare  against  and  reply  to:  the 

*  Newspapers  (in  Crowwelliana,  pp.  85,  6). 
'  I  Sir  Edwarci  Walker  :  Historical  Discourses  (London,  170=5)  ,p.  162, 


MUSSELBURGH.  97 


whole  of  which  Declarations,  Replies  and  Re-replies  shall,  like  the 
primary  Document  itself,  remain  suppressed  on  the  present  occasion.* 
But  along  with  this  '  Reply  by  some  godly  Ministers/  the  Lord 
General  sends  a  Letter  of  his  own,  which  is  here : 


LETTER  LXXXVIIL 

To  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland  j  or,  in  case  of  their 
not  sitting,  To  the  Commissioners  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland: 
These. 

Musselburgh,  3d  August,  1650. 

Sirs, 

Your  Answer  to  the  Declaration  of  the  Army  we  have  seen. 
Some  godly  Ministers  with  us  did,  at  Berwick,  compose  this  Reply  ; 
which  I  thought  fit  to  send  you. 

That  you  or  we,  in  these  great  Transactions,  answer  the  will  and 
mind  of  God,  it  is  only  from  His  grace  and  mercy  to  us.  And  there- 
fore, having  said  as  jn  our  Papers,  we  commit  the  issue  thereof  to 
Him  wlio  disposeth  all  things,  assuring  you  that  we  have  light  and 
comfort  increasing  upon  us,  day  by  day  ;  and  are  persuaded  that. 
before  it  be  longj  the  Lord  will  manifest  His  good  pleasure,  so  that 
all  shall  see  Him  ;  and  His  People  shall  say,  This  is  the  Lord^s  work, 
and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes :  this  is  the  day  that  the  Lord  hath 
made:  we  will  be  glad  and  rejoice  therein, — Only  give  me  leave  to 
say,  in  a  word,  '  thus  much  : ' 

You  take  upon  you  to  judge  us  in  the  things  of  our  God,  though 
you  know  us  not, — though  in  the  things  we  have  said  unto  you,  in 
that  which  is  entitled  the  Army's  Declaration,  we  have  spoken  our 
hearts  as  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  who  hath  tried  us.  And  by  your 
hard  and  subtle  words  you  have  begotten  prejudice  in  those  who  do 
too  much,  in  matters  of  conscience, — wherein  every  soul  is  to  answer 
for  itself  to  God, — depend  upon  you.  So  that  some  have  already 
followed  you,  to  the  breathing-out  of  their  souls  :t  'and'  others  con- 
tinue still  in  the  way  wherein  they  are  led  by  you, — we  fear,  to  their 
own  ruin. 

And  no  marvel  if  you  deal  thus  with  us,  when  indeed  you  can  find 
in  your  hearts  to  conceal  from  your  own  people  the  Papers  we  have 
sent  you  ;  who  might  thereby  see  and  understand  the  bowels  of  our 
affections  to  them,  especially  to  such  among  them  as  fear  the  Lord. 
Send  as  many  of  your  Papers  as  you  please  amongst  ours  ;J  they 
have  a  free  passage.  I  fear  them  not.  What  is  of  God  in  them, 
would  it  might  be  embraced  and  received  !—  One  of  them  lately  sent, 
directed  To  the  Undo -officers  and  Soldiers  in  the  English  Army, 
hath  begotten  from  them  this  enclosed  A7tswcr ;  which  they  desired 
me  to  3end  to  you  :  not  a  crafty  politic  one,  but  a  plain  simple 
spiritual  one  ; — what  kind  of  one  it  is  God  knoweth,  and  God  also 
will  in  due  time  make  manifest. 

*  Titles  of  them,  copies  of  sevejal  of  them,  in  Parliamentary  History,  xix, 
+  In  the  Musselburgh  Skirmish,  &c.  X  Our  people. 

VOL    II.  E 


98  IVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

And  do  we  multiply  these  things,"^  as  men  ;  or  do  we  them  for  the 
Lord  Christ  and  His  People's  sake?  Indeed  we  are  not,  through  the 
grace  of  God,  afraid  of  your  numbers,  nor  confident  in  ourselves. 
We  could, — I  pray  God  you  do  not  think  we  boast, — meet  your  Army, 
or  what  you  have  to  bring  against  us.  We  have  given, — humbly  we 
speak  it  before  our  God,  in  whom  all  our  hope  is, — some  proof  that 
thoughts  of  that  kind  prevail  not  upon  us.  The  Lord  hath  not  hid 
His  face  from  us  since  our  approach  so  near  unto  you. 

Your  own  guilt  is  too  much  for  you  to  bear  :  bring  not  therefore 
upon  yourselves  the  blood  of  innocent  men, — deceived  with  pretences 
of  King  and  Covenant  ;  from  whose  eyes  you  hide  a  better  know- 
ledge !  I  am  persuaded  that  divers  of  you,  who  lead  the  People, 
have  laboured  to  build  yourselves  in  these  things  ;  wherein  you  have 
censured  others,  and  established  yourselves  "  upon  the  Word  of  God." 
Is  it  therefore  infallibly  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God,  all  that  you 
say  ?  I  beseech  you,  in  the  bowels  of  Christ,  think  it  possible  you 
may  be  mistaken.  Precept  may  be  upon  precept,  line  may  be  upon 
line,  and  yet  the  Word  of  the  Lord  may  be  to  some  a  Word  of  Judg- 
ment ;  that  they  may  fall  backward  and  be  broken,  and  be  snared 
and  be  taken  If  There  may  be  a  spiritual  fulness,  which  the  World 
may  call  drunkenness  \\  as  in  the  second  Chapter  of  the  Acts.  There 
may  be,  as  well,  a  carnal  confidence  upon  misunderstood  and  mis- 
applied precepts,  which  may  be  called  spiritual  drunkenness.  There 
may  be  a  Covenant  made  with  Death  and  Hell! I  I  will  not  say 
yours  was  so.  But  judge  if  such  things  have  a  politic  airr.  :  To  avoid 
the  overflowing  scourge  ;t  or.  To  accomplish  worldly  interests  ?  And 
if  therein  we  §  have  confederated  with  wicked  and  carnal  men,  and 
have  respect  for  them,  or  otherwise  '  have '  drawn  them  in  to  asso- 
ciate with  us.  Whether  this  be  a  Covenant  of  God,  and  spiritual  ? 
Bethink  yourselves  ;  we  hope  we  do. 

I  pray  you  read  the  Twenty-eighth  of  Isaiah,  from  the  fifth  to  the 
fifteenth  verse.  And  do  not  scorn  to  know  that  it  is  the  Spirit  that 
quickens  and  giveth  life. 

The  Lord  give  you  and  us  understanding  to  do  that  which  is  well- 
pleasing  in  His  sight.     Committing  you  to  the  grace  of  God,  I  rest, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwfll  || 

Here  is  the  passage  from  Isaiah  :  I  know  not  whether  the  General 
Assembly  read  it  and  laid  it  well  to  heart,  or  not,  but  it  was  worth 
their  whiJe, — and  is  worth  our  while  too  : 

'  In  that  day  shall  the  Lord  of  Hosts  be  for  a  crown  of  glory,  and 
'  for  a  diadem  of  beauty,  unto  the  residue  of  His  people.     And  for  a 

*  spirit  of  judgment  to  him  that  sitteth  in  judgment,  and  for  strength 

*  to  them  that  turn  the  battle  to  the  gate. 

'  But  they  also  have  erred  through  wine,  and  through  strong  drink 

*  Papers  and  Declarations.  +  Bible  phrases. 

Ij:  As  you  now  do  of  us;  while  it  is  rather  you  that  are  "  drunk." 
§  I.e.  you. 
11  Newspapers  (in  Parliamentary  History,  xix.  320-323). 


MUSSELBURGH.  99 


'  are  out  of  the  way  !  The  Priest  and  the  Prophet  have  erred  through 
'  strong  drink  ;  they  are  swallowed  up  of  wine  ;  they  are  out  of  the 
'  way  through  strong  drink.  They  err  in  vision,  they  stumble  in. 
'  judgment  For  all  tables  are  full  of  vomit  and  filthiness  ;  so  that 
'  there  is  no  place  clean. 

'  Whom  shall  He  teach  knowledge  ?  Whom  shall  He  make  to  un- 
'  derstand  doctrine  1  Them  that  are  weaned  from  the  milk,  and 
'  drawn  from  the  breasts.  For  precept  must  be  upon  precept,  pre- 
'  cept  upon  precept  ;  line  upon  line,  line  upon  line  ;  here  a  little  and 
'  there  a  little.  For  with  stammering  lips  and  another  tongue  will  He 
'  speak  to  this  people.  To  whom  He  said.  This  is  the  rest  wherewih 
'  ye  may  cause  the  weary  to  rest,  and  this  is  the  refreshment  ;— yet 
'  they  would  not  hear.'  No.  '  The  Word  of  the  Lord  was  unto  them 
'  precept  upon  precept,  line  upon  line,  here  a  little  and  there  a  little, 
'That  they  might  go,  and  fall  backward,  and  be  broken  and  snared 
'and  taken  I— Wherefore  hear  ye  the  Word  of  the  Lord,  ye  scornful 
'  men  that  rule  this  people  which  is  in  Jerusalem  ! ' 

Yes,  hear  it,  and  not  with  the  outward  ear  only,  ye  Kirk  Com- 
mittees, and  Prophesying  and  Governing  Persons  everywhere  :  it  may 
■be  important  to  you  !  \{  God  have  said  it,  if  the  Eternal  Truth  of 
things  have  said  it,  will  it  not  need  to  be  done,  think  you  ?  Or  will 
the  doing  some  distracted  shadow  of  it,  some  Covenanted  Charles 
Stuart  of  it,  suffice.'' — The  Kirk  Committee  seems  in  a  bad  way. 

David  Lesley,  however,  what  as  yet  is  in  their  favour,  continues 
within  his  Line  ;  stands  steadily  to  his  guns  ; — and  the  weather  is 
wet  ;  Ohver's  provision  is  failing.  This  Letter  to  the  Kirk  was  written 
on  Friday  :  on  the  Monday  following,"*^  'about  the  6th  of  August/  as 
Major  Hodgson  dates  it,  the  tempestuous  state  of  the  weather  not 
permitting  ship-stores  to  be  landed  at  Musselburgh,  Cromwell  has  to 
march  his  Army  back  to  Dunbar,  and  there  provision  it.  Great  joy 
in  the  Kirk-and- Estates  Committee  thereupon  :  Lesley  steadily  con- 
tinues in  his  place. — 

The  famine  among  the  Scots  themselves,  at  Dunbar,  is  great ;  pick- 
ing our  horses'  beans,  eating  our  soldiers'  leavings  :  '  they  are  much 
enslaved  to  their  Lords,'  poor  creatures  ;  almost  destitute  of  private 
capital,—  and  ignorant  of  soap  to  a  terrible  extent  If  Cromwell  dis- 
tributes among  them  '  pease  and  wheat  to  the  value  of  ^240.'  On  the 
1 2th  he  returns  to  Musselburgh  ;  finds,  as  heavy  Bulstrode  spells  it 
in  good  Scotch,  with  a  friskiness  we  hardly  looked  for  in  him,  That 
Lesley  has  commanded  '  The  gude  women  should  awe  come  away 
'  with  their  gear,  and  not  stay  to  brew  or  bake,  any  of  them,  for  the 
'  English  ;' — which  makes  it  a  place  more  forlorn  than  before.^:  Oliver 
decides  to  encamp  on  the  Pentland  Hills,  which  lie  on  the  other  side 
of  Edinburgh,  overlooking  the  Fife  and  Stirling  roads  ;  and  to  try 
whether  he  cannot  force  Lesley  to  fight  by  cutting  off  his  supplies. 
Here,  in  {the  meantime,  is  a  Letter  from  Lesley  himself;  written  in 
'  Broughton  Village/  precisely  while  Oliver  is  on  march  towards  the 
Pentlands  : 

*  Balfour,  iv.  89.  f  \yhitlocke,  p.  452. 

X  Ibid.  p.  453. 

E  ? 


loo  IVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


For  his  Excellency  the  Lord  General  Cromwell. 

"  Bruchton,  13th  August,  1650, 

am  commanded  by  the  Committee  of  Estates  of 
"  of  this  Kingdom,  and  desired  by  the  Commissioners  of  the  General 
"  Assemby.  to  send  unto  your  Excellency  this  Enclosed  Declaration, 
"  as  that  which  containeth  the  State  of  the  Quarrel ;  wherein  we  are 
'•  resolved,  by  the  Lord's  assistance,  to  fight  your  Army,  when  the  Lord 
**  shall  be  pleased  to  call  us  thereunto.  And  as  you  have  professed 
"  you  will  not  conceal  any  of  our  Papers,  I  do  desire  that  this  Decla- 
"  ration  may  be  made  known  to  all  the  Officers  of  your  Army. 
"  And  so  I  rest, — your  Excellency's  most  humble  servant,  -  David 
"  Lesley."  * 

This  Declaration,  done  by  the  Kirk,  und  endorsed  by  the  Estates, 
we  shall  not  on  the  present  occasion  make  known,  even  though  it  is 
brief.  The  reader  shall  fancy  it  a  brief  emphatic  disclaimer,  on  the 
part  of  Kirk  and  State,  of  their  having  anything  to  do  with  Malig- 
nants  : — disclaimer  in  emphatic  words,  while  the  emphatic  facts  con-  • 
tinue  as  they  were.  Distinct  hope,  however,  is  held  out  that  the 
Covenanted  King  will  testify  openly  his  sorrow  for  his  Father's  Malig- 
nancies, and  his  own  resolution  for  a  quite  other  course.  To  which 
Oliver,  from  the  slope  of  the  Pentlands,t  returns  this  answer  : 

LETTER  LXXXIX. 

For  the  Right  Honourable  David  Lesley,  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
Scots  Army :   These. 

From  the  Camp  at  Pent  land  Hills, 
14th  August,  1650. 

Sir, 

I  received  yours  of  the  31th  instant;  with  the  Paper  you 
mentioned  therein,  enclosed, — which  I  caused  to  be  read  in  the  pre- 
sence of  so  many  Officers  as  could  well  be  gotten  together  ;  to  which 
your  Trumpet  can  witness.  We  return  you  this  answer.  By  which  1 
hope,  in  the  Lord,  it  will  appear  that  we  continue  the  same  we  have 
professed  ourselves  to  the  Honest  People  in  Scotland  ;  wishing  to 
them  as  to  our  own  souls  ;  it  being  no  part  of  our  business  to  hinder 
any  of  them  from  worshipping  God  in  that  way  they  are  satisfied  in 
their  consciences  by  the  Word  of  God  they  ought,  though  different 
from  us, — but  shall  therein  be  ready  to  perform  what  obligation  lies 
upon  us  by  the  Covenant.:^ 

But  that  under  the  pretence  of  the  Covenant,  mistaken,  and  wrested 
from  the  most  native  intent  and  equity  thereof,  a  King  should  be  taken 
in  by  you,  to  be  imposed  upon  us  ;  and  this  '  be'  called  "  the  Cause  of 
God  and  the  Khigdom  ;"  and  this  done  upon  "  the  satisfaction  of  God's 

*  Newspapers  (in  Parliamentary  History,  xix.  330). 

f  'About  CoUinton'  (Balfour  iv.  90). 

X  Ungrammatical,  but  intelligible  and  characteristic. 


PENTLAND  mills.  lot 


People  in  both  Nations,"  as  is  alleged, — together  with  a  disowning  of 
Malignants  ;  although  he  *  who  is  the  head  of  them,  in  whom  all 
their  hope  and  comfort  lies,  be  received  ;  who,  at  this  very  instant,  hath 
a  Popish  Army  fighting  for  and  under  him  in  Ireland  ;  hath  Prince 
Rupert,  a  man  who  hath  had  his  hand  deep  in  the  blood  of  many  in- 
nocent men  of  England,  now  in  the  head  of  our  Ships,  stolen  from  us 
upon  a  Malignant  account  ;  hath  the  French  and  Irish  ships,  daily 
making  depredations  on  our  coasts  ;  and  strong  combinations  by  the 
Malignants  in  England,  to  raise  Armies  in  our  bowels,  by  virtue  of 
his  commissions,  who  hath  of  late  issued  out  very  many  to  that  pur- 
pose : — How  the  '  Godly'  Interest  you  pretend  you  have  received  him 
upon,  and  the  Malignant  Interests  in  their  ends  and  consequences 
*  all '  centering  in  this  man,  can  be  secured,  we  cannot  discern  !  And 
how  we  should  beheve  that  whilst  known  and  notorious  Malignants  are 
fighting  and  plotting  against  us  on  the  one  hand,  and  you  declaring  for 
him  on  the  other,  it  should  not  be  an  "  espousing  of  a  Malignant- 
Party's  Quarrel  or  Interest;"  but  be  a  mere  "fighting  upon  former 
grounds  and  principles,  and  in  defence  of  the  Cause  of  God  and  the 
Kingdoms,  as  hath  been  these  twelve  years  last  past,"  as  you  say  : 
how  this  should  be  "  for  the  security  and  satisfaction  of  God's  People 
in  both  Nations ;"  or  '  how '  the  opposing  of  this  should  render  us 
enemies  to  the  Godly  with  you,  we  cannot  well  understand.  Espe- 
cially considering  that  all  these  Malignants  take  their  confidence  and 
encouragement  from  the  late  transactions  of  your  Kirk  and  State  with 
your  King.  For  as  we  have  already  said,  so  we  tell  you  again.  It  is 
but '  some  '  satisfying  security  to  those  who  employ  us,  and  '  who '  are 
concerned,  that  we  seek.  Which  we  conceive  will  not  be  by  a  few 
formal  and  feigned  Submissions,  from  a  Person  that  could  not  tell 
otherwise  how  to  accomplish  his  Malignant  ends,  and  '  is '  therefore 
counselled  to  this  compliance,  by  them  who  assisted  his  Father,  and 
have  hitherto  actuated  himself  in  his  most  evil  and  desperate  designs; 
designs  which  are'  now  again  by  them  set  on  foot.  Against  wITich, 
How  you  will  be  able,  in  the  way  you  are  in,  to  secure  us  or  yourselves  1 
— '  this  it  now '  is  (forasmuch  as  concerns  ourselves)  our  duty  to  look 
after. 

If  the  state  of  your  Quarrel  be  thus,  upon  which,  as  you  say,  you 
resolve  to  fight  our  Army,  you  will  have  opportunity  to  do  that  ;  else 
what  means  our  abode  here  ?  And  if  our  hope  be  not  in  the  Lord, 
it  will  be  ill  with  us.  We  commit  both  you  and  ourselves  to  Him 
who  knows  the  heart  and  tries  the  reins  ;  with  whom  are  all  our 
ways  ;  who  is  able  to  do  for  us  and  you  above  what  we  know  : 
Which  we  desire  may  be  in  much  mercy  to  His  poor  People,  and  to 
the  glory  of  His  great  Name. 

And  having  performed  your  desire,  in  making  your  Papers  so 
public  as  is  before  expressed,  I  desire  you  to  do  the  like,  by  letting 
the  State,  Kirk,  and  Army  have  the  knowledge  hereof.  To  which 
end  I  have  sent  you  enclosed  two  Copies  '  of  this  Letter  ; '  and  rest. 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

*  Charles  Stuart. 

t  Newspapers  (in  Parfiamentary  History,  xix.  331-333). 


to2  tVAR   WITH  SCOTLAND. 


The  encampment  on  Pentland  Hills,  'some  of  our  tents  within 
sight  of  Edinburgh  Castle  and  City,'  threatens  to  cut  off  Lesley's  sup- 
plies ;  but  will  not  induce  him  to  fight.  'The  gude  wives  fly  with 
their  bairns  and  gear '  in  great  terror  of  us,  poor  gude  wives  ;  and 
'  when  we  set  fire  to  furze-bushes,  report  that  we  are  burning  their 
houses.'"*  Great  terror  of  us  ;  but  no  other  result.  Lesley  brings 
over  his  guns  to  the  western  side  of  Edinburgh,  and  awaits,  steady 
within  his  fastnesses  there. 

Hopes  have  arisen  that  the  Godly  Party  in  Scotland,  seeing  now 
by  these  Letters  and  Papers  what  our  real  meaning  is,  may  perhaps 
quit  a  Malignant  King's  Interest,  and  make  bloodless  peace  with  us, 
'  which  were  the  best  of  all.'  The  King  boggles  about  signing  that 
open  Testimony,  that  Declaration  against  his  Father's  sins  which 
was  expected  of  him.  '  A  great  Commander  of  the  Enemy's,  Colonel 
Gibby  Carre'  (Colonel  Gilbert  Ker,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  farther), 
solicits  an  interview  with  some  of  ours,  and  has  it  ;  and  other  inter- 
views and  free  communings  take  place,  upon  the  Burrow-Moor  and 
open  fields  that  lie  between  us.  Gibby  Ker,  and  also  Colonel 
Strahan  who  was  thought  to  be  slain  :t  these  and  some  minority  of 
others  are  clear  against  Malignancy  in  every  form ;  and  if  the 
Covenanted  Stuart  King  will  not  sign  this  Declaration — ! — Where- 
upon the  Covenanted  Stuart  King  does  sign  it  ;  signs  this  too,J — 
what  will  he  not  sign  ?— and  these  hopes  of  accommodation  vanish. 

Neither  still  will  they  risk  a  Battle  ;  though  in  their  interviews 
upon  the  Burrow-Moor,  they  said  they  longed  to  do  it.  Vain  that 
we  draw  out  in  battalia  ;  they  lie  within  their  fastnesses.  We  march, 
with  defiant  circumstance  of  war,  round  all  accessible  sides  of  Edin- 
burgh ^  encamp  on  the  Pentlands,  return  to  Musselburgh  for  provi- 
sions ;  go  to  the  Pentlands  again,— enjoy  one  of  the  beautifullest 
prospects,  over  deep-blue  seas,  over  yellow  corn-fields,  dusky  High- 
land mountains,  from  Ben  Lomond  round  to  the  Bass  again  ;  but 
can  get  no  Battle.  And  the  weather  is  broken,  and  the  season  is 
advancing, — equinox  within  ten  days,  by  the  modern  Almanac.  Our 
men  fall  sick  ;  the  service  is  harassing  ; — and  it  depends  on  wind  and 
tide  whether  even  biscuit  can  be  landed  for  us  nearer  than  Dunbar. 
Here  is  the  Lord  General's  own  Letter  '  to  a  Member  of  the  Counil  of 
State,' — we  might  guess  this  or  the  other,  but  cannot  with  the  least 
certainty  know  which. 

*  Narrative  of  Farther  Proceedijigs,  dated  '  from  the  Camp  in  Musselburgh 
Fields,  i6th  August,  1650  ; '  read  in  the  Parliament  22nd  August  (Commons 
Journals)  ;  reprinted  in  Parliamentary  History  (xix.  327)  as  a  '  Narrative  by 
General  Cromwell;  '  though  it  is  clearly  enough  not  General  Cromwell's,  but  John 
Rush  worth's. 

t  Letter  LXXXVII.  p.  95. 

X  Ai.  our  Court  at  Dunfermline  this  T6th  day  of  August  1650  (Sir  Edward 
Walker,  pp.  170-6  ;  by  whom  the  melancholy  Document  is.  with  due  loyal  indig- 
nation, given  at  large  there). 


MUSSELBURGH.     ■  103 


LETTER   XC. 

'  To Council  of  State  in  Whitehall :  These^ 

Musselburgh,  30th  August,  1650. 

Sir, 

Since  my  last,  we  seeing  the  Enemy  not  willing  to  engage, — 
and  yet  very  apt  to  take  exceptions  against  speeches  of  that  kind 
spoken  in  our  Army  ;  which  occasioned  some  of  them  to  come  to 
parley  with  our  Officers,  To  let  them  know  that  they  would  fight  us, 
— they  lying  still  in  or  near  their  fastnesses,  on  the  west  side  of  Edin- 
burgh, we  resolved,  the  Lord  assisting,  to  draw  near  to  them  once 
more,  to  try  if  we  could  fight  them.  And  indeed  one  hour's  advantage 
gained  might  probably,  we  think,  have  given  us  an  opportunity.* 

To  which  purpose,  upon  Tuesday  the  27th  instant  we  marched 
westward  of  Edinburgh  towards  Stirling  ;  which  the  Enemy  per- 
ceiving, marched  with  as  great  expedition  as  was  possible  to  prevent 
us  :  and  the  vanguards  of  both  the  Armies  came  to  skirmish, — upon 
a  place  where  bogs  and  passes  made  the  access  of  each  Army  to  the 
other  difficult.  We,  being  ignorant  of  the  place,  drew  up,  hoping  to 
have  engaged  ;  but  found  no  way  feasible,  by  reason  of  the  bogs  and 
other  difficulties. 

"We  drew  up  our  cannon,  and  did  that  day  discharge  two  or  three 
hundred  great  shot  upon  them  ;  a  considerable  number  they  likewise 
returned  to  us  :  and  this  was  ?"  that  passed  from  each  to  other. 
Wherein  we  had  near  twenty  killec.  and  wounded,  but  not  one  Com- 
mission Officer.  The  Enemy,  as  we  are  informed,  had  about  eighty 
killed,  and  some  considerable  Officers.  Seeing  they  would  keep  their 
ground,  from  which  we  could  not  remove  them,  and  our  bread  being 
spent, — we  were  necessitated  to  go  for  a  new  supply  if  and  so 
marched  off  about  ten  or  eleven  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning. 
Tiie  Enem.y  perceiving  it, — and,  as  we  conceive,  fearing  we  might 
interpose  between  them  and  Edinburgh,  though  it  was  not  our  inten- 
tion, albeit  it  seemed  so  by  our  march,  —retreated  back  again,  with 
all  haste  ;  having  a  bog  and  passes  between  them  and  us  :  and  there 
followed  no  considerable  action,  saving  the  skirmishing  of  the  van  of 
our  horse  with  their's,  near  to  Edinburgh,  without  any  considerable 
loss  to  either  party,  saving  that  we  got  two  or  three  of  their  horses. 

That  '  Tuesday '  night  we  quartered  within  a  mile  of  Edinburgh, 
and  of  the  Enemy.  It  was  a  most  tempestuous  night  and  wet  morn- 
ing. The  Enemy  marched  in  the  night  between  Leith  and  Edinburgh, 
to  interpose  between  us  and  our  victual,  they  knowing  that  it  was 
spent  ; — but  the  Lord  in  mercy  prevented  it ;  and  we,  perceiving  in 
the  morning,  got,  time  enough,  through  the  goodness  of  the  Lord,  to 

*  Had  we  come  one  hour  sooner  :  —but  we  did  not. 

t  We  went  to  our  Camp,  or  Bivouack,  that  night  ;  and  off  to  Musselburgh  '  for 
a  new  supply'  next  morning.  Camp  or  Bivouack  'on  Pentland  Hills,'  says  vague 
Hodgson  (p.  142) ;  '  within  a  mile  of  Edinburgh,'  says  Cromwell  in  this  Letter, 
who  of  course  knows  well.  _ 


I04  U^^^  WITH  StOTLAND. 

the  sea-side  to  re-victual  ;  the  Enemy  being  drawn  up  upon  the  Hill 
near  Arthur's  Seat,  looking  upon  us,  but  not  attempting  any  thing. 
And  thus  you  have  an  account  of  the  present  occurrences. 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.'* 

The  scene  of  this  Tuesday's  skirmish,  and  cannonade  across  bogs, 
has  not  been  investigated  ;  though  an  antiquarian  Topographer  might 
find  worse  work  for  himself.  Rough  Hodgson,  very  uncertain  in  his 
spellings,  calls  it  Gawger  Field,  which  will  evidently  take  us  to  Gogar 
on  the  westcn  road  there.  The  Scotch  Editor  of  Hodgson  says 
farther,  '  The  Water  of  Leith  lay  between  the  two  Armies  ;'  which  can 
be  believed  or  not.  Yorkshire  Hodgson's  troop  received  an  ugly 
cannon-shot  while  they  stood  at  prayers  ;  just  with  the  word  Avieii, 
came  the  ugly  cannon-shot  singing,  but  it  hurt  neither  horse  nor  man. 
We  also  'gave  them  an  English  shout'  at  one  time,  along  the  whole 
line,t  making  their  Castle-rocks  and  Pentlands  ring  again  ;  but  could 
get  no  Battle  out  of  them,  for  the  bogs. 

The  Lord  General  writes  this  Letter  at  Musselburgh  on  Saturday 
the  30th  :  and  directly  on  the  heel  of  it  there  is  a  Council  of  War 
held,  and  an  important  resolution  taken.  With  sickness,  and  the  wild 
weather  coming  on  us,  rendering  even  victual  uncertain,  and  no 
Battle  to  be  had,  we  clearly  cannot  continue  here.  Dunbar,  which 
has  a  harbour,  we  might  fortify  for  a  kind  of  citadel  and  winter- 
quarter  ;  let  us  retire  at  least  to  Dunbar,  to  be  near  our  sole  friends 
in  this  country,  our  Ships. — That  same  Saturday  evening  the  Lord 
General  fired  his  huts,  and  marched  towards  Dunbar.  At  sight 
whereof  Lesley  rushes  out  upon  him  ;  has  his  vanguard  in  Prestonpans 
before  our  rear  got  away.  Saturday  night  through  Haddington,  and 
all  Sunday  tc  Dunbar,  Lesley  hangs,  close  and  heavy,  on  Cromwell's 
rear ;  on  Sunday  night  bends  southward  to  the  hills  that  overlook 
Dunbar,  and  hems  him  in  there.  As  will  be  more  especially  related 
in  the  next  fascicle  of  Letters. 

*  Newspapers  (in  Parliamentary  History,  xix.  339), 
f  Hodgson,  p.  141. 


BATILE   OF  DUNBAR.  \6% 


LETTERS   XCL— XCV. 

BATTLE  OF  DUNBAR. 

The  small  Town  of  Dunbar  stands,  high  and  windy,  looking  down 
over  its  herring-boats,  over  its  grim  old  Castle  now  much  honey- 
combed,— on  one  of  those  projecting  rock-promontories  with  which 
that  shore  of  the  Frith  of  Forth  is  niched  and  vandyked,  as  far  as  the 
eye  can  reach.  A  beautiful  sea  ;  good  land  too,  now  that  the  plougher 
understands  his  trade  ;  a  grim  niched  barrier  of  whinstone  sheltering 
it  from  the  chafings  and  tumblings  of  the  big  blue  German  Ocean. 
Seaward  St.  Abb's  Head,  of  whinstone,  bounds  your  horizon  to  the 
east,  not  very  far  off ;  west,  close  by,  is  the  deep  bay,  and  fishy  httle 
village  of  Belhaven  :  the  gloomy  Bass  and  other  rock-islets,  and 
farther  the  Hills  of  Fife,  and  foreshadows  of  the  Highlands,  are 
visible  as  you  look  seaward.  From  the  bottom  of  Belhaven  bay  to 
that  of  the  next  sea-bight  St.  Abb's-ward,  the  Town  and  its  environs 
form  a  peninsula.  Along  the  base  of  which  peninsula,  '  not  much 
above  a  mile  and  a  half  from  sea  to  sea,'  Oliver  Cromwell's  Army,  on 
Monday,  2nd  of  September,  1650,  stands  ranked,  with  its  tents  and 
Town  behind  it, — in  very  forlorn  circumstances.  This  now  is  all  the 
ground  that  Oliver  is  lord  of  in  Scotland.  His  Ships  lie  in  the  offing, 
with  biscuit  and  transport  for  him  ;  but  visible  elsewhere  in  the  Earth 
no  help. 

Landward  as  you  look  from  the  Town  of  Dunbar  there  rises,  some 
short  mile  off,  a  dusky  continent  of  barren  heath  Hills  ;  the  Lammer- 
moor,  where  only  mountain-sheep  can  be  at  home.  The  crossing  of 
which,  by  any  of  its  boggy  passes,  and  brawling  stream-courses,  no 
Army,  hardly  a  solitary  Scotch  Packman  could  attempt,  in  such 
weather.  To  the  edge  of  these  Lammermoor  Heights,  David  Lesley 
has  betaken  himself;  lies  now  along  the  outmost  spur  of  them, — a 
long  Hill  of  considerable  height,  which  the  Dunbar  people  call  the 
Dun,  Doon,  or  sometimes  for  fashion's  sake  the  Down,  adding  to  it 
the  Teutonic  Hill  likewise,  though  Dun  itself  in  old  Celtic  signifies 
Hill.  On  this  Doon  Hill  Hes  David  Lesley  with  the  victorious  Scotch 
Army,  upwards  of  Twenty-thousand  strong  ;  with  the  Committees  of 
Kirk  and  Estates,  the  chief  Dignitaries  of  the  Country,  and  in  fact 
the  flower  of  what  the  pure  Covenant  in  this  the  Twelfth  year  of  its 
existence  can  still  bring  forth.  There  lies  he  since  Sunday  night,  on 
the  top  and  slope  of  this  Doon  Hill,  with  the  impassable  heath-con- 
tinents behind  him  ;  embraces,  as  within  outspread  tiger-claws,  the 
base-line  of  Oliver's  Dunbar  peninsula  ;  waiting  what  Oliver  will  do. 
Cockburnspath  with  its  ravines  has  been  seized  on  Oliver's  left,  and 
made  impassable  ;  behind  Oliver  is  the  sea  ;  in  front  of  him  Lesley, 
Doon  Hill  and  the  heath-continent  of  Lammermoor.     l.eb!c>'s  foice 


io6  WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

is  of  Three-and-twenty-thousand,*  in  spirits  as  of  men  chasing; 
Oliver's  about  half  as  many,  in  spirits  as  of  men  chased.  What  is  to 
become  of  Oliver? 


LETTER  XCr. 

Oliver  on  Monday  writes  this  Note ;  sends  it  off,  I  suppose,  by 
sea.  Making  no  complaint  for  himself,  the  remarkable  Oliver  ;  doing, 
with  grave  brevity,  in  the  hour  the  business  of  the  hour.  '  He  was  a 
strong  man,'  so  intimates  John  Maidstone  who  knew  him :   *  in  the 

*  dark  perils  of  war,  in  the  high  places  of  the  field,  hope  shone  in  him 

*  like  a  pillar  of  fire,  when  it  had  gone  out  in  all  the  others.'!  A 
genuine  King  among  men,  Mr.  Maidstone  !  The  divinest  sight  this 
world  sees, — when  it  is  privileged  to  see  such,  and  not  be  sickened 
with  the  unholy  apery  of  such  !  He  is  just  now  upon  an  '  engagement,' 
or  complicated  concern,  '  very  difficult.' 

*  Td  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig,  Governor  of  Newcastle :  These.^ 

'  Dunbar,  2nd  September,  1650.' 

Dear  Sir, 

We  are  upon  an  Engagement  very  difficult.  The  Enemy  hath 
blocked  up  our  way  at  the  Pass  at  Copperspath,  through  which  we 
cannot  get  without  almost  a  miracle.  He  lieth  so  upon  the  Hills 
that  we  know  not  how  to  come  that  way  without  great  difficulty  ; 
and  our  lying  here  daily  consumeth  our  men,  who  fall  sick  beyond 
imagination. 

I  perceive,  your  forces  are  not  in  a  capacity  for  present  release. 
Wherefore,  whatever  becomes  of  us,  it  will  be  well  for  you  to  get 
what  forces  you  can  together  ;  and  the  South  to  help  what  they  can. 
The  business  nearly  concerneth  all  Good  People.  If  your  forces  had 
been  in  a  readiness  to  have  fallen  upon  the  back  of  Copperspath,  it 
might  have  occasioned  supplies  to  have  come  to  us.  But  the  only 
wise  God  knows  what  is  best.  All  shall  work  for  Good.  Our  spirits;]; 
are  comfortable,  praised  be  the  Lord,—  though  our  present  condition 
be  as  it  is.  And  indeed  we  have  much  hope  in  the  Lord  ;  of  whose 
mercy  we  have  had  large  experience. 

Indeed  do  you  get  together  what  forces  you  can  against  them. 
Send  to  friends  in  the  South  to  help  with  more.  Let  H.  Vane  know 
what  I  write.  I  would  not  make  it  public,  lest  danger  should  accrue 
thereby.  You  know  what  use  to  make  hereof  Let  me  hear  from 
you.     I  rest. 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.§ 

*  27,000  say  the  English   Pamphlets;    16,000  foot  and  7,000  horse,  says  Sir 
Edward  Walker  (p.  182),  who  has  access  to  know, 
f  Passui^es  in  his  Highness  s  last  Sickness,  already  referred  to. 
X  minds. 
§  Communicated  by  John   Hare,    Esquire,    Rosemont  Cottage,  Clifton.     The 


DUABAR  BATTLE.  I07 

The  base  of  Oliver's  '  Dunbar  Peninsula/  as  we  have  called  it  (or 
Dunbar  Pinfold  where  he  is  now  hemmed  in,  upon  '  an  entanglement 
very  difficult '),  extends  from  Belhaven  Bay  on  his  right,  to  Brocks- 
mouth  House  on  his  left ;  '  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  sea  to  sea/ 
Brocksmouth  House,  the  Earl  (now  Duke)  of  Roxburgh's  mansion, 
which  still  stands  there,  his  soldiers  now  occupy  as  their  extreme  post 
on  the  left.  As  its  name  indicates,  it  is  the  vioiith  or  issue  of  a  small 
Rivulet,  or  Burn,  called  Brock,  Brocksburn  j  which,  springing  from 
the  Lammermoor,  and  skirting  David  Lesley's  Doon  Hill,  finds  its 
egress  here  into  the  sea.  The  reader  who  would  form  an  image  to 
himself  of  the  great  Tuesday  3rd  of  September,  1650,  at  Dunbar, 
must  note  well  this  little  Burn.  It  runs  in  a  deep  grassy  glen,  which 
the  South-country  Officers  in  those  old  Pamphlets  describe  as  a  '  deep 
aitch,  forty  feet  in  depth,  and  about  as  many  in  width,' — ditch  dug 
out  by  the  little  Brook  itself,  and  carpeted  with  greensward,  in  the 
course  of  long  thousands  of  years.  It  runs  pretty  close  by  the  foot 
of  Doon  Hill  ;  forms,  from  this  point  to  the  sea,  the  boundary  of 
Oliver's  position  :  his  force  is  arranged  in  battle-order  along  the  left 
bank  of  this  Brocksburn,  and  its  grassy  glen  ;  he  is  busied  all  Mon- 
day, he  and  his  Officers,  in  ranking  them  there.  '  Before  sunrise  on 
Monday'  Lesley  sent  down  his  horse  from  the  Hill-top,  to  occupy  the 
other  side  of  this  Brook  ;  '  about  four  in  the  afternoon'  his  train  came 
down,  his  whole  Army  gradually  came  down;  and  they  now  are  ranking 
themselves  on  the  opposite  side  of  Brocksburn, — on  rather  narrow 
ground  ;  corn-fields,  but  swiftly  sloping  Upwards  to  the  steep  of 
Doon  Hill.  This  goes  on,  in  the  wild  showers  and  winds  of  Monday 
2nd  September,  1650,  on  both  sides  of  the  Rivulet  of  Brock.  Who- 
ever will  begin  the  attack,  must  get  across  this  Brook  and  its  glen 
firs  ;  a  thing  of  much  disadvantage. 

Behind  Oliver's  ranks,  between  him  and  Dunbar,  stand  his  tents  : 
sprinkled  up  and  down,  by  battalions,  over  the  face  of  this 
'  Peninsula  ; '  which  is  a  low  though  very  uneven  tract  of  ground  ; 
now  in  our  time  all  yellow  with  wheat  and  barley  in  the  autumn 
season,  but  at  that  date  only  partially  tilled,— describable  by 
Yorkshire  Hodgson  as  a  place  of  plashes  and  rough  bent-grass  ; 
terribly  beaten  by  showery  winds  that  day,  so  that  your  tent 
will  hardly  stand.  There  was  then  but  one  Farmhouse  on  this 
tract,  where  now  are  not  a  few  :  thither  were  Oliver's  Cannon  sent 
this  morning ;  they  had  at  first  been  lodged  '  in  the  Church,'  an  edi- 
fice standing  then  as  now  somewhat  apart,'  at  the  south  end  of  Dunbar.' 
We  have  notice  of  only  one  other  '  small  house,'  belike  some  poor 
shepherd's  homestead,  in  Oliver's  tract  of  ground  :  its  stands  close 
by  the  Brock  Rivulet  itself,  and  in  the  bottom  of  the  little  glen  ;  at  a 
place  where  the  banks  of  it  flatten  themselves  out  into  a  slope  pass- 
able for  carts  :  this  of  course,  as  the  one  '  pass '  in  that  quarter,  it  is 
highly  important  to  seize.  Pride  and  Lambert  lodged  '  six  horse  and 
fifteeii  foot '  in  this  poor  hut  early  in  the  morning  :  Lesley's  horse 
came  across,  and  drove  them  out ;  killing  some  and  '  taking  three  pri- 

MS.  at  Clifton  is  a  Copy,  without  date  ;  but  has  this  title  in  an  old  hand  :  '  Copy 
'  of  an  original  Letter  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  written  with  his  own  hand,  the  day 
'  before  the  Battle  of  Dunbarr,  to  Sir  A.  Haselridge.' 


log  iVAR  Wim  SCOTLAND. 

soners  ; ' — and  so  got  possession  of  this  pass  and  hut ;  but  did  not 
keep  it.  Among  the  three  prisoners  was  one  musketeer,  '  a  very 
stout  man,  though  he  has  but  a  wooden  arm,'  and  some  iron  hook  at 
the  end  of  it,  poor  fellow.  He  '  fired  thrice,'  not  without  effect,  with 
his  wooden  arm  ;  and  was  not  taken  without  difficulty  :  a  handfast 
stubborn  man  ;  they  carried  him  across  to  General  Lesley  to  give 
some  account  of  himself.  In  several  of  the  old  Pamphlets,  which 
agree  in  all  the  details  of  it,  this  is  what  we  read  : 

'  General  Dtrcdd  Lesley  (old  Leven,'  the  other  Lesley,  '  being  in 
'  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  as  they  relate"^),  asked  this  man.  If  the 
'  enemy  did  intend  to  fight  ?  He  replied,  "  What  do  you  think  we 
'  come  here    for  ?      \Vc  come  for    nothing  else  !  " — "  Soldier,"  says 

*  Lesley,  "  how  will  you  fight,  when  you  have  shipped  half  of  your  men, 

*  and  all  your  great  guns  }  "  The  Soldier  replied,  "  Sir,  if  you  please 
*to  draw  down  your  men,  you  shall  find  both  men  and  great  guns 
'too!'" — A  most  dogged  handfast  man,  this  with  the  wooden  arm, 
and  iron  hook  on  it  I  One  of  the  Officers  asked.  How  he  durst  answer 
'  the  General  so  saucily  .?  He  said,  "  I  only  answer  the  question  put 
'  to  me  !  "  '  Lesley  sent  him  across,  free  again,  by  a  trumpet :  he  made 
his  way  to  Cromwell  ;  reported  what  had  passed,  and  added  dog- 
gedly. He  for  ona  had  lost  twenty  shillings  by  the  business, — plun- 
dered from  him  in  this  action  'The  Lord  General  gave  him  there- 
upon two  pieces,'  which  I  think  are  forty  shillings;  and  sent  him  away 
rejoicing.t  -This  is  the  adventure  at  the  '  pass'  by  the  shepherd's  hut 
in  the  bottom  of  the  glen,  close  by  the  Brocksburn  itself. 

And  now  farther,  on  the  great  scale,  we  are  to  remark  very  spe- 
cially that  there  is  just  one  other  'pass'  across  the  Brocksburn; 
and  this  is  precisely  where  the  London  road  now  crosses  it  ;  about 
a  mile  east  from  the  former  pass,  and  perhaps  two  gunshots  west 
from  Brocksmouth  House.  There  the  great  road  then  as  now 
crosses  the  Burn  of  Brock  ;  the  steep  grassy  glen,  or  '  broad  ditch 
forty  feet  deep,' flattening  itself  out  here  ones  more  into  a  passable 
slope  :  passable,  but  still  steep  on  the  southern  or  Lesley  side,  still 
mounting  up  thore,  with  considerable  acclivity,  into  a  high  table- 
ground,  out  of  which  our  Doon  Hill,  an  outskirt  of  the  Lammer- 
moor,  a  short  mile  to  your  right,  gradually  gathers  itself.  There,  at 
this  '  pass,'  on  and  about  the  present  London  road,  as  you  discover 
after  long  dreary  dim  examining,  took  place  the  brunt  or  essential 
agony  of  the  Battle  of  Dunbar  long  ago.  Read  in  the  extinct  old 
Pamphlets,  and  ever  again  obstinately  read,  till  some  light  rise  in 
them,  look  even  with  unmilitary  eyes  at  the  ground  as  it  now  is, 
you  do  at  last  obtain  small  glimmerings  of  distinct  features  here  and 
there,— which  gradually  coalesce  into  a  kind  of  image  for  you  ;  and 
some  spectrum  of  the  Fact  becomes  visible  ;  rises  veritable,  face  to 
face,  on  you,  grim  and  sad  in  the  depths  of  the  old  dead  Time.  Yes, 
my  travelling    friends,  vehiculating   in  gigs  or   otherwise  over  that 

*  Old  Leven  is  her>\  if  the  Pamphlet  knew ;  but  only  as  a  volunteer  and  with- 
out comruand,  though  nominally  still  General-in-chief. 

t  Cadwell  the  Army-Messenger's  NaiTative  to  the  Parliament  (in  Carte's  Ormond 
Papers,  i.  5^2).  Given  also,  with  other  details,  in  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to, 
no.  478,  \\^'j,  7,  10;   no.  479,  §  I  ;   &c.  &c. 


DUNBAR  BATTLE.  109 

piece  of  London  road,  you  may  say  to  yourselves,  Here  vithout 
monument  is  the  grave  of  a  valiant  thing  which  was  done  under  the 
Sun;  the  footprint  of  a  hero,  not  yet  quite  undistinguishable,  is  here  ! — 

'  The  Lord  General  about  four  o'clock,'  say  the  old  Pamphlets, 
'  went  into  the  Town  to  take  some  refreshment,'  a  hasty  late  '  dinner,' 
or  early  '  supper,'  whichever  we  may  call  it ;  *  and  very  soon  returned 
back, — having  sent  off  Sir  Arthur's  Letter,  I  think,  in  the  interim. 
Coursing  about  the  field,  with  enough  of  things  to  order  ;  walking  at 
last  with  Lambert  in  the  Park  or  Garden  of  Brocksmouth  House,  he 
discerns  that  Lesley  is  astir  on  the  Hill-side  ;  altering  his  position 
somewhat.  That  Lesley  in  fact  is  coming  wholly  down  to  the  basis  of 
the  Hill,  where  his  horse  had  been  since  sunrise  :  coming  wholly  down 
to  edge  of  the  Brook  and  glen,  among  the  sloping  harvest-fields  there ; 
and  also  is  bringing  us  his  left  wing  of  horse,  most  part  of  it,  towards 
his  right  ;  edging  himself,  '  shogging,'  as  Oliver  calls  it,  his  whole 
line  more  and  more  to  the  right  !  His  meaning  is,  to  get  hold  of 
Brocksmouth  House  and  the  pass  of  the  Brook  there  ;^  after  which 
it  will  be  free  to  him  to  attack  us  when  he  will  !  — Lesley  in  fact  con- 
siders, or  at  least  the  Committee  of  Estates  and  Kirk  consider,  that 
Oliver  is  lost  ;  that,  on  the  whole,  he  must  not  be  left  to  retreat,  but 
must  be  attacked  and  annihilated  here.  A  vague  story,  due  to  Bishop 
Burnet,  the  watery  source  of  many  such,  still  circulates  about  the 
world.  That  it  was  the  Kirk  Committee  who  forced  Lesley  down 
against  his  will  ;  that  Oliver,  at  sight  of  it,  exclaimed,  "The  Lord  hath 
delivered"  &c.  :  which  nobody  is  in  the  least  bound  to  believe.  It 
appears,  from  other  quarters,  that  Lesley  was  advised  or  sanctioned  in 
this  attempt  by  the  Committee  of  Estates  and  Kirk,  but  also  that  he 
was  by  no  means  hard  to  advise  ;  that,  in  fact,  lying  on  the  top  of 
Doon  Hill,  shelterless  in  such  weather,  was  no  operation  to  spin  out 
beyond  necessity  ; — and  that  if  anybody  pressed  too  much  upon  him 
with  advice  to  come  down  and  fight,  it  was  likeliest  to  be  Royalist 
Civil  Dignitaries,  who  had  plagued  him  with  their  cavillings  at  his 
cunctations,  at  his  '  secret  fellow  feeling  for  the  Sectarians  and  Regi- 
cides,' ever  since  this  War  began.  The  poor  Scotch  Clergy  have 
enough  of  their  own  to  answer  for  in  this  business  ;  let  every  back 
bear  the  burden  that  belongs  to  it.  In  a  word,  Lesley  descends,  has 
been  descending  all  day,  and  '  shogs '  himself  to  the  right, — urged,  I 
believe,  by  manifold  counsel,  and  by  the  nature  of  the  case  ;  and, 
what  is  equally  important  for  us,  Ohver  sees  him,  and  sees  through 
him,  in  this  movement  of  his. 

At  sight  of  this  movement;  Oliver  suggests  to  Lambert  standing  by 
him.  Does  it  not  give  us  an  advantage,  if  we,  instead  of  him,  like  to 
begin  the  attack.'*  Here  is  the  Enemy's  right  wing  coming  out  to  the 
open  space,  free  to  be  attacked  on  any  side  ;  and  the  main-battle 
hampered  in  narrow  sloping  ground  between  Doon  Hill  and  the  Brook, 
has  no  room  to  manoeuvre  or  assist  :t  beat  this  right  wing  where  it 
now  stands  ;  take  it  in  flank  and  front  with  an  overpowering  force, — 
it  is  driven  upon  its  own  main-battle,  the  whole  Army  is  beaten 
Lambert  eagerly  assents,  "  had  meant  to  say  the  same  thing."    Monk, 

*  Baillie's  Letters,  iii.  iii.  f  Hodgson. 


no  WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

who  comes  up  at  the  moment,  hkewise  assents  ;  as  the  other 
Officers  do,  when  the  case  is  set  before  them.  It  is  the  plan  resolved 
upon  for  battle.     The  attack  shall  begin  tomorrow  before  dawn. 

And  so  the  soldiers  stand  to  their  arms,  or  lie  within  instant  reach 
of  their  arms,  all  night  ;  being  upon  an  engagement  very  difficult 
indeed.  The  night  is  wild  and  wet  ; — 2nd  of  Septen:ber  means  12th 
by  our  calendar  :  the  Harvest  Moon  wades  deep  among  clouds  of 
sleet  and  hail.  Whoever  has  a  heart  for  prayer,  let  him  pray  now, 
for  the  wrestle  of  death  is  at  hand.  Pray,— and  withal  keep  his  powder 
dry  !  And  be  ready  for  extremities,  and  quit  himself  like  a  man  ! — 
Thus  they  pass  the  night ;  making  that  Dunbar  Peninsula  and  Brock 
Rivulet  long  memorable  to  me.  We  English  have  some  tents  ; 
the  Scots  have  none.  The  hoarse  sea  moans  bodeful,  swinging  low 
and  heavy  against  these  whinstone  bays  ;  the  sea  and  the  tempests 
are  abroad,  all  else  asleep  but  we, — and  there  is  One  that  rides  on  the 
wings  of  the  wind. 

Towards  three  in  the  morning  the  Scotch  foot,  by  order  of  a  Major- 
General  say  some,*  extinguish  their  matches,  all  but  two  in  a  com- 
pany ;  cower  under  the  corn- shocks,  seeking  some  imperfect  shelter 
and  sleep.  Be  wakeful,  ye  English  ;  watch,  and  pray,  and  keep 
your  powder  dry.  About  four  o'clock  comes  order  to  my  pudding- 
headed  Yorkshire  friend,  that  his  regiment  must  mount  and  march 
straightway  ;  his  and  various  other  regiments  march,  pouring  swiftly 
to  the  left  to  Brocksmouth  House,  to  the  Pass  over  the  Brock.  With 
overpowering  force  let  us  storm  the  Scots  right  wing  there  ;  beat  that, 
and  all  is  beaten.  Major  Hodgson  riding  along,  heard,  he  says,  *  a 
Cornet  praying  in  the  night ; '  a  company  of  poor  men,  I  think, 
making  worship  there,  under  the  void  Heaven,  before  battle  joined  : 
Major  Hodgson,  giving  his  charge  to  a  brother  Officer,  turned  aside 
to  listen  for  a  minute,  and  worship  and  pray  along  with  them  ;  haply 
his  last  prayer  on  this  Earth,  as  it  might  prove  to  be.  But  no  :  this 
Cornet  prayed  with  such  effusion  as  was  wonderful ;  and  imparted 
strength  to  my  Yorkshire  friend,  who  strengthened  his  men  by  telling 
them  of  it.  And  the  Heavens,  in  their  mercy,  I  think,  have  opened  us 
a  way  of  deliverance  ! — The  Moon  gleams  out,  hard  and  blue,  riding 
among  hail-clouds;  and  over  St.  Abb's  Head,  a  streak  of  dawn  is  rising 

And  now  is  the  hour  when  the  attack  should  be,  and  no  Lambert 
is  yet  here,  he  is  ordering  the  line  far  to  the  right  yet ;  and  Oliver 
occasionally,  in  Hodgson's  hearing,  is  impatient  for  him.  The  Scots 
too,  on  this  wing,  are  awake  ;  thinking  to  surprise  us  ;  there  is  their 
trumpet  sounding,  we  heard  it  once  ;  and  Lambert,  who  was  to  lead 
the  attack,  is  not  here.  The  Lord  General  is  impatient ; — behold 
Lambert  at  last  !  The  trumpets  peal,  shattering  with  fierce  clangour 
Night's  silence  ;  the  cannons  awaken  along  all  the  Line  :  "  The  Lord 
t)f  Hosts  !     The  Lord  of  Hosts  !  "     On,  my  brave  ones  ;  on  ! — 

The  dispute  '  on  this  right  wing  was  hot  and  stiff,  for  three  quarters 
of  an  hour.'  Plenty  of  fire,  from  field-pieces,  snaphances,  matchlocks, 
entertains  the  Scotch  main  battle  across  the  Brock  ; — poor  stiffened 
men,  roused  from  the  corn-shocks  with  their  matches  all  out !     But 

*  '  Major-General  Holburn '  (he  that  escorted  Cromwell  into  Edinburgh  in 
1648),  says  Walker,  p.  180. 


DUNBAR  BATTLE.  in 

here  on  the  right,  their  horse,  '  with  lancers  in  the  front  rank,'  charge 
desperately  ;  drive  us  back  across  the  hollow  of  the  Rivulet ;— back  a 
little  ;  but  the  Lord  gives  us  courage,  and  we  storm  home  again,  horse 
and  foot,  upon  them,  with  a  shock  like  tornado  tempests  ;  break  them, 
beat  them,  drive  them  all  adrift.  '  Some  fled  towards  Copperspath, 
but  most  across  their  own  foot/  Their  own  poor  foot,  whose  matches 
were  hardly  well  alight  yet  !  Poor  men,  it  was  a  terrible  awakening 
for  them  :  field-pieces  and  charge  of  foot  across  the  Brocksburn  ;  and 
now  here  is  their  own  horse  in  mad  panic  trampling  them  to  death. 
Above  Three-thousand  killed  upon  the  place  :  '  1  never  saw  such  a 
charge  of  foot  and  horse,'  says  one  ;  nor  did  I.  Oliver  was  still  near 
to  Yorkshire  Hodgson  when  the  shock  succeeded  ;  Hodgson  heard 
him  say,  "  They  run  !  I  profess  they  run  !  "  And  over  St.  Abb's 
Head  and  the  German  Ocean  just  then  bursts  the  first  gleam  of  the 
level  Sun  upon  us,  '  and  I  heard  Nol  say,  in  the  words  of  the  Psalmist, 
"Let  God  arise,  let  His  enemies  be  scattered,"' — or  in  Rous's 
metre. 

Let  God  arise,  and  scattered 

Let  all  his  enemies  be  ; 
And  let  all  those  that  do  him  hate 

Before  his  presence  tiee  ! 

Even  so.  The  Scotch  Army  is  shivered  to  utter  ruin  ;  rushes  in 
tumultuous  wreck,  hither,  thither  ;  to  Belhaven,  or,  in  their  distrac- 
tion, even  to  Dunbar  ';  the  chase  goes  as  far  as  Haddington  ;  led  by 
Hacker.  '  The  Lord  General  made  a  halt,'  says  Hodgson,  '  and  sang 
the  Hundred-and-seventeenth  Psalm.'  till  our  horse  could  gather  for 
the  chase.  Hundred-and-seventeenth  Psalm,  at  the  foot  of  the  Doon 
Hill ;  there  we  uplift  it,  to  the  tune  of  Bangor,  or  some  still  higher 
score,  and  roll  it  strong  and  great  against  the  sky  : 

O  give  ye  praise  unto  the  Lord, 

All  nati-ons  that  be  ; 
Likewise  ye  people  all,  accord 

His  name  to  magnify  ! 

For  great  to-us-ward  ever  are 

His  lovingkindnesses ; 
His  truth  endures  forevermore  : 

The  Lord  O  do  ye  bless ! 

And  now,  to  the  chase  again. 

The  Prisoners  are  Ten-thousand,— all  the  foot  in  a  mass.  Many 
Dignitaries  are  taken  ;  not  a  few  are  slain  ;  of  whom  see  Printed 
Lists,— full  of  blunders.  Provost  Jaffray  of  Aberdeen,  Member  of  the 
Scots  Parliament,  one  of  the  Committee  of  Estates,  was  very  nearly 
slain :  a  trooper's  sword  was  in  the  air  to  sever  him,  but  one  cried. 
He  is  a  man  of  consequence  ;  he  can  ransom  himself!— and  the 
trooper  kept  him  prisoner.*  The  first  of  the  Scots  Quakers,  by 
and  by  ;  and  an  official  person  much  reconciled  to  Oliver.  Ministers 
also  of  the  Kirk  Committee  were  slain  ;  two  Ministers  I  find  taken, 

*  Diary  of  Alexander  Jaffray  (London,  1834; -unhappily  relating  almost  all  to 
the  inner  1113,11  of  | affray). 


112  IVAT^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


poor  Carstairs  of  Glasgow,  poor  Waugh  of  some  other  place, — of 
whom  we  shall  transiently  hear  again. 

General  David  Lesley,  vigorous  for  flight  as  for  other  things,  got  to 
Edinburgh  by  nine  o'clock  ;  poor  old  Leven,  not  so  light  of  move- 
ment, did  not  get  till  two.  Tragical  enough.  What  a  change  since 
January  1644,  when  we  marched  out  of  this  same  Dunbar  up  to  the 
knees  in  snow  !  It  was  to  help  and  save  these  very  men  that  we 
then  marched  ;  with  the  Covenant  in  all  our  hearts.  We  have  stood 
by  the  letter  of  the  Covenant  ;  fought  for  our  Covenanted  Stuart  King 
as  we  could  ;  — they  again,  they  stand  by  the  substance  of  it,  and  have 
trampled  us  and  the  letter  of  it  into  this  ruinous  state  ! — Yes,  my 
poor  friends  ;  and  now  be  wise,  be  taught  !  The  letter  of  your 
Covenant,  in  fact,  will  never  rally  again  in  this  world.  The  spirit 
and  substance  of  it,  please  God,  will  never  die  in  this  or  in  any 
world  ! 

Such  is  Dunbar  battle  ;  which  might  also  be  called  Dunbar  Drove, 
for  it  was  a  frightful  rout.  Brought  on  by  miscalculation  ;  misunder- 
standing of  the  difference  between  substances  and  semblances  ; — by 
mismanagement,  and  the  chance  of  war.  My  Lord  General's  next 
four  Letters  will  now  be  intelligible  to  the  reader. 


LETTER   XCIL 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthal,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament  of 
England:  These. 

Dunbar,  4th  September,  1650. 

SlE, 

I  hope  it's  not  ill  taken,  that  I  make  no  more  frequent  ad- 
dresses to  the  Parliament.  Things  that  are  in  trouble,  in  point  of 
provision  for  your  Army,  and  of  ordinary  direction,  I  have,  as  I  could, 
often  presented  to  the  Council  of  State,  together  with  such  occur- 
rences as  have  happened  ; — who,  I  am  sure,  as  they  have  not  been 
wanting  in  their  extraordinary  care  and  provision  for  us,  so  neither 
in  what  they  judge  fit  and  necessary  to  represent  the  same  to  you. 
And  this  I  thought  to  be  a  sufficient  discharge  of  my  duty  on  that 
behalf. 

It  hath  now  pleased  God  to  bestow  a  mercy  upon  you,  worthy  of 
your  knowledge,  and  of  the  utmost  praise  and  thanks  of  all  that  fear 
and  love  His  name  ;  yea  the  mercy  is  far  above  all  praise.  Which 
that  you  may  the  better  perceive,  I  shall  take  the  boldness  to 
tender  unto  you  some  circumstances  accompanying  this  great  busi- 
ness, which  will  manifest  the.  greatness  and  seasonableness  of  this 
mercy. 

We  having  tried  what  we  could  to  engage  the  Enemy,  three  or  four 
miles  West  of  Edinburgh  ;  that  proving  ineffectual,  and  our  victual 
failing, — we  marched  towards  our  ships  for  a  recruit  of  our  want.  The 
Enemy  did  not  at  all  trouble  us  in  our  rear  ;   but  marched  the  direct 


DUNBAR  BATTLE.  115 

way  towards  Edinburgh,  and  partly  in  the  night  and  morning  slips- 
through  his  whole  Army  ;  and  quarters  himself  in  a  posture  easy  to 
interpose  between  us  and  our  victual.  But  the  Lord  made  him  to  lose 
the  opportunity.  And  the  morning  proving  exceeding  wet  and  dark, 
Ave  recovered,  by  that  time  it  was  light,  a  ground  where  they  could 
not  hinder  us  from  our  victual  :  which  was  an  high  act  of  the  Lord's 
Providence  to  us.  We  being  come  into  the  said  ground,  the  Enemy 
marched  into  the  ground  we  were  last  upon  ;  having  no  mind  either 
to  strive  to  interpose  between  us  and  our  victuals,  or  to  fight ;  being 
indeed  upon  this  '  aim  of  reducing  us  to  a '  lock, — hoping  that  the 
sickness  of  our  Army  would  render  their  work  more  easy  by  the 
gaining  of  time.  Whereupon  we  marched  to  Musselburgh,  to  victual, 
and  to  ship  away  our  sick  men  ;  where  we  sent  aboard  near  five- 
hundred  sick  and  wounded  soldiers. 

And  upon  serious  consideration,  finding  our  weakness  so  to  increase, 
and  the  Enemy  lying  upon  his  advantage, — at  a  general  council  it 
was  thought  fit  to  march  to  Dunbar,  and  there  to  fortify  the  Town. 
Which  (we  thought),  if  anything,  would  provoke  them  to  engage.  As 
also.  That  the  having  of  a  Garrison  there  would  furnish  us  with  ac- 
commodation for  our  sick  men,  ^  and'  would  be  a  good  Magazine, — 
which  we  exceedingly  wanted  ;  being  put  to  depend  upon  the  uncer- 
tainty of  weather  for  landing  provisions,  which  many  times  cannot  be 
done  though  the  being  of  the  whole  Army  lay  upon  it,  all  the  coasts 
from  Berwick  to  Leith  having  not  one  good  harbour.  As  also,  To 
lie  more  conveniently  to  receive  our  recruits  of  horse  and  foot  from 
Berwick. 

Having  these  considerations,  upon  Saturday,  the  30th  of  August, 
we  marched  from  Musselburgh  to  Haddington,  Where,  by  that  time 
we  had  got  the  van-brigade  of  our  horse,  and  our  foot  and  train,  into 
their  quarters,  the  Enemy  had  marched  with  that  exceeding  expedi- 
tion that  they  fell  upon  the  rear-forlorn  of  our  horse,  and  put  it  in 
some  disorder  ;  and  indeed  had  like  to  have  engaged  our  rear-brigade 
of  horse  with  their  whole  Army, — had  not  the  Lord  by  His  providence 
put  a  cloud  over  the  Moon,  thereby  giving  us  opportunity  to  drav/  off 
those  horse  to  the  rest  of  our  Army.  Which  accordingly  was  done 
without  any  loss,  save  of  three  or  four  of  our  aforementioned  forlorn  ; 
wherein  the  Enemy,  as  we  believe,  received  more  loss. 

The  Army  being  put  into  a  reasonable  secure  posture, — towards 
midnight  the  Enemy  attempted  our  quarters,  on  the  west  end  of  Had- 
dington :  but  through  the  goodness  of  God  we  repulsed  them.  The 
next  morning  we  drew  into  an  open  field,  on  the  south  side  of  Had- 
dington ;  we  not  judging  it  safe  for  us  to  draw  to  the  Enemy  upon  his 
own  ground,  he  being  prepossessed  thereof  ; — but  rather  drew  back, 
to  give  him  way  to  come  to  us,  if  he  had  so  thought  fit.  And 
having  waited  about  the  space  of  four  or  five  hours,  to  see  if 
he  would  come  to  us  ;  and  not  finding  any  inclination  in  the  Enemy  so 
to  do, — we  resolved  to  go  according  to  our  first  intendment,  to  Dunbar. 

By  that  time  we  had  macrhed  three  or  four  miles,  we  saw  some 
bodies  of  the  Enemy's  horse  draw  out  of  their  quarters  ;  and  by  that 
time  our  carriages  were  gotten  near  Dunbar,  their  whole  Army  was 
upon  their  march  after  us.    And  indeed^  our  drawing  back  in  this 


114  ^^^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


manner,  with  the  addition  of  three  new  regiments  added  to  them,  did 
much  heighten  their  confidence,  if  not  presumption  and  arrogancy. — 
The  Enemy,  that  night,  we  perceived,  gathered  towards  the  Hills  ; 
labouring  to  make  a  perfect  interposition  between  us  and  Berwick. 
And  having  in  this  posture  a  great  advantage,— through  his  better 
knowledge  of  the  country,  he  effected  it  ;  by  sending  a  considerable 
party  to  the  strait  Pass  at  Copperspath  ;  where  ten  men  to  hinder  are 
better  than  forty  to  make  their  way.  And  truly  this  was  an  exigent  to 
us,*  wherewith  the  Enemy  reproached  us  ;— '  as  '  with  that  condition 
the  Parliament's  Army  was  inf  wh.n  it  made  its  hard  conditions  with 
the  King  in  Cornwall, — by  some  reports  that  have  come  to  us.  They 
had  disposed  of  us,  and  of  our  business,  in  sufficient  revenge  and 
wrath  towards  our  persons  ;  and  had  swallowed  up  the  ;  oor  Interest 
of  England  ;  believing  that  their  Army  and  their  King  would  have 
marched  to  London  without  any  interruption  ; — it  being  told  us  (we 
know  not  how  truly)  by  a  prisoner  we  took  the  night  before  the  fight, 
That  their  King  was  very  suddenly  to  come  amongst  them,  with  those 
English  they  allowed  to  be  about  him.  But  in  what  they  were  thus 
lifted  up,  the  Lord  was  above  them. 

The  Enemy  lying  in  the  posture  before  mentioned,  having  those 
advantages  ;  we  lay  very  near  him,  being  sensible  of  our  disadvan- 
tages ;  having  some  weakness  of  flesh,  but  yet  consolation  and  sup- 
port from  the  Lord  himself  to  our  poor  weak  faith,  wherein  I  believe 
not  a  few  amongst  us  stand  :  That  because  of  their  numbers,  be- 
cause of  their  advantages,  because  of  their  confidence,  because  of  our 
weakness,  because  of  our  strait,  we  were  in  the  Mount,  and  in  the 
Mount  the  Lord  would  be  seen  ;  and  that  He  would  find  out  a  way  of 
deliverance  and  salvation  for  us  : — and  mdeed  we  had  our  consola- 
tions and  our  hopes. 

Upon  Monday  evening, — the  Enemy's  whole  numbers  were  very 
great  ;  about  Six-thousand  horse,  as  we  heard,  and  Sixteen-thousand 
foot  at  least ;  ours  drawn  down,  as  to  sound  men,  to  about  Seven- 
thousand  five  -  hundred  foot,  and  Three  -  thousand  five  -  hundred 
horse, — '  upon  Monday  evening,'  the  Enemy  drew  down  to  the 
right  wing  about  two-thirds  of  their  left  wing  of  horse.  To  the 
right  wing ;  shogging  also  their  foot  and  train  much  to  the  right ; 
causing  their  right  wing  of  horse  to  edge  down  towards  the  sea. 
We. could  not  well  imagine  but  that  the  Enemy  intended  to 
attempt  upon  us,  or  to  place  themselves  in  a  more  exact  condition  of 
interposition.  The  Major-General  and  myself  coming  to  the  Earl 
Roxburgh's  House,  and  observing  this  posture,  I  told  him  I  thought 
it  did  give  us  an  opportunity  and  advantage  to  attempt  upon  the 
Enemy.  To  which  he  immediately  replied,  That  he  had  thought  to 
have  said  the  same  thing  to  me.  So  that  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  set 
this  apprehension  upon  both  of  our  hearts,  at  the  same  instant.    We 

*  A  disgraceful  summons  of  caption  to  us ;  '  exigent '  is  a  law-writ  issued 
against  a  fugitive,— such  as  we  knew  long  since,  in  our  young  days,  about  Lincoln's 
Inn  ! 

t  Essex's  Army  seven  years  ago,  in  Autumn  1644,  when  the  King  had  impounded 
it  among  the  Hills  of  Cornwall  (see  anUa,  vol.  i.  p.  117). 


DUNBAR  BATTLE.  115 

called  for  Colonel  Monk,  and  shewed  him  the  thing  :  and  coming  to 
our  quarters  at  night,  and  demonstrating  our  apprehensions  to  some 
of  the  Colonels,  they  also  cheerfully  concurred. 

We  resolved  therefore  to  put  our  business  into  this  posture  :  That 
six  regiments  of  horse,  and  three  regiments  and  an  half  of  foot  should 
march  in  the  van  ;  and  that  the  Major-General,  the  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  horse,  and  the  Commissary-General,"*^  and  Colonel 
Monk  to  command  the  brigade  of  foot,  should  lead  on  the  business  ; 
and  that  Colonel  Pride's  brigade.  Colonel  Overton's  brigade,  and  the 
remaining  two  regiments  of  horse  should  bring  up  the  cannon  and 
rear.  The  time  of  falling-on  to  be  by  break  of  day  :— but  through 
some  delays  it  proved  not  to  be  so;  'not'  till  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning. 

The  Enemy's  word  was,  The  Covenant ;  which  it  had  been  for  divers 
days.  Ours,  77ie  Lord  of  Hosts.  The  Major-General,  Lieutenant- 
General  Fleetwood,  and  Commissary-General  Whalley,  and  Colonel 
Twistleton,  gave  the  onset  ;  the  Enemy  being  in  a  very  good  posture 
to  receive  them,  having  the  advantage  of  their  cannon  and  foot 
against  our  horse.  Before  our  foot  could  come  up,  the  Enemy  made 
a  gallant  resistance,  and  there  was  a  very  hot  dispute  at  sword's  point 
between  our  horse  and  theirs..  Our  first  foot,  after  they  had  discharged 
their  duty  (being  overpowered  with  the  Enemy),  received  some  re- 
pulse, which  they  soon  recovered.  For  my  own  regiment,  under  the 
command  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  (jofte  and  my  Major,  White,  did 
come  seasonably  in  ;  and,  at  the  push  of  pike,  did  repel  the  stoutest 
regiment  the  Enemy  had  there,  merely  with  the  courage  the  Lord  was 
pleased  to  give.  Which  proved  a  great  amazement  to  the  residue  of 
their  foot  ;  this  being  the  first  action  between  the  foot.  The  horse  in 
the  meantime  did,  with  a  great  deal  of  courage  and  spirit,  beat  back 
all  oppositions  ;  charging  through  the  bodies  of  the  Enemy's  horse, 
and  of  their  foot ;  who  were,  after  the  first  repulse  given,  made  by 
the  Lord  of  Hosts  as  stubble  to  their  swords.— Indeed,  I  beheve  I 
may  speak  it  without  partiality  :  both  your  chief  Commanders  and 
others  in  their  several  places,  and  soldiers  also,  were  acted  f  with 
as  much  courage  as  ever  hath  been  seen  in  any  action  since  this 
War.  I  know  they  look  not  to  be  named  ;  and  therefore  I  forbear 
particulars. 

The  best  of  the  Enemy's  horse  being  broken  through  and  through 
in  less  than  an  hour's  dispute,  their  whole  Army  being  put  into  con- 
fusion, it  became  a  total  rout  :  our  men  having  the  chase  and  execu- 
tion of  them  near  eight  miles.  We  believe  that  upon  the  place  and 
near  about  it  were  about  Three-thousand  slain.  Prisoners  taken  :  of 
their  officers,  you  have  this  enclosed  List  ;  of  private  soldiers  near 
Ten-thousand.  The  whole  baggage  and  train  taken,  wherein  was 
good  store  of  match,  powder  and  bullet  ;  all  their  artillery,  great  and 
small, — thirty  guns.  We  are  confident  they  have  left  behind  them 
not  less  than  Fifteen-thousand  arms.  I  have  already  brought  in  to 
me  near  Two-hundred  colours,  which  I  herewith  send  you.;]:     What 

*  Lambert,  Fleetwood,  Whalley.  +  '  actuated  '  as  we  now  write  it. 

t  They  hung  long  in  Westminster  Hall:  beside  the  Preston  ones,  and  still  others 
Ihf^t  Ciini^,     ColoH'-l  Pride  ins  be -n  heard  to  wi§h,  arid  almost  to  hope,  That  th§ 


ii6  l^^AR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

officers  of  theirs  of  quality  are  killed,  we  yet  cannot  learn  ;  but  yet 
surely  divers  are  ;  and  many  men  of  quality  are  mortally  wounded, 
as  Colonel  Lumsden,  the  Lord  libberton  and  others.  And,  that 
which  is  no  small  addition,  I  do  not  believe  we  have  lost  twenty  men. 
Not  one  Commission  Officer  slain  as  I  hear  of,  save  one  Cornet  ;  and 
Major  Rooksby,  since  dead  of  his  wounds  ;  and  not  many  mortally 
wounded  : — Colonel  Whalley  only  cut  in  the  hand  wrist,  and  his  horse 
(twice  shot)  killed  under  him  ;  but  he  well  recovered  another  horse, 
and  went  on  in  the  chase. 

Thus  you  have  the  prospect  of  one  of  the  most  signal  mercies  God 
hath  done  for  England  and  His  people,  this  War  : — and  now  may  it 
please  you  to  give  me  the  leave  of  a  few  words.  It  is  easy  to  say, 
The  Lord  hath  done  this.  It  would  do  you  good  to  see  and  hear 
our  poor  foot  to  go  up  and  down  making  their  boast  of  God.  But, 
Sir,  it's  in  your  hands,  and  by  these  eminent  mercies  God  puts  it 
more  into  your  hands.  To  give  glory  to  Him  ;  to  improve  your  power, 
and  His  blessings,  to  His  praise.  We  that  serve  you  beg  of  you  not 
to  own  us, — but  God  alone.  We  pray  you  own  His  people  more 
and  more  ;  for  they  are  the  chariots  and  horsemen  of  Israel.  Disown 
yourselves  ; — but  own  your  Authority  ;  and  improve  it  to  curb  the 
proud  and  the  insolent,  such  as  would  disturb  the  tranquillity  of 
England,  though  under  what  specious  pretences  soever.  Relieve  the 
oppressed,  hear  the  groans  of  poor  prisoners  in  England.  Be  pleased 
to  reform  the  abuses  of  all  professions  :— and  if  there  be  anyone  that 
makes  many  poor  to  make  a  few  rich,*  that  suits  not  a  Common- 
wealth. If  He  that  strengthens  your  servants  to  fight,  please  to  give 
your  hearts  to  set  upon  these  things,  in  order  to  His  glory,  and  the 
glory  of  your  Commonwealth, — 'then'  besides  the  benefit  England 
shall  feel  thereby,  you  shall  shine  forth  to  other  Nations,  who  shall 
emulate  the  glory  of  such  a  pattern,  and  through  the  power  of  God 
turn  in  to  the  like  ! 

These  are  our  desires.  And  that  you  may  have  liberty  and  oppor- 
tunity to  do  these  things,  and  not  be  hindered,  we  have  been  and 
shall  be  (by  God's  assistance^  willing  to  venture  our  lives  ; — and 
^  will '  not  desire  you  should  be  precipitated  by  importunities,  from 
your  care  of  safety  and  preservation  ;  but  that  the  doing  of  these 
good  things  may  have  their  place  amongst  those  which  concern  well- 
being,f  and  so  be  wrought  in  their  time  and  order. 

Since  we  came  in  Scotland,  it  hath  been  our  desire  and  longing  to 
have  avoided  blood  in  this  business  ;  by  reason  that  God  hath  a 
people  here  fearing  His  name,  though  deceived.  And  to  that  end 
have  we  offered  much  love  unto  such,  in  the  bowels  of  Christ ;  and 
concerning  the  truth  of  our  hearts  therein,  have  we  appealed  unto 

Lawyers'  gowns  might  all  be  hungupbesidetheScotscoloursyet,— and  the  Lawyers' 
selves,  except  some  very  small  and  most  select  needful  remnant,  be  ordered  peremp- 
torily to  disappear  from  those  localities,  and  seek  an  honest  trade  elsewhere  I 
(Walker's  History  of  Independency.) 

*  '  Many  of  them  had  a/^^>^at  Lawyers  generally'  (says  learned  Bulstrode  in 
these  months, — appealing  to  posterity,  almost  with  tears  in  his  big  dull  eyes  !). 

-j"  We  as  yet  struggle  for  being ;  which  is  preliminary,  and  still  more  essential 


DUNBAR.  ni 

the  Lord.  The  Ministers  of  Scotland  have  hindered  the  passage  of 
these  things  to  the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  we  intended  them.  And 
now  we  hear,  that  not  only  the  deceived  people,  but  some  of  the 
Ministers  are  also  fallen  in  this  Battle.  This  is  the  great  hand  of  the 
Lord,  and  worthy  of  the  consideration  of  all  those  who  take  into  their 
hands  the  instruments  of  a  foolish  shepherd, — to  wit,  meddling  with 
worldly  policies,  and  mixtures  of  earthly  power,  to  set  up  that  which 
they  call  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  which  is  neither  it,  nor  if  it  were  it, 
would  such  means  be  found  effectual  to  that  end, — and  neglect,  or 
trust  not  to,  the  Word  of  God  ;  the  sword  of  the  spirit  ;  which  is 
alone  powerful  and  able  for  the  setting  up  of  that  Kingdom  ;  and, 
when  trusted  to,  will  be  found  effectually  able  to  that  end,  and  will 
also  do  it !  This  is  humbly  offered  for  their  sakes  who  have  lately 
too  much  turned  aside  :  that  they  might  return  again  to  preach  Jesus 
Christ,  according  to  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel  ; — and  then  no  doubt 
they  will  discern  and  find  your  protection  and  encouragement. 

Beseeching  you  to  pardon  this  length,  1  humbly  take  leave ;  and 
rest, 

Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 


LETTER  XCIIL 
To  the  Lord  President  of  the  Council  of  State :    These. 

Dunbar,  4th  September,  1650. 

My  Lord, 

I  have  sent  the  Major-General,  with  six  regiments  of  horse  and 
one  of  foot,  towards  Edinburgh  ;  purposing  (God  willing)  to  follow 
after,  tomorrow,  with  what  convenience  I  may. 

We  are  put  to  exceeding  trouble,  though  it  be  an  effect  of  abun- 
dant mercy,  with  the  numerousness  of  our  Prisoners  ;  having  so  few 
hands,  so  many  of  our  men  sick  ; — so  little  conveniency  of  disposing 
of  them  ;t  and  not,  by  attendance  thereupon,  to  omit  the  seasonable- 
ness  of  the  prosecution  of  this  mercy  as  Providence  shall  direct.  We 
have  been  constrained,  even  out  of  Christianity,  humanity,  and  the 
forementioned  necessity,  to  dismiss  between  four  and  five  thousand 
Prisoners,  almost  starved,  sick  and  wounded  ;  the  remainder,  which 
are  the  like,  or  a  greater  number,  I  am  fain  to  send  by  a  convoy  of 
four  troops  of  Colonel  Hacker's,  to  Berwick,  and  so  on  to  Newcastle,, 
southwards.;}: 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  pp.  87-91). 

f  The  Prisoners  : — sentence  ungrammatical,  but  intelligible. 

X  A  frightful  account  of  what  became  of  them  'southwards;'  how,  for  sheer 
hunger,  they  ate  raw-cabbages  in  the  '  walled  garden  at  Morpeth,*  and  lay  in  un- 
speakable imprisonment  in  Durham  Cathedral,  and  died  as  of  swift  pestilence 
there  :  In  Sir  Arthur  Haselrigs  Letter  to  the  Cotincil  of  State  (repnnted,  from 
the  old  Pamphlets,  in  Parliamentary  History,  xix,  417). 


llS:  ti^AR  H^JTH  SCOTLAND. 

I  think  fit  to  acquaint  your  Lordship  with  two  or  three  observations. 
Some  of  the  honestest  in  the  Army  amongst  the  Scots  did  profess 
before  the  fight,  That  they  did  not  beheve  their  King  irt  his  Declara- 
tion ;*  and  it's  most  evident  he  did  sign  it  with  as  much  rekictancy, 
and  so  much  against  his  heart  as  could  be  :  and  yet  they  venture  their 
lives  for  him  upon  this  account  ;  and  pubhsh  this  '  Declaration '  to 
the  world,  to  be  believed  as  the  act  of  a  person  converted,  when 
in  their  hearts  they  know  he  abhorred  the  doing  of  it,  and  meant  it 
not. 

I  hear  when  the  Enemy  marched  last  up  to  us,  the  Ministers  pressed 
their  Army  to  interpose  between  us  and  home  ;  the  chief  Officers 
desiring  rather  that  we  might  have  way  made,  though  it  were  by  a 
golden  bridge.  But  the  Clergy's  counsel  prevailed, — to  their  no 
great  comfort,  through  the  goodness  of  God. 

The  Enemy  took  a  gentleman  of  Major  Brown's  troop  prisoner, 
that  night  we  came  to  Haddington  ;  and  he  had  quarter  through 
Lieutenant-General  David  Leslie's  means  ;  who,  finding  him  a  man 
of  courage  and  parts,  laboured  with  him  to  take  up  arms.  But  the 
man  expressing  constancy  and  resolution  to  this  side,  the  Lieutenant- 
General  caused  him  to  be  mounted,  and  with  two  troopers  to  ride 
about  to  view  their  gallant  Army  ;  using  that  as  an  argument  to  per- 
suade him  to  their  side  ;  and,  when  this  was  done,  dismissed  him 
to  us  in  a  bravery.  And  indeed  the  day  before  we  fought,  they  did 
express  so  much  insolency  and  contempt  of  us,  to  some  soldiers  they 
took,  as  was  beyond  apprehension. 

Your  Lordship's  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  *CROMWELL.t 


Which  high  officialities  being  ended,  here  are  two  glad  domestic 
Letters  of  the  same  date. 

LETTER  XCIV. 
For  my  beloved  IVz/e,  Elizabeth  Cromwell^  at  the  Cockpit :  These. 

Dunbar,  4th  September,  1650. 

My  Dearest, 

I  have  not  leisure  to  write  much.  But  I  could  chide  thee  that 
in  many  of  thy  letters  thou  writest  to  me.  That  I  should  not  be  un- 
mindful of  thee  and  thy  little  ones.  Truly,  if  I  love  you  not  too  well, 
I  think  I  err  not  on  the  other  hand  much.  Thou  art  dearer  to  me 
than  any  creature  ;  let  that  suffice. 

The  Lord  hath  shewed  us  an  exceeding  mercy  : — who  can  tell  how 
great  it  is  !  My  weak  faith  has  been  upheld.  I  have  been  in  my  in- 
ward man  marvellously  supported  ;- -though  I  assure  thee,  I  grow  an 
old  man,  and  feel  infirmities  of  age  marvellously  stealing  upon  me, 

*  Open  Testimony  against  the  sins  of  his  Father,  see  p.  102. 
•j-  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  91). 


DUNBAR.  il^ 

Would  my  corruptions  did  as  fast  decrease  !  Pray  on  my  behalf  in 
the  latter  respect.  The  particulars  of  our  late  success  Harry  Vane  or 
Gilbert  Pickering  will  impart  to  thee.  My  love  to  all  dear  friends.  I 
rest  thine, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 


LETTER    XCV. 

For  my  loving  Brother,  Richard  May  or ^  Esquire^  at 
Hursley  :  These.  - 

Dunbar,  4th  September,  1650. 

Dear  Brother, 

Having  so  good  an  occasion  as  the  imparting  so  great  a  mercy 
as  the  Lord  has  vouchsafed  us  in  Scotland,  I  would  not  omit  the  im- 
parting thereof  to  you,  though  I  be  full  of  business. 

Upon  Wednesdayt  we  fought  the  Scottish  Armies.  They  were 
in  number,  according  to  all  computation,  above  Twenty-thousand  ; 
we  hardly  Eleven-thousand,  having  great  sickness  upon  our  Army. 
After  much  appealing  to  God,  the  Fight  lasted  above  an  hour.  We 
killed  (as  most  think)  Three-thousand  ;  took  near  Ten-thousand 
prisoners,  all  their  train,  about  thirty  guns  great  and  small,  besides 
bullet,  match  and  powder,  very  considerable  Officers,  about  two- 
hundred  colours,  above  ten-thousand  arms  ; — lost  not  thirty  men. 
This  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes.  Good  Sir, 
give  God  all  the  glory ;  stir  up  all  yours,  and  all  about  you,  to  do  so. 
Pray  for 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

I  desire  my  love  may  be  presented  to  my  dear  Sister,  and  to  all 
your  Family.  I  pray  tell  Doll  I  do  not  forget  her  nor  her  little  Brat. 
She  writes  very  cunningly  and  complimentally  to  me  ;  I  expect  a 
Letter  of  plain  dealing  from  her.  She  is  too  modest  to  tell  me 
whethjer  she  breeds  or  not.  I  wish  a  blessing  upon  her  and  her  Hus- 
band. The  Lord  make  them  fruitful  in  all  that's  good.  They  are  at 
leisure  to  write  often  ; — but  indeed  they  are  both  idle,  and  worthy  of 
blame.} 

*  Copied  from  the  Original  by  John  Hare,  Esq.,  Rosemount  Cottage,  Clifton. 
Collated  with  the  old  Copy  in  British  Meseum,  Cole  MSS.,  no.  5834,  p.  38.  'The 
Original  was  purchased  at  Strawberry-Hill  Sale'  (Horace  Walpole's),  '30th  April, 
1842,  for  Twenty-one  guineas.' 

t  '  Wedensd."  in  the  Original.  A  curious  proof  of  the  haste  and  confusion 
Cromwell  was  in.  ,  The  Battle  was  on  Tuesday, — yesterday,  3rd  September,  1650; 
indisputably  Tuesday  ;  and  he  is  now  vvriting  on  Wednesday  ! — 

X  Harris,  p.  513 ;  one  of  the  Pusey  stock,  the  last  now  but  three. 


120  tvAi^  With  Scotland. 


LETTERS    XCVL— XCVIII 

Of  these  Letters,  the  first  Two,  with  their  Rephes  and  Adjuncts, 
Six  Missives  in  all,  form  a  Pamphlet  published  at  Edinburgh  in  1650, 
with  the  Title  :  Several  Letters  mui  Passages  between  his  Excellency 
the  Lord  General  Cromwell  and  the  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle. 
They  have  been  reprinted  in  various  quarters  :  we  copy  the  Cromwell 
part  of  them  from  Thurloe ;  and  fancy  they  will  not  much  need  any 
preface.  Here  are  some  words,  written  elsewhere  on  the  occasion, 
some  time  ago. 

'  These  Letters  of  Cromwell  to  tie  Edinburgh  Clergy,  treatrng  of 
'  obsolete  theologies  and  polities,  are  very  dull  to  modern  men  :  but 
'  they  deserve  a  steady  perusal  by  all  such  as  will  understand  the 
'  strange  meaning  (for  the  present,  alas,  as  good  as  obsolete  in  all 
'  forms  of  it)  that  possessed  the  mind  of  Cromwell  in  these  hazardous 
'  operations  of  his.  Dryasdust,  carrying  his  learned  eye  over  these  and 
'  the  like  Letters,  finds  them,  of  course,  full  of  "  hypocrisy,"  &c.  &c. — 
'  Unfortunate  Dryasdust,  they  are  coruscations,  terrible  as  lightning, 
'  and  beautiful  as  lightning,  from  the  innermost  temple  of  the  Human 

*  Soul  ; — intimations,  still  credible,  of  what  a  Human  SoUl  does  mean 
'  when  it  believes  in  the  Highest;  a  thing  poor   Dryasdust  never  did 

*  nor  will  do.     The  hapless  generation  that  now  reads  these  words 

*  ought  to  hold  its  peace  when  it  has  read  them,  and  sink  into  unutter- 

*  able  reflections, — not  unmixed  with  tears,  and  some  substitute  for 

*  "  sackcloth  and  ashes,"   if  it  liked.      In  its  poor  canting  sniffing 

*  flimsy  vocabulary  there  is  no  word  that  can  make  any  response  to 

*  them.     This  man  has  a  living   god-inspired  soul  in  him,  not  an  en- 

*  chanted  artificial  '  substitute  for  salt,"  as  our  fashion  is.  They  that 
'  have  human  eyes  can  look  upon  him  ;  they  that  have  only  owl-eyes 
'  need  not.' 

Here  also  are  some  sentences  on  a  favourite  topic,  lightning  and 
light  '  As  lightning  is  to  light,  so  is  a  Cromwell  to  a  Shakspeare. 
'  The  light  is  beautiluller.  Ah,  yes  ;  but  until,  by  lightning  and  other 
fierce  labour,  your  foul  Chaos  has  become  a  World,  you  cannot  have 
any  light,  or  the  smallest  chance  for  any  !  Honour  the  Amphion 
whose  music  makes  the  stones,  rocks,  and  big  blocks,  dance  into 
figures,  and  domed  cities,  with  temples  and  habitations  : — yet  know 
him  too  ;  how,  as  ^^olker's  in  the  old  Nibehingen^  oftentimes  his 
"  fiddlebow  "  has  to  be  of  "  sharp  steel,"  and  to  play  a  tune  very 
rough  to  rebellious  ears  !  The  melodious  Speaker  is  great,  but  the 
melodious  Worker  is  greater  than  he.  "  Our  Time,"  says  a  certain 
author,  "  cannot  speak  at  all,  but  only  cant  and  sneer,  and  argumen- 
tatively  jargon,  and  recite  the  multiplication-table.  Neither  as  yet 
can  it  work,  except  at  mere  railroads  and  cotton-spinning.  It  will, 
apparently,  return  to  Chaos  soon  ;  and  then  more  lightnings  will  be 
needed,  lightning  enough,  to  which  Cromwell's  was  but  a  mild 
matter  ] — to  be  followed  by  light,  we  may  hope  !  " ' — 


EDINBURGH.  121 


The  following  Letter  from  Whalley,  with  the  Answer  to  it,  will  in- 
troduce this  series.  The  date  is  Monday  ;  the  Lord  General  observ- 
ing yesterday  that  the  poor  Edinburgh  people  were  sadly  short  of 
Sermon,  has  ordered  the  Lieutenant-General  to  communicate  as 
follows  : 

"  For  the  Honourable  the  Governor  of  the  Castle  of  Edinbtirgh. 

"Edinburgh,  9th  September,  1650. 

"  Sir, — I  received  command  from  my  Lord  General  to  desire  you 
"  to  let  the  Ministers  of  Edinburgh,  now  in  the  Castle  with  you, 
"  know,  That  they  have  free  liberty  granted  them,  if  they  please  to 
"  take  the  pains,  to  preach  in  their  several  Churches  ;  and  that  my 
"  Lord  hath  given  special  command  both  to  officers  and  soldiers  that 
"  they  shall  not  in  the  least  be  molested.  Sir,  I  am,  your  most  humble 
"  servant, 

*'  Edward  Whalley." 

To  which  straightway  there  is  this  Answer  from  Governor  Dundas : 

"  *  To  Commissary  General  Whalley. 

"  '  Edinburgh  Castle,'  9th  September,  1650. 

"  Sir, — I  have  communicated  the  desire  of  your  Letter  to  such  of 
"  the  Ministers  of  Edinburgh  as  are  with  me  ;  who  have  desired  me 
"  to  return  this  for  Answer  : 

"  That  though  they  are  ready  to  be  spent  in  their  Master's  service, 
"  and  to  refuse  no  suffering  so  they  may  fulfil  their  ministry  with  joy  ; 
"  yet  perceiving  the  persecution  to  be  personal,  by  the  practice  of 
"your  Party"*^  upon  the  Ministers  of  Christ  in  England  and  Ireland, 
"  and  in  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland  since  your  unjust  invasion  thereof ; 
"and  finding  nothing  expressed  in  yours  whereupon  to  build  any 
"  security  for  their  persons  while  they  are  there,  and  for  their  return 
"  hither  ; — they  are  resolved  to  reserve  themselves  for  better  times, 
"  and  to  wait  upon  Him  who  hath  hidden  His  face  for  a  while  from 
"  the  sons  of  Jacob. 

"  This  is  all  I  have  to  say,  but  that  I  am,  Sir,  your  most  humble 
"  servant, 

"W.  Dundas." 

To  which  somewhat  sulky  response,  Oliver  makes  Answer  in  this 
notable  manner : 

LETTER    XCVL 

For  the  Honourable  the  Governor  of  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh:  These. 

Edinburgh,  9th  September,  1650. 

Sir, 

The  kindness  offered  to  the  Ministers  with  you  was  done  with 

*  Sectarian  Party,  of  Independents. 


t22  tVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND, 

ingenuity  ;'^  thinking  it  might  have  met  with  the  hke  :  but  I  am  satis- 
fied to  tell  those  with  you,  That  if  their  Master's  service  (as  they  call 
it)  were  chiefly  in  their  eye,  imagination  .of  sufferingt  would  not  have 
caused  such  a  return  ;  much  less  '  would '  the  practice  of  our  Party, 
as  they  are  pleased  to  say,  upon  the  Ministers  of  Christ  in  England, 
have  been  an  argument  of  personal  persecution. 

The  Ministers  in  England  are  supported,  and  have  liberty  to 
preach  the  Gospel ;  though  not  to  rail,  nor  under  pretence  there- 
oiX  to  overtop  the  Civil  Power,  or  debase  it  as  they  please.  No 
man  hath  been  troubled  in  England  or  Ireland  for  preaching  the 
Gospel  ;  nor  has  any  Minister  been  molested  in  Scodand  since  the 
coming  of  the  Army  hither.  The  speaking  truth  becomes  the  Minis- 
ters of  Christ. 

When  Ministers  pretend  to  a  glorious  Reformation  ;  and  lay  the 
foundations  thereof  in  getting  to  themselves  worldly  power ;  and  can 
make  worldly  mixtures  to  accomplish  the  same,  such  as  their  late 
Agreement  with  their  King ;  and  hope  by  him  to  carry  on  their 
design,  '  they '  may  know  that  the  Sion  promised  will  not  be  built 
with  such  untempered  mortar. 

As  for  the  unjust  Invasion  they  mention,  time  was§  when  an  Army 
of  Scotland  came  into  England,  not  called  by  the  Supreme 
Authority.  We  have  said  in  our  Papers,  with  what  hearts,  and  upon 
what  account,  we  came;  and  the  Lord  hath  heard  us,l|  though  you 
would  not,  upon  as  solemn  an  appeal  as  any  experience  can  parallel. 

And  although  they  seem  to  comfort  themselves  with  being  sons  of 
Jacob,  from  whom  (they  say)God  hath  hid  His  face  for  a  time  ;  yet  it's 
no  wonder  when  the  Lord  hath  lifted  up  His  hand  so  eminently  against 
a  Family  as  He  hath  done  so  often  against  this,^  and  men  will  not 
see  His  hand, — '  it's  no  wonder '  if  the  Lord  hide  His  face  from  such  ; 
putting  them  to  shame  both  for  it  and  their  hatred  of  His  people  ;  as 
it  is  this  day.  When  they  purely  trust  to  the  Sword  of  the  Spirit, 
which  is  the  word  of  God,  which  is  powerful  to  bring  down  strong- 
holds and  every  imagination  that  exalts  itself, — which  alone  is  able  to 
square  and  fit  the  stones  for  the  New  Jerusalem  ; — then  and  not  before, 
and  by  that  means  and  no  other,  shall  Jerusalem,  the  City  of  the 
Lord,  which  is  to  be  the  praise  of  the  whole  Earth,  be  built ;  the  Sion 
of  the  Holy  one  of  Israel. 

I  have  nothing  to  say  to  you  but  that  I  am, 

Sir, 
Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.-^* 

The  Scotch  Clergy  never  got  such  a  reprimand  since  they  first  took 
ordination  !  A  very  dangerous  radiance  blazes  through  these  eyes  of 
my  Lord  General's,— destructive  to  the  owl-dominion,  in  Edinburgh 
Castle  and  elsewhere ! 

*  Means  always  ingenuously. 

+  Fear  of  personal  damage.  %  Of  preaching  the  Gospel. 

S1648,  Duke  Hamilton's  time;  to  say  nothing  of  1640  and  other  times. 
At  Dunbar  six  days  ago.  If  Of  the  Stuarts. 

*  Thurloe,  i.  159 ;  Pamphlet  at  Edinburgh. 


EDINBURGH.  123 


Let  Dundas  and  Company  reflect  on  it.  Here  is  their  ready 
Answer  ;  still  of  the  same  day. 

'  To  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  Cromwell^  Comina7tder-in- Chief 
of  the  English  Army.' 

'  Edinburgh  Castle,'  9th  September,  1650. 

"  My  Lord,— Yours  I  have  communicated  to  those  with  me  whom 
"  it  concerned  ;  who  desire  me  to  return  this  Answer  : 

"  That  their  ingenuity  in  prosecuting  the  ends  of  the  Covenant,  ac- 
"  cording  to  their  vocation  and  place,  and  in  adhering  to  their  hrst 
"principles,  is  well  known  ;  and  one  of  their  greatest  reg  ets  is  that 
"they  have  not  been  met  with  the  hke.  That  when  Ministers  of  the 
"Gospel  have  been  imprisoned,  deprived  of  their  benefices,  seques- 
"trated,  forced  to  flee  from  their  dwellings,  and  bitterly  threatened, 
"for  their  faithful  declaring  the  will  of  God  against  the  godless  and 
"  wicked  proceedings  of  men, — it  cannot  be  accounted  '  an  imaginary 
"  fear  of  suffering'  in  such  as  are  resolved  to  follow  the  like  freedom 
"  and  faithfulness  in  discharge  of  their  Master's  message.  That  it 
"  savours  not  of  '  ingenuity '  to  promise  liberty  of  preaching  the 
"  Gospel,  and  to  limit  the  Preachers  thereof,  that  they  must  not  speak 
"  against  the  sins  and  enormities  of  Civil  Powers  ;  since  their  com- 
"  mission  carrieth  them  to  speak  the  Word  of  the  Lord  unto,  and  to 
"reprove  the  sins  of,  persons  of  all  ranks,  from  the  highest  to  the 
"lowest.  That  to  impose  the  name  of 'railing'  upon  such  faithful 
"freedom  was  the  old  practice  of  Malignants,  against  the  Ministers 
"  of  the  Gospel,  who  laid  open  to  people  the  wickedness  of  their 
"  ways,  lest  men  should  be  ensnared  thereby. 

"  That  their  consciences  bear  them  record,  and  all  their  hearers  do 
"  know,  that  they  meddle  not  with  Civil  Affairs,  farther  than  to  hold 
"  forth  the  rule  of  the  Word,  by  which  the  straightness  and  crooked- 
"  ness  of  men's  actions  are  made  evident.  But  they  are  sorry  they 
"  have  such  cause  to  regret  that  men  of  mere  Civil  place  and  employ- 
"  ment  should  usurp  the  calling  and  employment  of  the  Ministry:* 
"  to  the  scandal  of  the  Reformed  Kirks  ;  and,  particularly  in  Scotland, 
"  contrary  to  the  government  and  discipline  therein  established, — to 
"  the  maintenance  whereof  you  are  bound,  by  the  Solemn  League  and 
"  Covenant. 

"  Thus  far  they  Jiave  thought  fi^t  to  vindicate  their  return  to  the 
"  offer  in  Colonel  Whalley's  Letter.  The  other  part  of  yours,  which 
"  concerns  the  Public  as  well  as  them,  they  conceive  hath  all  been 
"  answered  sufficiently  in  the  public  Papers  of  the  State  and  Kirk. 
"  Only  to  that  of  the  success  upon  your  *  solemn  appeal,'  they  say 
"  again,  what  was  said  to  it  before.  That  they  have  not  learned  Christ 
"  as  to  hang  the  equity  of  their  Cause  upon  events  ;  but  desire  to 
"  have  their  hearts  established  in  the  love  of  the  Truth,  in  all  the 
"  tribulations  that  befall  them. 

"  I  only  do  add  that  I  am,  my  Lord,  your  most  humble  servant, 

"W.  Dundas." 

*  Certain  of  our  Soldiers  and  Officers  preach ;   \eiy  many  of  them  can  preachy 

— and  greatly  to  the  purpose  too  1    ^_^.^— 


tM  ^A^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


On  Thursday  follows  Oliver's  Answer, — '  very  inferior  in  composi- 
tion/ says  Dryasdust  ; — composition  not  being  quite  the  trade  of 
Oliver  !     In  other  respects,  sufficiently  superior. 


LETTER  XCVII. 

For  the  Governor  of  Edi?ibnrgh  Castle :  These. 

Edinburgh,  12th  September,  1650. 

Sir, 

Because  I  am  at  some  reasonable  good  leisure,  I  cannot  let 
such  gross  mistakes  and  inconsequential  reasonings  pass  without 
some  notice  taken  of  them. 

And  first,  their  ingenuity  in  relation  to  the  Covenant,  for  which 
they  commend  themselves,  doth  no  more  justify  their  want  of  inge- 
nuity in  answer  to  Colonel  Whalley's  Christian  offer,  concerning 
which  my  Letter  charged  them  with  guiltiness  '  and '  deficiency,  than 
their  bearing  witness  to  themselves  of  their  adhering  to  their  first 
principles,  and  ingenuity  in  prosecuting  the  ends  of  the  Covenant, 
justifies  them  so  to  have  done  merely  because  they  say  so.  They 
must  give  more  leave  henceforwards  ;  for  Christ  will  have  it  so,  nill 
they,  will  they.  And  they  must  have  patience  to  have  the  truth  of 
their  doctrines  and  sayings  tried  by  the  sure  touchstone  of  the  Word 
of  God.  And  if  there  be  a  liberty  and  duty  of  trial,  there  is  a  liberty 
of  judgment  also  for  them  that  may  and  ought  to  try:  which  being* 
so,  they  must  give  others  leave  to  say  and  think  that  they  can  appeal 
to  equal  judges,  Who  have  been  the  truest  fulfillers  of  the  most  real 
and  equitable  ends  of  the  Covenant.'* 

But  if  these  Gentlemen  dot  assume  to  themselves  to  be  the  in- 
fallible expositors  of  the  Covenant,  as  they  do  too  much  to  their 
auditories  '  to  be  the  infallible  expositors'  of  the  Scriptures  '  also,' 
counting  a  different  sense  and  judgment  from  theirs  Breach  of 
Covenant  and  Heresy, — no  marvel  they  judge  of  others  so  authorita- 
tively and  severely.  But  we  have  not  so  learned  Christ.  We  look  at 
Ministers  as  helpers  of,  not  lords  over,  God's  people.  I  appeal  to 
their  consciences,  whether  any 'person'  trying  their  doctrines,  and 
dissenting,  shall  not  incur  the  censure  of  Sectary?  And  what  is  this 
but  to  deny  Christians  their  liberty,  and  *  assume  the  Infallible 
Chair  ?  What  doth  he  whom  we  would  not  be  likened  untoj  do  more 
than  this  ? 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  affirmed  that  the  Ministers  of  the  Gospel 
have  been  "  imprisoned,  deprived  of  their  benefices,  sequestered, 
forced  to  fly  from  their  dwellings,  and  bitterly  threatened,  for  their 
faithful  declaring  of  the  will  of  God  ; "  that  they  have  been  limited 
that  they  might  not  speak  against  the  "  sins  and  enormities  of  the 
Civil  Powers  ; "  that  to  impose  the  name  of  raihng  upon  such  faithful 

*  '  It '  in  the  original.  f  *  which  do   111  the  original;  dele  which, 

4:  1  he  Pope. 


itf 


EDINBURGH.  125 


freedom  was  the  old  practice  of  Malignants  against  the  Preachers  of 
ths  Gospel,  &c.— '  Now/  if  the  Civil  Authority,  or  that  part  of  it 
which  continued  faithful  to  their  trust,*  'and'  true  to  the  ends  of  the 
Covenant,  in  answer  to  their  consciences,  turn  out  a  Tyrant,  in  a  way 
which  the  Christians  in  after-times  will  mention  with  honour,  and  ail 
Tyrants  in  the  world  look  at  with  fear  ;  and  '  if '  while  many  thousands 
of  saints  in  England  rejoice  to  think  of  it,  and  have  received  from  the 
hand  of  God  a  liberty  fro  n  the  fear  of  like  usurpations,  and  have 
cast  off  himt  who  trod  in  his  Father's  steps,  doing  mischief  as  far  as 
he  was  able  (whom  you  have  received  like  fire  into  your  bosom, — of 
which  God  will,  I  trust,  in  time  mike  you  sensible)  :  if,  '  1  say,' 
Ministers  railing  at  the  Civil  Power,  and  calling  them  murderers  and 
the  like  for  doing  these  things,  have  been  dealt  with  as  you  mention, 
— will  this  be  found  a  "  personal  persecuuon  ?  "  Or  is  sin  so,  because 
they  say  so  ^X  Th3y  had  acted  this  great  Business§  have  given  a 
reason  of  their  faith  in  the  action  ;  and  some  herej  are  ready  further 
to  do  it  against  all  gainsayers. 

But  it  will  be  found  that  the=ie  reprovers  do  not  only  make  them- 
selves the  judgss  and  determiners  of  sin,  that  so  they  m  ly  reprove  ; 
but  they  also  took  liberty^  to  stir  up  the  people  to  blood  and  arms  ; 
and  would  hive  brought  a  war  upon  England,  as  hath  been  upon 
Scotland,  had  not  God  prevented  it.  And  if  such  severity  as  hath 
been  expressed  towards  then  be  worthy  of  the  name  of  "personal 
persecution,"  let  all  uninterested  men  judge,  'and'  whether  the  calling 
of  the  practice  "  railing"  be  to  be  paralleled  with  the  Malignants'  im- 
putation upon  the  Ministers  for  speaking  against  the  Popish  Innova- 
tions in  the  Prelates'  times,*"*"  and  the  '  other'  tyrannical  and  v.icked 
practices  then  on  foot  !  The  Roman  Emperors,  in  Christ's  and  his 
Apostles'  times,  were  usurpers  and  intruders  upon  the  Jewish  wState  : 
yet  what  footsteptt  have  ye  either  of  our  blessed  Saviour's  so  much  as 
willingness  to  the  dividing  of  an  inheritance,  or  their^];  '  ever  '  meddling 
in  that  kind?  This  was  not  practised  by  the  Church  since  our 
Saviour's  tim?,  till  Antichrist,  assuming  the  Infallible  Chair,  and  all 
that  he  called  Church  to  be  under  him,  practised  this  authoritatively 
over  Civil  Governors.  The  way  to  fulfil  your  Ministry  with  joy  is  to 
preach  the  Gospel  ;  which  I  wish  some  who  take  pleasure  in  reproofs 
at  a  venture,  do  not  forget  too  much  to  do  ! 

Thirdly,  you  say,  You  have  just  cause  to  regret  that  men  of  Civil 
employments  should  usurp  the  calling  and  employment  of  the 
Ministry  ;  to  the  scandal  of  the  Reformed  Kirks. — Are  you  troubled 
that  Christ  is  preached  ?  Is  preaching  so  exclusively  your  function  .?§§ 
Doth  it  scandalise  the  Reformed  Kirks,  and  Scotland  in  particular  ? 
Is  it  against  the  Covenant?  Away  with  the  Covenant,  if  this  be  so: 
I  thought,  the  Covenant  and  these  '  professors  of  it '  could  have  been 

*  When  Pride  purged  them.  +  Your  Charles  II.,  as  you  call  him. 

X  Because  you  call  it  so.  §  Of  judging  Charles  First. 

II   I  for  one.  «|[  In  1648. 

**  O  Oliver,  my  Lord  General,  the  Lindley-AIurray  composition  here  is  dreadful ; 
the  meaning  struggling   like  a  strong  swimmer,  ifi  an  element  very  viscous  } 
tt  Vestige.  ++  The  Apostles,' 

|§  '  SQ  inclusive  in  ^our  function,   me^qs  tha^. 


126  WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

willing  that  any  should  speak  good  of  the  name  of  Christ  :  if  not,  it 
is  no  Covenant  of  God's  approving  ;  nor  are  these  Kirks  you  mention 
in  so  much*  the  Spouse  of  Christ.  Where  do  you  find  in  the  Scripture 
a  ground  to  w^arrant  such  an  assertion,  That  Preaching  is  exclusively 
your  function  ?t  Though  an  Approbation  from  men  hath  order  in 
it,  and  may  do  well ;  yet  he  that  hath  no  better  warrant  than  that, 
hath  none  at  all.  I  hope  He  that  ascended  up  on  high  may  give  His 
gifts  to  whom  he  pleases  :  and  if  those  gifts  be  the  seal  of  Mission, 
be  not '  you '  envious  though  Eldad  and  Medad  prophesy.  You  know 
who  bids  us  covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts,  but  chiefly  that  ive  may 
prophesy ;  which  the  Apostle  explains  there  to  be  a  speaking  to  in- 
struction and  edification  and  comfort, — which  speaking  the  instructed, 
the  edified  and  comforted  can  best  tell  the  energy  and  effect  of,  '  and 
say  whether  it  is  genuine.'  If  such  evidence  be,  I  say  again,  Take 
heed  you  envy  not  for  your  own  sakes  ;  lest  you  be  guilty  of  a 
greater  fault  than  Moses  reproved  in  Joshua  for  envying  for  his 
sake. 

Indeed  you  err  through  mistaking  of  the  Scriptures.  Approbation^ 
is  an  act  of  conveniency  in  respect  of  order  ;  not  of  necessity,  to  give 
faculty  to  preach  the  Gospel.  Your  pretended  fear  lest  Error  should 
step  in,  is  like  the  man  who  would  keep  all  the  wine  out  the  country 
lest  men  should  be  drunk.  It  will  be  found  an  unjust  and  unwise 
jealousy,  to  deprive  a  man  of  his  natural  liberty  upon  a  supposition  he 
may  abuse  it.  When  he  doth  abuse  it,  judge.  If  a  man  speak 
foolishly,  ye  suffer  him  gladly§  because  )  e  are  wise  ;  if  erroneously, 
the  truth  more  appears  by  your  conviction  '  of  him.'  Stop  such  a 
man's  mouth  by  sound  words  which  cannot  be  gainsayed.  If  he 
speaks  blasphemously,  or  to  the  disturbance  of  the  public  peace,  let 
the  Civil  Magistrate  punish  him  :  if  truly,  rejoice  in  the  truth.  And 
if  you  will  call  our  speakings  together  since  we  came  into  Scotland, — 
to  provoke  one  another  to  love  and  good  works,  to  faith  in  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  repentance  from  dead  works  ;  '  and '  to  charity  and 
love  towards  you,  to  pray  and  mourn  for  you,  and  for  your  bitter  returns 
to  '  our  love  of  you,'  and  your  incredulity  of  our  professions  of  love  to 
you,  of  the  truth  of  which  we  have  made  our  solemn  and  humble 
appeals  to  the  Lord  our  God,  which  He  hath  heard  and  borne  witness 
to  :  if  you  will  call  things  scandalous  to  the  Kirk,  and  against  the 
Covenant,  because  done  by  men  of  Civil  callings, — we  rejoice  in  them, 
notwithstanding  what  you  say. 

For  a  conclusion  :  In  answer  to  the  witness  of  God  upon  our  solemn 
Appeal,!'  you  say  you  have  not  so  learned  Christ  'as'  to  hang  the 
equity  of  your  Cause  upon  events.  We,  '  for  our  part,'  could  wish 
blindness  have  not  been  upon  your  eyes  to  all  those  marvellous 
dispensations  which  God  hath  lately  wrought  in  England.  But  did 
not  you  solenmly  appeal  and  pray  1  Did  not  we  do  so  too  ?  And 
ought  not  you  and  we  to  think,  with  fear  and  trembling,  of  the  hand 

*  So  far  as  their  notion  of  the  Covenant  goes. 

"I"  '  so  inclusive  in  your  function,'  means  that. 

X  Or  say  '  Ordination,'  Solemn  Approbation  and  Appointment  by  men. 

§  With  a  patient  victQrious  feeling.  jj  At  Punbaft 


EDINBURGH,  127 


of  the  Great  God  in  this  mighty  and  strange  appearance  of  His  :  in- 
stead of  slightlv  calHng  it  an  "  event  !"*  Were  not  both  your  and  our 
expectations  renewed  from  time  to  time,  whilst  we  waited  upon  God, 
to  see  which  way  He  would  manifest  Himself  upon  our  appeals  ?  And 
shall  we,  after  all  these  our  prayers,  fastings,  tears,  expectations  an  I 
solenm  appeals,  call  these  bare  "  events?"     The  Lord  pity  you. 

Surely  we,  '  for  our  part,'  fear  ;  because  it  hath  been  a  merciful 
and  gracious  deliverance  to  us.  I  beseech  you  in  the  bowels  of  Christ, 
search  after  the  mind  of  the  Lord  in  it  towards  you  ;  and  we  shall 
help  you  by  our  prayers  ;  that  you  may  find  it  out  :  for  yet  (if  we  know 
our  hearts  at  all)  our  bowels  do,  in  Christ  Jesus,  yearn  after  the  Godly 
in  Scotland.  We  know  there  are  stumbling-blocks  which  hinder  you : 
the  personal  prejudices  you  have  taken  up  against  usf  and  our  ways, 
wherein  we  cannot  but  think  some  occasion  has  been  given, ^  and  for 
which  we  mourn  :  the  apprehension  you  have  that  we  have  hindered 
the  glorious  Reformation  you  think  you  were  upon  : — I  am  persuaded 
these  and  such  like  bind  you  up  from  an  understanding,  and  yielding 
to,  the  mind  of  God,  in  this  great  day  of  His  power  and  visitation. 
And,  if  I  be  rightly  informed,  the  late  Blow  you  received  is  attributed 
to  profane  counsels  and  conduct,  and  mixtures§  in  your  Army,  and 
such  like.  The  natural  man  will  not  find  out  the  cause.  Look  up  to 
the  Lord,  that  He  may  tell  it  you.  Which  that  He  would  do,  shall  be 
the  fervent  prayer  of, 

Your  loving  friend  and  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

# 

'P.S.'  These  'following'  Ouerries  are  sent  not  to  reproach  you, 
but  in  the  love  of  Christ  laying^them  before  you  ;  we  being  persuaded 
in  the  Lord  that  there  is  a  truth  in  them.  Which  we  earnestly  desire 
may  not  be  laid  aside  unsought  after,  from  any  prejudice  either 
against  the  things  themselves,  or  the  unworthiness  or  weakness  of  the 
person  that  offers  them.  If  you  turn  at  the  Lord's  reproofs.  He  will 
pour  out  His  Spirit  upon  you  ;  and  you  shall  understand  His  words  ; 
and  they  will  guide  you  to  a  blessed  Reformation  indeed, ' — even  to  one 
according  to  the  Word,  and  such  as  the  people  of  God  wait  for : 
wherein  you  will  find  us  and  all  saints  ready  to  rejoice,  and  serve  you 
to  the  utmost  in  our  places  and  callings.il 

*  '  but  can  slightiy  call  it  an  event,'  in  orig. 

•f  Me,  Oliver  Cromwell. 

X  I  have  often,  in  Parliament  and  elsewhere,  been  crabbed  towards  your  hide-» 
bound  Presbyterian  Formula ;  and  given  it  many  a  fillip,  not  thinking  sufficiently 
what  good  withal  was  in  it. 

§  Admission  of  Engagers  and  ungodly  p)eople. 

II  '  glorious  Reformation,"  '  blessed  Reformation,'  &c.  are  phrases  loud  and  cur- 
rent everywhere,  especially  among  the  Scotch,  for  ten  years  past. 

%  Thurloe,  i.  158-162, 


128  WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


Enclosed  is  the  Paper  of  Queries  ;  to  which  this  Editor,  anxious 
to  bring  out  my  Lord  General's  sense,  will  take  the  great  liberty  to  in- 
tercalate a  word  or  two  of  Commentary  as  we  read. 


QUERIES. 

1.  Whether  the  Lord's  controversy  be  not  both  against  the  Ministers 
in  Scotland  and  in  England,  for  their  wresting  and  straining  '  of  the 
Covenant,'  and  employing*  the  Covenant  against  the  Godly  and 
Saints  in  England  (of  the  same  faith  with  them  in  every  fundamental) 
even  to  a  bitter  persecution  ;  and  so  making  that  which,  in  the  main 
intention,  was  Spiritual,  to  serve  Politics  and  Carnal  ends,— even  in 
that  part  especially  which  was  Spiritual,  and  did  look  to  the  glory  of 
God,  and  the  comfort  of  His  People  ? 

The  meaning  of  your  Covenant  was  that  God's  glory  should  be  pro- 
moted :  and  yet  how  many  zealous  Preachers,  unpresbyterian  but 
real  promoters  of  God's  glory,  have  you,  by  wresting  and  straining  of 
the  verbal  phrases  of  the  Covenant,  found  means  to  menace,  eject, 
afflict  and  in  every  way  discourage  ! — 

2.  Whether  the  Lord's  controversy  be  not  for  your  and  the 
Ministers  in  England's  sullenness  at  '  God's  great  providences,'  and 
'  your '  darkening  and  not  beholding  the  glory  of  God's  wonderful  dis- 
pensations in  this  series  of  His  providences  in  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland,  both  now  and  formerly, — through  envy  at  instruments,  and 
because  the  things  did  not  work  forth  your  Platform,  and  the  Great 
God  did  not  come  down  to  your  minds  and  thoughts. 

This  is  well  worth  your  attention.  Perhaps  the  Great  God  means 
something  other  and  farther  than  you  yet  imagine.  Perhaps,  in  His 
infinite  Thought,  and  Scheme  that  reaches  through  Eternities,  there 
may  be  elemenLs  which  the  Westminster  Assembly  has  not  jotted 
down  ?  Perhaps  these  reverend  learned  persons,  debating  at  Four 
shillings  and  sixpence  a  day,  did  not  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  Bottom- 
less, iitier  all  ?  Perhaps  this  Universe  was  not  entirely  built  accord- 
ing to  the  Westmir.stcr  Shorter  Catechism,  but  by  other  groundplans 
withal,  not  yet  entirely  brought  to  paper  anywhere,  in  Westminster  or 
out  ot  It,  that  I  hear  of?     O  my  reverend  Scotch  friends  !— 

3.  Whether  your  carrying  on  a  Reformation,  so  much  by  you  spoken 
of,  have  not  probably  been  subject  to  some  mistakes  in  your  own 
judgments  about  some  parts  of  the  same,- -laying  so  much  stress 
thereupon  as  ha  h  been  a  temptation  to  you  even  to  break  the  Law  of 
Love,  '^  the  greatest  of  all  laws,'  towards   your  brethren,  and    those 

whom'  Christ  hath  regenerated  ;  even  to  the  reviling  and  persecuting 
of  them,  and  to  stirring  up  of  wicked  men  to  do  the  same,  for  your 
Form's  sake,  or  but '  for'  some  parts  of  it. 

*  '  improving '  in  the  original, 


EDINBURGH.  129 


A  helpless  lumbering  sentence,  but  with  a  noble  meaning  in  it. 

4.  Whether  if  your  Reformation  be  so  perfect  and  so  spiritual,  be 
indeed  the  Kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  it  will  need  such  carnal 
policies,  such  fleshly  mixtures,  such  unsincere  actings  as  '  some  of 
these  are?'  To  pretend  to  cry  down  all  Malignants  ;  and  yet  to 
receive  and  set  up  the  Head  of  them  '  all,'  and  to  act  for  the  Kingdom 
of  Christ  in  his  name,*  and  upon  advantage  thereof !  And  to  publish 
so  false  a  Paper,t  so  full  of  special  pretences  to  piety,  as  the  fruit  and 
effect  of  his  "repentance," — to  deceive  the  minds  of  all  the  Godly  in 
England,  Ireland  and  Scotland  ;  you,  in  your  own  consciences, 
knowing  with  what  regret  he  did  it,  and  with  what  importunities  and 
threats  he  was  brought  to  do  it,  and  how  much  to  this  very  day  he  is 
against  it  ?  And  whether  this  be  not  a  high  provocation  of  the  Lord, 
in  so  grossly  dissembling  with  Him  and  His  people  1% 

Yes,  you  can  consider  that,  my  Friends  ;  and  think,  on  the  whole, 
what  kind  of  course  you  are  probably  getting  into  ;  steering  towards  a 
Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  with  Charlss  Stuart  and  Mrs.  Barlow  at  the 
helm  ! 


Tlie  Scotch  Clergy  reply,  through  Governor  Dundas,  still  in  a  sulky 
unrepentant  manner,  that  they  stick  by  their  old  opinions  ;  that  the 
Lord  General's  arguments,  which  would  not  be  hard  to  answer  a 
second  time,  have  already  been  answered  amply,  by  anticipation,  in 
the  pubhc  Manifestoes  of  the  Scottish  Nation  and  Kirk  ; — that,  in 
short,  he  hath  a  longer  sword  than  they  for  the  present,  and  the 
Scripture  says,  "  There  is  one  event  to  the  righteous  and  the  wicked," 
which  may  probably  account  for  Dunbar,  and  some  other  phenomena. 
Here  the  correspondence  closes  ;  his  Excellency  on  the  morrow 
morning  (Friday,  13th  September,  1650)  finding  no  'reasonable  good 
leisure  '  to  unfold  himself  farther,  in  the  way  of  paper  and  ink,  to  these 
men.  There  remain  other  ways  ;  the  way  of  cannon-batteries,  and 
Derbyshire  miners.  It  is  likely  his  Excellency  will  subdue  the  bodies 
of  these  men  ;  and  the  unconquerable  mind  will  then  follow  if  it  can. 


LETTER  XCVIII. 

The  Lord  General,  leaving  the  Clergy  to  meditate  these  Queries  in 
the  seclusion  of  their  Castle  rock,  sets  off  westward,  on  the  second  day 
after,  to  see  whether  he  cannot  at  once  dislodge  the  Governing 
Committee-men  and  Covenanted  King  ;  and  get  possession  of  Stirling, 
where  they  are  busily  endeavouring  to  rally.     This,  he  finds,  will  not 


*  Charles  Stuarts  :  a  very  questionable  '  name '  for  any  Kingdom  of  Christ  to 
act  upon  ! 
f  The  Declaration   or  testimony  against  his  Fatlier's  sins. 
4  Thurlow,  i.  158-162. 
VOL    H.  F 


ISO  WAR  [VITH  SCOTLAND. 


*  To  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  President  of  the  Council 
of  State:    These.' 

Edinburgh,  25th  September,  1650. 

*  *  ■*  On  Saturday  the  14th  instant,  we  marched  six  miles 
towards  Stirhng  ;  and,  by  reason  of  the  badness  of  the  ways,  were 
forced  to  send  back  two  pieces  of  our  greatest  artillery.  The  day 
following,  we  marched  to  Linlithgow,  not  being  able  to  go  farther  by 
reason  of  much  rain  that  fell  that  day.  On  the  i6th,  we  marched  to 
Falkirk  ;  and  the  next  day  following,  within  cannon-shot  of  Stirhng  ; — 
where,  upon  Wednesday  the  1 8th,  our  Army  was  drawn  forth,  and  all 
things  in  a  readiness  to  storm  the  Town. 

But  finding  the  work  very  difficult  ;  they  having  in  the  Town  Two- 
thousand  horse  and  more  foot ;  and  the  place  standing  upon  a  river 
not  navigable  for  shipping  to  relieve  the  same, '  so  that '  we  could  not, 
with  safety,  make  it  a  Garrison,  if  God  should  have  given  it  into  our 
hands  : — upon  this,  and  other  considerations,  it  was  not  thought  a  fit 
time  to  storm.  But  such  was  the  unanimous  resolution  and  courage 
both  of  our  Officers  and  Soldiers,  that  greater  could  not  be  (as  to 
outward  appearance)  in  men. 

On  Thursday  the  19th,  we  returned  from  thence  to  Linlithgow  ;  and 
at  night  we  were  informed  that,  at  Stirling,  they  shot  off  their  great 
guns  for  joy  their  King  was  come  thither.  On  Friday  the  20th,  three 
Irish  soldiers  came  from  them  to  us  ;  to  whom  we  gave  entertainment 
in  the  Army  :  they  say,  Great  fears  possessed  the  soldiers  when  they 
expected  us  to  storm.  Tliat  they  know  not  whether  old  Leven  be  their 
General  or  not,  the  report  being  various  ;  but  that  Sir  John  Brown,  a 
Colonel  of  their  Army,  was  laid  aside.  That  they  are  endeavouring  to 
raise  all  the  Forces  they  can,  in  the  North  ;  that  many  of  the  soldiers, 
since  our  victory,  are  offended  at  their  Ministers  ;  that  Colonel  Gilbert 
Ker  and  Colonel  Strachan  are  gone  with  shattered  forces  to  Glasgow, 
to  levy  soldiers  there.  As  yet  we  hear  not  of  any  of  the  old  Cavaliers 
being  entertained  as  Officers  among  them  ;  '  the  expectation  of  which 
occasions  differences  betwixt  their  Ministers  and  the  Officers  of  the 
Army. 

The  same  day,  we  came  to  Edinburgh  *  again.'  Where  we  abide 
without  disturbance  ;  saving  that  about  ten  at  night,  and  before  day 
in  the  morning,  they  sometimes  fire  three  or  four  great  guns  at  us  ;  and 
if  any  of  our  men  come  within  musket-shot,  they  fire  at  them  from  the 
Castle.  But,  blessed  be  God,  they  have  done  us  no  harm,  except  one 
soldier  shot  (but  not  to  the  danger  of  his  life),  that  I  can  be  informed 
of.  There  are  some  few  of  the  inhabitants  of  Edinburgh  returned 
home;  who,  perceiving  our  civility,  and  'our'  paying  for  what  we 
receive  of  them,  repent  their  departure  ;  open  their  shops,  and  bring 
provisions  to  the  market.  It's  reported  they  have  in  the  Castle 
provisions  for  fifteen  months  ;  some  say,  for  a  longer  time.  Generally 
the  poor  acknowledge  that  our  carriage  to  them  is  better  than  that  of 
their  own  Army  ;  and  '  that '  had  they  who  are  gone  away  known  so 
much,  they  would  have  stayed  at  home.     They  say,  one  chief  reason 

.4P. 


EDINBURGH.  131 


wherefore  so  many  are  gone  was,  They  feared  we  would  have  imposed 
upon  them  some  oath  wherewith  they  could  not  have  dispensed. 

I  am  in  great  hopes,  through  God's  mercy,  we  shall  be  able  this 
Win<-er  to  give  the  People  such  an  understanding  of  the  justness  of  our 
Cause,  and  our  desires  for  the  just  liberties  of  the  People,  that 
the  better  sort  of  them  will  be  satisfied  therewith  ;  although,  1  must 
confess,  hitherto  they  continue  obstinate.  I  thought  I  should  have 
found  in  Scotland  a  conscientious  People,  and  a  barren  country  : 
about  Edinburgh,  it  is  as  fertile  for  corn  as  any  part  of  England  ;  but 
the  People  generally  '  are  so '  given  to  the  most  impudent  lying,  and 
frequent  swearing,  as  is  incredible  to  be  believed. 

I  rest, 

*  Your  Lordship's  most  humble  servant/ 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

What  to  do  with  Scotland,  in  these  mixed  circumstances,  is  a 
question.  We  have  friends  among  them,  a  distinct  coincidence  with 
than  in  the  great  heart  of  their  National  Purpose,  could  they  under- 
stand us  aright  ;  and  we  have  all  degrees  of  enemies  among  them,  up 
to  the  bitterest  figure  of  Malignancy  itself.  What  to  do?  For  one 
thing,  Edinburgh  Castle  ought  to  be  reduced.  '  We  have  put  forces 
'into  Linlithgow,  and  our  Train  is  lodged  in  Leith,'  Lesley's  old  citadel 
there  ;  '  the  rest  being  so  great  that  we  cannot  march  with  our  Tram.' 
Do  we  try  Edinburgh  Castle  with  a  few  responsive  shots  from  the 
Calton  Hill  ;  or  irom  what  point  ?  My  Scotch  Antiquarian  friends 
have  not  informed  me.     We  decide  on  reducing  it  by  mines. 

'  Sunday^  29M  September,  1650.  Resolution  being  taken  for  the 
'  springing  of  mines  in  order  to  the  reducing  of  Edinburgh  Castle  ; 
'■  and  our  men  beginning  their  galleries  last  night,  the  Enemy  fired 

*  five  pieces  of  ordnance,  with  several  volleys  of  shot,  from  the  Castle  ; 
'  but  did  no  execution.     We  hope  this  work  will  take  effect ;  notwith- 

*  standing  the  height,   rockiness,   and   strength  of  the  place.— His 

*  Excellency  with  his  Officers  met  this  day  in  the  High  Church  of 

*  Edinburgh,  forenoon  and  afternoon  ;  where  was  a  great  concourse 
of  people.'  Mr.  Stapylton,  who  did  the  Hursley  Marriage-treaty,  and 
is  otherwise  transiently  known  to  mankind,— he,  as  was  above  inti- 
mated, occupies  the  pulpit  there  ;  the  Scots  Clergy  still  sitting  sulky 
in  their  Castle,  with  Derby  miners  now  operating  on  them.  '  Many 
'  Scots  expressed  much  affection  at  the  Doctrine  preached  by  Mr, 
'  Stapylton,  in  their  usual  way  of  groans,' — Hum-m-mrrh  !— 'and  it's 
'  hoped  a  good  work  is  wrought  in  some  of  their  hearts.'f  I  am  sure 
I  hope  so.  But  to  think  of  brother  worshippers,  partakers  in  a  Gospel 
of  this  kind,  cutting  one  another's  throats  for  a  Covenanted  Charles 
Stuart,— Hum-m-mrrh  ! 

*  Newspapers  (in  Parliamentary  History,  xix.  404). 
t  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  92). 


F  <? 


132 


IVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


LETTERS  XCIX.— CVIII. 

Haste  and  other  considerations  forbid  us  to  do  more  than  glance, 
timidly  from  the  brink,  into  that  sea  of  confusions  in  which  the  poor 
Scotch  People  have  involved  themselves  by  soldering  Christ's  Crown 
to  Charles  Stuart's  !  Poor  men,  they  have  got  a  Covenanted  King  ; 
but  he  is,  so  to  speak,  a  Solecism  Incarnate  :  good  cannot  come  of 
him,  or  of  those  that  follow  him  in  this  course  ;  only  inextricability, 
futility,  disaster  and  discomfiture  can  come.  There  is  nothing  sadder 
than  to  see  such  a  Purpose  of  a  Nation  led  on  by  such  a  set  of  per- 
sons ;  staggering  into  ever  deeper  confusion,  down,  down,  till  it  fall 
prostrate  into  utter  wreck.  Were  not  Oliver  here  to  gather  up  the 
fragments  of  it,  the  Cause  of  Scotland  might  now  die  ;  Oliver,  little  as 
the  Scots  dream  of  it,  is  Scotland's  Friend  too,  as  he  was  Ireland's  : 
what  would  become  of  Scotch  Puritanism,  the  one  great  feat  hitherto 
achieved  by  Scotland,  if  Oliver  were  not  now  there  !  Oliver's  Letters 
out  of  Scotland,  what  will  elucidate  Oliver's  footsteps  and  utterances 
there,  shall  alone  concern  us  at  present.  For  sufficing  which  object, 
the  main  features  of  these  Scotch  confusions  may  become  conceivable 
without  much  detail  of  ours. 

The  first  Scotch  Army,  now  annihilated  at  Dunbar,  had  been 
sedulously  cleared  of  all  Hamilton  Engai^ers  and  other  Malignant  or 
Quasi-Malignant  Persons,  according  to  a  scheme  painfully  laid  down 
in  what  was  called  the  Act  of  Classes, — a  General-Assembly  Act, 
defining  and  classify mg  such  men  as  shall  not  be  allowed  to  fight  o\\ 
this  occasion,  lest  a  curse  overtake  the  Cause  on  their  account. 
Something  other  than  a  blessing  has  overtaken  the  Cause  : — and  now, 
on  rallying  at  Stirling  with  unbroken  purpose  of  struggle,  there  arise  'u\ 
the  Committee  of  Estates  and  Kirk,  and  over  the  Nation  generally, 
earnest  considerations  as  to  the  methods  of  farther  struggle  ;  huge 
discrepancies  as  to  the  ground  and  figure  it  ought  henceforth  to  take. 
As  was  natural  to  the  case.  Three  Parties  now  develop  themselves  :  a 
middle  one,  and  two  extremes.  The  Official  Party,  Argyle  and  the 
Official  Persons,  especially  the  secular  portion  of  them,  think  that  the 
old  ground  should  as  much  as  possible  be  adhered  to  :  Let  us  fill  up 
our  old  ranks  with  new  men,  and  fight  and  resist  with  the  Covenanted 
Charles  Stuart  at  the  head  of  us,  as  we  did  before.  This  is  the  middle 
or  Official  opinion. 

No,  answers  an  extreme  Party,  Let  us  have  no  more  to  do  with 
your  covenanting  pedantries  ;  let  us  sign  your  Covenant  one  good 
time  for  all,  and  have  done  with  it  ;  but  prosecute  the  King's  Interest, 
and  call  on  all  men  to  join  us  in  that.  An  almost  openly  declared 
Malignant  Party  this ;  at  the  head  of  which  Lieutenant-Generai 
Middleton,  the  Marquis  of  Hantly  and  other  Royalist  Persons  are 
raising   forces,   publishing   manifestoes,  in   the  Highlands   near  by. 


SCOTCH  PARTIES.  153 

Against  whom  David  Lesley  himself  at  last  has  to  march.  This  is 
the  one  extreme  ;  the  MaHgnant  or  Royalist  extreme.  The  amount 
of  whose  exploits  was  this  :  They  invited  the  poor  King  to  run  off 
from  Perth  and  his  Church-and-State  Officials,  and  join  them  ;  which 
he  did,— rode  out  as  if  to  hawk,  one  afternoon,  softly  across  the  South 
Inch  of  Perth,  then  galloped  some  forty  miles  ;  found  the  appointed 
place  ;  a  villanous  hut  among  the  Grampian  Hills,  without  soldiers, 
resources,  or  accommodations,  '  with  nothing  but  a  turf  pillow  to  sleep 
on  :'  and  was  easily  persuaded  back,  the  day  after  ;*  making  his  peace 
by  a  few  more,— what  shall  we  call  them  ?— poetic  figments  ;  which 
the  Official  Persons,  with  an  effort,  swallowed.  Shortly  after,  by 
official  persuasion  and  military  coercion,  this  first  extreme  Party  was 
suppressed,  reunited  to  the  main  body  ;  and  need  not  concern  us 
farther. 

And  now,  quite  opposite  to  this,  there  is  another  extreme  Party  ; 
which  has  its  seat  in  '  the  Western  Shires,'  from  Renfrew  down  to 
Dumfries  ; — which  is,  in  fact,  I  think,  the  old  Whiggamore  Raid  of 
1648  under  a  new  figure  ;  these  Western  Shires  being  always  given 
that  way.  They  have  now  got  a  '  Western  Army,'  with  Colonel  Ker 
and  Colonel  Strahan  to  command  it ;  and  most  of  the  Earls,  Lairds, 
and  Ministers  in  those  parts  have  joined.  Very  strong  for  the 
Covenant ;  very  strong  against  all  shams  of  the  Covenant.  Colonel 
Ker  is  the  '  famed  Commander  Gibby  Carr,'  who  came  to  commune 
with  us  in  the  Burrow-moor,  when  we  lay  on  Pentland  Hills  :  Colonel 
Strahan  is  likewise  a  famed  Commander,  who  was  thought  to  be  slain 
at  Musselburgh  once,  but  is  alive  here  still  ;  an  old  acquaintance  of 
my  Lord  General  Cromwell's,  and  always  suspected  of  a  leaning 
to  Sectarian  courses.  These  Colonels  and  Gentry  having,  by  sanction 
of  the  Committee  of  Estates,  raised  a  Western  Army  of  some  Five- 
thousand,  and  had  much  consideration  with  themselves;  and  seen, 
especially  by  the  flight  into  the  Grampians,  what  way  his  Majesty's 
real  inclinations  are  tending, — decide,  or  threaten  to  decide,  that  they 
will  not  ser-'e  under  his  Majesty  or  his  General  Lesley  with  their 
Army,  till  they  see  new  light  ;  that  in  fact  they  dare  not  ;  being 
apprehensive  he  is  no  genuine  Covenanted  King,  but  only  the  sham 
of  one,  whom  it  is  terribly  dangerous  to  follow  !  On  this  Party 
Cromwell  has  his  eye  ;  and  they  on  him.  What  becomes  of  them  we 
shall,  before  long,  learn. 

Meanwhile  here  is  a  Letter  to  the  Official  Authorities  ;  which,  how- 
ever, produces  small  effect  upon  them. 

*  4-6  October,  Balfour,  iv.  113-15. 


Ij4  U^AA  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


LETTER   XCIX. 

For  the  Right  Honourable  the  Comtrnttee  of  Estates  of  Scotland^  at 
Stirling,  or  elsewhere  :  These. 

Linlithgow,  9th  October,  1650. 

Right  Honourable, 

The  grounds  and  ends  of  the  Army's  entering  Scotland  have 
been  heretofore,  often  and  clearly,  made  known  unto  you  ;  and  how 
much  we  have  desired  the  same  might  be  accomplished  without  blood. 
But,  according  to  what  returns  we  have  received,  it  is  evident  your 
hearts  had  not  that  love  to  us  as  we  can  truly  say  we  had  towards 
you.  And  we  are  persuaded  those  difficulties  in  which  you  have  in- 
volved yourselves,— by  espousing  your  King's  interest,  and  taking  into 
your  bosom  that  Person,  in  whom  (notwithstanding  what  hath  '  been  * 
or  may  be  said  to  the  contrary)  that  which  is  really  Malignancy  and 
all  Malignants  do  centre  ;  against  whose  Family  the  Lord  hath  so 
eminently  witnessed  for  bloodguiltiness,  not  to  be  done  away  by  such 
hypocritical  and  formal  shews  of  repentance  as  are  expressed  in  his 
late  Declaration ;  and  your  strange  prejudices  against  us  as  men  of 
heretical  opinions  (which,  through  the  great  goodness  ot  God  to  us, 
have  been  unjustly  charged  upon  us), — have  occasioned  your  rejecting 
these  Overtures  which,  with  a  Christian  affection,  were  offered  to  you 
before  any  blood  was  spilt,  or  your  People  had  suffered  damage  by  us. 

The  daily  sense  we  have  of  the  calamity  of  War  lying  upon  the 
poor  People  of  this  Nation,  and  the  sad  consequences  of  blood  and 
famme  likely  to  come  upon  them  ;  the  advantage  given  to  the  Malig- 
nant, Profane,  and  Popish  party  by  this  War  ;  and  that  reahty  of 
affection  which  we  have  so  often  professed  to  you, — and  concerning 
the  truth  of  which  we  have  so  solemnly  appealed,  — do  again  constrain 
us  to  send  unto  you,  to  let  you  know,  That  if  the  contending  for  that 
Person  be  •  not  by  you  preferred  to  the  peace  and  welfare  of  your 
Country,  the  blood  of  your  Peoples,  the  love  of  men  of  the  same  faith 
with  you,  and  (in  this  above  all)  the  honour  of  that  God  we  serve, — 
Then  give  the  state  of  England  that  satisfaction  and  security  for  their 
peaceable  and  quiet  living  by  you,  which  may  in  justice  be  demanded 
from  a  Nation  giving  so  just  ground  to  ask  the  same, — from  those  who 
have,  as  you,  taken  their  enemy  into  their  bosom,  whilst  he  was  in 
hostility  against  them.  And  it  will  be  made  good  to  you,  That  you 
may  have  a  lasting  and  durable  Peace  with  them,  and  the  wish  of  a 
blessing  upon  you  in  all  religious  and  civil  things. 

If  this  be  refused  by  you,  we  are  persuaded   that    God,  who  hath 
once  borne  His  testimony,  will  do  it  again  on  the  behalf  of  us   His 
poor  servants,  who  do  appeal   to    Him   whether  their  desires   flow 
from  sincerity  of  heart  or  not. 
I  rest, 

Your  Lordship's  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  93). 


THE  REMONSTRANTS.  135 

The  Committee  of  Estates  at  Stirling  or  elsewhere  debated  about 
an  Answer  to  this  Letter ;  but  sent  none,  except  of  civiHty  merely, 
and  after  considerable  delays.  A  copy  of  the  Letter  was  likewise 
forwarded  to  Colonels  Ker  and  Strahan  and  their  Western  Army, 
by  whom  it  was  taken  into  consideration  ;  and  some  Correspondence, 
Cromwell's  part  of  which  is  now  lost,  followed  upon  it  there  ;  and 
indeed  Cromwell,  as  we  dimly  discover  in  the  old  Books,  set  forth 
towards  Glasgow  directly  on  the  back  of  it,  in  hopes  of  a  closer  com- 
munication with  these  Western  Colonels  and  their  Party. 

While  Ker  and  Strahan  are  busy  '  at  Dumfries,'  says  Baillie,  *  Crom- 

*  well  with  the  whole  body  of  his  Army  and  cannon  comes  peaceably 

*  by  way  of  Kilsyth  to  Glasgow.'  It  is  Friday  evening,  i8th  October, 
1650.     'The  Ministers  and  Magistrates  flee  all  away.     I  got  to  the 

*  Isle  of  Cumbrae  with  my  Lady  Montgomery  ;  but  left  all  my  family 
'  arid  goods  to  Cromwell's  courtesy, —  which  indeed  was  great  ;  for  he 
'  took  such  a  course  with  his  soldiers  that  they  did  less  displeasure  at 

*  Glasgow  than  if  they  had  been  in  London  ;  though  Mr.  Zacnary 
'  Boyd,'  a  fantastic  old  gentleman  still  known  in  Glasgow  and  Scot- 
land, 'railed  on  them  all,  to  their  very  face,  in  the  High  Church  ;'* 
calling  them  Sectaries  and  Blasphemers,  the  fantastic  old  gentleman  ! 

*  Glasgow,  though  not  so  big  or  rich  as  Edinburgh,  is  a  much  sweeter 
'  place  ;  the  completest  town  we  have  yet  seen  here,  and  one  of  their 
'  choicest  Universities.'  The  people  were  much  afraid  of  us  till  they 
saw  how  we  treated  them.  '  Captain  Covel  of  the  Lord  Geneial's 
'  regiment  of  horse  was  cashiered  here,  for  holding  some  blasphemous 
'  opinions.'! — This  is  Cromwell's  first  visit  to  Glasgow  :  he  made  two 
others,  of  which  on  occasion  notice  shall  be  taken.  In  Pinker  ton  < 
Correspondence  are  certain  '  anecdotes  of  Cromwell  at  Glasgow  ; ' 
which,  like  many  others  on  Cromwell,  need  not  be  repeated  anywhere 
except  in  the  nursery. 

Cromwell  entered  Glasgow  on  Friday  evening  ;  over  Sunday,  was 
patient  with  Zachary  Boyd  :  but  got  no  result  out  of  Ker  and  Strahan. 
Ker  and  Strahan,  at  Dumfries  on  the  Thursday,  have  perfected  and 
signed  their  Rejnonstrance  of  the  Western  Army  -X  ^  Docum.ent  of 
much  fame  in  the  old  Scotch  Books.  '  Expressing  many  sad  truths,' 
says  the  Kirk  Committee.  Expressing,  in  fact,  the  apprehension  of 
Ker  and  Strahan  that  the  Covenated  King  may  probably  be  a  Solecism 
Incarnate,  under  whom  it  will  not  be  good  to  hght  longer  for  the  Cause 
of  Christ  and  Scotland  ;— expressing  meanwhile  considerable  reluc- 
tancy  as  to  the  English  Sectaries  ;  and  deciding  on  the  whole  to  fight 
them  still,  though  on  a  footing  of  our  own.  Not  a  very  hopeful  enter- 
prise !  Of  which  we  shall  see  the  issue  by  and  by.  Meanwhile  news 
come  that  this  Western  Army  is  aiming  towards  Edinburgh,  to  get 
hold  of  the  Castle  there.  Whereupon  Cromwell,  in  all  haste,  on 
Monday,  sets  off  thitherward  ;  '  lodges  the  first  night  in  a  poor  cottage 
fourteen  miles  from  Glasgow  ; '  arrives  safe,  to  prevent  all  alarms. 
His  first  visit  to  Glasgow  was  but  of  two  days. 

*  Baillie,  iii.  119  ;  Whitlocke,  p.  459. 

f  Whitlocke,  p.  459;   Crornwelliana,  pp.  92,  3. 

X  Dated  17  Octaber ;  given  in  Balfour,  iv.  141. 


136  tVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


Here  is  another  trait  of  the  old  time  ;  not  without  illumination  for 
us.  '  One  Watt,  a  tenant  of  the  Earl  of  Tweedale's,  bein^  sore  op- 
'  pressed  by  the  English,  took  to  himself  some  of  his  own  degree  ; 
'  and,  by  daily  incursions  and  infalls  on  the   English  Garrisons  and 

*  Parties  in  Lothian,  killed  and  took  of  them  above  Four-hundred,'  or 
say  the  half  or  quarter  of  so  many,  '  and  enriched  himself  by  their 

*  spoils.'  The  like  did  '  one  Augustin,  a  High-German,'  not  a  Dutch- 
man, '  being  purged  out  of  the  Army  before  Dunbai  Drove,' — of  whom 
we  shall  hear  farther  In  fact,  the  class  called  Mosstroopers  begins 
to  abound ;  the  only  class  that  can  flourish  in  such  a  state  of  affairs. 
Whereupon  comes  out  this 


PROCLAMATION. 

I  FINDING  that  divers  of  the  Army  under  my  command  are  not 
only  spoiled  and  robbed,  but  also  sometimes  barbarously  and  in- 
humanely butchered  and  slain,  by  a  sort  of  Outlaws  and  Robbers,  not 
under  the  discipline  of  any  Army  ;  and  finding  that  all  our  tenderness 
to  the  Country  produceth  no  other  effect  than  their  compliance  with, 
and  protection  of,  such  persons  ;  and  considering  that  it  is  in  the 
power  of  the  Country  to  detect  and  discover  them  (many  of  them  being 
inhabitants  of  those  places  where  commonly  the  outrage  is  com- 
mitted) ;  and  perceiving  that  their  motion  is  ordinarily  by  the  invita- 
tion, and  according  to  intelligence  given  them  by  Countrymen  : 

I  do  therefore  declare  that  wheresoever  any  under  my  command 
shall  be  hereafter  robbed  or  spoiled  by  such  parties,  I  will  require  life 
for  life,  and  a  plenary  satisfaction  for  their  goods,  of  those  Parishes 
and  Places  where  the  fact  shall  be  committed  ;  unless  they  shall  dis- 
cover and  produce  the  offender.  And  this  I  wish  all  persons  to  take 
notice  of,  that  none  may  plead  ignorance. 

Given  under  my  hand  at  Edinburgh,  the  5th  of  November,  1650. 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

Colonels  Ker  and  Strahan  with  their  Remonstrance  have  filled  all 
Scotland  with  a  fresh  figure  of  dissension.  The  Kirk  finds  '  many  sad 
truths  '  in  it  ;  knows  not  what  to  do  with  it.  In  the  Estates  them- 
selves there  is  divisior  of  opinion.  Men  of  worship,  the  Minister  in 
Kirkcaldy  among  others,  are  heard  to  say  strange  things  :  "  That  a 
Hypocrite,"  or  Solecism  Incarnate,  "  ought  not  to  reign  over  us  ;  that 
"  we  should  treat  with  Cromwell,  and  give  him  assurance  not  to  trouble 
''  England  with  a  King  ;  that  whosoever  mars  such  a  Treaty,  the  blood 
■'  of  the  slain  shall  be  on  his  head  !  "  '  Which  are  strange  words,' 
says  Baillie,  '  if  true.'  Scotland  is  in  a  hopeful  way.  The  extreme 
party  of  Malignants  in  the  North  is  not  yet  quite  extinct  ; — and  here 
is  another  extreme  party  of  Remonstrants  in  the  West, — to  whom  all 
the  conscientious  rash  men  of  Scotland,  in  Kirkcaldy  and  elsewhere. 

*  Newspaper  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  94). 


EDINBURdH,  \  3 


seem  as  if  they  would  join  themselves  !     Nothing  but  remonstrating, 
protesting,  treatying  and  mistreatying  from  sea  to  sea. 

To  have  taken  up  such  a  Remonstrance  at  first,  and  stood  by  it, 
before  the  War  began,  had  been  very  wise  :  but  to  take  it  up  now, 
and  attempt  not  to  make  a  Peace  by  it,  but  to  continue  the  War  with 
it,  looks  mad  enough  I  Such  nevertheless  is  Colonel  Gibby  Ker's 
project, — not  Strahan's,  it  would  seem  ;  men's  projects  strangely  cross 
one  another  in  this  time  of  bewilderment  ;  and  only  per.iaps  in  doing 
nothing  could  a  man  n  such  a  scene  act  wisely.  Lambert,  however, 
is  gone  into  the  West  with  Three-thousand  horse  to  deal  with  Ker  and 
his  projects  ;  the  Lord  General  has  himself  been  in  the  West  the 
end  of  Ker's  projects  is  succinctly  shadowed  forth  in  the  following 
Letter.  From  Bailie"*  we  learn  that  Ker,  with  his  Western  Army, 
was  lying  at  a  place  called  Carmunnock,  when  he  made  this  infall  upon 
Lambert ;  that  the  time  of  it  was  '  four  in  the  morning  of  Sunday 
1st  December,  1650;'  and  the  scene  of  it  Hamilton  Town,  and 
the  streets  and  ditches  thereabouts  :  a  dark  and  sad  business,  of 
an  ancient  Winter  morning ; — sufficiently  luminous  for  our  purpose 
with  it  here. 


LETTER  C. 

The  *  treaties  among  the  Enemy  '  means  Ker  and  Strahan's  con- 
fused remonstratings  and  treatyings ;  the  '  result,'  or  general  upshot, 
of  which  is  this  scene  in  the  ditches  at  four  in  the  morning.f 

To  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament  of 
England :  These. 

Edinburgh,  4th  December,  1650. 

Sir, 

I  have  now  sent  you  the  results  of  some  Treaties  amongst  the 
Enemy,  which  came  to  my  hand  this  day. 

The  Major-General  and  Commissary-General  Whalley  marched  a 
few  days  ago  towards  Glasgow.  The  Enemy  attempted  his  quarters 
in  Hamilton  :  were  entered  the  Town  :  but  by  the  blessing  of  God,  by 
a  very  gracious  hand  of  Providence,  without  the  loss  of  six  men  as  I 
hear  of,  he  beat  them  out ;  killed  about  an  Hundred  ;  took  also  about 
the  same  number,  amongst  whom  are  some  prisoners  of  quality  ;  and 
near  an  Hundred  horse, — as  I  am  informed.  The  Major-General  is 
still  in  the  chase  of  them  ;  to  whom  also  I  have  since  sent  the  addition 
of  a  fresh  party.  Colonel  Ker  (as  my  Messenger,  this  night,  tells  me) 
is  taken  ;  his  Lieutenant- Co.lonel  ;  and  one  that  was  sometimes  Major 
to  Colonel  Strahan  ;  and  Ker's  Captain-Lieutenant.  The  whole  Party 
is  shattered.  And  give  me  leave  to  say  it.  If  God  had  not  brought 
them  upon  us,  we  might  have  marched  Three-thousand  horse  to  deatti. 

*  lii.  125. 
f  See  also  Whitlocke,  x6  December,  1650, 


i3<^  PVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


and  not  have  lighted  on  them.  And  truly  it  was  a  strange  Providence 
brought  them  upon  him.  For  I  marched  from  Edinburgh  on  the 
north  side  of  Clyde  ;  *  and  had '  appointed  the  Major- General  to 
march  from  Peebles  to  Hamilton,  on  the  south  side  of  Clyde.  I  came 
thither  by  the  time  expected  ;  tarried  the  remainder  of  the  day,  and 
until  near  seven  o'clock  the  next  morning, — apprehending  'then  that' 
the  Major-General  would  not  come,  by  reason  of  the  waters.  I  being 
retreated,  the  Enemy  took  encouragement  ;  marched  all  that  night  ; 
and  came  upon  the  Major-General's  quarters  about  two  hours  before 
day  ;  where  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  order  as  you  have  heard. 

The  Major-General  and  Commissary-General  (as  he  sent  me  word) 
were  still  gone  on  in  the  prosecution  of  them  ;  and  '  he '  saith  that, 
except  an  Hundred-ani-fifty  horse  in  one  body,  he  hears  they  are 
fled,  by  sixteen  or  eighteen  in  a  company,  all  the  country  over.  Robin 
Montgomery  was  come  out  of  Stirling,  with  four  or  five  regiments  of 
horse  and  dragoons,^  but  was  put  to  a  stand  when  he  heard  of  the 
issue  of  this  business.  Strahan  and  some  other  Officers  had  quitted 
some  three  weeks  or  a  month  before  this  business  ;  so  that  Ker  com- 
manded this  whole  party  in  chief. 

It  is  given  out  that  the  Malignants  will  be  almost  all  received,  and 
rise  unanimously  and  expeditiously.  I  can  assure  you,  that  those  that 
serve  you  here  find  more  satisfaction  in  having  to  deal  with  men  of 
this  stamp  than  '  with  '  others  ;  and  it  is  our  comfort  that  the  Lord  hath 
hitherto  made  it  the  matter  of  our  prayers,  and  of  our  endeavours  (if 
it  might  have  been  the  will  of  God),  To  have  had  a  Christian  under- 
standing between  those  that  fear  God  in  this  land  and  ourselves.  And 
yet  we  hope  it  hath  not  been  carried  on  with  a  willing  failing  of  our 
duty  to  those  that  trust  us  : — and  I  am  persuaded  the  I  ord  hath 
looked  favourably  upon  our  sincerity  herein  ;  and  will  still  do  so  ;  and 
upon  you  also,  whilst  you  make  the  Interest  of  God's  People  yours. 

Those  religious  People  of  Scotland  that  fall  in  this  Cause,  we  can- 
not but  pity  and  mourn  for  them  ;  and  we  pray  that  all  good  men  may 
do  so  too.  Indeed  there  is  at  this  time  a  very  great  distraction,  and 
mighty  workings  of  God  upon  the  hearts  of  divers,  both  Ministers  and 
People  ;  much  of  it  tending  to  the  justification  of  your  Cause.  And 
although  some  are  as  bitter  and  as  bad  as  ever  ;  making  it  their 
business  to  shuffle  hypocritically  with  their  consciences  and  the 
Covenant,  to  make  it  '  seem '  lawful  to  join  with  Malignants,  which 
now  they  do, — as  well  they  might  long  before,  having  taken  in  the 
Head  '  Malignant '  of  them  :  yet  truly  others  are  startled  at  it  ;  and 
some  have  been  constrained  by  the  work  of  God  upon  their  con- 
sciences, to  make  sad  and  solemn  accusations  of  themselves,  and 
lamentations  in  the  face  of  their  Supreme  Authority  ;  charging  them- 
selves as  guilty  of  the  blood  shed  in  this  War,  by  having  a  hand  in 
the   Treaty  at   Breda,  and  by  bringing   the  King  in  amongst  them. 

*  For  the  purpose  of  rallying  to  him  *bese  Western  forces,  or  such  of  them  as 
would  follow  the  official  Authoriti^^'  and  him  ;  and  leading  them  to  Stirling,  to  the 
main  Army  (Raillie,  ubi  supra).  Poor  Cei  thought  it  might  be  useful  to  do  a  feat 
on  his  own  footing  first  :  and  here  is  tn^  conclusion  of  him  !  Colonel  '  Robm 
Montgomery    is  the  Earl  of  Eghnton  s  Son  whom  we  saw  before. 


EDINBURGH.  139 


This  lately  did  a  Lord  of  the  Session  ;  and  withdrew  *  from  the  Com- 
mittee of  Estates.'  And  lately  Mr,  James  Livingston,  a  man  as  highly 
esteemed  as  any  for  piety  and  learning,  who  was  a  Commissioner  for 
the  Kirk  at  the  said  Treaty, — charged  himself  with  the  guilt  of  the 
blood  of  this  War,  before  their  Assembly  :  and  withdrew  from  them, 
and  is  retired  to  his  own  house. 

It  will  be  very  necessary,  to  en-courage  victuallers  to  come  to  us, 
that  you  take  off  Customs  and  Excise  from  all  things  brought  hither 
for  the  use  of  the  Army. 

I  beg  your  prayers  ;  and  rest, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

This  then  is  the  end  of  Ker's  fighting  project  ;  a  very  mad  one,  at 
this  stage  of  the  business.  The  Remonstrance  continued  long  to  be 
the  symbol  of  the  extreme  Extreme- Covenant  or  Whiggamore  Party 
among  the  Scots  ;  but  its  practical  operation  ceased  here.  Ker  lies 
lamed,  dangerously  wounded  ;  and,  I  think,  will  fight  no  more. 
Strahan  and  some  others,  voted  traitorous  by  the  native  Authorities, 
when  openly  over  to  Cromwell ; — Strahan  soon  after  died.  As  for  the 
Western  Army,  it  straightway  dispersed  itself ;  part  towards  Stirling 
and  the  Authorities  ;  the  much  greater  part  to  their  civil  callings 
again,  wishing  they  had  never  quitted  them.  '  This  miscarriage  of 
*■  affairs  in  the  West  by  a  few  unhappy  men  '  says  Baillie,  '  put  us  all 
'  under  the  foot  of  the  Enemy.  They  presently  ran  over  all  the 
'  country  ;  destroying  cattle  and  crops  ;  putting  Glasgow  and  all/Dther 
'  places  under  grievous  contributions.  This  makes  me,'  for  my  part, 
'  stick  at  Perth  ;  not  daring  to  go  where  the  Enemy  is  master,  as  he 
*  now  is  of  all  Scotland  south  of  the  Forth.'  f 

It  only  remains  to  be  added,  that  the  two  Extreme  Parties  being 
broken,  the  MidJle  or  official  one  rose  supreme,  and  widened  its 
borders  by  the  admission,  as  Oliver  anticipated,  '  of  the  Malignants 
almost  all  ;'  a  set  of  '  Public  Resolutions '  so-called  being  passed  in 
the  Scotch  Parliament  to  that  end,  and  ultimately  got  carried  through 
the  Kirk  Assembly  too.  Official  majority  of  '  Resolutioners,'  with  a 
zealous  party  of  '  Remonstrants,'  who  are  also  called  '  Protesters  :'  in 
Kirk  and  State,  these  long  continue  to  afflict  and  worry  one  another, 
sad  fruit  of  a  Covenanted  Charles  Stuart  ;  but  shall  not  further  con- 
cern us  here.  It  is  a  great  comfort  to  the  Lord  General  that  he  has 
now  mainly  real  Malignants  for  enemies  in  this  country ;  and  so 
can  smite  without  reluctance.  Unhappy  '  Resolutioners,'  if  they  cou/d 
subdue  Cromwell,  what  would  become  of  them  at  the  hands  of  their 
own  Malignants  !  They  have  admitted  the  Chief  Malignant,  '  in 
whom  all  Malignity  does  centre,'  into  their  bosom  ;  and  have  an 
incarnate  Solecism  presiding  over  them.  Satisfactorily  descended 
from  Catherine  Muir  of  Caldwell,  but  in  all  other  respects  most  un- 
satisfactory ! — 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,   pp.  94,  5). 
t  iii.  125  (date,  sjanuaiy,  1650-1). 


140  tVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND, 


The  '  Lord  of  the  Session,'  who  felt  startled  at  this  condition  ,of 
things,  and  'withdraw'  from  it,  I  take  to  l>ave  been  S;r  Jjinics  Hope 
of  Craighall,*  of  whom,  and  whose  scruples,  and  the  censures  they  got, 
there  is  frequent  mention  in  these  months.  But  the  Laird  of  Swinion. 
another  of  the  same,  went  still  farther  in  the  same  course  ;  and  indeed, 
soon  after  this  defeat  of  Ker,  went  openly  over  to  Cromwell.  '  There 
is  very  great  distraction,  there  are  mighty  workings  upon  the  hearts  of 
divers.'  '  Mr.  James  Livingston/  the  Minister  of  Ancrum,  has  left  a 
curious  Life  of  himself : — he  is  still  represented  by  a  distinguished 
family  in  America. 


The  next  affair  is  that  of  Edinburgh  Castle.  Our  Derbyshire 
miners  found  the  rock  very  hard,  and  made  small  way  in  it :  but  now 
the  Lord  General  has  got  his  batteries  ready  :  and,  on  Thursday  12th 
December,  after  three  months  blockade,  salutes  the  place  with  his 
'  guns  and  mortars,'  and  the  following  set  of  Summonses  ;  which  prove 
effectual. 

LETTER  CI. 

For  the  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle:  These. 

Edinburgh,  12th  December,  1650. 

Sir, 

We  being  now  resolved,  by  God's  assistance,  to  make  use  of 
such  means  as  He  hath  put  into  our  hands,  towards  the  reducing 
of  Edinburgh  Castle,  I  thought  fit  to  send  you  this  Summons. 

What  the  grounds  of  our  proceedings  have  been,  and  what  our 
desires  and  aims  in  relation  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  common  In- 
terest of  His  People,  we  have  often  expressed  in  our  Papers  tendered 
to  public  view.  To  which  though  credit  hitherto  hath  not  been  given  by 
Kaen,  yet  the  Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  bear  a  gracious  and  favourable 
testimony  ;  and  hath  not  only  kept  us  constant  to  our  profession,  and  in 
our  affections  to  such  as  fear  the  Lord  in  this  Nation,  but  hath  un- 
masked others  from  their  pretences, — as  appears  by  the  present  trans- 
actions at  St.  Johnston.t  Let  the  Lord  dispose  your  resolutions  as 
seemeth  good  to  Him  :  my  sense  of  duty  presseth  me,  for  the  ends 
aforesaid,  and  to  avoid  the  effusion  of  more  blood,  To  demand  the 
lendering  of  this  place  to  me  upon  fit  conditions. 

To  which  expecting  your  answer  this  day,  I  rest, 

Sir,  your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

*  Balfour,  iv.  173,  235. 

t  Readmission  'of  the    Malignants   almost  all;'    Earl  of  Calendar,  Duk«  of 

Hamilton,  &c,  (Balfour,  iv.  lyg-zoji;   by  the  Padiament  at  Perth. 


EDINBURGH.  141 


The  Governor's  Answer  to  my  Lord  General's  Letter  is  this  : 

''^  For  his  Excellency  the  General  of  the  English  Forces. 

"  Edinburgh,  12th  December,  1650. 

"  My  Lord,— I  am  entrusted  by  the  Estates  of  Scotland  with  this 
"  place  ;  and  being  sworn  not  to  deliver  it  to  any  without  their 
"  warrant,  I  have  no  power  to  dispose  thereof  by  myself.  I  do  there- 
"  tore  desire  the  space  of  ten  days,  wherein  I  may  conveniently 
*'  acquaint  the  said  Estates,  and  receive  their  answer.  And  for  this 
"  effect,  your  safe-conduct  for  them  employed  in  the  message.  U  pon 
"  the  receipt  of  their  answer,  you  shall  have  the  resolution  of, — my 
"  Lord,  your  most  humble  servant, 

"W.  DUNDAS." 

The  Lord  General's  Reply  to  Governor  Walter  Dundas  : 


LETTER   GIL 

For  the  Governor  of  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh. 

Edinburgh,  12th  December,  1650. 

Sir, 

It  concerns  not  me  to  know  your  obligations  to  those  that  trust 
you.  I  make  no  question  of  the  apprehensions  you  have  of  your 
abilities  to  resist  those  impressions  which  shall  be  made  upon  you,* 
are  the  natural  and  equitable  rules  of  all  men's  judgments  and  con- 
sciences in  your  condition  ;— except  you  had  taken  an  oath  beyond  a 
possibility.  I  leave  that  to  your  consideration  ;  and  shall  not  seek  to 
contest  with  your  thoughts  :  only  1  think  it  may  become  me  to  let 
you  know,  You  may  have  honourable  terms  for  yourself  and  those 
with  you  ;  and  both  yourself  and  soldiers  have  satisfaction  to  all  your 
reasonable  desires  ;  and  those  that  have  other  employments,  liberty 
and  protection  in  the  exercise  of  them. 

But  to  deal  p  ainly  with  you,  I  will  not  give  liber  y  to  you  to  con- 
sult your  Committee  of  Estates  ;  because  I  hear,  those  that  are  honest 
amongst  them  enjoy  not  satisfaction,  and  the  rest  are  now  discovered 
to  seek  another  Interest  than  they  have  formerly  pretended  to.  And 
if  you  desire  to  be  informed  of  this,  you  may,  by  them  you  dare  trust, 
at  a  nearer  distance  than  St.  Johnston. 

Expecting  your  present  answer,  I  rest. 

Sir,  your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

The  Governor's  Reply  No.  2  arrives  on  the  morrow,  Friday  : 
*  By  my  cannons  and  mortars. 


142-  PVAR   WITH  SCOTLANIX 


"  For  his  Excellency  the  Lord  General  of  the  English  Forces  in 

Scotland. 

"  Edinburgh  Castle,  13th  December,  i6t;o. 

"  My  Lord, — It  much  concerneth  me  (considering  my  obligations) 
"  to  be  found  faithful  in  the  trust  committed  to  me.  And  therefore, 
"  in  the  fear  of  the  liring  God,  and  of  His  great  Name  called  upon  in 
"  the  accepting  of  my  trust,  I  do  again  press  the  liberty  of  acquaints 
"  ing  the  Estates.  The  time  is  but  short  ;  and  I  expect  it  as  answer-. 
"  able  to  you  profession  of  affection  to  those  that  fear  the  Lord.  In 
"  the  meantime  I  am  willing  to  hear  information  of  late  proceedings 
"  from  such  as  he  dare  trust  who  is, — my  Lord,  your  humble  servant^ 

"  W.  DUNDAS." 

The  Lord  General's  Reply  No.  2  : 

LETTER   cm. 
For  the  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle :  These. 

Edinburgh,  13th  December,  1655. 

Sir, 

Because  of  your  strict  and  solemn  adjuration  of  me,  in  the  fear 
and  Name  of  the  living  God,  That  I  give  you  time  to  send  to^  the 
Committee  of  Estates,  to  whom  you  undertook  the  keeping  of*this 
place  under  the  obligation  of  an  oath,  as  you  affirm, — I  cannot  but 
hope  that  it  is  your  conscience,  and  not  policy,  carrying  you  to  that 
desire.  The  granting  of  which,  if  it  be  prejudicial  to  our  affairs,  — I 
am  as  much  obliged  in  conscience  not  to  do  it,  as  you  can  pretend 
cause  for  your  conscience  sake  to  desire  it. 

Now  considering  '  that '  our  merciful  and  wise  God  binds  not  His 
People  to  actions  too  cross  one  to  another  ;  but  that  our  bands  may 
be,*  as  I  am  persuaded  they  are,  through  our  mistakes  and  darkness, 
— not  only  in  the  question  about  the  surrendering  this  Castle,  but  also 
in  all  the  present  differences  : — I  have  much  reason  to  believe  that, 
by  a  Conference,  you  may  be  well  satisfied,  in  point  of  fact,  of  your 
Estates  (to  whom  you  say  you  are  obliged)  carrying  on  an  Interest 
destructive  and  contrary  to  what  they  professed  when  they  committed 
that  trust  to  you,— having  made  to  depart  from  them  many  honest 
men  through  fear  of  their  own  safety,|-  and  making  way  for  the  recep- 
tion of  professed  Mahgnants,  both  in  their  Parliament  and  Army  ;— 
and  also  '  that  you '  may  have  laid  before  you  such  grounds  of  our 
ends  and  aims  to  the  preservation  of  the  interest  of  honest  men  in 
Scotland  as  well  as  England,  as  will  (if  God  vouchsafe  to  appear  in 
them)  give  your  conscience  satisfaction.  Which  if  you  refuse,  I  hope 
you  will  not  have  cause  to  say  that  we  are  either  unmindful  of  the 
great  Name  of  the  Lord  which  you  have  mentioned,  nor  that  we  are 
wanting  to  answer  our  profession  of  affection  to  those  that  fear  the 
Lord 

*  GUI  perplexities  are  caused.         f  Swinton,  Strahan,  Hope  of  Craighall,  &c. 


EDINBURGH.  143 


I  am  willing  to  cease  hostility,  for  some  hours,  or  convenient  time 
to  so  good  an  end  as  information  of  judgment,  and  satisfaction  of 
conscience  ; — although  I  may  not  give  liberty  for  the  time  desired,  to 
send  to  the  Committee  of  Estates  ;  or  at  all  stay  the  prosecution  of 
my  attempt. 

Expecting  your  sudden  answer,  I  rest, 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

The  Governor's  Reply,  No.  3,  comes  out  on  Saturday : 

"  For  his  Excellency^  the  Lord  General  of  the  English  Forces  in 
Scotland:  These. 

"Edinburgh  Castle,  14th  December,  1650. 

"  My  Lord, — What  I  pressed,  in  my  last,  proceeded  from  con- 
"  science  and  not  from  policy  :  and  I  conceived  that  the  few  days 
"  desired  could  not  be  of  such  prejudice  to  your  affairs,  as  to  bar  the 
"  desired  expressions  of  professed  affection  towards  those  that  fear 
"  the  Lord.  And  I  expected  that  a  small  delay  of  our  ownf  affairs 
"  should  not  have  preponderated  the  satisfaction  of  a  desire  pressed 
"  in  so  serious  and  solemn  a  manner  for  satisfying  conscience. 

"  But  if  you  will  needs  persist  in  denial,  I  shall  desire  to  hear  the 
"  information  of  late  proceedings  from  such  as  I  dare  trust,  and  *as' 
"  have  had  occasion  to  know  the  certainty  of  things.  Such  I  hope 
"  you  will  permit  to  come  alongst  at  the  first  convenience  ;  and  during 
"  that  time  all  acts  of  hostility,  and  prosecution  of  attempts,  be  fore- 
"  borne  on  both  sides.     I  am,  my  Lord,  your  humble  servant, 

"W.   DUNDAS/' 

The  Lord  General's  Reply,  No.  3  : 


LETTER    CIV. 
For  the  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle:  These. 

Edinburgh,  14th  December,  1650. 

Sir, 

You  will  give  me  leave  to  be  sensible  of  delays  out  of  con- 
science of  duty  *  too.' 

If  you  please  to  name  any  you  would  speak  with  'who  are '  now  in 
Town,  they  shall  have  liberty  to  come  and  speak  with  you  for  one 
hour,  if  they  will  ;  provided  you  send  presently.  I  expect  there  be 
no  loss  of  time.     I  rest. 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

•  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  97),  f  '  o^r  own,"  ones  own. 

%  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelljana,  p.  97). 


144  ^^^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

Governor  Dundas  applies  hereupon  for  Mr.  Alexander  Jaffray  and 
the  Reverend  John  Carstairs  to  be  sent  to  him  :  two  official  persons, 
whom  we  saw  made  captive  in  Dunbar  Drove,  who  have  ever  since 
been  Prisoners-on-parole  with  his  Excellency,  much  meditating  on 
him  and  his  ways.  Who  very  naturally  decline  to  be  concerned  with 
so  delicate  an  operation  as  this  now  on  hand, — in  the  following  charac- 
teristic Note,  in  his  Excellency's  Reply,  No.  4 : 


LETTER    CV. 
For  the  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle  :  These. 

Edinburgh,  14th  December,  1650. 

Sir, 

Having  acquainted  the  Gentlemen  with  your  desire  to  speak 
with  them,  and  they  making  some  difficulty  of  it,  have  desired  me  to 
send  you  this  enclosed.     I  rest. 

Sir,  your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 
Here  is  '  this  enclosed  :' 

"  For  the  Right  Honourable  the  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle  : 

These. 

"Edinburgh,  14th  December,  1650. 

"  Right  Honourable, — We  now  hearing  that  you  was  desirous 
"  to  speak  with  us  for  your  information  of  the  posture  of  affairs,  we 
"  would  be  glad,  and  we  think  you  make  no  doubt  of  it,  to  be  refresh- 
"  ing  or  useful  to  you  in  any  thing  ;  but  the  matter  is  of  so  high  con- 
"  cernment,  especially  since  it  may  be  you  will  lean  somewhat  upon 
"  our  information  in  managing  that  important  trust  put  upon  you,  that 
"  we  dare  not  take  upon  us  to  meddle  :  ye  may  therefore  do  as  ye 
"  find  yourselves  clear  and  in  capacity  ;  and  the  Lord  be  with  you. 
•'  We  are,  Sir,  your  honour's  humble  servants,  wellwishers  in  the 
"  Lord, 

"  Al.  Jaffray. 

"  Jo.  CARSTAIRb." 

So  that,  for  this  Saturday,  noth'ng  can  be  done.  On  Sunday,  we 
suppose,  Mr.  Stapylton,  in  black,  teaches  in  St.  Giles's  ;  and  other 
qualified  persons,  some  of  them  in  red  with  belts,  teach  in  other  Kirks  ; 
the  Scots,  much  taken  with  the  doctrine,  '  answering  in  their  usual 
way  of  groans,'  Hum-m-m-rrh  ! — and  on  Monday,  it  is  like,  the  cannons 
and  mortar-pieces  begin  to  teach  again,  or  indicate  that  they  can  at 
once  begin.  Wherefore,  on  Wednesday,  here  is  a  new  Note  from 
Governor  Dundas  ;  which  we  shall  call  Reply  No.  4,  from  that  much- 
straitened  Gentleman  : 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  98). 


EDINBURGH.  ij^^ 


"Edinburgh  Castle,  i8th  December,  1650. 

"My  Lord, — I  expected  that  conscience,  which  you  pretended  to 
"be  your  motive  that  did  induce  you  to  summon  this  house  before 
"  you  did  attempt  any  thing  against  it,  should  also  have  moved  you 
"  to  have  expected  my  Answer  to  your  Demand  of  the  house  ;  which 
"  I  could  not,  out  of  conscience,  suddenly  give,  without  mature  de- 
"  liberation  ;  it  being  a  business  of  such  high  importance.  You  having 
"  refused  that  little  time,  which  I  did  demand  to  the  effect  I  might 
"  receive  the  commands  of  them  that  did  intrust  me  with  this  place  ; 
"and"  I  "yet  not  daring  to  fulfil  your  desire, — I  do  demand  such  a 
"competent  time  as  may  be  condescended  upon  betwixt  us,  within 
"  which  if  no  relief  come,  I  shall  surrender  this  place  upon  such 
"  honourable  conditions  as  can  be  agreed  upon  by  capitulation  ;  and 
"  during  which  time  all  acts  of  hostility  and  prosecution  of  attempts 
"  on  both  sides  may  be  foreborne.  I  am,  my  Lord,  your  humble 
**  servant, 

"W.  DUNDAS." 

The  Lord  General's  Reply,  No.  5  : 


LETTER  CVL 

For  the  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle  :  These. 

Edinburgh,  i8th  December,  1650. 

SiK, 

All  that  I  have  to  say  is  shortly  this  :  That  if  you  will  send  out 
Commissioners  by  eleven  o'clock  this  night,  thoroughly  instructed  and 
authorised  to  treat  and  conclude,  you  may  have  terms,  honourable 
and  safe  to  you,  and  '  to '  those  whose  interests  are  concerned  in  the 
things  that  are  with  you.  I  shall  give  a  safe-conduct  to  such  whose 
names  you  shall  send  within  the  time  limited,  and  order  to  forbear 
shooting  at  their  coming  forth,  and  going  in. 

To  this  I  expect  your  answer  within  one  hour,  and  rest. 

Sir,  your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 
The  Governor's  Reply,  No.  5  : 

"Edinburgh  Castle,  i8th  December,  1650. 

"  My  Lord, — I  have  thought  upon  these  Two  Gentlemen  whose 
"  names  are  here  mentioned  ;  to  wit,  Major  Andrew  Abernethy  and 
"  Captain  Robert  Henderson  ;  whom  I  purpose  to  send  out  instructed, 
"  in  order  to  the  carrying  on  the  Capitulation.  Therefore  expecting 
"  a  safe-conduct  for  them  with  this  bearer,— I  rest,  my  Lord,  your 
"  humble  servant, 

"W.  DUNDAS." 

The  Lord  General's  Reply,  No.  6  : 

♦  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  98;. 


146  IVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

LETTER   CVIL 

For  the  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle  :  These. 

Edinburgh,  i8th  December.  1650, 

Sir, 

I  have,  here  enclosed,  sent  you  a  safe-conduct  for  the  coming 
forth  and  return  of  the  Gentlemen  you  desire  ;  and  have  appointed 
and  authorised  Colonel  Monk  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  White  to  meet 
with  your  Commissioners,  at  the  house  in  the  safe-conduct  mentioned  : 
there  to  treat  and  conclude  of  the  Capitulation,  on  my  part.     I  rest, 

Sir,  your  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

Here  is  his  Excellency's  Pass,  or  safe-conduct  for  them  : 

PASS. 
To  all  Officers  and  Soldiers  under  my  command. 

You  are  on  sight  hereof  to  suffer  Major  Andrew  Abernethy  and 
Captain  Robert  Henderson  to  come  forth  of  Edinburgh  Castle,  to  the 
house  of  Mr.  Wallace  in  Edinburgh,  and  to  return  back  into  the  said 
Castle,  without  any  trouble  or  molestation. 

Given  under  my  hand,  this  i8th  December,  1650. 

Oliver  Cromwell.! 

By  tomorrow  morning,  in  Mr.  Wallace's  house,  Colonel  Monk  and 
the  other  Three  have  agreed  upon  handsome  terms  ;  of  which,  except 
what  indicates  itself  in  the  following  Proclamation,  published  by  beat 
of  drum  the  same  day,  we  need  say  nothing.  All  was  handsome, 
just  and  honourable, 'as  the  case  permitted  ;  my  Lord  General  being 
extremely  anxious  to  gain  this  place,  and  conciliate  the  Godly 
People  of  the  Nation.  By  one  of  the  conditions,  the  Public  Registers, 
now  deposited  in  the  Castle,  are  to  be  accurately  bundled  up  by 
authorised  persons,  and  carried  to  Stirling,  or  whither  the  Authorities 
please  ;  concerning  which  some  question  afterwards  accidentally  rises. 

PROCLAMATION. 

To  be  proclaimed  by  the  Marshal-general,  by  beat  of  drum,  in 
Edinburgh  and  Leith. 

Whereas  there  is  an  agreement  of  articles  by  treaty  concluded 
betwixt  myself  and  Colonel  Walter  Dundas,  Governor  of  the  Castle 
of  Edinburgh,  which  doth  give  free  liberty  to  all  Inhabitants  adjacent, 
and  all  other  persons  who  have  any  goods  in  the  said  Castle,  to  fetch 
forth  the  same  from  thence  : 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  98).  t  Ibid. p.  99. 


PROCLAMATION.  147 


These  are  therefore  to  declare,  That  all  such  people  before  men- 
tioned who  have  any  goods  in  the  Castle,  as  is  before  expressed,  shall 
have  free  liberty  between  this  present  Thursday  the  19th  instant,  and 
Tuesday  the  24th,  To  repair  to  the  Castle,  and  to  fetch  away  their 
goods,  without  let  or  molestation.  And  I  do  hereby  further  declare 
and  require  all  Oflicers  and  Soldiers  of  this  Army,  That  they  take 
strict  care,  that  no.  violation  be  done  to  any  person  or  persons  fetching 
away  their  goods,  and  carrying  them  to  such  place  or  places  as  to  them 
seemeth  fit.  And  if  it  shall  so  fall  out  that  any  Soldier  shall  be  found 
willingly  or  wilfully  to  do  any  thing  contrary  hereunto,  he  shall  suffer 
death  (or  the  same.  And  if  it  shall  appear  that  any  Officer  shall, 
either  through  connivance  or  otherwise,  do  or  suffer  '  to  be  done ' 
anything  contrary  to  and  against  the  said  Proclamation,  wherein  it 
might  lie  in  his  power  to  prevent  or  hinder  the  same,  he  the  said 
Officer  shall  likewise  suffer  death. 

Given  under  my  hand  the  19th  of  December,  1650. 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

It  is  now  Thursday  :  we  gain  admittance  to  the  Castle  on  the 
Tuesday  following,  and  the  Scotch  forces  march  away, — in  a  some- 
what confused  manner,  I  conceive.  For  Governor  Dundas  and  the 
other  parties  implicated  are  considered  little  better  than  traitors,  at 
Stirling  :  in  fact  they  are,  openly  or  secretly,  of  the  Remonstrant  or 
Protester  species  ;  and  may  as  well  come  over  to  Cromwell  ; — which 
at  once  or  gradually  most  of  them  do.  What  became  of  the  Clergy, 
let  us  not  inquire  :  Remonstrants  or  Resolutioners,  confused  times 
await  them  !  Of  which  here  and  there  a  glimpse  may  turn  up  as  we 
proceed.  The  Lord  General  has  now  done  with  Scotch  Treaties  : 
the  Malignants  ard  Quasi-Malignants  are  ranked  in  one  definite 
body  ;  and  he  may  smite  without  reluctance.  Here  is  his  Letter 
to  the  Speaker  on  this  business.  After  which,  we  may  hope,  the 
rest  of  his  Scotch  Letters  may  be  given  in  a  mass  ;  sufficiently  legible 
without  commentary  of  ours. 


LETTER  CVIIL 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lejtihall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament  of 
England:    These. 

Edinburgh,  24th  December,  1650. 

Right  Honourable, 

It  hath  pleased  God  to  cause  this  Castle  of  Edinburgh  to  be 
surrendered  into  our  hands,  this  day,  about  eleven  o'clock.  I  thought 
fit  to  give  you  such  account  thereof  as  I  could,  and  *  as '  the  shortness 
of  time  would  permit. 

I  sent  a  Summons  to  the  Castle  upon  the  12th  instant  ;  which 
occasioned  several  Exchanges  and  Replies, — which,  for  their  unusual- 
ness,   I  also   thought  fit  humbly  to  present  to  you.t      Indeed  the 


•  Newspapers  (in  Crom  acI liana,  p.  99). 
+  We  Jiave  filreadx  read  tjitni. 


148  IVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND, 

mercy  is  very  great,  and  seasonable.  I  think,  I  need  to  say  little  of 
the  strength  of  the  place  ;  which,  if  it  had  not  come  in  as  it  did, 
would  have  cost  very  much  blood  to  have  attained,  if  at  all  to  be 
attained  ;  and  did  tie  up  your  Army  to  that  inconvenience,  That  little 
or  nothing  could  have  been  attempted  whilst  this  was  in  design  ;  or 
little  fruit  had  of  any  thing  brought  into  your  power  by  your  Army 
hitherto,  without  it.  I  must  needs  say,  not  any  skill  or  wisdom  of 
ours,  but  the  e-ood  hand  of  God  hath  given  you  this  place. 

I  believe  all  Scotland  hath  not  in  it  so  much  brass  ordnance  as  this 
place.  I  send  you  here  enclosed  a  List  thereof,*  and  of  the  arms  and 
ammunition,  so  well  as  they  could  be  taken  on  a  sudden.  Not  having 
more  at  present  to  trouble  you  with,  I  take  leave,  and  rest, 

Sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 


:iiii  0 


LETTERS   CIX.— CXXII. 

The  Lord  General  is  now  settled  at  Edinburgh  till  the  season  for 
campaignmg  return.  Tradition  still  reports  him  as  lodged,  as  in  1648, 
m  that  same  spacious  and  sumptuous  '  Earl  of  Murrie's  House  in  the 
Cannigate  ;'  credibly  enough ;  though  Tradition  does  not  in  this 
mstance  produce  any  written  voucher  hitherto.  The  Lord  General, 
as  we  shall  find  by  and  by,  falls  dangerously  sick  here  ;  worn  down  by 
over-work  and  the  rugged  climate. 

The  Scots  lie  entrenched  at  Stirling,  diligently  raising  new  levies  : 
parliamenting  and  committee-ing  diligently  at  Perth  ;— crown  their 
King  at  Scone  Kirk,  on  the  First  of  January,^  in  token  that  they  have 
now  all  '  complied '  with  him.  The  Lord  General  is  virtually  master 
of  all  Scotland  south  of  the  Forth  ;— fortifies,  before  long,  a  Garrison 
as  far  west  as  '  Newark,'§  which  we  now  call  Port  Glasgow,  on  the 
Clyde.  How  his  forces  had  to  occupy  themselves,  reducing  detached 
Castles  ;  coercmg  Moss-troopers  ;  and,  in  detail,  bringing  the  Country 
to  obedience,  the  old  Books  at  great  length  say,  and  the  reader  here 
shall  fancy  in  his  mind.  Take  the  following  two  little  traits  from 
Whitlocke,  and  spread  them  out  to  the  due  expansion  and  reduplica- 
tion :  ^ 

*  Drakes,  minions,  murderers,  monkeys,  of  brass  and  iron,— not  interesting  to 
us  except  it  be  '  the  great  iron  murderer  called  Muckle-Meg,'  already  in  existence, 
ana  still  held  in  some  confused  remembrance  in  those  Northern  parts. 

t  rsiewspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  99). 

I  M.',""^^  description  of  the  ceremony,  in  Somers  Tracts,  vi.  117. 

§  Milton  State-Papers,  p.  8a.  ' 


EDINBURGH.  149 


'  February  ^rd^  1650.  Letters  that  Colonel  Fenwick  summoned 
'  Hume  Castle  to  be  surrendered  to  General  Cromwell.  '  The  Gover- 
'  nor  answered,  "  I  know  not  Cromwell  ;  and  as  for  my  Castle,  it  is 
'  built  on  a  rock."  Whereupon  Colonel  Fenwick  played  upon  him'  a 
httle  •  with  the  great  guns.'  But  the  Governor  still  would  not  yield  ; 
nay  sent  a  Letter  couched  in  these  singular  terms  : 

"  I  William  of  the  Wastle, 
Am  now  in  my  Castle ; 
An  aw  the  dogs  in  the  town 
Shanna  gar*  me  gang  down." 

So  that  there  remained  nothing  but  opening  the  mortars  upon  this 
William  of  the  Wastle  ;  which  did  gar  him  gang  down,— more  fool 
than  he  went  up. 

We  also  read  how  Colonel  Hacker  and  others  rooted  out  bodies  of 
Moss-troopers  from  Strength  after  Strength  ;  and  '  took  much  oatmeal/ 
which  must  have  been  very  useful  there.  But  this  little  entry,  a  few 
days  subsequent  to  that  of  Willie  Wastle,  affected  us  most :  '  Letters 
'  that  the  Scots  in  a  Village  called  Geddard  rose,  and  armed  them- 
'  selves  ;  and  set  upon  Captain  Dawson  as  he  returned  from  pursuing 

*  some  Mosstroopers  ; — killed  his  guide  and  trumpet ;  and  took  Dawson 

*  and  eight  of  his  party,  and  after  having  given  them  quarter,  killed  them 

*  all  in  cold  blood.'t  In  which  'Village  called  Geddard,'  do  not  some 
readers  recognise  a  known  ^\^ce,  Jeddart  or  Jedb7irgh,iv\Qnd\y  enough 
to  Mosstroopers  ;  and  in  the  transaction  itself,  a  notable  example  ot 
what  is  called  '  Jeddart  Justice,' — killing  a  man  whom  you  have  a 
pique  at  ;  killing  him  first,  to  make  sure,  and  then  judging  him  ! — 
However  there  come  Letters  too,  '  That  the  English  soldiers  married 
divers  of  the  Scots  women  ;'  which  was  an  excellent  movement  on 
their  part ; — and  may  serve  as  the  concluding  feature  here. 


LETTER  CIX. 

The  '■  Empson '  of  this  Letter,  who  is  now  to  have  a  Company 
in  Hacker's  regiment,  was  transiently  visible  to  us  once  already,  as 
'  Lieutenant  Empson  of  my  regiment,'  in  the  Skirmish  at  Musselburgh, 
four  months  ago.]:  Hacker  is  the  well-known  Colonel  Francis  Hacker, 
who  attended  the  King  on  the  scaffold  ;  having  a  signed  Warrant, 
which  we  have  read,  addressed  to  him  and  two  other  Officers  to  that 
effect.  The  most  conspicious,  but  by  no  means  the  most  approved  oJ 
his  military  services  to  this  Country  !  For  which  one  indeed,  in 
overbalance  to  many  others,  he  was  rewarded  with  death  after  the 
Restoration.  A  Rutlandshire  man  ;  a  Captain  from  the  beginning  of 
the  War  ;  and  rather  favourably  visible  from  time  to  time,  all  along. 
Of  whom  a  kind  of  continuous  Outline  of  a  Biography,  considerably 

*  '  Shand  garre'  is  Whitlocke's  reading. 
+  14  Feb.  1650  (Whitlocke,  p.  464). 
X  Letter  LXXXVn.  p.  95 


1^6  IVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

different  from  Caulfield's  and  other  inane  Accounts  of  liim,*  might 
still  be  gathered,  did  it  much  concern  us  here.  To  all  appearance,  a 
somewhat  taciturn,  somewhat  indignant,  very  switt,  resolute  and 
valiant  man.  He  died  for  his  share  in  the  Regicide  :  but  did  not 
profess  to  repent  of  it ;— intimated,  in  his  taciturn  way,  that  he  was 
willing  to  accept  the  results  of  it,  and  answer  for  it  in  a  much  higher 
Court  than  the  Westminster  one.  We  are  indeed  to  understand 
generally,  in  spite  of  the  light  phrase  which  Cromwell  reprimands  in 
this  Letter,  that  Hacker  was  a  religious  man  ;  and  in  his  regicides 
and  other  operations  did  not  act  without  some  warrant  that  was  very 
satisfactory  to  him.  For  the  present  he  has  much  to  do  with  Moss- 
troopers ;  very  active  upon  them  ; — for  which  '  Peebles '  is  a  good 
locality.  He  continues  visible  as  a  Republican  to  the  last  ;  is 
appointed  '  to  raise  a  regiment 'for  the  expiring  Cause  in  1659— in 
"which,  what  a  little  concerns  us,  this  same  '  Hubbert '  here  in  ques- 
tion is  to  be  his  Major.f 

To  the  Honourable  Colojtel  Hacker,  at  Peebles  or  elsewhere :  These. 

'Edinburgh,'  25th  December,  1650. 

Sir, 

I  have  '  used '  the  best  consideration  I  can,  for  the  present,  in 
this  business  ;  and  although  I  believe  Captain  Hubbert  is  a  worthy 
man,  and  hear  so  much,  yet,  as  the  case  stands,  I  cannot,  with  satis- 
faction to  myself  and  some  others,  revoke  the  Commission  I  had 
given  to  Captain  Empson,  without  offence  to  them,  and  reflection 
upon  my  own  judgment. 

I  pray  let  Captain  Hubbert  know  I  shall  not  be  unmindful  of  him, 
and  that  no  disrespect  is  intended  to  him.  But  indeed  I  was  not 
satisfied  with  your  last  speech  to  me  about  Empson,  That  he  was  a 
better  preacher  than  fighter  or  soldier, — or  words  to  that  effect. 
Truly  I  think  he  that  prays  and  preaches  best  will  fight  best.  I  know 
nothing  '  that '  will  give  like  courage  and  confidence  as  the  knowledge 
of  God  in  Christ  will  ;  and  I  bless  God  to  see  any  in  this  Army  able 
and  willing  to  impart  the  knowledge  they  have,  for  the  good  of  others. 
And  I  expect  it  be  e-ncouraged  by  all  the  Chief  Officers  in  this  Army 
especially  ;  and  I  hope  you  will  do  so.  1  pray  receive  Captain 
Empson  lovingly  ;  I  dare  assure  you  he  is  a  good  man  and  a  good 
officer  ;  I  would  we  had  no  worse.     I  rest, 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  Cromwell.^ 

•  Caulfield's  High  Court  of  Justice,  pp.  83-7;  Trials  of  the  Regicides;  &c. 
+  C'onimons  Journals,  vii.  669,  675,  824. 

X  Harris,  p.  516  ;  Lansdowne  MSS,,  1236,  fol.  99,  contains  the  address,  which 
Harris  has  omitted. 


kblNBURGlt  151 


LETTER   ex. 

Letter  Hundred-and-tenth  relates  to  the  exchange  of  three  Pri- 
soners whom  we  saw  taken  in  Dunbar  Drove,  and  have  had  an 
occasional  ghmpse  of  since.  Before  reading  it,  let  another  Letter, 
which  is  quite  unconnected  with  this  ;  but  which  lies,  as  we  may  see, 
on  the  Lord  General's  table  in  Moray  House  in  the  Canongate  while 
he  writes  this ; — and  indeed  is  a  unique  of  its  kind  :  A  Letter  from 
the  Lord  General's  Wife. 

'  My  Lord  Chief  Justice '  is  Oliver  St.  John,  knew  to  us  this  long 
while  ;  '  President '  is  Bradshaw  ;  *  Speaker '  is  Lenthall :  high 
official  persons ,  to  whom  it  were  better  for  the  Lord  General  to  take 
his  Wife's  advice,  and  write  occasionally. 

"  The  Lady  Elizabeth  Cromwell  to  her  Husband  the  Lord  General  at 

Edinburgh. 

*• '  Cockpit,  London,'  27th  December,  1650. 

*'  My  Dearest, — I  wonder  you  should  blame  me  for  writing 
"  no  oftener,  when  I  have  sent  three  for  one  :  I  cannot  but  think  they 
"  are  miscarried.  Truly  if  I  know  my  own  heart,  I  should  as  soon 
''neglect  myself  a,,  to  'omit'*  the  least  thought  towards  you,  who  in 
•'  doing  it,  1  must  do  it  to  myself  But  when  1  do  write,  my  Dear,  I 
"  seldom  have  any  satisfactory  answer  ;  which  makes  me  think  my 
"  writing  is  slighted  ;  as  well  it  may  :  but  I  cannot  but  think  your 
"  love  covers  my  weakness  and  infirmities. 

"  I  should  rejoice  to  hear  your  desire  in  seeing  me  ;  but  L  desire  to 
"  submit  to  the  Providence  of  God  ;  hoping  the  Lord,  who  hath 
"separated  us,  and  hath  often  brought  us  together  again,  will  in  His 
"  good  time  bring  us  again,  to  the  praise  of  His  name.  Truly  my 
"  life  is  but  half  a  life  in  your  absence,  did  not  the  Lord  make  it  up 
"  in  Himself,  which  1  must  acknowledge  to  the  praise  of  His  grace. 

"  I  would  you  would  think  to  write  sometimes  to  your  dear  friend, 
"my  Lord  Chief  Justice,  of  whom  I  have  often  put  you  in  mind. 
"  And  truly,  my  Dear,  if  you  would  think  of  what  I  put  you  in  mind 
"  of  some,  it  might  be  to  as  much  purpose  as  others  ;t  writing  some- 
"  times  a  Letter  to  the  President,  and  sometimes  to  the  Speaker. 
"  Indeed,  my  Dear,  you  cannot  think  the  wrong  you  do  yourself  in 
"  the  want  of  a  letter,  though  it  were  but  seldom.  I  pray  think  on  ;J 
"  and  so  rest, — yours  in  all  faithfulness, 

"  Elizabeth  Cromwell."§ 

This  Letter  in  the  original,  is  frightfully  spelt  ;  but  otherwise 
exactly  as  here  :  the  only  Letter  extant  of  this  Heroine  ;  and  not 

*  Word  torn  out, 

t  The  grammar  bad ;  the  meaning  evident  or  discoverable,  and  the  bad  grammar 
a  part  of  that  ! 

X  '  think  0/'  is  the  Lady's  old  phrase. 
§  Milton  State-Papers,  p.  40. 


152  HOIR  W/tM  SCOTLAND. 


unworthy  of  a  glance  from  us.  It  is  given  in  Harris  too,  and  in 
Noble  very  incorrectly. 

And  now  for  the  letter  concerning  Provost  Jaffray  and  his  two 
fellow  prisoners  from  Dunbar  Drove. 

For  the  Right  Houourable  Lieutenant-General  David  Lesley :   These. 

Edinburgh,  17th  January,  1650. 

Sir, 

I  perceive  by  your  last  Letter  you  had  not  met  with  Mr. 
Carstairs*  and  Mr.  Waugh,  who  were  to  apply  themselves  to  you 
about  Provost  Jaffray's  and  their  release,  'in  exchange'  for  the 
Seamen  and  Officers.  But  I  understood  by  a  Paper  since  shewn  me 
by  them  under  your  hand,  that  you  were  contented  to  release  the  said 
Seamen  and  Officers  for  those  three  Persons, — who  have  had  their 
discharges  accordingly. 

I  am  contented  also  to  discharge  the  Lieutenant,  *  in  exchange '  for 
the  Four  Troopers  at  Stirling,  who  hath  sohcited  me  to  that 
purpose. 

I  have,  here  enclosed,  sent  you  a  Letter,t  which  I  desire  you  to 
cause  to  be  conveyed  to  the  Committee  of  Estates  ;  and  that  such 
return  shall  be  sent  back  to  me  as  they  shall  please  to  give. 

I  remain,  Sir, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. J 

Here  is  a  notice  from  Balfour  :§  At  Perth,  '22nd  November,  1650 
{Rege  prcesente,'  the  King  being  present,  as  usually  after  that  Flight 
to  the   Grampian    Hills   he  is   allowed   to   be),  '  the   Committee  of 

*  Estates  remits  to  the  Committee  of  Quarterings  the  exchange  of 

*  Prisoners   anent    Mr    Alexander   Jaffray   and    Mr.  John   Carstairs, 

*  Minister,  with  some  English  Prisoners  in  the  Castle  of  Dunbarton.' 
Nevertheless  at  this  date,  six  or  seven  weeks  after,  the  business  is  not 
yet  perfected. 

Alexander  Jaffray,  as  we  know  already,  is  Provost  of  Aberdeen  ;  a 
leading  man  for  the  Covenant  from  of  old  .  and  generally  the  Member 
for  his  Burgh  in  the  Scotch  Parliaments  of  these  years.  In  particu- 
lar, he  sits  as  Commissioner  for  Aberdeen  for  the  Parliament  that 
met  4th  January,  1649  ;  |l  under  which  this  disastrous  Quarrel  with 
the  English  began.  He  was  iamed  afterwards  (infamous,  it  then 
meant)  as  am(jng  the  first  of  the  Scotch  Quakers  ;  he,  with  Barclay 
of  Urie,  and  other  lesser  Fallen-Stars.  Personal  intercourse  with 
Cromwell,  the  Sectary  and  Blasphemer,  had  much  altered  the  notions 
of  Mr.  Alexander  Jaff"ray.  Baillie  says.  He  and  Carstairs,  then 
Prisoners  on  parole,  were  sent  westward  by  Cromwell  '  to  agent  the 
Remonstrance,' — to  guide  towards  some  good  issue  the  Ker-and- 
Strahan  Negotiation  ;  which,  alas,  could  only  be  guided  headlong  into 

*  Custaires.  f  The  next  Letter. 

X  Thurloe,  i.  172.     Laigh  Parliament  House.  §  iv.  168. 

il  Balfour,  iii.  382. 


EDINBURGH.  153 


the  ditches  at  Hamilton  before  daybreak,  as  we  saw  !— Jaffray  sat 
afterwards  in  the  Little  Parliament ;  was  an  official  person  in  Scot- 
land,* and  one  of  Cromwell's  leading  men  there. 

Carstairs,  we  have  to  say  or  repeat,  is  one  of  the  Ministers  of 
Glasgow  :  deep  in  the  confused  Remonstrant- Resolutioner  Controver- 
sies of  that  day  ;  though  on  which  side  precisely  one  does  not  alto- 
gether know,  perhaps  he  himself  hrirdly  altogether  knew.  From 
Baillie,  who  has  frequent  notices  of  him,  it  is  clear  he  tends  strongly 
towards  the  Cromwell  view  in  many  things  ;  yet  with  repugnancies, 
anti-sectary  and  other,  difficult  for  frail  human  nature.  How  he 
managed  his  life-pilotage  in  these  circumstances  shall  concern  him- 
self mainly.  His  Son,  I  believe  is  the  '  Principal  Carstairs,  t  who 
became  very  celebrated  among  the  Scotch  Whigs  in  King  William's 
time.  He  gets  home  to  Glasgow  now,  where  perhaps  we  shall  see 
some  glimpses  of  him  again. 

John  Waugh  (whom  they  spell  Vauc/i,  and  Wauch^  and  otherwise 
distort)  was  the  painful  Minister  of  Borrowstounness,  in  the  Shire  of 
Linlithgow.  A  man  of  many  troubles,  now  and  afterwards.  Captive 
in  the  Dunbar  Drove  ;  still  deaf  he  to  thetemptings  of  Sectary  Crom- 
well ;  deafer  than  ever.  In  this  month  of  January  1651,  we  perceive 
he  gets  his  deliverance  ;  returns  with  painfully  increased  experience, 
but  little  change  of  view  derived  from  it,  to  his  painful  Ministry  ; 
where  new  tribulations  await  him.  From  Baillie!};  I  gather  that  the 
painful  Waugh's  invincible  tendency  was  to  the  Resolutioner  or 
Quasi- Mahgnant  side  ;  and  too  strong  withal ; — no  level  sailing,  or 
smooth  pilotage,  possible  for  poor  Waugh  !  For  as  the  Remonstrant 
or  Ker-and-Strahan  Party,  having  j  ined  itself  to  the  Cromwellean, 
came  ultimately  to  be  dominant  in  Scotland,  there  ensued  for  strait- 
laced  clerical  individuals  who  would  cling  too  desperately  to  the  oppo- 
site Resolutioner  or  Quasi-Malignant  side,  very  bad  times.  There 
ensued  in  the  first  place,  very  naturally,  this.  That  the  straitlaced  indi- 
vidual, who  would  not  cease  to  pray  publicly  as^ainst  the  now 
Governing  Powers,  was  put  out  of  his  hving  :  this  ;  and  if  he  grew 
still  more  desperate,  worse  than  this. 

Of  both  which  destinies  our  poor  straitlaced  Waugh  may  serve  to 
us  as  an  emblem  here.  Some  three  years  hence  we  find  that  the 
Cromwellean  Government  has,  in  Waugh's,  as  in  various  other  cases, 
ejected  the  straitlaced  Resolutioner,  and  inducted  a  loose-\2iZt.^  Re- 
monstrant into  his  Kirk  ; — leaving  poor  Waugh  the  straitlaced  to 
preach  '  in  a  barn  hard  by.'  And  though  the  loose-laced  '  have  but 
fifteen,'  and  the  straitlaced  '  all  the  Parish,'  it  matters  not ;  the  stipend 
and  the  Kirk  go  with  him  whose  lacing  is  loose  :  one  has  nothing  but 
one's  barn  left,  and  sad  reflections.  Nay  in  Waugh's  case,  the  very 
barn,  proving  as  is  likely  an  arena  of  too  vehement  discourse,  was 
taken  away  from  him  ;  and  he,  Waugh,  was  lodged  in  Prison,  in  the 
Castle  of  Edinburgh. §     For  Waugh  '  named  the  King  in  his  prayers,' 

*  Ousted  our  friend  Scotstarvet,  —  most  unjustly,  thinks  he  of  the  Staggering 
State  (p.  181).  There  wanted  only  that  to  make  the  Homily  on  Life  s  Nothingness 
complete  ! 

t  Biog.  Britann.  in  voce ;  somewhat  indistinct. 

X  iii-  248.  §  Baillie,  iiL  248,  253,  zaS. 


154  ^^^  WITH  SCOTlANh 


he  and  *  Mr.  Robert  Knox'  even  went  that  length  ! 
date  nth  November,  1653,  is  a  most  doleful  inflexible  Letter  from 
Waugh's  own  hand  :  "brought  ♦"o  the  top  of  this  rock,"  as  his  ulti- 
mate lodgingplace  ;  "having  my  habitation  among  the  owls  of  the 
"desert,  becauseof  my  very  great  uselessness  and  fruitlessness  among 
"  the  sons  of  men."  Yet  he  is  right  well  satisfied,  conscience  yielding 
him  a  good  &c.  &c. — Poor  Waugh,  I  wish  he  would  reconsider  him- 
self. Whether  it  be  absolutely  indispensable  to  Christ's  Kirk  to  have 
a  Nell-Gwynn  Defender  set  over  it  even  though  descended  from 
Catherine  Muir  ;  and  if  no  other,  not  the  bravest  and  devoutest  of 
all  British  men,  will  do  for  that?  O  Waugh,  it  is  a  strange  camera- 
obscura  the  head  of  man  ! — 


LETTER  CXL 

We  have  heard  of  many  Mosstroopers  :  we  heard  once  of  a  certain 
Watt,  a  Tenant  of  the  Earl  of  Tweeddale's,  who  being  ruined  out  by 
the  War,  distinguished  himself  in  this  new  course  ;  and  contemporary 

ith  hirn,  of  '  one  Augustin  a  High-German.'  To  which  latter  some 
wore  special  momentary  notice  now  falls  due. 

Read  Balfour's  record,  and  then  Cromwell's  Letter.  '  One  Augustin, 
'  a  High-German,  being  purged  out  of  the  Army  before  Dunbar  Drove, 

*  but  a  stout  and  resolute  young  man,  and  lover  of  the  Scots  Nation, 

*  — imitating  Watt, — in  October  or  November  this  year,  annoyed  the 

*  Enemy  very  much ;  killing  many  of  his  stragglers  ;  and  made 
'nightly   infalls  upon  their  quarters,  taking    and    kilHng    sometimes 

*  twenty,  sometimes  thirty,  and  more  or  less  of  them  :  whereby  he 
'  both  enriched  himself  and  his  followers,  and  greatly  damnified  the 
'Enemy.  His  chief  abode  was  about  and  in  the  Mountains  of  Pent- 
Mand  and  Soutra.'— And  again,  from  Perth,   19th   December,  1650  ; 

*  Memorandum^  That  Augustin  departed  from  Fife  with  a  party  of  six- 

*  score   horse;    crossed  at    Blackness    on    Friday    13th    December; 

*  forced  Cromwell's  guards  ;  killed  eighty  men  to  the  Enemy  ;  put- 

*  in  thirty-six  men  to  Edinburgh  Castle,  with  all  sorts  of  spires,  and 

*  some  other  things  ;  took  thirty-five  horses  and  five  prisoners,  which 

*  he  sent  to  Perth  the  14th  of  this  instant.'  Which  feat,  with  the 
spices  and  thirty-six  men,  could  not  indeed  save  Edinburgh  Castle 
from  surrendering,  as  we  saw,  next  week  ;  but  did  procure  Captain 
Augustin  '  thanks  from  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  Parliament  in  his 
Majesty's  name,'  and  good  outlooks  for  promotion  in  that  quarter.* 

For  the  Right  Honourable  the  Coimiiittee  of  Estates  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Scotland:  These. 

Edinburgh,  17th  January,  1650. 

My  Lords, 

Having  been  informed  of  divers  barbarous  murders  and  in- 
♦  Balfour,  iv,  166,  210,  214, 


EDL\ BURGH.  15$ 


human  acts,  perpetrated  upon  our  men  by  one  Augustin  a  German  in 
employ  under  you,  and  one  Ross  a  Lieutenant,  I  did  send  to  Lieu- 
tenant-General  David  Lesley,  desiring  justice  against  the  said  persons. 
And  to  the  end  I  might  make  good  the  fact  upon  them,  I  was  will- 
ing either  by  commissioners  on  both  parts,  or  in  any  other  equal 
way,  to  have  the  charge  proved. 

Ihe  Lieutenant  General  was  pleased  to  allege  a  want  of  power 
from  Public  Authority  to  enable  him  herein  :  which  occasions  me  to 
desire  your  Lordships  that  this  business  may  be  put  into  such  a 
way  as  may  give  satisfaction  ;  — whereby  I  may  understand  what 
rules  your  Lordships  will  hold  during  this  sad  Contest  between  the 
two  Nations;  *  rules'  which  may  evidence  the  War  to  stand  upon 
other  pretences  at  least  than  the  allowing  of  such  actions  will 
suppose. 

Desiring  your  Lordships'  answer,  I  rest, 

My  Lords, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

No  effect  whatever  seems  to  have  been  produced  by  this  Letter. 
The  Scotch  Quasi-Malignant  Authorities  have  '  thanked '  Augustin, 
and  are  determined  to  have  all  the  benefit  they  can  of  him, — which 
cannot  be  much,  one  would  think  !  In  the  following  June  accordingly 
we  find  him  become  '  C^/^/z^/ Augustin,'  probably  Major  or  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  ;  quartered  with  Robin  Montgomery  'at  Dumfries;'  giving 
*  an  alarm  to  Carlisle,'  but  by  no  nicans  taking  it  ; — '  falling  in,'  on 
another  occasion,  '  with  Two-hundred  picked  men,'  but  very  glad  to 
fall  out  again,  '  nearly  all  cut  off.'  In  strong  practical  Reinonstrance 
against  which,  the  learned  Bulstrode  has  Letters  in  November,  vague 
but  satisfactory,  '  That  the  Scots  themselves  rose  against  Augustin, 
'  killed  some  of  his  men,  and  drove  away  the  rest  ; '  entirely  dis- 
approving of  such  courses  and  personages.  And  then  finally  in 
January  following, '  Letters  that  Augustin  the  great  robber  in  Scotland, 
'  — upon  disbanding  of  the  Marquis  of  Huntly's  forces,'  the  last  rem- 
nant of  Scotch  Malignancy  for  the  present, — '  went  into  the  Orcades, 
'  and  there  took  ship  for  Norway .'f     Fair  wind  and  full  sea  to  him  ! — 


LETTER  CXIL 

An  Official  Medallist  has  arrived  from  London  to  take  the  Effigies 
of  the  Lord  General,  for  a  Medal  commemorative  of  the  Victory  at 
Dunbar.  The  Effigies,  Portrait,  or  '  Statue '  as  they  sometimes  call 
it,  of  the  Lord  General  appears  to  be  in  a  state  of  forwardness  ;  but 

*  Thurloe,  i.  173.     Laigh  Parliament  House. 

t  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  104) ;  Whitlocke,  23  November,  1651 ;  ib^ 
14  January,  1651-2. 


1^6  IVA/^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

he  would  fain  waive  such  a  piece  of  vanity.  The  *  Gratuity  to  the 
Army'  's  a  soHd  thing  :  but  this  of  the  Effigies,  or  Stamp  of  my  poor 
transient  unbeautiful  Face— ?— However,  the  Authorities,  as  we  may 
surmise,  have  made  up  ^heir  mind. 

For  the  Ho7iourabIe  the  Committee  of  the  Army  *  at  London  . ' 
These. 

Edinburgh,  4th  February,  1650. 

Gentlemen, 

It  was  not  a  little  wonder  to  me  to  see  that  you  should  send 
Mr.  Symonds  so  great  a  journey,  about  a  business  importing  so  little, 
as  far  as  it  relates  to  me  ;  whereas,  if  my  poor  opinion  may  not  be  re- 
jected by  you,  I  have  to  offer  to  that*  which  I  think  the  most  noble 
end,  to  wit,  The  Commemoration  of  that  great  Mercy  at  Dunbar,  and 
the  Gratuity  to  tlie  Army.  Which  might  be  better  expressed  upon 
the  Medal,  by  engraving,  as  on  the  one  side  the  Parliament,  which  I 
hear  w^as  intended  and  will  do  singularly  well,  so  on  the  other  side  an 
Army,  with  this  Inscription  over  the  head  of  it,  7^he  Lord  of  Hosts, 
which  was  our  Word  that  day.  Wherefore,  if  I  may  beg  it  as  a 
favour  from  you,  I  mo^t  earnestly  beseech  you,  if  I  may  do  it  without 
offence,  that  it  may  be  so.  And  it  you  think  not  fit  to  have  it  as  I 
offer,  you  may  alter  it  ab  you  see  cause  ;  only  I  do  think  I  may  truly 
say,  it  will  be  very  thankfully  acknowledged  by  me,  if  you  will  spare 
the  having  my  Effigies  in  it. 

The  Gentleman's  pains  and  trouble  hither  have  been  very  great ; 
and  I  shall  make  it  my  second  suit  unto  you  that  you  will  please  to 
confer  upon  him  that  Employment  which  Nicholas  Briot  had  before 
him  :  indeed  the  man  is  ingenious,  and  worthy  of  encouragement.  I 
may  not  presume  much  ;  but  if,  at  my  request,  and  for  my  sake,  he 
rnay  obtain  this  favour,  I  shall  put  it  upon  the  account  of  my  obliga- 
tions, which  are  not  few  ;  and,  I  hope,  shall  be  found  ready  to 
acknowledge  '  it,'  and  to  approve  myself, 

Gentlemen, 

Your  most  real  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

Of  '  Nicholas  Briot '  and  *  Mr.  Symonds,'  since  they  have  the 
honour  of  a  pas^ng  relation  to  the  Lord  General ;  and  still  enjoy,  or 
suffer,  a  kind  of  ghost-existence  in  the  Dilettante  memory,  we  may 
subjoin,  rather  than  cancel,  the  following  authentic  particulars.  In 
the  Commons  Journals  of  20th  August,  1642,  it  is  :  '  Ordered,ThRt  the 
'  Earl  of  Warwick,'  now  Admiral  of  our  Fleet,  '  be  desired  that 
'  Monsieur  Bryatt  may  have  delivery  of  his  wearing  apparel  ;  and  all 
'  his  other  goods  stayed  at  Scarborough,  not  belonging  to  Minting  and 
'  Coining  of  Monies.'— This  Nicholas  Briot,  or  Bryatt,  then,  must  have 
been  Chief  Engraver  for  the  Mint  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  Wars. 
We  perceive,  he  has  gone  to  the  King  northward  :  but  is  here  stopt 
at  Scarborough,  with  all  his  baggage,  by  Warwick  the  Lord  High 

*  I  should  vote  exclusively  for  that.  f  Harris,  p.  310. 


NEW  GREAT  SEALS.  157 


Admiral :  and  is  to  get  away.  What  became  of  him  afterwards,  or 
what  was  his  history  before,  no  man  and  hardly  any  Dilettante 
knows. 

Symonds,  Symon.s,  or  as  the  moderns  call  him,  Simon,  is  still  known 
as  an  improved  Medal-maker.  In  the  Commons  Journals  of  17th 
December,  165 1,  we  find:  'Ordered,  That  it  be  referred  to  the 
'  Council  of  State  to  take  order  that  the  sum  of  ^300  be  paid  unto 

*  Thomas  Symons,  which  was  agreed  by  the  Committee  appointed 
*for  that  purpose  to  be  paid  unto  him,  for  the  Two  Great  Seals  made 

*  by  him,  and  the  materials  thereof :  And  that  the  said  Council  do 

*  take  consideration  of  what  farther  recompense  is  fit  to  be  given  unto 
*him  for  his   extraordinary  pains   therein;  and  give  order  for   tlie 

*  payment  of  such  sum  of  money  as  they  shall  think  fit  in  respect 

*  thereof 

An  earlier  entry,  which  still  more  concerns  us  here,  is  an  Order,  in 
favour  of  one  whose  name  has  not  reached  the  Clerk,  and  is  now  in- 
dicated only  by  stars,  That  the   Council  of  State  shall  pay  him  for 

*  making  the  Statue  of  the  General,' — doubtless  this  Medal  or  Effigies 
of  the  General ;  the  name  indicated  by  stars  being  again  that  of 
Symonds.  The  Order,  we  observe,  has  the  same  date  as  the  present 
Letter.*  The  Medal  of  Cromwell,  executed  on  this  occasion,  still 
exists,  and  is  said  to  be  a  good  likeness.t  The  Committee-men  had 
not  taken  my  Lord  General's  advice  about  the  Parliament,  about  the 
Army  with  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  the  total  omitting  of  his  own 
Effigies,  Vertue  published  Engravings  of  all  these  Medals  of  Simon 
(as  he  spells  him)  in  the  year  1753 

The  '  Two  Great  Seals,'  mentioned  in  the  Excerpt  above,  are  also 
worth  a  word  from  us.  There  had  a  good  few  Great  Seals  to  be 
made  in  the  course  of  this  War  ;  all  by  Symonds  :  of  whom,  with 
reference  thereto,  we  find,  in  authentic  quarters,  various  notices,  of 
years  long  prior  and  posterior  to  this.  Theyfrj/of  all  the  '  new  Great 
Seals '  was  the  one  made,  after  infinite  debates  and  hesitations,  in 
1643,  when  Lord  Keeper  Lyttleton  ran  away  with  the  original : 
Symonds  was  the  maker  of  this,  as  other  entries  of  the  same  Rhada- 
manthine  Commons  Journals  instruct  us  :  On  the  nth  July,  1643, 
Henry  Marten  is  to  bring  'the  man'  that  will  make  the  new  Great 
Seal,  and  let  us  see  him  '  tomorrow  ; '  which  man  it  turns  out,  at 
sight  of  him,  not  'tomorrow,'  but  a  week  after,   on  the   19th  July,  is 

*  Mr.  Simonds.'J — who,  we  find  farther,  is  to  have^ioo  for  this  work  ; 
^40  in  hand,  ^30  so  soon  as  his  work  is  done,  and  the  other  ^30  one 
knows  not  when.  Symonds  made  the  Seal  duly  ;  but  as  for  his  pay- 
ment, we  fear  it  was  not  made  very  duly.  Of  course  when  the  Com- 
monwealth and  Council  of  State  began,  a  couple  of  new  Great  Seals 
were  needed  ;  and  these  too,  as  we  see  above,  Symonds  made  ;  and 
is  to  be  paid  for  them,  and  for  the  General's  Statue  ; — which  we  hope 
he  was,  but  are  not  sure  ! 

Other  new  Seals,  Great  and  Not-SQ-great,  in  the  subsequent  muta- 
tions, were  needea  ;  and  assiduous  Symonds  made  them  all.  Never- 
theless, in  1659,  when  the  Protectorate  under  Richard  was  staggering 

*  Commons  Journals,  4  February,  1650-1.  •}*  Harris,  p.  ^18, 

I  Cgmmons  Journals,  iii.  162;  17^. 


158  IVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


towards  ruin,  we  find  *  Mr.  Thomas  Symonds  Chief  Graver  of  the 
Mint  and  Seals/  repeatedly  turning  up  with  new  Seals,  new  order  iox 
payment,  and  new  indication  that  the  order  was  but  incompletely 
complied  with.*  May,  14th,  1659,  he  has  made  a  new  and  newest 
Great  Seal ;  he  is  to  be  paid  for  that,  and  '  for  the  former,  for  which 
he  yet  remains  unsatisfied.'  Also  on  the  24th  May,  i659,t  the  Council 
of  State  get  a  new  Seal  from  him.  Then  on  the  22d  August,  on  the 
Rump  Parliament's  re-assembling,  he  makes  a  '  new  Parliament 
Seal  ; '  and  presents  a  modest  Petition  to  have  his  money  paid  him  : 
order  is  granted  very  promptly  to  that  end  ;  '  his  debt.to  be  paid  for 
this  Seal,  and  for  all  former  work  done  by  him  ; ' — we  hope,  with  com- 
plete effect.;): 

The  Restoration  soon  followed,  and  Symonds  continued  still  in  the 
Mint  under  Charles  II.  ;  when  it  is  not  very  likely  his  claims  were 
better  attended  to  ;  the  brave  Hollar,  and  other  brave  Artists,  having 
their  own  difficulties  to  get  life  kept-in,  during  those  rare  times,  Mr. 
Rigmarole  ! — Symonds,  we  see,  did  get  the  place  of  Nicholas  Briot ; 
and  found  it,  like  other  brave  men's  places,  full  of  hard  work  and  short 
rations.     Enough  now  of  Symonds  and  the  Seals  and  Effigies. 

On  the  same  Tuesday,  4th  February,  1 650-1,  while  the  Lord  General 
is  writing  this  Letter,  his  Army,  issuing  from  its  Leith  Citadel  and 
other  winter-quarters,  has  marched  westward  towards  Stirling  ;  he 
himself  follows  on  the  morrow.  His  Army  on  Tuesday  got  to  Linlith- 
gow ;  the  Lord  General  overtook  them  at  Falkirk  on  Wednesday. 
Two  such  days  of  wind,  hail,  snow,  and  rain  as  made  our  soldiers 
very  uncomfortable  indeed.  On  Friday,  the  morning  proving  fair, 
we  set  out  again  ;  got  to  Kilsyth  ; — but  the  hail-reservoirs  also  opened 
on  us  again  :  we  found  it  impossible  to  get  along  ;  and  so  returned, 
by  the  road  we  came  ;  back  to  Edinburgh  on  Saturday,§  —coated 
with  white  sleet,  but  endeavouring  not  to  be  discouraged.  We  hope 
we  much  terrified  the  Scots  at  Stirling  ;  but  the  hail-reservoirs  proved 
friendly  to  them. 


LETTER  CXIIL 

By  this  tempestuous  sleety  expedition  my  Lord  General  caught  a 
dangerous  iliness,  which  hung  about  him,  reappearing  in  three  succes- 
sive relapses,  till  June  next ;  and  greatly  alarmed  the  Commonwealth 
and  the  Authorities.  As  this  to  Bradshaw,  and  various  other  Letters 
still  indicate. 

To  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  President  of  the  Council  oj 
State  ;  These. 

Edinburgh,  24th  March,  1650. 


My  Lord 


I   do   with  all  humble  thankfulness  acknowledge  your  high 

*  Commons  Journals,  vii,  654.       f  Ibid.  vii.  663.       %  Ibid.vii.  654,  663,  765. 
§  Pel  feet  Durnal  (in  Crpmw^lliana,  p.  100). 


EDINBURGH.  159 


favour,  and  tender  respect  of  me,  expressed  in  your  Letter,  and  the 
Express  sent  therewith  to  inquire  after  one  so  unworthy  as  myself 

Indeed,  my  Lord,  your  service  needs  not  me  :  I  am  a  poor  crea- 
ture ;  and  have  been  a  dry  bone ;  and  am  still  an  unprofitable  ser- 
vant to  my  Master  and  you.  I  thought  I  should  have  died  of  this  fit 
of  sickness  ;  but  the  Lord  seemeth  to  dispose  otherwise.  But  truly, 
my  Lord,  I  desire  not  to  live,  unless  I  may  obtain  mercy  from  the 
Lord  to  approve  my  heart  and  life  to  Him  in  more  faithfulness  and 
thankfulness,  and  '  to '  those  I  serve  in  more  profitableness  and  dili- 
gence. And  I  pray  God,  your  Lordship,  and  all  in  public  trust,  may 
improve  all  those  unparalleled  experiences  of  the  Lord's  wonderful 
Workings  in  your  sight,  with  singleness  of  heart  to  His  glory,  and  the 
refreshment  of  His  People  :  who  are  to  Him  as  the  apple  of  His  eye; 
and  upon  whom  your  enemies,  both  former  and  latter,  who  have  fallen 
before  you,  did  split  themselves. 

This  shall  be  the  unfeigned  prayer  of, 

My  Lord, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell* 

From  Edinburgh,  of  date  i8th  March,  by  special  Express  we  have 
this  comfortable  intelligence  :  '  The  Lord   General  is  now  well  re- 

*  covered  :  he  was  in  his  dining-room  today  with  his  Officers,  and  was 
'  very  cheerful'  and  pleasant.'  And  the  symptoms,  we  see,  continue 
good  and  better  on  the  24th.     '  So  that  there  is  not  any  fear,  by  the 

*  blessing  of  God,  but  our  General  will  be  enabled  to  take  the  field 

*  when  the  Provisions  arrive.'  '  Dr.  Goddard  '  is  attending  him.f  Be- 
fore the  end  of  the  month  he  is  on  foot  again;  sieging  Blackness, 
sieging  the  Island  of  Inchgarvie,  or  giving  Colonel  Monk  directions 
to  that  end. 

The  following  Letter  brings  its  own  commentary  : 

LETTER   CXIV. 

For  my  beloved  Wife,  Elizabeth  Cromwell,  at  the  Cockpit :  These. 

'Edinburgh,'  12th  April,  1651. 

My  Dearest, 

I  praise  the  Lord  I  am  increased  in  strength  in  my  outward 
man  :  But  that  will  not  satisfy  me  except  I  get  a  heart  to  love  and 
serve  my  heavenly  Father  better  ;  and  get  more  of  the  light  of  His 
countenance,  which  is  better  than  life,  and  more  power  over  my  cor- 
ruptions : — in  these  hopes  I  wait,  and  am  not  without  expectation  of 
a  gracious  return.  Prav  for  me  ;  truly  I  do  daily  for  thee,  and  the 
dear  family  ;  and  God  Aanighty  bless  you  all  with  His  spiritual 
blessings. 

Mind  poor  Betty  of  ihe  Lord's  great  mercy.     Oh,  I  desire  her  not 

♦  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  loi).  f  Ibid.  pp.  100,  i^ 


i6o  IVAJ^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


only  to  seek  the  Lord  in  her  necessity,  but  in  deed  and  in  truth  to 
turn  to  the  Lord  ;  and  to  keep  close  to  Him  ;  and  to  take  heed  of  a 
departing  heart,  and  of  being  cozened  with  worldly  vanities  and 
worldly  company,  which  I  doubt  she  is  too  subject  to.  I  earnestly 
and  frequently  pray  for  her,  and  for  him.  Truly  they  are  dear  to  me, 
very  dear  ;  and  I  am  in  fear  lest  Satan  should  deceive  them,— know- 
ing how  weak  our  hearts  are,  and  how  subtile  the  Adversary  is,  and 
what  way  the  deceitfulness  of  our  hearts  and  the  vain  world  make  for 
his  temptations.  The  Lord  give  them  truth  of  heart  to  Him.  Let 
them  seek  Him  in  truth,  and  they  shall  find  Him. 

My  love  to  the  dear  little  ones  ;  I  pray  for  grace  for  them.  I  thank 
them  for  their  Letters  ;  let  me  have  them  often. 

Beware  of  my  Lord  Herbert's  resort  to  your  house.  If  he  do  so,  it 
may  occasion  scandal,  as  if  I  were  bargaining  with  him.  Indeed,  be 
^ise^_you  know  my  meaning.  Mind  Sir  Henry  Vane  of  the  business 
of  my  Estate.     Mr.  Floyd  knows  my  whole  mind  in  that  matter. 

If  Dick  Cromwell  and  his  Wife  be  with  you,  my  dear  love  to  them. 
I  pray  for  them  ;  they  shall,  God  willing,  hear  from  me.  I  love  them 
verv  dearly.— Truly  I  am  not  able  as  yet  to  write  much  ;  I  am  weary, 
and  rest  thine, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*  Betty'  and  'he'  are  Elizabeth  Claypole  and  her  Husband;  of 
whom,  for  the  curious,  there  is  a  longwinded  intricate  account  by 
Noble,t  but  very  little  discoverable  in  it.  They  lived  at  Norborough, 
near  Market  Deeping,  but  in  Northamptonshire  ;  where,  as  already 
intimated,  the  Lady  Protectress,  Widow  Elizabeth  Cromwell,  after 
the  Restoration,  found  a  retreat.  '  They  had  at  least  three  sons  and 
daughters.'  Claypole  became  '  Master  of  the  Horse '  to  Oliver  ;  sat 
in  Parliament ;  made  an  elegant  appearance  in  the  world  : — but 
dwindled  sadly  after  his  widowhood  ;  his  second  marriage  ending  in 
*  separation,'  in  a  third  quasi-marriage^  and  other  confusions,  poor 
man  1  But  as  yet  the  Lady  Claypole  lives ;  bright  and  brave.  '  Truly 
they  are  dear  to  me  very  dear.' 

'  Dick  Cromwell  and  his  Wife '  seem  to  be  up  in  Town  on  a  visit ; 
— living  much  at  their  ease  in  the  Cockpit,  they.  Brother  Henry,  in 
these  same  days,  is  out '  in  the  King's  County '  in  Ireland  ;  doing 
hard  duty  at  '  Ballybawn,'  and  elsewhere,;]: — the  distinguished  Colonel 
Cromwell.  And  Deputy  Ireton,  with  his  labours,  is  wearing  himself 
to  death.     In  the  same  house,  one  works,  another  goes  idle. 

'The  Lord  Herbert'  is  Henry  Somerset,  eldest  son  of  the  now 
Marquis  of  Worcester, — of  the  Lord  Glamorgan  whom  we  knew 
slighdy  at  Ragland,  in  '  Irish  Cessations '  and  such  like ;  whose 
Century  of  In^ientions  is  still  slightly  known  to  here  and  there  a 
reader  of  Old  Books.  '  This  Lord  Herbert,'  it  seems,  '  became  Duke 
of  Beaufort  after  the  Restoration,'  For  obvious  reasons,  you  are  to 
'  beware  of  his  resort  to  your  house  at  present '  A  Papist  of  the 
Papists  ;  which  may  give  rise  to  commentaries.     Oae  stupid  Anno- 

*  Cole  MSS.  xxxiii.  ^j  \  a  copy  ;  copies  are  frequent. 

\  ii.  37^,  &c,  +  Newspapers  (in  CromwellMna,  p.  10?), 


EDINBURGH.  i6i 


tator  on  a  certain  Copy  of  this  Letter  says,  '  His  Lordship  had  an 
intrigue  with  Mrs.  Claypole ;  '-—which  is  evidently  downright  stupor 
and  falsehood,  like  so  much  else. 


LETTER   CXV. 

Upon  the  Surrender  of  Edinburgh  Castle  due  provision  had  been 
made  for  conveyance  of  the  Public  Writs  and  Registers  to  what 
quarter  the  Scotch  Authorities  might  direct ;  and  *  Passes '  under  the 
Lord  General's  hand  duly  granted  for  that  end.  Archibald  Johnston, 
Lord  Register,  we  conclude,  had  superintended  the  operation  ;  had, 
after  much  labour,  bundled  the  Public  Writs  properly  together  into 
masses,  packages  ;  and  put  them  on  shipboard,  considering  this  the 
eligiblest  mode  of  transport  towards  Stirling  and  the  Scotch  head- 
quarters at  present.  But  now  it  has  fallen  out,  in  the  middle  of  last 
month,  that  the  said  ship  has  been  taken,  as  many  ships  and  shallops 
on  both  sides  now  are  ;  and  the  Public  Writs  are  in  jeopardy  : 
whereupon  ensues  correspondence ;  and  this  fair  Answer  from  my 
Lord  General. 


*  To  the  Honourable  Archibald  Johnston^  Lord  Register  of  Scotland: 

These: 

Edinburgh,  12th  April,  1651. 

My  Lord, 

Upon  the  perusal  of  the  Passes  formerly  given  for  the  safe 
passing  of  the  Public  Writs  and  Registers  of  the  Kingdom  of  Scot- 
land, I  do  think  they*  ought  to  be  restored  :  and  they  shall  be  so,  to 
such  persons  as  you  shall  appoint  to  receive  them ;  with  passes  for 
persons  and  vessels,  to  carry  them  to  such  place  as  shall  be  ap- 
pointed : — so  that  it  be  done  within  one  month  next  following. 

I  herewith  send  you  a  Pass  for  your  Servant  to  go  into  Fife,  and 
to  return  with  the  other  Clerks  ;  and  rest, 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL,t 

Warriston's  answer,  written  on  Monday,  the  12th  being  Saturday, 
is  given  also  in  Thurloe.  71ie  Lord  General's  phrase,  '  perusal  of  the 
Passes,'  we  now  find,  means  '  reperusal,'  new  sight  of  them  ;  which, 
Archibald  earnestly  urges,  is  impossible  ;  the  original  Passes  being 
now  far  off  in  the  hands  of  the  Authorities,  and  the  Writs  in  a  stale 
of  imminent  danger,  lying  in  a  ship  at  Leith,  as  Archibald  obscurely 
intimates,  which  the  English  Governor  has  got  his  claws  over,  and 
keeps  shut  up  in  dock  ;  with  a  considerable  leak  in  her  too  :  very 
bad  stowage  for  such  goods.;};     Which  obscure  intimation  of  Archi- 

*  The  Writs  and  Registers. 

t  Thurloe,  i.  117.    Records  of  th«  Laigh  Parliament  House.     \  Thurloe,  ibid, 

VOL.  II.  G 


i62  WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


bald's  becomes  lucid  to  us,  as  to  the  Lord  General  it  already  was, 
when  we  read  this  sentence  of  Bulstrode's,  under  date  22nd  March, 
1650-1  :  '  Letters  that  the  Books  and  Goods  belonging  to  the'  Scotch 

*  King  and   Register  were  taken  by   the   Parliament's   ships  ;   and 

*  another  ship,  laden  with  oats,  meal,  and  other  provisions,  going  to 

*  Fife  :  twenty-two  prisoners.'"''"  For  captures  and  small  sea-surprisals 
abound  in  the  Frith  at  present  ;  the  Parliament-ships  buy  on  one 
hand  ;  and  the  '  Captain  of  the  Bass,'  the  '  Shippers  of  Wemyss,' 
and  the  like  active  persons  doing  their  duty  on  the  other, — whereby 
infinite  '  biscuit,'  and  such  small  ware,  is  from  time  to  time  realised.f 

Without  doubt  the  Public  Writs  were  all  redelivered,  according  to 
the  justice  of  the  case  ;  and  the  term  of  '  one  month  '  which  Archibald 
pleads  hard  to  get  lengthened,  was  made  into  two,  or  the  necessary  time. 
Archibald's  tone  towards  the  Lord  General  is  anxiously  respectful, 
nay  submissive  and  subject.  In  fact,  Archibald  belongs,  if  not  by 
profession,  yet  by  invincible  tendency,  to  the  Remonstrant  Ker-and- 
Strahan  Party  ;  and  looks  dimly  forward  to  a  near  time  when  there 
will  be  no  refuge    for    him,    and   the    like  of  him,  but     Cromwell. 

*  Strahan,'  in  the  month  of  January  last,  is  already  '  excommunicated, 
'  and  solemnly  delivered  to  the  Devil,  in  the  Church  of  Perth.':};  This 
is  what  you  have  to  look  for,  from  a  Quasi-Malignant  set  of  men  ! 

This  Archibald,  as  is  well  known,  sat  afterwards  in  Cromwell's  Par- 
liaments ;  became  '  one  of  Cromwell's  Lords  ; ' — and  ultimately  lost 
his  life  for  these  dangerous  services  Archibald  Johnston  of  Warris- 
ton  ;  loose-flowing  Bishop  Burnet's  uncle  by  the  Mother's  side  :  a 
Lord  Register  of  whom  all  the  world  has  heard.  Redactor  of  the 
Covenanters'  Protests,  1637  and  onwards  ;  redactor  perhaps  of  the 
Covenant  itself;  canny  lynx-eyed  Lawyer,  and  austere  Presbyterian 
Zealot ;  full  of  fire,  of  heavy  energy  and  gloom  :  in  fact,  a  very  no- 
table character  ; — of  whom  our  Scotch  friends  might  do  well  to  give 
us  farther  elucidations.  Certain  of  his  Letters  edited  by  Lord  Hailes,§ 
a  man  of  fine  intelligence,  though  at  that  time  ignorant  of  this  sub- 
ject, have  proved  well  worth  their  paper  and  ink.  Many  more,  it 
appears,  still  lie  in  the  Edinburgh  Archives.  A  good  selection  and 
edition  of  them  were  desirable.  But,  alas,  will  any  human  soul  ever 
again  love  poor  Warriston,  and  take  pious  pains  with  him,  in  this 
world  ?  Properly  it  turns  all  upon  that ;  and  the  chance  seems  rather 
dubious  ! — 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  490.  f  Balfour,  iv.  204,  241,  251,  &c. 

X  Balfour,  iv.  240. 

§  Memorials  and  Letters  in  the  reign  of  Charles  L  (Glasgow,  1766.) 


SECOND  VISIT   TO   GLASGOW.  163 


SECOND   VISIT  TO    GLASGOW. 

That  Note  to  Warriston,  and  the  Letter  to  Elizabeth  Cromwell,  as 
may  have  been  observed,  are  written  on  the  same  day,  Saturday 
I2th  April,  165 1.  Directly  after  which,  on  Wednesday  the  i6th,  there 
is  a  grand  Muster  of  the  Army  on  Musselburgh  Links  ;  preparatory 
to  new  operations.  Blackness  Fort  has  surrendered  ;  Inchgarvie 
Island  is  beset  by  gunboats  :  Colonel  Monk,  we  perceive,  who  has 
charge  of  these  services,  is  to  be  made  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
Ordnance  :  and  now  th^re  is  to  be  an  attack  on  Burntisland  with 
gunboats,  which  also,  one  hopes,  may  succeed.  As  for  the  Army,  it 
is  to  go  westward  this  same  afternoon  ;  try  whether  cautious  Lesley, 
straitened  or  assaulted  from  both  west  and  east,  will  not  come  out  of 
his  S'^irling  fastness,  so  that  some  good  may  be  done  upon  him  The 
Muster  is  held  on  Musselburgh  Links  ;  whereat  the  Lord  General, 
making  his  appearance,  is  received  '  with  shouts  and  acclamations,' 
the  sight  of  him  infinitely  comfortable  to  us.''^  The  Lord  General's 
health  is  somewhat  re-established,  though  he  has  had  relapses,  and 
still  tends  a  little  towards  ague.  'About  three  in  the  afternoon'  all  is 
on  march  towards  Hamilton;  quarters  'mostly  in  the  field  there.' 
Where  the  Lord  General  himself  arrives,  on  Friday  night,  late  ;  and 
on  the  morrow  afternoon  we  see  Glasgow  again. 

Concerning  which  here  are  two  notices  from  opposite  points  of 
compass,  curiously  corroborative  of  one  another  ;  which  we  must  not 
withhold.  Face-to-face  glimpses  into  the  old  dead  actualities  ;  worth 
rescuing  with  a  Cromwell  in  the  centre  of  them. 

The  first  is  from  Baillie  ;t  shews  us  a  glance  of  our  old  friend  Car- 
stairs  withal.  Read  this  fraction  of  a  Letter  :  "  Reverend  and  dear 
"  brother, — For  preventing  of  mistakes,"  lest  you  should  think  us 
loose-laced  Remonstrant  sectarian  individuals,  "  we  have  thought 
"  meet  to  advertise  you  that  Cromwell  having  come  to  Hamilton  on 
"  Friday  late,  and  to  Glasgow  on  Saturday  with  a  body  of  his  Army, 
"  sooner  than  we  could  well  with  safety  have  retired  ourselves," — 
there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  stay  and  abide  him  here  !  "  On  Sun- 
"  day  forenoon  he  came  unexpectedly  to  the  High  Inner  Kirk;  where 
"  quietly  he  heard  Mr.  Robert  Ramsay,"  unknown  to  common  readers, 
"  preach  a  very  honest  sermon,  pertinent  to  his  "  Cromwell's  "  case. 
'•  In  the  afternoon  he  came,  as  unexpectedly,  to  the  High  Outer  Kirk; 
"  where  he  heard  Mr.  John  Carstairs,''  our  old  friend,  "  lecture,  and" 
a  "  Mr.  James  Durham  preach, — graciously,  and  weel  to  the  times  as 
"  could  have  been  desired."  So  that  you  see  we  are  not  of  the  loose- 
laced  species,  we  I  "  And  generally  all  who  preached  that  day  in  the 
"  Town  gave  a  fair  enough  testimony  against  the  Sectaries." — Where- 
upon, next  day,  Cromwell  sent  for  us  to  confer  with  him  in  a  friendly 
manner.     "All  of  us  did  meet  to  advise,'' for  the  case  was  grave: 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  102). 
f  (Glasgow,  22  April,  1651)  iii.  165. 


t64  IV A R  WITH  SCOTLAND, 

however,  we  have  decided  to  go;  nay  are  just  going;— but,  most 
unfortunately,  do  not  write  any  record  of  our  interview  !  Nothing, 
except  some  transient  assertion  elsewhere  that  "we  had  no  disadvant- 
age in  the  thing.""^ — So  that  now,  from  the  opposite  point  of  the 
compass,  the  old  London  Newspaper  must  come  in  ;  curiously  con- 
firmatory : 

"  Sir, — We  came  hither"  to  Glasgow  "on  Saturday  last,  April  19th. 
"  The  Ministers  and  Townsmen  generally  stayed  at  home,  and  did 
"  not  quit  their  habitations  as  formerly.  The  Ministers  here  have 
"  mostly  deserted  fron>  the  proceedings  beyond  the  Water,"  at  Perth, 
— are  in  fact  given  to  Remonstrant  ways,  though  Mr.  Baillie  denies 
it  :  "  yet  they  are  equally  dissatisfied  with  us.  But  though  they 
"  preach  against  us  in  the  pulpit  to  our  faces,  yet  we  permit  them 
"  without  disturbance,  as  willing  to  gain  them  by  love. 

"  My  Lord  General  sent  to  them  to  give  us  a  friendly  Christian 
"  meeting,  To  discourse  of  those  things  which  they  rail  against  us 
'*  for  ;  that  so,  if  possible,  all  misunderstandings  between  us  might  be 
"  taken  awav.  Which  accordingly  they  gave  us,  on  Wednesday  last. 
"  There  was  no  bitterness  nor  passion  vented  on  either  side  ;  all  was 
"  with  moderation  and  tenderness.  My  Lord  General  and  Major- 
"  General  Lambert,  for  the  most  part,  maintained  the  discourse  ;  and, 
"  on  their  part,  Mr.  James  Guthry  and  Mr.  Patrick  Gillespie.f  We 
"  know  not  what  satisfaction  they  have  received.  Sure  I  am,  there 
"  was  no  such  weight  in  their  arguments  as  might  in  the  least  dis- 
"  courage  us  from  what  we  have  undertaken ;  the  chief  thing  on  which 
"  they  insisted  being  our  Invasion  into  Scotland.";]; 

The  Army  quitted  Glasgow  after  some  ten  days  ;  rather  hastily,  on 
Wednesday  ^^oth  April ;  pressing  news,  some  false  alarm  of  move- 
ments about  Stirling,  having  arrived  by  express  from  the  East.  They 
marched  again  for  Edinburgh  ; — quenched  some  foolish  Town  Riot, 
which  had  broken  out  among  the  Glasgow  Baillies  themselves,  on 
some  quarrel  of  their  own  ;  and  was  now  tugging  and  wriggling,  in  a 
most  unseemly  manner,  on  the  open  streets,  and  likely  to  enlist  the 
population  generally,  had  not  Cromwell's  soldiers  charitably  scattered 
it  asunder  before  they  went.§  In  three  days  they  were  in  Edinburgh 
again. 

When  a  luminous  body,  such  as  Ohver  Cromwell,  happens  to  be 
crossing  a  dark  Country,  a  dark  Century,  who  knows  what  he  will  not 
disclose  to  us  !  For  example  .  On  the  Western  edge  of  Lanarkshire, 
in  the  desolate  uplands  of  the  Kirk  of  Shotts,  there  dwelt  at  that 
time  a  worshipful  Family  of  Scotch  Lairds,  of  the  name  of  Stewart, 
at  a  House  called  Allertoun, — a  lean  turreted  angry-looking  old  Stone 
House,  I  take  it;  standing  in  some  green  place,  in  the  alluvial  hollows 
of  the  Aughter  Burn  or  its  tributaries  :  most  obscure  ;  standing  lean 

*  Baillie,  iii.  t68. 

t  '  Geiaspy  '  the  Sectarian  spells  ;  in  all  particulars  of  tacts  he  coincides  with 
Baillie.  Guthry  and  Gillespie,  noted  men  in  that  time,  published  a  Sum  of  this 
Interview  (Baillie,  iii.  168),  but  nobody  now  knows  it. 

X  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  102). 

\  An«  Information  concerning  the  late  Tumult  in  Glasgow.  Wednesday 
April  30,  at  the  very  time  of  Cromwell  s  Removal  (in  Baillie,  iii.  161). 


SECOND  VISIT  TO  GLASGOlV.  165 

and  grim,  like  a  thousand  such  ;  entirely  unnoticeable  by  History, — 
had  not  Oliver  chanced  to  pass  in  that  direction,  and  make  a  call 
there  !  Here  is  an  account  of  that  event :  unfortunately  very  vague, 
not  written  till  the  second  generation  after  ;  indeed,  palpably  incor- 
rect in  some  of  its  details  ;  but  indubitable  as  to  the  main  fact ;  and 
too  curious  to  be  omitted  here.  The  date,  not  given  or  hinted  at  in 
the  original,  seems  to  fix  itself  as  Thursday,  ist  May,  165 1.  On  that 
day  Auchter  Burn  rushing  idly  on  as  usual,  the  grim  old  turreted 
Stone  House,  and  rigorous  Presbyterian  inmates,  and  desolate  up- 
lands of  the  Kirk  of  Shotts  in  general,  saw  Cromwell's  face,  and 
have  become  memorable  to  us.  Here  is  the  record  given  as  we 
find  \L* 
'  There  was  a  fifth  Son '  of  Sir  Walter  Stewart,  Laird  of  Allertoun  : 

*  James  ;  who  in  his  younger  years  was  called  "the  Captain  of  AUer- 
'  toun," — from  this  incident  :  Oliver  Cromwell,  Captain-General  of 
^  the  English  Sectarian  Army,  after  taking  Edinburgh  Castle,  was 

*  making  a  Progress  through  the  West  of  Scotland  ;  and  came  down 

*  towards  the  River  Clyde  near  Lanark,  and  was  on  his  march  back, 
'  against  King  Charles  the  Second's  Army,  then  with  the  King  at 

*  Stirling.  Being  informed  of  a  near  way  through  Auchtermuir,  he 
'  came  with  some  General  Officers  to  reconnoitre  ;  and  had  a  Guide 

*  along.  Sir  Walter,  being  a  Royalist  and  Covenanter,  had  absconded. 

*  As  he'  Cromwell  '  passed,  he  called-in  at  Allertoun  for  a  further 

*  Guide  ;  but  no  men  were  to  be  found,  save  one  valetudinary  Gentle- 

*  man.  Sir  Walter's  Son,' — properly  a  poor  valetudinary  Boy,  as 
appears,  who  of  course  could  do  nothing  for  him. 

'  He  found  the  road  not  practicable  for  carriages  ;  and  upon  his 

*  return   he    called-in  at  Sir  Walter's    House.     There   was   none  to 

*  entertain  him  but  the  Lady  and  Sir  Walter's  sickly  Son.     The  good 

*  Woman  was  as  much  for  the  King  and  Royal  Family  as  her  Hus- 
*band  :  but  she  offered  the  General  the  civilities  of  her  House  ;  and 

*  a  glass  of  canary  was  presented.     The  General  observed  the  forms 

*  of  these  times  (I  have  it  from  good  authority),  and   he   asked  a 

*  blessing  in  a  long  pathetic  grace  before  the  cup  went  round  ; — he 

*  drank  his  good  wishes  f  for  the  family,  and  asked  for  Sir  Walter  ; 
*and  was  pleased  to  say,  His  Mother  was  a  Stewart's    Daughter,  and 

*  he  had  a  relation  to  the  name.  All  passed  easy;  and  our  James, 
'  being  a  lad  of  ten  years,  came  so  near  as  to  handle  the  hilt  of  one  of 
'  the  swords  :  upon  which  Oliver  stroked  his  head,  saying,  "  You  are 
'  my  little  Captain  ;  "  and  this  was  all  the  Commission  our  Captain  of 
'  Allertoun  ever  had. 

'  The  General  called  for  some  of  his  own  wines  for  himself  and 

*  other  Officers,!  and  would  have  the  Lady  try  his  wine  ;  and  was  so 
'humane,  when  he  saw  the  young  Gentleman  so  maigre  and  indis- 
'  posed,  he  said.  Changing  the  Climate  might  do  good,  and  the  South 
'of  France,  Montpellier,  was  the  place. 

'  Amidst  all  this  humanity  and  politeness  he  omitted  not,  in  person, 
'  to  return  thanks  to  God  in  a  pointed  grace  after  his  repast  ;  and 
'  after  this  hastefd  on  his  return  to  join  the  Army.     The   Lady  had 

*  Coltness  Collections,  Published  by  the  Maitland  Club  (Glasgow,  1842),  p.  9. 
I  Certainly  incorrect,  %  Imaginary. 


l66  IVA/^  iVlTir  SCOTLAND. 

*been  a  strenuous  Royalist,  and  her  Son  a  Captain  in  command  at 
*  Dunbar  ;  .yet  upon  this  interview  with  the  General  she  abated  much 
'  of  her  zeal.  She  said  she  was  sure  Cromwell  was  one  who  feared 
'  (iod,  and  had  that  fear  in  him,  and  the  true  interest  of  Religion  at 
'heart.  A  story  of  this  kind  is  no  idle  digression  ;  it  has  some  small 
'  connexion  with  the  Family  concerns,  and  shows  some  little  of  the 
^genius  of  these  distracted  times.' — And  so  we  leave  it  ;  vague,  but 
indubitable  ;  standing  on  such  basis  as  it  has. 


LETTER   CXVI. 

^  For  my  beloved  Wife,  Elizabeth  Cromwell,  at  the  Cockpit:  These.' 

Edinburgh,  3d  May,  1651. 

My  Dearest, 

I  could  not  satisfy  myself  to  omit  this  post,  although  I  have  not 
much  to  write  ;  yet  indeed  I  love  to  write  to  my  Dear,  who  is  very 
much  in  my  heart.  It  joys  me  to  hear  thy  soul  prospereth  :  the  Lord 
increase  His  favours  to  thee  more  and  more,  'i^he  great  good  thy  soul 
can  wish  is,  That  the  Lord  lift  upon  thee  the  light  of  His  countenance, 
which  is  better  than  life.  The  Lord  bless  all  thy  good  counsel  and 
example  to  all  those  about  thee,  and  hear  all  thy  prayers,  and  accept 
tiiee  always. 

1  am  glad  to  hear  thy  Son  and  Daughter  are  with  thee.  I  hope 
thou  wilt  have  some  good  opportunity  of  good  advice  to  him.  Pre- 
sent my  duty  to  my  Mother,  my  love  to  all  the  l-'amily.  Still  pray 
for  ^    ^ 

Thine, 
Oliver  Cromwell.* 


Written  the  day  after  his  return  to  Edinburgh.  'Thy  Son  and 
Daughter  '  are,  to  all  appearance,  Richard  and  his  Wife,  who  pro- 
long their  visit  at  the  Cockpit.  The  good  old  '  Mother  '  is  still  spared 
with  us,  to  have  'my  duty'  presented  to  her.  A  pale  venerable 
I'lgure;  who  has  hved  to  see  strange  things  in  this  world  ;— can 
piously,  in  her  good  old  tremulous  heart,  rejoice  in  such  a  Son 

Precisely  in  these  days,  a  small  ship  driven  by  stress  of  weather 
into  Ayr  Harbour,  and  seized  and  searched  by  Cromwell's  Garrison 
there,  discloses  a  matter  highly  interesting  to  the  Commonwealth  A 
Plot  namely,  on  the  part  of  the  English  Presbyterian-Royalists. 
English  Royalists  Proper,  and  all  manner  of  Malignant  Interests  in 
England,  to  unite  with  the  Scots  and  their  King  :  in  which  certain  of 
the  London  Presbyterian  Clergy,  Christopher  Love  among  others 
are  deeply  involved.  The  little  ship  was  bound  for  the  Isle  of  Man' 
with  tidings  to  the  Eari  of  Derby  concerning  the  affair  ;  and  now  we 
have  caught  her  within  the  Bars  of  Ayr  ;  and  the  whole  matter  is  made 

*  HaTis,  p.  517. 


EDINBURGH.  167 


manifest  !*  Reverend  Christopher  Love  is  laid  hold  of,  7th  May  ; 
he  and  o'hers  ;  and  the  Council  of  State  is  busy.  It  is  the  same 
Christopher  who  preached  at  Uxbridge  Treaty  long  since,  That 
'  Heaven  might  as  well  think  of  uniting  with  Heil' '  Were  a  new 
High  Court  of  Justice  once  constituted,  it  will  go  hard  with  Chris- 
topher. 

.As  for  the  Lord  General,  this  march  to  Glasgow  has  thrown  him  into 
a  new  relapse,  which  his  Doctor  counts  as  the  third  since  March  last. 
The  disease  is  now  ague  ;  comes  and  goes,  till,  in  the  end  of  this 
month,  the  Parliament  requests  him  to  return  to  England  for  milder 
air  ;f  and  then,  this  kind  offer  being  declined,  despatches  two  London 
Doctors  to  him  ;  whom  the  Lord  Fairfax  is  kind  enough  to  '  send  in 
his  own  coach  ; '  who  arrive  in  Edinburgh  on  the  30th  of  May,  '  and 
are  affectionately  entertained  by  my  Lord.'|  The  two  Doctors  are 
Bates  and  Wright.  Bates,  in  his  loose-tongued  Histo7-y  of  the  Troubles, 
redacted  in  after  times,  observes  strict  silence  as  to  this  Visit.  The 
Lord  General's  case  seems  somewhat  grave  ;  hopeless  for  this  sum- 
mer. '  Aly  Lord  is  not  sensible  that  he  is  grown  an  old  man.'  The 
Ofticers  are  to  proceed  without  him  ;  directed  by  him  from  the  dis- 
tance. However, on  the  5th  of  June  he  is  seen  abroad  in  his  coach 
again  ;  shakes  his  ailments  and  infirmities  of  age  away,  and  takes  the 
field  in  person  once  more.  The  Campaign  is  now  vigorously  begun  ; 
though  as  yet  no  great  results  follows  from  it. 

On  the  25th  of  June,  the  Army  from  all  quarters  reassembled  'in 
its  old  Camp  on  the  Pentland  Hills  ; '  marched  westward  ;  left  Lin- 
lithgow, July  2d,  ever  westward,  with  a  view  to  force  the  Enemy  from 
his  strong  ground  about  Stirling.  Much  pickeering,  vapouring,  and 
transient  skirmishing  ensues  ;  but  the  Enemy,  strongly  entrenched  at 
Torwood,  secured  by  bogs  and  brooks,  cannot  be  forced  out.  We 
take  Calendar  House,  and  do  other  insults,  before  their  eyes  ;  they 
will  not  come  out.  Cannonadings  there  are,  '  from  opposite  Hills  ; ' 
but  not  till  it  please  the  Enemy  can  there  be  any  battle.  David 
Lesley,  second  in  rank,  but  real  leader  of  the  operations,  is  at  his  old 
trade  again.  The  Problem  is  becoming  difficult.  We  decide  to  get 
across  into  Fife  ;  to  take  them  in  flank,  and  at  least  cut  off  an  im- 
portant part  of  their  supplies. 

Here  is  the  Lord  General's  Letter  on  the  result  of  that  enterprise. 
Farther  details  of  the  Battle  which  is  briefly  spoken  of  here, — still 
remembered  in  those  parts  as  the  Lattle  of  Inverkeithing, — may  be 
found  in  Lambert's  own  Letter  concerning  it.^  '  Sir  John  Brown,  their 
Major-General,'  was  once  a  zealous  Parliamenteer ;  '  Governor  of 
Abingdon '  and  much  else  ;  but  the  King  gained  him,  growls  Lud- 
low, '  by  the  gift  of  a  pair  of  silk  stockings,' — poor  wretch  !  Besides 
Brown,  there  are  Massey,  and  various  Englishmen  of  mark  with  fhi» 
Malignant  Army.     Massey's  Brother,  a  subaltern  person  in  London, 

*  Bates  :  Histo.y  of  the  late  Troubles  in  England  (Translation  of  the  Elenchus 
Mo/iram;  London,  1685),  Part  ii.  115. 

t  Whitlocke,  p.  476.  +  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  103). 

§  North  Ferry,  22  July,  1651  (Whitlocke,  p.  472)  :  the  Battle  was  on  Sunday  the 
20th,     See  also  Balfour,  iv,  313. 


i68  tVAJ^  WITH  SCOTLAND, 

is  one  of  the  conspirators  with  Christopher  Love. — The  Lord  General 
has  in  the  interim  made  his  Third  Visit  to  Glasgow  ;  concerning 
which  there  are  no  details  worth  giving  here.*  Christopher  Love,  on 
the  5th  of  this  month,  was  condemned  to  dief. 


LETTER   CXVIL 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 
of  England:  These. 

Linlithgow,  21st  July,  1651. 

Sir, 

After  our  waiting  upon  the  Lord,  and  not  knowing  what  course 
to  take,  for  indeed  we  know  nothing  but  what  God  pleaseth  to  teach 
us  of  His  great  mercy,— we  were  directed  to  send  a  Party  to  get  us  a 
landing  '  on  the  Fife  coast '  by  our  boats,  whilst  we  marched  towards 
Glasgow. 

On  Thursday  morning  last,  Coloftel  Overton,  with  about  one- 
thousand  four-hundred  foot  and  some  horse  and  dragoons,  landed  at 
the  North  Ferry  in  Fife  ;  we  with  the  Army  lying  near  the  Enemy  (a 
small  river  parted  us  and  them),  and  having  consultations  to  attempt 
the  Enemy  within  his  fortifications  ;  but  the  Lord  was  not  pleased  to 
give  way  to  that  counsel,  proposing  a  better  way  for  us.  The  Major- 
General  '  Lambert '  marched,  on  Thursday  night,  with  two  regiments 
of  horse  and  two  regiments  of  foot,  for  better  securing  the  place  ;  and 
to  attempt  upon  the  Enemy,  as  occasion  should  serve.  He  getting 
over,  and  finding  a  considerable  body  of  the  Enemy  there  (who  would 
probably  have  beaten  our  men  from  the  place  if  he  had  not  come), 
drew  out  and  fought  them  ;  he  being  about  two  regiments  of  horse, 
with  about  four-hundred  of  horse  and  dragoons  more,  and  three  regi- 
ments of  foot ;  the  Enemy  five  regiments  of  foot,  and  about  four  or 
five  of  horse.  They  came  to  a  close  charge,  and  in  the  end  totally 
routed  the  Enemy  ;  having  taken  about  forty  or  fifty  colours,  killed 
near  two-thousand,  some  say  more  :  have  taken  Sir  John  Brown,  their 
Major-General,  who  commanded  in  chief, — and  other  Colonels  and 
considerable  Officers  killed  and  taken,  and  about  five  or  six  hundred 
prisoners.  The  Enemy  is  removed  from  their  ground  with  their  whole 
Army  ;  but  whither  we  do  not  certainly  know. 

This  is  an  unspeakable  mercy.  I  trust  the  Lord  will  follow  it  until 
He  hath  perfected  peace  and  truth.  We  can  truly  say,  we  were  gone 
as  far  as  we  could  in  our  counsel  and  action  ;  and  we  did  say  one  to 
another,  we  knew  not  what  to  do.  Wherefore  it's  sealed  upon  our 
hearts,  that  this,  as  all  the  rest,  is  from  the  Lord's  goodness,  and  not 
from  man.  I  hope  it  becometh  me  to  pray,  That  we  may  walk 
humbly  and  self-denyingly  before  the  Lord,  and  believingly  also. 
That  you  whom  we  serve,  as  the  Authority  over  us,  may  do  the  work 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  471 ;  Milton  State-Papers,  p.  84(11  July,  1651). 
t  Wood,  iii.  278,  &c.  i-    .  f     '^v     J    J'.      5  / 


JDUNDAS.  i6q 


committed  to  you,  with  uprightness  and  faithfulness, — and  thoroughly, 
as  to  the  Lord.  That  you  may  not  suffer  any  thing  to  remain  that 
offends  the  eye  of  His  jealousy.  "That  rnmmon  weal  may  more  and 
more  be  sought,  and  justice  dune  iniparnally.  For  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord  run  to  and  fro  ;  and  as  He  finds  out  His  enemies  here,  to  be 
avenged  on  them,  so  will  He  not  spare  them  for  whom  He  doth  good, 
if  by  his  loving  kindness  they  become  not  good.  I  shall  take  the 
humble  boldness  to  represent  this  Engagement  of  David's,  in  the 
Hundred-and-nineteenth  Psalm,  verse  /'undred-and-thirty-fourth, 
Deliver  me  from  the  oppression  of  man^  so  will  I  keep  thy  precepts. 
I  take  leave,  and  rest, 

Sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

P.S.  The  carriage  of  the  Major-General,  as  in  all  other  things  so 
in  this,  is  worthy  of  your  taking  notice  of  ;  as  also  the  Colonels 
Okey,  Overton,  Daniel,  West,  Lydcot,  Syler,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Officers.* 

Matters  now  speedily  take  another  turn.  At  the  Castle  of  '  Dundas' 
we  are  still  on  the  South  side  of  the  Frith  ;  in  front  of  the  Scotch 
lines,  though  distant  :  but  Inchgarvie,  often  tried  with  gunboats,  now 
surrenders  ;  Burntisland,  by  force  of  gunboats  and  dispiritment,  sur- 
renders :  the  Lord  General  himself  goes  across  into  Fife.  The  fol- 
lowing Letters  speak  for  themselves. 


LETTER  CXVHL 


*  To  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  President  of  the  Council  of  State: 

These. ^ 

Dundas,  24th  July,  1651. 

My  Lord, 

It  hath  pleased  God  to  put  your  affairs  here  in  some  hopeful 
way,  since  the  last  Defeat  given  to  the  Enemy. 

I  marched  with  the  Army  very  near  to  Stirling,  hoping  thereby  to  get 
the  Pass  ;  and  went  myself  with  General  Dean,  and  some  others,  up 
to  Bannockburn  ;  hearing  that  the  Enemy  were  marched  on  the  other 
side  towards  our  Forces  in  Fife.  Indeed  they  went  four  or  five  miles  on 
towards  them  ;  but  hearing  of  my  advance,  in  all  haste  they  retreated 
back,  and  possessed  the  Park,  and  their  other  works.  Which  we 
viewed  ;  and  finding  them  not  advisable  to  attempt,  resolved  to 
march  to  Queensferry,  and  there  to  ship  over  so  much  of  the  Army 
as  might  hopefully  be  master  of  the  field  in  Fife.  Which  accordingly 
we  have  almost  perfected  ;  and  have  left,  on  this  side,  somewhat 
better  than  four  regiments  of  horse,  and  as  many  of  foot. 

I  hear  now  the  Enemy's  great  expectation  is  to  supply  themselves 
in  the  West  with  recruits  of  men,  and  what  victual  they  can  get  :  for 

*  Newspapers  (in  Pari.  Hist.  xix.  494;  and  Cromwelliana,  p.  105.) 


17o  MAtA    IVITIi  SCOTLAND. 

they  may  expect  none  out  of  the  North,  when  once  our  Army  shall 
intexpose  between  them  and  St.  Johnston.  To  prevent  their  preva- 
lency  in  the  West,  and  making  incursions  into  the  Borders  of  Eng- 
land,    *    *    ** 

Oliver  Cromwell. t 


LETTER  CXIX. 

*  To  the  Right  Honourable  the  Lord  President  of  the  Council  of  State: 

TheseJ 

Linlithgow,  26th  July,  1651. 

My  Lord, 

We  are,  with  ten  regiments  of  foot,  and  ten  of  horse,  in  Fife, 
and  eight  cannon,  ready  for  the  field.  We  have  discovered  the  Enemy, 
wixich  we  found  to  be  their  whole  Army.  We  thought  they  would 
have  fought  us  ;  but  they  retreated. 

Our  Party  is  made  so  strong  on  the  other  side  the  Water,  that 
they  are  fit  to  fight  the  Enemy,  if  theyj  can  be  brought  to  engage. 
They  are  sufficient  to  check  any  attempt  of  theirs  from  breaking  into 
England. 

Inchgarvie,  a  Castle  upon  a  rock  between  Queensferry  and  the  neck 
of  the  land,  is  surrendered  ;  with  sixteen  pieces  of  ordnance,  and  all 
the  ammunition  in  it, — except  the  soldiers'  swords,  with  which  and 
their  baggage  they  marched  away.     '  I  rest, 

*  Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.§ 


LETTER  CXX. 

'  To  my  very  loving  Brother,  Richard  May  or ,  Esquire,  at  Hursley  : 

These.^ 

'Burntisland,'  28th July,  1651. 

Dear  Brother, 

I  was  glad  to  receive  a  Letter  from  you  ;  for  indeed  anything 
that  comes  from  you  is  very  welcome  to  me.  I  believe  your  expec- 
tation of  my  Son's  coming  is  deferred.  I  wish  he  may  see  a  happy 
delivery  of  his  Wife  first,! |  for  whom  I  frequently  pray. 

I  hear  my  Son  hath  exceeded  his  allowance,  and  is  in  debt.      Truly 

*  Sir  Harry  Vane,  who  reads  the  Letter  in  Parliament,  judges  it  prudent  to  stop 
here  (Coninionsjournals,   vi.  614). 

f  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  107). 

X  The  Enemy. 

I  Newspapers  (in  Parliamentary  History,  xix.  498). 

\  Noble's  registers  are  very  defective  !  These  Letters,  too,  were  before  the  poor 
man's  eyes. 


B  URNTISLAND.  1 7 1 

I  cannot  commend  him  therein  ;  wisdom  requiring  his  living  within 
compass,  and  calling  for  it  at  his  hands.  And  in  my  judgment,  the 
reputation  arising  from  thence  would  have  been  more  real  honour 
than  what  is  attained  the  other  way.  I  believe  vain  men  will  speak 
well  of  him  that  does  ill. 

1  desire  to  be  understood  that  I  grudge  him  not  laudable  recrea- 
tions, nor  an  honourable  carriage  of  himself  in  them  ;  nor  is  any 
matter  of  charge,  like  to  fall  to  my  share,  a  stick*  with  me.  Truly  I 
can  find  in  my  heart  to  allow  him  not  only  a  sufficiency  but  more,  for 
his  good.  But  if  pleasure  and  self-satisfaction  be  made  the  business 
of  a  man's  life,  '  and'  so  much  cost  laid  out  upon  it,  so  much  time 
spent  in  it,  as  rather  answers  appetite  than  the  will  of  God,  or  is 
comely  before  His  Saints, — I  scruple  to  feed  this  humour  ;  and  God 
forbid  that  his  being  my  Son  should  be  his  allowance  to  live  not 
pleasingly  to  our  heavenly  Father,  who  hath  raised  me  out  of  the  dust 
to  be  what  I  am  ! 

I  desire  your  faithfulness  (he  being  also  your  concernment  as  well 
as  mine)  to  advise  him  to  approve  himself  to  the  Lord  in  his  course 
ofHfe;  and  to  search  His  statutes  for  a  rule  to  conscience,  and  to 
seek  grace  from  Christ  to  enable  him  to  walk  therein.  This  hath  life 
in  it,  and  will  come  to  somewhat  :  what  is  a  poor  creature  without 
this  .''  This  will  not  abridge  of  lawful  pleasures  ;  but  teach  such  a  use 
of  them  as  will  have  the  peace  of  a  good  conscience  going  along  with 
it.  Sir,  I  write  what  is  in  my  heart  :  I  pray  you  communicate  my 
mind  herein  to  my  Son,  and  be  his  remembrancer  in  these  things. 
Truly  I  love  him,  he  is  dear  to  me  ;  so  is  his  Wife  ;  and  for  their 
sakes  do  I  thus  write.  They  shall  not  want  comfort  nor  encourage- 
ment from  me,  so  far  as  I  may  afford  it.  But  indeed  I  cannot  think 
I  do  well  to  feed  a  voluptuous  humour  in  my  Son,  if  he  should  make 
pleasures  the  business  of  his  life, — in  a  time  when  some  precious 
Saints  are  bleeding,  and  breathing  out  their  last,  for  the  safety  of  the 
rest.  Memorable  is  the  speech  of  Uriah  to  David  (Second  Samuel, 
xi.  ii).t 

Sir,  I  beseech  you  believe  I  here  say  not  this  to  save  my  purse  ;  for 
I  shall  willingly  do  what  is  convenient  to  satisfy  his  occasions,  as  1 
have  opportunity.  But  as  I  pray  he  may  not  walk  in  a  course  not 
pleasing  to  the  Lord,  so  '  I '  think  it  lieth  upon  me  to  give  him,  in 
love,  the  best  counsel  I  may  ;  and  know  not  how  better  to  convey  it 
to  him  than  by  so  good  a  hand  as  yours.  Sir,  I  pray  you  acquaint 
him  with  these  thoughts  of  mine.  And  remember  my  love  to  my 
Daughter  ;  for  whose  sake  I  shall  be  induced  to  do  any  reason- 
able thing.  I  pray  for  her  happy  deliverance,  frequently  and 
earnestly. 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  my  Bailiff  J  in  Hantshire  should  do  to  my 

*  stop. 

t  'And  Uriah  said  unto  David,  The  Ark,  and  Israel,  and  Judah  abide  in  tents  ; 
'  and  my  Lord  Joab,  and  the  servants  of  my  lord,  are  encamped  in  the  open  fields  : 
'  shall  I  then  jjo  into  mine  house,  to  eat  and  to  drink,  and  to  lie  with  my  wife  ?  As 
'  thou  livest,  and  as  thy  soul  liveth.  I  will  not  do  this  thing.' 

■^  '  Bay  lye.' 


T72  tVA/^  WITti  SCOTLAND 


Son  as  is  intimated  by  your  Letter  I  assure  you  I  shall  not  allow 
any  such  thing.  If  there  be  any  suspicion  of  his  abuse  of  the  Wood, 
I  desire  it  may  be  looked  after,  and  inquired  into  ;  that  so,  if  things 
appear  true,  he  may  be  removed, — although  indeed  I  must  needs  say 
he  had  the  repute  of  a  godly  man,  by  divers  that  knew  him  when  I 
placed  him  there. 

Sir,  I  desire  my  hearty  affection  may  be  presented  to  my  Sister  ;  to 
my  Cousin  Ann,  and  her  Husband  though  unknown. — I  praise  the 
Lord  I  have  obtained  much  mercy  in  respect  of  my  health  ;  the 
Lord  give  me  a  truly  thankful  heart.  I  desire  your  prayers  ;  and 
rest, 

Your  very  affectionate  brother  and  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

My  Cousin  Anne,  then,  is  wedded  !  *  Her  Husband  though  un- 
known'  is  John  Dunch ;  who,  on  his  Father's  decease,  became 
John  Dunch  of  Pusey  ; — to  whom  we  owe  this  Letter,  among  the 
others. 


LETTER  CXXL 

To  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 
of  E7igla7id:  These. 

Burntisland,  29th  July,  1651. 

Sir, 

The  greatest  part  of  the  Army  is  in  Fife  ;  waiting  what  way 
God  will  farther  lead  us.  It  hath  pleased  God  to  give  us  in  Burntis- 
land ;t  which  is  indeed  very  conducing  to  the  carrying  on  of  our 
affairs.  The  Town  is  well  seated  ;  pretty  strong  ;  but  marvellous 
capable  of  further  improvement  in  t'  at  respect,  without  great  charge. 
The  Harbour,  at  a  high  spring,  is  near  a  fathom  deeper  than  at 
Leith  ;  and  doth  not  lie  commanded  by  any  ground  without  the  Town. 
We  took  three  or  four  small  men-of-war  in  it,  and  I  believe  thirty  or 
forty  guns. 

Commissary-General  Whalley  marched  along  the  seas-side  in  Fife, 
having  some  ships  to  go  along  the  coast ;  and  hath  taken  great 
store  of  great  artillery,  and  divers  ships.  The  Enemy's  affairs  are 
in  some  discomposure,  as  we  hear.  Surely  the  Lord  will  blow  upon 
them. 

*  I  rest,' 
Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. J 

*  Harris,  p,  513.  f  'Brunt  Island'  in  orig. 

X  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  107.) 


LEITH.  173 


LETTER  CXXII. 

In  effect  the  crisis  has  now  arrived.  The  Scotch  King  and  Army 
finding  their  supphes  cut  off,  and  their  defences  rendered  unavaiHng, 
by  this  flank-movement, — break  up  suddenly  from  StirHng  ;  *  march 
direct  towards  England, — for  a  stroke  at  the  heart  of  the  Common- 
wealth itself.  Their  game  now  is.  All  or  nothing.  A  desperate  kind 
of  play.  Royahsts,  Presbyterian-Royalists  and  the  large  miscellany 
of  Discontented  Interests  may  perhaps  join  them  there  ; — perhaps 
also  not  !  They  march  by  Biggar  ;  enter  England  by  Carlisle,  f  on 
Wednesday,  6th  of  August,  1651.  'At  Girthhead,  in  the  Parish  of 
Wamphray,  in  Annandale,'  human  Tradition,  very  faintly  indeed,  in- 
dicates some  Roman  Stones  or  Mile-stones,  by  the  wayside,  as  the 
place  where  his  Sacred  Majesty  passed  the  Tuesday  night  ; — which 
are  not  quite  so  venerable  now  as  formerly.^l 

To  the  Honourable  Williatn  Lenthally  Speaker  of  the  Parliament 
of  England  :   These. 

Leith,  4th  August,  1651. 

Sir, 

In  pursuance  of  the  Providence  of  God,  and  that  blessing 
lately  given  to  your  forces  in  Fife;  and  finding  that  the  Enemy,  being 
masters  of  the  Pass  at  Stirhng,  could  not  be  gotten  out  there  except 
by  hindering  his  provisions  at  St.  Johnston, —  we,  by  general  advice, 
thought  fit  to  attempt  St.  Johnston  ;  knowing  that  that  would  neces- 
sitate him  to  quit  his  Pass.  Wherefore,  leaving  with  Major-General 
Harrison  about  three-thousand  horse  and  dragoons,  besides  those 
which  are  with  Colonel  Rich,  Colonel  Saunders,  and  Colonel  Barton, 
upon  the  Borders,  we  marched  to  St.  Johnston  ;  §  and  lying  one  day 
before  it,  we  had  it  surrendered  to  us. 

During  which  time  we  had  some  intelligence  of  the  Enemy's  march- 
ing southward;  though  with  some  contradictions,  as  if  it  had  not  been 
so.  But  doubting  it  might  be  true,  Ave  (leaving  a  Garrison  in  St  John- 
ston, and  sending  Lieutenant- General  Monk  with  about  Five  or  Six 
thousand  to  Stii  ling  to  reduce  that  place,  and  by  it  to  put  your  affairs 
into  a  good  posture  in  Scotland,)  marched,  with  al)  possible  expedi- 
tion, back  again  ;  and  have  passed  our  foot  and  many  of  our  horse 
over  the  Frith  this  day  ;  resolving  to  make  what  speed  we  can  up  to 
the  Enemy, — who,  in  his  desperation  and  fear,  and  out  of  inevitable 
necessity,  is  run  to  try  what  he  can  do  this  way. 

I  do  apprehend  that  if  he  goes  for  England,  being  some  few  days 
march  before  us,  it  will  trouble  some  men's  thoughts  ;  and  may  occa- 
sion some  inconveniences  ;— which  I  hope  we  are  as  deeply  sensible 
of,  and  have  been,  and  I  trust  shall  be,  as  diligent  to  prevent,  as  any. 
And  indeed  this  is  our  comfort.  That  in  simplicity  of  heart  as  towards 
God,  we  have  done  to  the  best  of  our  judgments  ;  knowing  that  if 

*  '  Last  day  of  July '  (Bates,  ii.  120  ).  f  Wbifiocke,  p.  474. 

X  Nicholas  Carlisle's  Topographi's'  Diet,  of  ^  cotl  nd   ^  V/amphray. 
f  2  August,  1651  (Balfour,  iv.  3  3'. 


174,  ^^^   V/ITH  SCOTLAND. 

some  issue  were  not  put  to  this  Business,  it  would  occasion  another 
Winter's  war  :  to  the  ruin  of  your  soldiery,  for  whom  the  Scots  are 
too  hard  in  respect  of  enduring  the  Winter  difficulties  of  this  Country; 
and  to  the  endless  expense  of  the  treasure  of  England  in  prosecuting 
this  War.  It  may  be  supposed  we  might  have  kepi  the  Enemy  from 
this,  by  interposing  between  him  and  England.  Which  truly  I  believe 
we  might  :  but  how  to  remove  him  out  of  this  place,  without  doing 
what  we  have  done,  unless  we  had  a  commanding  Army  on  both 
sides  of  the  River  of  Forth,  is  not  clear  to  us  ;  or  how  to  answer  the 
inconveniences  aforementioned,  we  understand  not. 

We  pray  therefore  that  (seeing  there  is  a  possibility  for  the  Enemy 
to  put  you  to  some  trouble)  you  would,  with  the  same  courage, 
grounded  upon  a  confidence  in  God,  wherein  you  have  been  supported 
to  the  great  things  God  hath  used  you  in  hitherto, — improve,  the 
best  you  can,  such  forces  as  you  have  in  readiness,  or  '  as '  may  on 
the  sudden  be  gathered  together.  To  give  the  Enemy  some  check, 
until  we  shall  be  able  to  reach  up  to  him  ;  which  we  trust  in  the  Lord 
we  shall  do  our  utmost  endeavour  in.  And  indeed  we  have  this  com- 
fortable experience  from  the  Lord,  That  this  Enemy  is  heart-smitten 
by  God  ;  and  whenever  the  Lord  shall  bring  us  up  to  them,  we  be- 
lieve the  Lord  will  make  the  desperateness  of  this  counsel  of  theirs 
to  appear,  and  the  folly  of  it  also.  W^hen  England  was  much  more 
unsteady  than  now  ;  and  when  a  much  more  considerable  Army  of 
theirs,  unfoiled,  invaded  you  ;  and  we  had  but  a  weak  force  to  make 
resistance  at  Preston,— upon  deliberate  advice,  we  chose  rather  to 
put  ourselves  between  their  Army  and  Scotland  :  and  how  God  suc- 
ceeded that,  is  not  well  to  be  forgotten  !  This  'present  movement' 
is  not  out  of  choice  on  our  part,  but  by  some  kind  of  necessity  ;  and, 
it  is  to  hoped,  will  have  the  like  issue.  Together  with  a  hopeful  end 
of  your  work  ; — in  which  it's  good  to  wait  upon  the  Lord,  upon  the 
earnest  of  former  experiences,  and  hope  of  His  presence,  which  only 
is  the  life  of  your  Cause. 

Major-General  Harrison,  with  the  horse  and  dragoons  under  him, 
and  Colonel  Rich  and  the  rest  in  those  parts,  shall  attend  the  motion 
of  the  Enemy  ;  and  endeavour  the  keeping  of  them  together,  as  also 
to  impede  his  march.  And  will  be  ready  to  be  in  conjunction  with 
what  forces  shall  gather  together  for  this  service  :  to  whom  orders 
have  been  speeded  to  that  purpose ;  as  this  enclosed  to  Major- 
General  Harrison  will  shew.  Major-General  Lambert,  this  day, 
marched  with  a  very  considerable  body  of  horse,  up  towards  the 
Enemy's  rear.  With  the  rest  of  the  horse,  and  nine  regiments  of 
foot,  most  of  them  of  your  old  foot  and  horse,  I  am  hasting  up  ;  and 
shall,  by  the  Lord's  help,  use  utmost  diligence.  I  hope  I  have  left 
a  commanding  force  under  Lieutenant-General  Monk  in  Scotland. 

This  account  I  thought  my  duty  to  speed  to  you  ;  and  rest, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  pp.  107,  8). 


TO  WORCESTER.  175 


The  Scots  found  no  Presbyterian-Royalists,  no  Royalists  Proper  to 
speak  of,  nor  any  Discontented  Interest  in  England  disposed  to  join 
them  in  present  circumstances.  They  marclicd,  under  rigorous  dis- 
cipline, weary  and  uncheered,  south  throujh  Lancashire  ;  had  to 
dispute  their  old  friend  the  Bridge  of  Warrington  with  Lambert  and 
Harrison,  who  attended  them  with  horse-troops  on  the  left  ;  Crom- 
well with  the  main  Army  steadily  advancing  behind.  They  carried 
the  Bridge  at  Warrington  ;  they  summoned  various  Towns,  but  none 
yielded  ;  proclaimed  their  King  with  all  force  of  lungs  and  heraldry, 
but  none  cried,  God  bless  him.  Summoning  Shrewsbury,  with  the 
usual  negative  response,  they  quitted  the  London  road  ;  bent  south- 
ward towards  Worcester,  a  City  of  slight  Garrison  and  loyal  Mayor ; 
there  to  entrench  themselves,  and  repose  a  little. — Poor  Earl  Derby, 
a  distinguished  Royalist  Proper,  had  hastened  over  from  the  Isle  of 
Man,  to  kiss  his  Majesty's  hand  in  passing.  He  then  raised  some 
force  in  Lancashire,  and  was  in  hopes  to  kindle  that  country  again, 
and  go  to  Worcester  in  triumph  :  but  Lilburn,  Colonel  Robert,  whom 
we  have  known,  fell  upon  him  at  Wigan  ;  cut  his  force  in  pieces  :  the 
poor  Earl  had  to  go  to  Worcester  in  a  wounded  and  wrecked  con- 
dition. To  Worcester, — and,  alas,  to  the  scaffold  by  and  by,  for  that 
business.  The  Scots  at  Worcester  have  a  loyal  Mayor,  some  very 
few  adventurous  loyal  Gentry  in  the  neighbourhood  ;  and  excitable 
Wales,  perhaps  again  excitable,  lying  in  the  rear  :  but  for  the  present, 
except  in  their  own  poor  Fourteen-thousand  right-hands,  no  outlook. 
And  Cromwell  is  advancing  steadily  ;  by  York,  by  Nottingham,  by 
Coventry  and  Stratford  ;  raising  all  the  County  Militias,'  who  muster 
with  singular  alacrity  ; — flowing  towards  Worcester  like  the  Ocean- 
tide  ;  begirdling  it  with  'upwards  of  Thirty-thousand  men.'  His 
Majesty's  royal  summons  to  the  Corporation  of  London  is  burnt  there 
by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman  ;  Speaker  Lenthall  and  the 
Mayor  have  a  copy  of  it  burnt  by  that  functionary  at  the  head  of  every 
reaiment,  at  a  review  of  the  Trainbands  in  Moorfields.*  London, 
England  generally,  seems  to  have  made  up  its  mind. 

At  London,  on  the  22nd  of  August,  a  rigorous  thing  was  done  : 
Rev.  Christopher  Love,  eloquent  zealous  Minister  of  St.  Lawrence  in 
the  Jewry,  was,  after  repeated  respites  and  negotiations,  beheaded  on 
Tower  Hill.  To  the  unspeakable  emotion  of  men.  Nay  the  very 
Heavens  seemed  to  testify  a  feeling  of  it, — by  a  thunderclap,  by  two 
thunderclaps.  When  the  Parliament  passed  their  votes,  on  the  4th 
of  July,  That  he  should  die,  according  to  the  sentence  of  the  Court, 
there  was  then  a  terrible  thunderclap,  and  darkening  of  daylight. 
And  now  when  he  actually  dies,  '  directly  after  his  beheading,'  arises 
thunderstorm  that  threatens  the  dissolution  of  Nature  !  Nature,  as 
as  we  see,  survived  it. 

The  old  Newspaper,  says.  It  was  on  the  22nd  August,  1642,  that 
Charles  late  King  erected  his  Standard  at  Nottingham  :  and  now  on 
this  same  day,  22nd  August,  165 1,  Charles  Pretender  erects  his  at 
Worcester, — and  the  Rev.  Christopher  dies.  Men  may  make  their 
reflections. — There  goes  a  story,  due  to  Carrion  Heath,  or  some  such 
party^  That  Cromwell,  being  earnestly  solicited  for  mercy  to  this 
*  Bates,  ii.  122  ;  Whitlocke,  p.  492. 


176  PVAR  WITH  SCOTLAND, 


poor  Christopher  did,  while  yet  in  Scotland,  send  a  Letter  to 
the  Pai  liament,  recommending  it ;  which  Letter,  however,  was  seized 
by  some  roving  outriders  of  the  Scotch  Worcester  Army ;  who  read- 
ing it,  and  remembering  Uxbridge  Sermon,  tore  it,  saying,  "  No,  iet 
the  villain  die  ! " — after  the  manner  of  Heath.  Which  could  be 
proved,  if  time  and  paper  were  of  no  value,  to  be,  like  a  hundred 
other  very  wooden  myths  of  the  same  Period,  without  truth.  Guarda 
e  passa.  Glance  at  it  here  for  the  last  time,  and  never  repeat  it 
more  ! — 

Charles's  Standard,  it  would  seem  then,  was  erected  at  Worcester 
on  the  22nd  ;  on  the  28th,  came  Cromwell's  also,  furled  or  floating,  to 
that  neighbourhood ;  from  the  Evesham  side ;  with  upwards  of 
Thirty-thousand  men  now  near  it  ;  and  some  say,  upwards  of  Eighty- 
thousand  rising  in  the  distance  to  join  it  if  need  were. 


LETTERS  CXXIIL,  CXXIV. 

BATTLE  OF  WORCESTER. 

The  Battle  of  Worcester  was  fought  on  the  evening  of  Wednesday, 
3rd  September,  1651  ;  anniversary  of  that  at  Dunbar  last  year.  It 
could  well  have  but  one  issue  :  defeat  for  the  Scots  and  their  Cause  ; 
— either  swift  and  complete  ;  or  else  incomplete,  ending  in  slow  sieges, 
partial  revolts,  and  much  new  misery  and  blood.  The  swift  issue 
was  the  one  appointed  ;  and  complete  enough  ;  severing  the  neck 
of  the  Controversy  now  at  last,  as  with  one  effectual  stroke,  no  need 
to  strike  a  second  time. 

The  Battle  was  fought  on  both  sides  of  the  Severn  ;  part  of  Crom- 
well's forces  having  crossed  to  the  Western  bank,  by  Upton  Bridge, 
some  miles  below  Worcester,  the  night  before.  About  a  week  ago, 
Massey  understood  himself  to  have  ruined  this  Bridge  at  Upton  ; 
but  Lambert's  men  'straddled  across  by  the  parapet,'— a  dangerous 
kind  of  saddle  for  such  riding,  I  think  ! — and  hastily  repaired  it ; 
hastily  got  hold  of  Upton  Church,  and  maintained  themselves  there  ; 
driving  Massey  back,  with  a  bad  wound  in  the  hand.  This  was  on 
Thursday  night  last,  the  very  night  of  the  Lord  General's  arrival  in 
those  parts  ;  and  they  have  held  this  post  ever  since.  Fleetwood 
crosses  here  with  a  good  part  of  Cromwell's  Army,  on  the  evening  of 
Tuesday,  September  2nd  ;  shall,  on  the  morrow,  attack  the  Scotch 
posts  on  the  Southwest,  about  the  Suburb  of  St.  John's,  across  the 
River ;  while  Cromwell,  in  person,  on  this  side,  plies  them  from  the 
Southeast.  St.  John's  Suburb  lies  at  some  distance  from  Worcester  ; 
west,  or  southwest  as  we  say,  on  the  Herefordshire  Road  ;  and  con- 
nects itself  with  the  City  by  Severn  Bridge.  Southeast  of  the  City, 
again,  near  the  then  and  present  London  Road,  is  '  Fort  Royal,'  an 


BATTLE  OF  WORCESTER,  177 


entrenchment  of  the  Scots  :  on  this  side  Cromwell  is  to  attempt  the 
Enemy,  and  second  Fleetwood,  as  occasion  may  serve.  Worcester 
City  itself  is  on  Cromwell's  side  of  the  River  ;  stands  high,  sur- 
mounted by  its  high  Cathedral ;  close  on  the  left  or  eastern  margin 
of  the  Severn  ;  surrounded  by  fruitful  fields,  and  hedges  unfit  for 
cavalry-fighting.  This  is  the  posture  of  affairs  on  the  eve  of 
Wednesday,  3rd  September,  165 1. 

But  now,  for  Wednesday  itself,  we  are  to  remark  that  between 
Fleetwood  at  Upton,  and  the  Enemy's  outposts  at  St.  John's  on  the 
west  side  of  Severn,  there  runs  still  a  River  Teme  ;  a  western  tribu- 
tary of  the  Severn,  into  which  it  falls  about  a  mile  below  the  City. 
This  River  Teme  Fleetwood  hopes  to  cross,  if  not  by  the  bridge  at 
Powick  which  the  Enemy  possesses,  then  by  a  Bridge  of  Boats  which 
he  is  himself  to  prepare  lower  down,  close  by  the  mouth  of  Teme. 
At  this  point  also,  or  '  within  pistol-shot  of  it,'  there  is  to  be  a  Bridge 
of  Boats  laid  across  the  Severn  itself,  that  so  both  ends  of  the  Army 
may  communicate.  Boats,  boatmen,  carpenters,  aquatic  and  terres- 
trial artificers  and  implements,  in  great  abundance,  contributed  by 
the  neighbouring  Towns,  lie  ready  on  the  River,  about  Upton,  for  this 
service.     Does  the  reader  now  understand  the  ground  a  little  "i 

Fleetwood,  at  Upton,  was  astir  with  the  dawn,  September  3rd.  But 
it  was  towards  '  three  in  the  afternoon '  before  the  boatmen  were  got 
up  ;  must  have  been  towards  five  before  those  Bridges  were  got  built, 
and  Fleetwood  set  fairly  across  the  Teme  to  begin  business.  The 
King  of  Scots  and  his  Council  of  W^ar,  '  on  the  top  of  the  Cathedral,* 
have  been  anxiously  viewing  him  all  afternoon  ;  have  seen  him  build 
his  Bridges  of  Boats  ;  'see  him  now  in  great  force  got  across  Teme 
River,  attacking  the  Scotch  on  the  South,  fighting  them  from  hedge 
to  hedge  towards  the  Suburbs  of  St.  John's.  In  great  force  :  for  new 
regiments,  horse  and  foot,  now  stream  across  the  Severn  Bridge  of 
Boats  to  assist  Fleetwood  :  nay,  if  the  Scots  knew  it,  my  Lord  General 
himself  is  come  across,  '  did  lead  the  van  in  person,  and  was  the  first 
that  set  foot  on  the  Enemy's  ground.' — The  Scots,  obstinately  strug- 
gling, are  gradually  beaten  there  ;  driven  from  hedge  to  hedge.  But 
the  King  of  Scots  and  his  W^ar-Council  decide  that  most  part  of 
Cromwell's  Army  must  now  be  over  in  that  quarter,  on  the  West  side 
of  the  River,  engaged  among  the  hedges  ; — decide  that  they,  for  their 
part,  will  storm  out,  and  offer  him  battle  orw  their  own  East  side,  now 
while  he  is  weak  there.  The  Council  of  War  conies  down  from  the 
top  of  the  Cathedral  ;  their  trumpets  sound  :  Cromwell  also  is  soon 
back,  across  the  Severn  Bridge  of  Boats  again  ;  and  the  deadliest  tug 
of  war  begins. 

Fort  Royal  is  still  known  at  Worcester,  and  Sudbury  Gate  at  the 
southeast  end  of  the  City  is  known,  and  those  other  localities  here 
specified  ;  after  much  study  of  which  and  of  the  old  dead  Pamphlets, 
this  Battle  will  at  least  become  conceivable.  Besides  Cromwell's  Two 
Letters  there  are  plentiful  details,  questionable  and  unquestionable,  in 
Bates  and  elsewhere,  as  indicated  below."^     The  fighting  of  the  Scots 

*  Bates,  Part  ii.  124-7.  King's  Pamphlet's;  small  4to,  no.  507,  §  12  (given 
mostly  in  Cromwelliana,  pp.  114,  15);  large  4to,  no  54,  §§  15,  18.  Letter  frona 
$)tapylton  th?  Chaplain,  in  CromvveUiana,  p.  112. 


jyS  WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND. 


was  fierce  and  desperate.     '  My  Lord  General  did  exceedingly  hazard 

*  himself,  ridin;,^  up  and  down  in  the  midst  of  the  fire  ;  riding,  himself 

*  in  person,  to  the  Enemy's  foot  to  offer  them  quarter,  whereto  they 
'  returned  no  answer  but  shot.'  The  small  Scotch  Army,  begirdled 
with  overpowering  force,  and  cut  off  from  help  or  reasonable  hope, 
storms  forth  in  fiery  pulses,  horse  and  foot ;  charges  now  on  this  side 
of  the  River,  now  on  that  ;— can  on  no  side  prevail.  Cromwell  recoils 
a  little ;  but  only  to  rally,  and  return  irresistible.  The  small  Scotch 
Army  is,  on  every  side,  driven  in  again.  Its  fiery  pulsings  are  but 
the  struggles  of  death  :  agonies  as  of  a  lion  coiled  in  the  folds  of  a 
b)a! 

'  As  stiff  a  contest,  for  four  or  five  hours,  as  ever  I  have  seen.'  But 
it  avails  not.  Through  Sudbury  Gate,  on  Cromwell's  side,  through 
St.  John's  Suburb,  and  over  Severn  Bridge  on  Fleetwood's,  the  Scots 
are  driven  in  again  to  Worcester  Streets  ;  desperately  struggling  and 
recoiling,  are  driven  through  Worcester  Streets,  to  the  North  end  of 
the  City, — and  terminate  there.  A  distracted  mass  of  ruin  :  the  foot 
all  killed  or  taken  ;  the  horse  all  scattered  on  flight,  and  their  place  of 
rjfuge  very  far  !  His  sacred  Majesty  escaped,  by  royal  oaks  and 
other  miraculous  appliances  well  known  to  mankind  :  but  Fourteen- 
thousand  other  men,  sacred  too  after  a  sort  though  not  majesties,  did 
not  escape.  One  could  weep  at  such  a  death  for  brave  men  in  such  a 
Cause  !     But  let  us  now  read  Cromwell's  Letters. 


LETTER  CXXIIL 


For  the  Honaurabk  WilUajn  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliament  of 
England:  These. 

Near  Worcester,  3rd  September,  1651, 
(10  at  night). 

Sir, 

Being  so  weary,  and  scarce  able  to  write,  yet  I  thought  it  my 
duty  to  let  you  know  thus  much.  That  upon  this  day,  being  the  jrd 
of  September,  (remarkable  for  a  mercy  vouchsafed  to  your  Forces  on 
this  day  twelve-month  in  Scotland),  we  built  a  Bridge  of  Boats  over 
Severn,  between  it  and  Teme,  about  half  a  mile  from  Worcester  ;  and 
another  over  Teme,  within  pistol-shot  of  the  other  Bridge.  Lieu- 
tenant-General Fleetwood  and  Major-General  Dean  marched  from 
Upton  on  the  southwest  side  of  Severn  up  to  Powick,  a  Town  which 
was  a  Pass  the  Enemy  kept.  We,  '  from  our  side  of  Severn,'  passed 
over  some  horse  and  foot,  and  were  in  conjunction  with  the  Lieutenant- 
(^eneral's  Forces.  We  beat  the  Enemy  from  hedge  to  hedge  till  we 
beat  them  into  Worcester. 

The  Enemy  then  drew  all  his  forces  on  the  other  side  the  Town,  all 
but  what  he  had  lost ;  and  madie  a  very  considerable  fight  with  us,  for 


NEAR  WORCESTER.  i-jc^ 

three  hours  space  :  but  in  the  end  we  beat  them  totally,  and  pursued 
him  to  his  Royal  Fort,  which  we  took, — and  indeed  have  beaten  his 
whole  Army.  When  we  took  this  Fort,  we  turned  his  own  guns  upon 
him.  The  Enemy  hath  had  a  great  loss  ;  and  certainly  is  scattered, 
and  run  several  ways.  We  are  in  pursuit  of  him,  and  have  laid  forces 
in  several  places,  that  we  hope  will  gather  him  up. 

Indeed  this  hath  been  a  very  glorious  mercy  ; — and  as  stiff  a  con- 
test, for  four  or  five  hours,  as  ever  I  have  seen.  Both  your  old 
Forces  and  those  new-raised  have  behaved  with  very  great  cour- 
age ;  and  He  that  made  them  come  out,  made  them  willing  to  fight 
for  you.  The  Lord  God  Almighty  frame  our  hearts  to  real  thank- 
fulness for  this,  which  is  alone  His  doing.  1  hope  I  shall  within  a 
day  or  two  give  you  a  more  perfect  account. 

In  the  meantime  I  hope  you  will  pardon, 

Sir, 
Your  most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

Industrious  dull  Bulstrode,  coming  home  from  the  Council  of  State 
towards  Chelsea  on  Thursday  alternoon,  is  accosted  on  the  streets  by 
a  dusty  individual,  who  declares  himself  bearer  of  this  Letter  Irom 
my  Lord  General ;  and  imparts  a  rapid  outline  of  the  probable  con- 
tents to  Bulstrode's  mind,  which  naturally  kindles  with  a  certain  slow 
solid  satisfaction  on  receipt  thereof.f 

On  Saturday  the  6th  comes  a  farther  Letter  from  my  Lord  General; 
'  the  effect  whereof  speaketh  thus  : ' 


LETTER    CXXIV. 

For  the  Honourable  William  Lenthall,  Speaker  of  the  Parliajnent  of 
England:  These. 

Worcester,  4th  September,  1651. 

Sir,  ^  ^ 

I  am  not  able  yet  to  give  you  an  exact  account  of  the  great 
things  the  Lord  hath  wrought  for  this  Commonwealth  and  for  His 
People  :  and  yet  I  am  unwilling  to  be  silent  ;  but,  according  to  my 
duty,  shall  represent  it  to  you,  as  it  comes  to  hand. 

This  Battle  was  fought  with  various  success  for  some  hours,  but 
still  hopeful  on  your  part ;  and  in  the  end  became  an  absolute 
Victory,— and  so  full  an  one  as  proved  a  total  defeat  and  rum  of  the 
Enemy's  Army  ;  and  a  possession  of  the  Town,  our  men  entering  at 
the  Enemy's  heels,  and  fighting  with  them  in  the  streets  with  very 
great  courage.  We  took  all  their  baggage  and  artillery.  What  the 
slain  are,  I  can  give  you  no  account,  because  we  have  not  taken  an 
exact  view  ;  but  they  are  very  many  : — and  must  needs  be  so  ;  because 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  113). 
I  Wbillocke  (2nd  edition),  m  di^. 


i8o  JVAJ^  WITH  SCOTLAND, 

the  dispute  was  long  and  very  near  at  hand  ;  and  often  at  push  of  pike, 
and  from  one  de.ence  to  another.  There  are  about  Six  or  Seven 
thousand  prisoners  taken  here  ;  and  many  Officers  and  Noblemen  of 
quality  :  Duke  Hamilton,  the  Earl  of  Rothes,  and  divers  other  Noble- 
men,—I  hear,  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale  ;  many  Officers  of  great  quahiy  ; 
and  some  that  will  be  fit  subjects  for  your  justice. 

We  have  sent  very  considerable  parties  after  the  flying  Enemy  ;  I 
hear  they  have  taken  considerable  numbers  of  prisoners,  and  are  very 
close  in  the  pursuit.  Indeed,  I  hear  the  country  riseth  upon  them 
everywhere  ;  and  1  believe  the  forces  that  lay,  through  Providence,  at 
Bewdley,  and  in  Shropshire  and  Staffordshire,  and  those  wilh  Colonel 
Lilburne,  were  in  a  condition,  as  if  this  had  been  foreseen,  to  intercept 
what  should  return. 

A  more  particular  account  than  this  will  be  prepared  for  you  as  we 
are  able.  I  heard  they  had  not  many  more  than  a  Thousand  horse  in 
their  body  that  fled;  I  believe  we  have  near  Four-thousand  forces 
following,  and  interposing  between  them  and  home.  Their  Army  was 
about  Sixteen-thousand  strong ;  and  fought  ours  on  Worcester  side  of 
Severn  almost  with  their  whole,  whilst  we  had  engaged  half  our  Army 
on  the  other  side  but  with  parties  of  theirs.  Indeed  it  was  a  stiif 
business  ;  yet  I  do  not  think  we  have  lost  Two-hundred  men.  Your 
new-raised  forces  did  perform  singular  good  service  ;  for  which  they 
deserve  a  very  high  estimation  and  acknowledgment  ;  as  also  for  their 
willingness  thereunto, — forasmuch  as  the  same  hath  added  so  much  to 
the  reputation  of  your  affairs.  They  are  all  despatched  home  again  ; 
which  I  hope  will  be  much  for  the  ease  and  satisfaction  of  the 
country  ;  which  is  a  great  fruit  of  these  successes. 

The  dimensions  of  this  mercy  are  above  my  thoughts.  It  is,  for 
aught  I  know,  a  crowning  mercy.  Surely,  if  it  be  not,  such  a  one  we 
shall  have,  if  this  provoke  those  that  are  concerned  in  it  to  thankful- 
ness ;  and  the  Parliament  to  do  the  will  of  Him  who  hath  done  His 
will  for  it,  and  for  the  Nation  ; — whose  good  pleasure  is  to  establish 
the  Nation  and  the  Change  of  the  Government,  by  making  the  People 
so  willing  to  the  defence  thereof,  and  so  signally  blessing  the 
endeavours  of  your  servants  in  this  late  great  work.  I  am  bold  humbly 
to  beg,  That  all  thoughts  may  tend  to  the  promoting  of  His  honour 
who  hath  wrought  so  great  salvation  ;  and  that  the  fatness  of  these 
continued  mercies  may  not  occasion  pride  and  wantonness,  as  formerly 
the  like  hath  done  to  a  chosen  Nation  ;*  but  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 
even  for  His  mercies,  may  keep  an  Authority  and  a  People  so 
prospered,  and  blessed,  and  witnessed  unto,  humble  and  faithful  ;  and 
that  justice  and  righteousness,  mercy  and  truth  may  flow  from  you,  as 
a  thankful  return  to  our  gracious  God.     This  shall  be  the  prayer  of, 

Sir, 
Your  most  humble  and  obedient  servant, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

*  '  But  Jeshurun  waxed  fat,  and  kicked  : — (and  thou  art  waxen  fat,  thou  art 
'grown  th  ck,  thou  art  covered  with  fatness)  :  then  he  forsook  God  which  made 
'him,  an  1  li"Ir''v  esteotn  d  t'l  ■  rock  of  his  salvation     [Deuteronoiny,  xxxii.  15). 

•j-  «\cvvoj.t*.pi,ri  (in  LruuiWc.iuma,  pp.  113,  14). 


AFTER  WORCESTER.  i%t 


*  On  Lord's  day  next,  by  order  of  Parliament,' these  Letters  are 
read  from  all  London  Pulpits,  amid  the  general  thanksgiving  of  men. 
At  Worcester,  the  while,  thousands  of  Prisoners  are  getting  ranked, 
'  penned  up  in  the  Cathedral,'  with  sad  outlooks  :  carcasses  of  horses, 
corpses  of  men,  frightful  to  sense  and  mind,  encumber  the  streets  of 
Worcester  ;  '  we  are  plucking  Lords,  Knights  and  Gentlemen  from 
their  lurking-holes,'  into  the  unwelcome  light.  Lords  very  numerous  ! 
a  Peerage  sore  slashed.  The  Duke  ot  Hamilton  has  got  his  thigh 
broken  ;  dies  on  the  fourth  day.  The  Earl  of  Derby,  also  wounded,  is 
caught,  and  tried  for  Treason  against  the  State  ;  lays  down  his  head 
at  Uolton,  where  he  had  once  carried  it  too  high.  Lauderdale  and 
others  are  put  in  the  Tower  ;  have  to  He  there,  in  heavy  dormancy,  for 
long  years.  The  Earls  of  Cleveland  and  Lauderdale  came  to  Town 
together,  about  a  fortnight  hence.  '  As  they  passed  along  Cornhill  in 
'  their  coaches  with  a  guard  of  horse,  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale's  coach 

*  made  a  stand  near  the  Conduit  :  where  a  Carman  gave  his  Lordship 

*  a  visit,  saying,    "  Oh,  my   Lord,  you  are  welcome  to   London  !     1 

*  pre/test,  off  goes  your  head,  as  round  as  a  hoop  !  "  But  his  Lordship 
'  passed  off  the  fatal  compliment  only  with  a  laughter,  and  so  fared 

*  along  to  the  Tower.'"*  His  Lordship's  big  red  head  has  yet  other 
work  to  do  in  this  world.  Having,  at  the  ever-blessed  Restoration, 
managed,  not  without  difficulty,  '  to  get  a  new  suit  of  clothes,'t  he 
knelt  before  his  now  triumphant  Sacred  Majesty  on  that  glorious 
Thirtieth  of  May ;  learned  from  his  Majesty,  that  "  Presbytery  was  no 
religion  for  a  gentleman  ;"  gave  it  up,  not  without  pangs;  and 
resolutely  set  himself  to  introduce  the  exploded  Tulchan  Apparatus 
into  Scotland  again,  by  thumbikins,  by  bootikins,  by  any  and  every 
method,  since  it  was  the  will  of  his  Sacred  Majesty  ; — failed  in 
the  Tulchan  Apparatus,  as  is  well  known  ;  earned  for  himself  new 
plentiful  clothes-suits.  Dukedoms  and  promotions,  from  the  Sacred 
Majesty  ;  and  from  the  Scotch  People  deep-toned  universal  sound  of 
curses,  not  yet  becontie  inaudible  ;  and  shall,  in  this  place,  and  we  hope 
elsewhere,  concern  us  no  more. 

On  P^riday  the  12th  of  September  the  Lord  General  arrived  in 
Town,  Four  dignified  Members,  of  whom  Bulstrode  was  one,  specially 
missioned  by  vote  of  Parliament,^  had  met  him  the  day  before  with 
congratulations,  on  the  other  side  Aylesbury  :  *  whom  he  received 

*  with  all  kindness  and  respect :  and  after  ceremonies  and  salutations 

*  passed,  he  rode  with  them  across  the  fields  ; — where  Mr.  Winwoor 

*  the  Member  for  Windsor's  hawks  met  them  ;  and  the  Lord  General^ 

*  with  the  other  Gentlemen,  went  a  little  out  of  the  way  a-hawking 

*  They  came  that  niglit  to  Aylesbury  ;  where  they  had  much  discourse  ; 
'  especially  my  Lord  Chief  Justice  St.  John,'  the  dark  Shipmoney 
Lawyer,  'as  they  supped  together.'  To  me  Bulstrode,  and  to  each  of 
the  others,  he  gave  a  horse  and  two  Scotch  prisoners  :  the  horse  I 
kept  for  carrying  me  ;  the  two  Scots,  unlucky  gentlemen  of  that 
country,  I  handsomely  sent  home  again  without  any  ransom  whatever.§ 

*  King's  Pamphlets,  small  4(0,  no.  507,  §  18. 

+  Roger  Coke's  Detection  of  the  Court  and  State  of  England. 

X  Commons  Journals,  vii.  .13  (9  Sept.  1651). 

I  Whitlocke,  p.  484;  see  also  ad  edit,  indie. 


t82  JVAT^  WTTH  SCOTLAND. 

And  so  on  Friday  we  arrive  in  Town,  in  very  great  solemnity 
and  triumph  :  Speaker  and  Parliament,  Lord  President  and  Council 
of  State,  Sheriffs,  Mayors,  and  an  innumerable  multitude  of  quality 
and  not  of  quality,  eagerly  attending  us  ;  once  more  splitting  the  welkin 
with  their  human  shoutings  and  volleys  of  great  shot  and  small  :  in  the 
midst  of  which  my  Lord  General  '  carried  himself  with  much  affability  ; 
*and  now  and  afterwards,  in  all  his  discourses  about  Worcester,  would 

*  seldom  mention  anything  of  himself;  mentioned  others  only  ;  and 

*  gave,  as  was  due  the  glory  of  the  Action  unto  God.'* — Hugh  Peters, 
however,  being  of  loose-spoken,  somewhat  sibylline  turn  of  mind, 
discerns  a  certain  inward  exultation  and  irrepressible  irradiation  in  my 
Lord  General,  and  whispers  to  himself,  "  This  man  will  be  King 
of  England  yet."  Which,  unless  Kings  are  entirely  superfluous  in 
England,  I  should  think  very  possible,  O  Peters  !  To  wooden  Ludlow 
Mr.  Peters  confessed  so  much,  long  afterwards  ;  and  the  wooden  head 
drew  its  inferences  therefrom.f 

This,  then,  is  the  last  of  my  Lord  General's  Battles  and  Victories, 
technically  so-called.  Of  course  his  Life,  to  the  very  end  of  it, 
continues,  as  from  the  beginning  it  had  always  been,  a  battle^  and 
a  dangerous  and  strenuous  one,  with  due  modicum  of  victory  assigned 
now  and  then  ;  but  it  will  be  with  other  than  the  steel  weapons  hence- 
forth. He  here  sheaths  his  war-sword  ;  with  that,  it  is  not  his  Order 
from  the  Great  Captain  that  he  fight  any  more. 

The  distracted  Scheme  of  the  Scotch  Governors  to  accomplish  their 
Covenant  by  this  Charles-Stuart  method  has  here  ended.  By  and  by 
they  shall  liave  their  Charles-Stuart  back,  as  a  general  Nell-Gwynn 
Defender  of  the  Faith  to  us  all  ; — and  shall  see  how  they  will  like  him ! 
But  as  a  Covenanted  King  he  is  off  upon  his  travels,  and  will  never 
return  more.  Worcester  Battle  has  cut  the  heart  of  that  affair  in  two  : 
and  Monk,  and  assiduous  Lieutenant  to  the  Lord  General  in  his  Scotch 
affairs,  is  busy  suppressing  the  details. 

On  Monday  the  ist  of  September,  two  days  before  the  Battle  of 
Worcester,  Lieutenant-General  Monk  had  stormed  Dundee,  the  last 
stronghold  of  Scotland  ;  where  much  wealth,  as  in  a  place  of  safety, 
had  been  laid  up.  Governor  Lumsden  would  not  yield  on  summons  : 
Lieutenant-General  Monk  stormed  him  ;  the  Town  took  fire  in  the 
business  ;  there  was  once  more  a  grim  scene  ;  of  flame  and  blood,  and 
rage  and  despair,  transacted  in  this  Earth  :  and  taciturn  General 
Monk,  his  choler  all  up,  was  become  surly  as  the  Russian  Bear  ; 
nothing  but  negatory  growls  to  be  got  out  of  him  :  nay,  to  one 
clerical  dignitary  of  the  place  he  not  only  gave  his  "  No  !"  but 
audibly  threatened  a  slap  with  the  fist  to  back  it, — '  ordered  him, 
Not  to  speak  one  word,  or  he  would  scobe  his  mouth  for  him  !'J 

Ten  days  before,  some  shadow  of  a  new  Committee  of  Estates 
attempting  to  sit  at  Alyth  on  the  border  of  Angus,  with  intent  to 
concert  some  measures  for  the  relief  of  this  same  Dundee,  had  been, 
by  a  swift  Colonel  of  Monk's,  laid  hold  of ;  and  the  members  were 
now  all  shipped  to  the  Tower.  It  was  a  snuffing-out  of  the  Govern- 
ment-light in  Scotland.  Except  some  triumph  come  from  Worcester 
to  rekindle  it : — and,  alas,  no  triumph  came  from  Worcester,  as 
*  Whitlocke,  p.  485.  f  Ludlow.  %  Balfour,  iv.  316, 


APT£R  WORCESTER.  1^3 


we  see ;  nothing  but  ruin  and  defeat  from  Worcester !  The 
Government-hght  of  Scotland  remains  snuffed  out. — Active  Colonel 
Alured,  a  swift  devout  man,  somewhat  given  to  Anabaptist  notions, 
of  whom  we  shall  hear  again,  was  he  that  did  this  feat  at  Alyth  ; 
a  kind  of  feather  in  his  cap.  Among  the  captured  in  that  poor 
Committee  or  Shadow  of  Committee  was  poor  old  General  Leven, 
time-honoured  Lesley,  who  went  to  the  Tower  with  the  others  ;  his 
last  appearance  in  Public  History.  He  got  out  again  on  intercession 
from  Queen  Christina  of  Sweden  ;  retired  to  his  native  fields  of  Fife  ; 
and  slept  soon  and  still  sleeps  in  Balgony  Kirk  under  his  stone  of 
honour, — the  excellent  'crooked  little  Feldtmarshal'  that  he  was. 
Excellent,  though  unfortunate.  He  bearded  the  grim  Wallenstein  at 
Stralsund  once,  and  rolled  him  back  from  the  bulwarks  there,  after 
long  tough  wrestle  : — and  in  fact  did  a  thing  or  two  in  his  time.  Fare- 
well to  him.* 

But  with  the  light  of  Government  snuffed  out  in  Scotland,  and  no 
rekindling  of  it  from  the  Worcester  side,  resistance  in  Scotland  has 
ended.  Lambert,  next  summer,  marched  through  the  Highlands, 
pacificating  them.f  There  rose  afterwards  rebellion  in  the  Highlands, 
rebellion  of  Glencairn,  of  Middleton,  with  much  mosstroopery  and 
horsestealing  ;  but  Monk,  who  had  now  again  the  command  there,  by 
energy  and  vigilance,  by  patience,  punctuality,  and  slow  methodic 
strength,  put  it  down  and  kept  it  down.  A  taciturn  man  ;  speaks 
little ;  thinks  more  or  less — does  whatever  is  doable  here  and 
elsewhere. 

Scotland  therefore,  like  Ireland,  has  fallen  to  Cromwell  to  be 
administered.  He  had  to  do  it  under  great  difficulties  ;  the  Govern- 
ing Classes,  especially  the  Clergy  or  Teaching  Class,  continuing  for 
most  part  obstinately  indisposed  to  him,  so  baleful  to  their  formulas 
had  he  been.  With  Monk  for  an  assiduous  Lieutenant  in  secular 
matters,  he  kept  the  country  in  peace  ; — it  appears  on  all  sides,  he  did 
otherwise  what  was  possible  for  him.  He  sent  new  Judges  to  Scot- 
land ;  '  a  pack  of  kinless  loons,'  who  minded  no  claim  but  that  of  fair 
play.  He  favoured,  as  was  natural,  the  Remonstrant  Ker-and-Strahan 
Party  in  the  Church  ; — favoured,  above  all  things,  the  Christian- 
Gospel  Party,  who  had  some  good  message  in  them  for  the  soul  of  man. 
Within  wide  limits  he  tolerated  the  Resolutio7ter  Party  ;  and  beyond 
these  limits  would  not  tolerate  them  ; — would  not  suffer  their  General 
Assembly  to  sit ;  marched  the  Assembly  out  bodily  to*  Bruntisfield 
Links  and  sent  it  home  again,  when  it  tried  such  a  thing.J  He  united 
Scotland  to  England  by  Act  of  Parliament  ;  tried  in  all  ways  to  unite 
it  by  still  deeper  methods.  He  kept  peace  and  order  in  the  country  ; 
was  a  little  heavy  with  taxes  : — on  the  whole,  did  what  he  could  ;  and 
proved,  as  there  is  good  evidence,  a  highly  beneficial  though  unwel- 
come phenomenon  there. 

*  Granger  (Biographic  History  of  England)  has  some  nonsense  about  Leven, — 
in  his  usual  neat  style. 

t  Whitlocke,  p.  514. 

Ij:  Whitlocke.  25  July,  1653.  Life  of  Robert  Blair  (Edinburgh,  1754),  pp.  118, 
I^.     Blencowe's  Sidney  Papers,  pp.  153-5. 


r$4  ^^^  WITH  SCOTLAND. 

Alas,  may  we  not  say.  In  circuitous  ways  he  proved  the  Doer  of  what 
this  poor  Scotch  Nation  really  wished  and  willed,  could  it  have  known 
so  much  at  sight  of  him  !  The  true  Governor  of  this  poor  Scotch 
Nation  :  accomplishing  their  Covenant  without  the  Charles  Stuart, 
since  with  the  Charles  Stuart  it  wis  a  flat  impossibihty.  But  they 
knew  him  not  ;  and  with  their  stiff-necked  ways  obstructed  him  as 
they  could.  How  ;  eldom  can  a  Nation,  can  even  an  individual 
man,  understand  what  at  heart  his  own  real  will  is  :  such  masses  of 
superficial  bewilderment,  of  respectable  hearsay,  of  fantasy  and 
pedantry,  and  old  and  new  cobwebbery,  overlie  our  poor  will  ;  much 
hiding  h  from  us,  for  most  part  !  So  that  if  we  can  once  get  eye  on 
//,  and  walk  resolutely  towards  fulfilment  of  it,  the  battle  is  as  good  as 
gained  ! — 

For  example,  who,  of  all  Scotch  or  other  men,  is  he  that  verily  under- 
stands the  'real  ends  of  the  Covenant,'  and  discriminates  them  well 
from  the  superficial  forms  thereof ;  and  with  pious  valour  does  them, 
—and  continually  struggles  to  see  them  done?  I  should  say,  this 
Cromwell,  whom  we  call  Sectary  and  Blasphemer !  The  Scotch 
Clergy,  persisting  in  their  own  most  hidebound  formula  of  a  Cove- 
nanted Charles  Stuart,  bear  clear  testimony  that,  at  no  time,  did 
Christ's  Gospel  so  flourish  in  Scotland  as  now  under  Cromwell  the 
Usurper,  '  These  bitter  waters,'  say  they,  '  were  sweetened  by  the 
'Lord's  remarkably  blessing  the  labours  of  His  faithful  servants.  A 
'great  door  and  an  effectual  was  opened  to  many.'*  Not  otherwise  in 
'matters  civil.  Scotland,'  thus  testifies  a  competent  eye-witness,  'was 
'kept  in  great  order.  Some  Castles  in  the  Highlands  had  Garrisons 
'  put  into  them,  which  were  so  careful  of  their  discipline,  and  so  exact 
'to  their  rules,'  the  wild  Highlanders  were  wonderfully  tamed  thereby. 
Cromwell  built  three  Citadels,  Leith,  Ayr  and  Inverness,  besides  many 
little  Forts,  over  Scotland.  Seven  or  Eight  thousand  men,  well  paid 
and  paying  well ;  of  the  strictest  habits,  military,  spiritual  and  moral  : 
these  it  was  everywhere  a  kind  of  Practical  Sermon  to  take  note  of ! 
'  There  was  good  justice  done  ;  and  vice  was  suppressed  and  punished. 
'  So  that  we  always  reckon  those  Eight  Years  of  Usurpation  a  time  of 
'great  peace  and  prosperity.'! — though  we  needed  to  be  twice  beaten, 
and  to  have  our  foolish  Governors  flung  into  the  Tower,  before  we 
would  accept  the  same.  We,  and  mankind  generally,  are  an  extremely 
wise  set  of  creatures, 

*  Life  of  Robq-t  Blair,  p.  120 ;  Livingston's  Life  of  Himself  (Glasgow,  1754),  pp. 
54.  5,  &c.  &c. 
t  Bishop  Burnet's  History  of  his  own  Time,  Book  i. 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART     VII. 

THE    LITTLE   PARLIAMENT. 

1651-1653. 


iS; 


LETTERS  CXXV.— CXXVII. 

THE   LITTLE   PARI^IAMENT. 

Between  Worcester  Battle  on  the  3rd  of  September,  1 651,  and 
the  Dismissal  of  the  Long  Parliament  on  the  20th  of  April,  1653,  are 
Thirty-one  very  important  months  in  the  History  of  Oliver,  which, 
in  all  our  Books  and  Historical  rubbish-records,  lie  as  nearly  as 
possible  dark  and  vacant  for  us.  Poor  Dryasdust  has  emitted,  and 
still  emits,  volumes  of  confused  noise  on  the  sut)ject  ;  but  in  the  way 
of  information  or  illummation,  of  light  in  regard  to  any  fact,  physiog- 
nomic feature,  event  or  fraction  of  an  event,  as  good  as  nothing 
whatever.  Indeed,  onwards  from  this  point  where  Oliver's  own 
Letters  begin  to  fail  us,  the  whole  History  of  Oliver,  and  of  England 
under  him,  becomes  yery  dim  ;—  swimming  most  indistinct  in  the 
huge  Tomes  of  Thurloe  and  the  hke,  as  in  shoreless  lakes  of  ditch- 
water  and  bilgewater  ;  a  stagnancy,  a  torpor,  and  confused  horror  to 
the  human  soul !  No  historical  genius,  not  even  a  Rushworth's,  now 
presides  over  the  matter  :  nothing  but  bilgewater  Correspondences ; 
vague  jottings  of  a  dull  fat  Bulstrode  ;  vague  printed  babblements  of 
this  and  the  other  Carrion  Heath  or  Flunkey  Pamphleteer  of  the 
Blessed-Restoration  Period,  writing  from  ignorant  rumour  and  for 
ignorant  rumour,  from  the  winds  and  to  the  winds.  After  long  reading 
in  very  many  Books,  of  very  unspeakable  quality,  earning  for  yourself 
only  incredibility,  inconceivability,  and  darkness  visible,  you  begin  to 
perceive  that  in  the  speeches  of  Oliver  himself  once  well  read,  such 
as  they  are,  some  shadowy  outlines,  authentic  prefigurements  of  what 
the  real  History  of  the  Time  may  have  been,  do  first,  in  the  huge 
inane  night,  begin  to  loom  forth  for  you, — credible,  conceivable  in 
some  measure,  there  for  the  first  time.  My  reader's  patience  is 
henceforth  to  be  still  more  severely  tried  :  there  is  unluckily  no  help 
for  it,  as  matters  stand. 

Great  lakes  of  watery  Correspondence  relating  to  the  History  of 
this  Period,  as  we  intimate,  survive  in  print  ;  and  new  are  occasionally 
issued  upon  mankind  :*  but  the  essence  of  them  has  never  yet  in  the 
smallest  been  elaborated  by  any  man  ; — will  require  a  succession  and 
assiduous  series  of  many  men  to  elaborate  it.  To  pluck  up  the  great 
History  of  Oliver  from  it,  liked  drowned  Honour  by  the  locks  ;  and 
shew  it  to  much-wondering  and,  in  the  end,  right- thankful  England  ! 
The  richest  and  noblest  thing  England  hitherto  has.  The  basis 
England  will  have  to  start  from  again,  if  England  is  ever  to  struggle 

*  Thurloe's  State  Papers,  Milton's,  Clarendon's,  Ormond's,  Sydney's,  &c.  «&c. 
are  old  and  very  watery ;  new  and  still  waterier  are  Vaughan's  Protectorate^  and 
others  not  even  worth  naming  here. 


l8g  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 


Godward  again,  instead  of  staggering  Devilward,  and  Mammomward 
merely.  Serene  element  of  Cant  has  been  tried  now  for  two  Centuries  ; 
and  fails.  Serene  element,  general  completed  life-atmosphere,  of 
Cant  religious.  Cant  moral.  Cant  political.  Cant  universal,  where 
England,  vainly  hoped  to  live  in  a  serene  soft-spoken  manner, — 
England  now  finds  herself  on  the  point  of  choking  there  ;  large 
masses  of  her  People  no  longer  able  to  find  even  potatoes  on  that 
principle.  England  will  have  to  come  out  of  that ;  Elngland,  too 
terribly  awakened  at  last,  is  everywhere  preparing  to  come  out  of  that. 
England,  her  Amazon-eyes  once  more  flashing  strange  Heaven's- 
light,  like  Phoebus  Apollo's  fatal  to  the  Pythian  mud-serpents,  will 
lift  her  hand,  I  think,  and  her  heart,  and  swear  by  the  Eternal,  "  I  will 
not  die  in  that !     I  had  once  men  who  knew  better  than  that  ! " 

But  with  regard  to  the  History  of  Oliver,  as  we  were  saying  for 
those  Thirty-one  months  there  is  almost  no  light  to  be  communicated 
at  present.  Of  Olive/'s  own  uttering,  I  have  found  only  Three 
Letters,  short,  insignificant,  connected  with  no  phasis  of  Public 
Transactions  :  there  are  Two  Dialogues  recorded  by  Whitlocke,  of 
dubious  authenticity ;  certain  small  splinters  of  Occurrences  not 
pointing  very  decisively  anywhither,  sprinkling  like  dust  of  stars  the 
dark  vacancy  :  these,  and  Dryasdust's  vociferous  tommentaries  new 
and  old  ; — and  of  discovered  or  discoverable,  nothing  more,  Oliver's 
own  Speech,  which  the  reader  is  by  and  by  to  hear,  casts  backwards 
some  straggling  gleams  ;  well  accordant,  as  is  usual,  with  whatever  else 
we  know  ;  and  worthy  to  be  well  believed  and  meditated,  by  Historical 
readers,  among  others.  Out  of  these  poor  elements  the  candid 
imagination  must  endeavour  to  shape  some  not  inconceivable  scheme 
and  genesis  of  this  very  indubitable  Fact,  the  Dismissal  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  as  best  it  may.  Perhaps  if  Dryasdust  were  once  well 
gagged,  and  his  vociferous  commentaries  all  well  forgotten,  such  a 
feat  might  not  be  very  impossible  for  mankind  ! — 

Concerning  this  Residue,  Fag-end,  or  '  Rump '  as  it  had  now  got 
nicknamed,  of  the  Long  Parliament,  into  whose  hands  the  Govern- 
ment of  England  had  been  put,  we  have  hitherto,  ever  since  the 
King's  Death-Warrant,  said  almost  nothing  :  and  in  fact  there  was 
not  much  to  be  said,  '  Statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth  '  so-called  : 
there  wanted  not  among  them  men  of  real  mark  ;  brave  men,  of 
much  talent,  of  true  resolution,  and  nobleness  of  aim  :  but  though 
their  title  was  chief  in  this  Commonwealth,  all  men  may  see  their 
real  function  in  it  has  been  subaltern  all  along.  Not  in  St.  Stephen's 
and  its  votings  and  debatings,  but  in  the  battle-field,  in  Oliver  Crom- 
well's fightings,  has  the  destiny  of  this  Commonwealth  decided  itself. 
One  unsuccessful  Battle,  at  Preston  or  at  any  time  since,  had  pro- 
bably wrecked  it  ;— one  stray  bullet  hitting  the  life  of  a  certain  man 
had  soon  ended  this  Commonwealth.  Parliament,  Council  of  State, 
they  sat  like  diligent  Committees  of  Ways  and  Means,  in  a  very  wise 
and  provident  manner  :  but  the  soul  of  the  Commonwealth  was  at 
Dunbar,  at  Worcester,  at  Tredah  :  Destiny,  there  questioned,  "  Life 
or  death  for  this  Commonwealth?"  has  answered,  "  Life  yet  for  a 
time  !"— That  is  a  fact  which  the  candid  imagination  will  have  to 
keep  steadily  in  view.  ■ 


THE  RUMH.  189 


And  now  if  we  practically  ask  ourselves,  What  is  to  become  of  this 
small  junto  of  men,  somewhat  above  a  Hundred  in  ali,"^  hardly  above 
Half-a-hundred  the  active  part  of  them,  who  now  sit  in  the  chair  of 
authority  ?  the  shaping-out  of  any  answer  will  give  rise  to  considera- 
tions. These  men  have  been  raised  thither  by  miraculous  interposi- 
tions of  Providence  ;  they  may  be  said  to  sit  there  only  by  continu- 
ance of  the  like.  They  cannot  sit  there  forever.  They  are  not 
Kings  by  birth,  these  men  ;  nor  in  any  of  them  have  I  discovered 
qualities  as  of  a  very  indisputable  King  by  attainment.  Of  dull  Bul- 
strode,  with  his  lumbering  law-pedantries,  and  stagnant  official  self- 
satisfactions,  I  do  not  speak  ;  nor  of  dusky  tough  St.  John,  whose 
abstruse  fanaticisms,  crabbed  logics,  and  dark  ambitions,  issue  all, 
as  was  very  natural,  in  'decided  avarice' at  last: — not  of  these. 
Harry  Marten  is  a  tight  little  fellow,  though  of  somewhat  loose  life  : 
his  witty  words  pierce  yet,  as  light  arrows,  through  the  thick  oblivious 
torpor  of  the  generations  ;  testifying  to  us  very  clearly.  Here  was  a 
right  hard-headed,  stout-hearted  little  man,  full  of  sharp  fire  and 
cheerful  light  ;  sworn  foe  of  Cant  in  all  its  figures  ;  an  indomitable 
little  Roman  Pagan  if  no  better  :  but  Harry  is  not  quite  one's  King 
either  ;  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  be  altogether  loyal  to  Harry  ! 
Doubtful  too,  I  think,  whether  without  great  effort  you  could  have 
worshipped  even  the  Younger  Vane.  A  man  of  endless  virtues,  says 
Dryasdust,  who  is  much  taken  with  him,  and  of  endless  intellect  ; — 
but  you  must  not  very  specially  ask,  How  or  Where?  Vane  was  the 
friend  of  Milton  :  that  is  almost  the  only  answer  that  can  now  be 
given.  A  man,  one  rather  finds,  of  light  fibre  this  Sir  Harry  Vane. 
Grant  all  manner  of  purity  and  elevation  ;  subtle  high  discourse  ; 
much  intellectual  and  practical  dexterity  :  there  is  an  amiable,  de- 
voutly zealous,  very  pretty  man  ; — but  not  a  royal  man  ;  alas,  no  ! 
On  the  whole  rather  a  thin  man.  W^hom  it  is  even  important  to  keep 
strictly  subaltern.  Whose  tendency  towards  the  Abstract,  or  Tem- 
porary-Theoretic, is  irresistible  ;  whose  hold  of  the  Concrete,  in  which 
lies  always  the  Perennial,  is  by  no  means  that  of  a  giant,  or  born 
Practical  King  ; — whose  '  astonishing  subtlety  of  intellect '  conducts 
him  not  to  new  clearness^  but  to  ever-new  abstruseness,  wheel  within 
wheel,  depth  under  depth  ;  marvellous  temporary  empire  of  the  air  ; 
— wholly  vanished  now,  and  without  meaning  to  any  mortal.  My 
erudite  friend,  the  astonishing  intellect  that  occupies  itself  in  splitting 
hairs,  and  not  in  twisting  some  kind  of  cordage  and  effectual  draught- 
tackle  to  take  the  road  with,  is  not  to  me  the  most  astonishing  of  in- 
tellects !.  And  if,  as  is  probable,  it  get  into  narrow  fanaticisms  ; 
become  irrecognisant  of  the  Perennial  because  not  dressed  in  the 
fashionable  Temporary  ;  become  self-secluded,  atrabiliar,  and  perhaps 
shrill-voiced  and  spasmodic, — what  can  you  do  but  get  away  from  it, 
with  a  prayer,  "  The  Lord  deliver  me  from  thee  !  "  I  cannot  do  with 
thee.  1  want  twisted  cordage,  steady  pulling,  and  a  peaceable  bass 
tone  of  voice  ;  not   split    hairs,  hysterical   spasmodics,  and  treble  ! 

*  One  notices  division-numbers  as  high  as  121,  and  occasionally  lower  than  even 
40,  Godwin  (iii.  121),  '  by  careful  scrutiny  of  the  Journals,' has  found  that  the 
utmost  number  of  all  that  had  still  the  right  to  come  '  could  not  be  less  thfiQ 
150' 


190  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

Thou  amiable,  subtle,  elevated  individual,  the  Lord  deliver  me  from 
thee  ! 

These  men  cannot  continue  Kings  forever  ;  nor  in  fact  did  they  in 
the  least  design  such  a  thing  :  only  they  find  a  terrible  difficulty  in 
getting  abdicated.  Difficulty  very  conceivable  to  us.  Some  weeks 
after  Pride's  Purge,  which  may  be  called  the  constituting  of  this  rem- 
nant of  members  into  a  Parliament  and  Authority,  there  had  been 
presented  to  it,  by  Fairfax  and  the  Army,  what  we  should  now  call  a 
Bentham-Sieyes  Constitution,  what  was  then  called  an  '  Agreement  of 
the  People,'*  which  might  well  be  imperative  on  honourable  members 
sitting  there ;  whereby  it  was  stipulated  for  one  thing,  that  this 
present  Parliament  should  dissolve  itself,  and  give  place  to  another 
*  equal  Representative  of  the  People,' — in  some  three  months  hence  ; 
on  the  30th  of  April,  namely.  The  last  day  of  April  1649  •  this 
Parliament  was  then  to  have  its  work  finished,  and  go  its  ways,  giving 
place  to  another.     Such  was  our  hope. 

They  did  accordingly  pass  a  vote  to  that  effect ;  fully  intending  to 
fulfil  the  same  :  but,  alas,  it  was  found  impossible.  How  summon  a 
new  Parliament,  while  the  Commonwealth  is  still  fighting  for  its  exist- 
ence "i  All  we  can  do  is  to  resolve  ourselves  into  Grand  Committee, 
and  consider  about  it.  After  much  consideration,  all  we  can 
decide  is,  That  we  shall  go  weekly  into  Grand  Committee,  and  con- 
sider farther.  Duly  every  Wednesday  we  consider,  for  the  space  of 
eleven  months  and  odd  ;  find,  more  and  more,  that  it  is  a  thing  of 
some  considerableness  !  In  brief,  when  my  Lord  General  returns  to 
us  from  Worcester,  on  the  i6th  of  September,  165 1,  no  advance  what- 
ever towards  a  dissolution  of  ourselves  has  yet  been  made.  The 
Wednesday  Grand  Committees  had  become  a  thing  like  the  meeting 
of  Roman  augurs,  difficult  to  go  through  with  complete  gravity  ;  and 
so,  after  the  eleventh  month,  have  silently  fallen  into  desuetude. 
We  sit  here  very  immovable.  We  are  scornfully  called  the  Rump  of 
a  Parliament  by  certain  people  ;  but  we  have  an  invincible  Oliver  to 
fight  for  us  :  we  can  afford  to  wait  here,  and  consider  to  all  lengths  ; 
and  by  one  name  we  shall  smell  as  sweet  as  by  another. 

I  have  only  to  add  at  present,  that  on  the  morrow  of  my  Lord 
General's  reappearance  in  Parliament,  this  sleeping  question  was 
resuscitated  ;t  new  activity  infused  into  it ;  some  shew  of  progress 
made  ;  nay,  at  the  end  of  three  months,  after  much  labour  and  struggle, 
it  was  got  decided  by  a  neck-and-neck  division,;}:  That  the  present  is 
a  fit  time  for  fixing  a  limit  beyond  which  this  ParHament  shall  not  sit. 
Fix  a  limit  therefore  ;  givs  us  the  fion-plns-tdtra  of  you.  Next  Parlia- 
ment-day we  do  fix  a  limit.  Three  years  hence,  3rd  November,  1654  ; 
three  years  of  rope  still  left  us  :  a  somewhat  wide  limit ;  which,  under 
conceivable  contingencies,  may  perhaps  be  tightened  a  little.  My 
honourable  friends,  you  ought  really  to  get  on  with  despatch  of  this 
business  ;  and  know  of  a  surety  that  not  being,  any  of  you,  Kings  by 

*  Commons  Journals,  20  January,  1648-9  :  some  six  weeks  after  the  Purge  ; 
ten  days  before  the  King's  Death. 

t  Commons  Journals,  17  September,  1651. 

X  49  to  47 ;  Commons  Journals,  14  November  1651  :  '  Lord  General  and  Lord 
Chief  Justice,'  Cromwell  and  St.  John,  are  Teller*  for  the  Ye4, 


LONDON.  iqi 


birth,  nor  very  indubitably  by  attainment,  you  will  actually  have  to 
go,  and  even  in  case  of  extremity  to  be  shoved  and  sent ! 


LETTER  CXXV. 

At  this  point  the  law  of  dates  requires  that  we  introduce  Letter 
Hundred-and-twenty-fifth ;  though  it  is  a  mere  mathematical  point, 
marking  its  own  whereabouts  in  Oliver's  History  ;  and  imparts  little 
or  nothing  that  is  new  to  us. 

Reverend  John  Cotton  is  a  man  still  held  in  some  remembrance 
among  our  New-England  Friends.  A  painful  Preacher,  oracular  of 
high  Gospels  to  New  England  ;  who  in  his  day  was  well  seen  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  Supreme  Powers  of  this  Universe,  the  word  of  him 
being  as  a  live-coal  to  the  hearts  of  many.  He  died  some  years  after- 
wards ; — was  thought,  especially  on  his  deathbed,  to  have  manifested 
gifts  even  ot  Prophecy,"^  a  thing  not  inconceivable  to  the  human  mind 
that  well  considers  Prophecy  and  John  Cotton.  We  should  say  farther, 
that  the  Parliament,  that  Oliver  among  and  before  them,  had  taken 
solemn  anxious  thought  concerning  Propagating  of  the  Gospel  in  New 
England  :  and,  among  other  measures,  passed  an  Act  to  that  end  ;t 
not  unworthy  of  attention,  were  our  hurry  less.  It  is  probably  in 
special  reference  to  this  that  Cotton  has  been  addressing  Oliver, — 
founding  too  on  their  general  relationship  as  Soldier  of  the  Gospel 
and  Priest  of  the  Gospel,  high  brother  and  humble  one  ;  appointed, 
both  of  them,  to  fight  for  it  to  the  death,  each  with  such  weapons  as 
were  given  him. 

For  my  esteemed  Friend^  Mr.  Cotton^  Pastor  of  the  Church  at  Boston 
in  New  England:  These. 

'  London,'  2d  October  1651. 

Worthy  Sir,  and  my  Christian  Friend, 

I  received  yours  a  few  days  since.  It  was  welcome  to  me  be- 
cause signed  by  you,  whom  I  love  and  honour  in  the  Lord  :  but  more 
'  so'  to  see  some  of  the  same  grounds  of  our  Actings  stirring  in  you 
that  are  in  us,  to  quiet  us  in  our  work,  and  support  us  therein.  Which 
hath  had  great  difficulty  in  Scotland  ;  by  reason  we  have  had  to  do 
with  some  who  were,  I  verily  think,  Godly,  but,  through  weakness  and 
the  subtlety  of  Satan,  'were'  involved  against  the  Interests  of  the 
Lord  and  His  People. 

With  what  tenderness  we  have  proceeded  with  such,  and  that  m 
sincerity,  our  Papers  (which  I  suppose  you  have  seen)  will  in  part 
manifest  ;  and  I  give  you  some  comfortable  assurance  of  '  the  same.* 
The  Lord  hath  marvellously  appeared  even  against  them.;};  And  now 
again  when  all  the  power  was  devolved  into  the  Scottish  King  and  the 

•<  Thurloe,  i.  565  ;— in  1653.  f  Scobell  {27  July,  1649),  "•  ^^» 

^  From  Preston  downward. 


192  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

Malignant  Party,— they  invading  England,  the  Lord  rained  upon 
them  such  snare's  as  the  Enclosed*  will  shew.  Only  the  Narrative  is 
short  in  this,  That  of  their  whole  Army,  when  the  Narrative  was 
framed,  not  five  men  were  returned. 

Surely,  Sir,  the  Lord  is  greatly  to  be  feared  and  to  be  praised  !  We 
need  your  prayers  in  this  as  much  as  ever.  How  shall  we  behave 
ourselves  after  such  mercies?  What  is  the  Lord  a-doing  ?  What 
Prophecies  are  now  fulfilling  .?t  Who  is  a  God  like  ours  !  To  know 
His  will,  to  do  His  will  are  both  of  Him. 

I  took  this  liberty  from  business,  to  salute  you  thus  m  a  word. 
Truly  I  am  ready  to  serve  you  and  the  rest  of  your  Brethren  and 
Churches  with  you.  I  am  a  poor  weak  creature,  and  not  worthy  the 
name  of  a  worm  ;  yet  accepted  to  serve  the  Lord  and  His  People. 
Indeed,  my  dear  Friend,  between  you  and  me,  )OU  know  not  me, — my 
weakness,  my  inordinate  passions,  my  unskilfulness,  and  every-way 
unfitness  to  my  work.  Yet,  yet  the  Lord,  who  will  have  mercy  on 
whom  He  will,  does  as  you  see  !  Pray  for  me.  Salute  all  Christian 
friends  though  unknown. 

I  rest, 

Your  affectionate  friend  to  serve  you, 

Oliver  Cromwell.J 

About  this  time,  for  there  is  no  date  to  it  but  an  evidently  vague 
and  erroneous  one,  was  held  the  famous  conference  of  Grandees, 
called  by  request  of  Cromwell  ;  of  which  Bulstrode  has  given  record. 
Conference  held  '  one  day  '  at  Speaker  Lenthall's  house  in  Chancery 
Lane,  to  decide  among  the  leading  Grandees  of  the  Parliament  and 
Army,  How  this  Nation  is  to  be  settled, — the  Long  Parliament  having 
now  resolved  on  actually  dismissing  itself  by  and  by.  The  question  is 
really  complex  :  one  would  gladly  know  what  the  leading  Grandees 
did  think  of  it  ;  even  what  they  found  good  to  say  upon  it !  Unhappily 
our  learned  Bulstrode's  report  of  this  Conference  is  very  dim,  very 
languid  :  nay  Bulstrode,  as  we  have  found  elsewhere,  has  a  kind  of 
dramaturgic  turn  in  him,  indeed  an  occasional  poetic  friskiness  ;  most 
unexpected,  as  if  the  hippopotamus  should  shew  a  tendency  to  dance  ; 
— which  painfully  deducts  from  one's  confidence  in  Bulstrode's  entire 
accuracy  on  such  occasions  !  Here  and  there  the  multitudinous 
Paper  Masses  of  learned  Bulstrode  do  seem  to  smack  a  little  of  the 
date  when  he  redacted  them, — posterior  to  the  Ever-blessed  Restora- 
tion, not  prior  to  it  We  shall,  nevertheless,  excerpt  this  dramaturgic 
Report  of  Conference  :  the  reader  will  be  willing  to  examine,  with  his 
own  eyes,  even  as  in  a  glass  darkly,  any  feature  of  that  time  ;  and  he 
can  remember  always  that  a  learned  Bulstrode's  fat  terrene  mind, 
mind,  imaging  a  heroic  Cromwell  and  his  affairs,  is  a  very  dark  glass 
indeed  ! 

*  Probably  the  Ofificial  Narrative  of  Worcester  Battle  ;  published  about  a  week 
ago,  as  Preamble  to  the  Act  appointing  a  Day  of  'lhanks£;iving;  26th  September, 
1651  ;  reprinted  in  Parliamentary  History,  xx.  59-65. 

t  See  Psalm  Hundred-and-tenth. 

\  Frgm  th^  Neto-York  Evan^elitty  of  February  1841, 


COJSrFERENCE  AT  LENTHALVS.  193 

The  Speakers  in  this  Conference, — Desborow,  Oliver's  Brother-in 
law  ;  Whalley,  Oliver's  Cousin  ;  fanatical  Harrison,  tough  St  John, 
my  learned  Lord  Keeper  or  Commissioner  Whitlocke  himself, — are 
mostly  known  to  us.  Learned  Widdrington,  the  mellifluous  orator, 
once  Lord  Commissioner  too,  and  like  to  be  again,  though  at  present 
'  excused  from  it  owing  to  scruples,'  will  by  and  by  become  better 
known  to  us.  A  mellifluous,  unhealthy,  seemingly  somewhat  scru- 
pulous and  timorous  man."*  He  is  of  the  race  of  that  Widdrington 
whom  we  still  lament  in  doleful  dumps, — but  does  not  fight  upon  the 
stumps  like  him.  There  were  '  many  other  Gentlemen,'  who  merely 
listened. 

'  Upon  the  defeat  at  Worcester,'  says  Bulstrode  vaguely,t '  Cromwell 
'desired  a  Meeting  with  divers  Members  of  Parliament,  and  some 
'■  chief  Officers  of  the  Army,  at  the  Speaker's  house.  And  a  great 
'  many  being  there,  he  proposed  to  them.  That  now  the  old  King  being 

*  dead,  and  his  Son  being  defeated,  he  held  it  necessary  to  come   to  a 

*  Settlement  of  the  Nation.     And  in  order  thereunto,  had  requested 

*  this  meeting  ;  that  they  together  might  consider  and  advise,  What 
'  was  fit  to  be  done,  and  to  be  presented  to  the  Parliament. 

*  Speaker.     My  Lord,  this  Company  were  very  ready  to  attend 

*  your  Excellence,  and  the  business  you  are  pleased  to  propound  to 

*  us  is  very  necessary  to  be  considered.     God  hath  given  marvellous 

*  success  to  our  Forces  under  your  command  ;  and  if  we  do  not  im- 

*  prove  these  mercies  to  some  Settlement,  such  as  maybe  to  God's 
'  honour,  and  the  good  of  this  Commonwealth,  we  shall  be  very  much 

*  blameworthy. 

'  Harrison.     I  think  that  which  my  Lord  General  hath  propounded, 

*  is,  To  advise  as  to  a  Settlement  both  of  our  Civil  and  Spiritual 
'  Liberties  ;  and  so,  that  the  mercies  which  the  Lord  hath  given-in  to  us 

*  may  not  be  cast  away.     How  this  may  be  done  is  the  great  cjuesticn. 

*  Whitlocke.  It  is  a  great  question  indeed,  and  not  suddenly  to 
*be  resolved  !  Yet  it  were  pity  that  a  meeting  of  so  many  able  and 
'  worthy  persons  as  I  see  here,  should  be  fruitless. — I  should  humbly 

*  ofier,  in  the  first  place.  Whether  it  be  not  requisite  to  be  understood 
'in  what  way  this  Settlement  is  desired?  Whether  of  an  absolute 
'  Republic,  or  with  any  mixture  of  Monarchy. 

*  Cromwell.  My  Lord  Commissioner  Whitelocke  hath  put  us 
'  upon  the  right  point  :  and  indeed  it  is  my  meaning,  that  we  should 
'  consider,  Whether  a  RepubHc,  or  a  mixed  Monarchical  Government 

*  will  be  best  to  be  settled  ?     And  if  anything  Monarchical,  then.  In 

*  whom  that  power  shall  be  placed  ? 

'Sir  Thomas  Widdrington.  I  think  a  mixed  Monarchical 
'  Government  will  be  most  suitable  to  the  Laws  and  People  of  this 
'  Nation.  And  if  any  Monarchical,  I  suppose  we  shall  hold  it  most 
'just  to  place  that  power  in  one  of  the  Sons  of  the  late  King. 

'  Colonel  Fleetwood.  I  think  that  the  question.  Whether  an 
'  absolute  Republic,  or  a  mixed  Monarchy,  be  best  to  be  settled  in 
'  this  Nation,  will  not  be  very  easy  to  be  determined  ! 

*  Wood,  in  voce. 

t  Whitlocke,  p.  491  ;  the  date,  10  December,  1651,  is  that  of  the  Paper  merely, 
and  as  applied  to  the  Conference  itself  cannot  be  correct. 

VOL.  II.  H 


194  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

*  Lord  Chief-Justice  St.  John.  It  will  be  found,  that  the 
Government  of  this  Nation,  without  something  of  Monarchical 
power,  will  be  very  difficult  to  be  so  settled  as  not  to  shake  the 
foundation  of  our  Laws,  and  the  Liberties  of  the  People. 

*  Speaker.  It  will  breed  a  strange  confusion  to  settle  a  Govern- 
ment of  this  Nation  without  something  of  Monarchy. 

'  Colonel  Desborow.  I  beseech  you,  my  Lord,  why  may  not 
this,  as  well  as  other  Nations,  be  governed  in  the  way  of  a  Republic? 

'  Whitlocke.  The  Laws  of  England  are  so  interwoven  with  the 
power  and  practice  of  Monarchy,  that  to  settle  a  Government  with- 
out something  of  Monarchy  in  it,  would  make  so  great  an  alteration 
in  the  Proceedings  of  our  Law,  that  you  will  scarce  have  time* 
to  rectify  it,  nor  can  we  well  foresee  the  inconveniences  which  will 
arise  thereby. 

*  Colonel  Whalley.  I  do  not  well  understand  matters  of  Law  : 
but  it  seems  to  me  the  best  way.  Not  to  have  any  thing  of  Mon- 
archical power  in  the  Settlement  of  our  Government.  And  if  we 
should  resolve  upon  any,  whom  have  we  to  pitch  upon  ?  The  King's 
Eldest  Son  hath  been  in  arms  against  us,  and  his  Second  Sonf  like- 
wise is  our  enemy. 

'Sir  Thomas  Widdrington.  But  the  late  King's  Third  Son, 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  is  still  among  us  ;  and  too  young  to  have 
been  in  arms  against  us,  or  infected  with  the  principles  of  our 
enemies. 

'  Whitlocke.  There  may  be  a  day  given  for  the  King's  Eldest 
Son, J  or  for  the  Duke  of  York  his  Brother,  to  come  in  to  the  Parlia- 
ment. And  upon  such  terms  as  shall  be  thought  fit,  and  agreeable 
both  to  our  Civil  and  Spiritual  liberties,  a  Settlement  may  be  made 
with  them. 

'  Cromwell.     That  will   be   a  business   of  more   than   ordinary 

difficulty  !     But  really  I  think,  if  it  may  be  done  with  safety,  and 

preservation  of  our  Rights,  both  as   Englishmen  and  as  Christians, 

That  a  Settlement  with  somewhat  of  Monarchical  power  in  it  would 

be  very  effectual' 

Much  other  discourse  there  was,  says    my  learned   friend  ; — but 

amounting  to  httle.     The  Lawyers  all  for  a  mixed  Government,  with 

something  of  Monarchy  in  it ;  tending  to   call  in  one  of  the  King's 

Sons, — I  especially  tending  that  way  ;  secretly  loyal  in  the  worst  of 

times.     The  Soldiers  again  were  all  for  a  Republic  ;  thinking  they 

had  had  enough  of  the  King  and  his  Sons.     My  Lord  General  always 

checked  that  secret-loyalty  of  mine,  and  put  off  the  discussion  of  the 

King's  Son  ;  yet  did  not  declare  himself  for  a  Republic  either  ; — was 

indeed,  as  my  terrene  fat  mind  came  at  length  to  image  him,  merely 

*  fishing  for  men's  opinions,'  and  for  provender  to  himself  and  his 

*  Between  this  and  November  1654. 

t  James  ;  who  has  fled  to  the  Continent  some  time  ago,  '  in  women's  clothes,' 
with  one  Colonel  Bamfield,  and  is  getting  fast  into  Papistry  and  other  confusions. 

X  Charles  Stuart  :  '  a  day  '  for  him,  upon  wliose  head  tliere  was,  not  many  weeks 
ago,  a  Reward  of  ^^looo  ?  Did  you  actually  j-aj/ this,  my  learned  friend?  Or 
merely  strive  to  think,  and  redact,  at  an  after-period,  that  you  had  said  it, — that 
you  had  thought  it,  meant  to  say  it,  which  was  virtually  all  the  same,  in  a  case  of 
difficulty  ! 


DEATH  OF  IRETON.  195 


appetites,  as  I  in  the  like  case  should  have  been  doing  ! — The  Con- 
ference broke  up,  with  what  of  '  fish '  in  this  kind  my  Lord  General 
had  taken,  and  no  other  result  arrived  at. 

Many  Conferences  held  by  my  Lord  General  have  broken  up  so. 
Four  years  ago,  he  ended  one  in  King  Street  by  '  playfully  flinging  a 
cushion  '  at  a  certain  solid  head  of  our  acquaintance,  and  running 
down  stairs*  Here  too  it  became  ultimately  clear  to  the  solid  head 
that  he  had  been  '  fishing.'  Alas,  a  Lord  General  has  many  Con- 
ferences to  hold  ;  and  in  terrene   minds,  ligneous,    oleaginous,    and 

other,  images    himself  in  a   very    strange   manner  ! The   candid 

imagination,  busy  to  shape  out  some  conceivable  Oliver  in  these 
Thirty-one  months,  will  accept  thankfully  the  following  small  indubit- 
abilities,  or  glimpses  of  definite  events. 

December  Zth^  165 1.  In  the  beginning  of  December  (Whitlocke 
dates  it  8th  December)  came  heavy  tidings  over  from  Ireland,  dark 
and  heavy  in  the  house  of  Oliver  especially  :  that  Deputy  Ireton,  worn 
out  with  sleepless  Irish  services,  had  caught  an  inflammatory  fever, 
and  suddenly  died.  Fell  sick  on  the  i6th  of  November,  165 1  ;  died, 
at  Limerick,  on  the  26th.t  The  reader  remembers  Bridget  Ireton, 
the  young  wife  at  Cornbury  -^  she  is  now  Widow  Ireton  ;  a  sorrowful 
bereaved  woman.  One  brave  heart  and  subtle-working  brain  has 
ended  :  to  the  regret  of  all  the  brave.  A  man  able  with  his  pen  and 
his  sword  ;  '  very  stiff  in  his  ways.' 

Dryasdust,  who  much  loves  the  brave  Ireton  in  a  rather  blind  way, 
intimates  that  Ireton's  '  stern  virtue'  would  probably  have  held  Crom- 
well in  awe  ;  that  had  Ireton  lived,  there  had  probably  been  no 
sacrilege  against  the  Constitution  on  Oliver's  part.  A  probability  of 
almost  no  weight,  my  erudite  friend.  The  '  stern  virtue '  of  Ireton 
was  not  sterner  on  occasion  than  that  of  Ohver  ;  the  probabilities  of 
Ireton's  disapproving  what  Oliver  did,  in  the  case  alluded  to,  are  very 
small,  resting  on  solid  Ludlow  mainly;  and  as  to  those  of  Ireton's  hold- 
ing Cromwell  '  in  awe,'  in  this  or  in  any  matter  he  had  himself  decided 
to  do,  I  think  we  may  safely  reckon  them  at  zero,  my  erudite  friend  ! 

Lambert,  now  in  Scotland,  was  appointed  Deputy  in  Ireton's  room; 
and  meant  to  go  ;  but  did  not.  Some  say  the  Widow  Ireton,  irritated 
that  the  beautiful  and  showy  Lady  Lambert  should  already  '  take  pre- 
cedence of  her  in  St.  James's  Park,'  frustrated  the  scheme  :  what  we 
find  certain  is.  That  Lambert  did  not  go,  that  Fleetwood  went  ;  and 
farther,  that  the  Widow  Ireton  in  due  time  became  Wife  of  the 
Widower  Fleetwood  :  the  rest  hangs  vague  in  the  head  of  zealous 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  ■  solid  Ludlow,  and  empty  Rumour.§  Ludlow, 
already  on  the  spot,  does  the  Irish  duties  in  the  interim.  Ireton  has 
solemn  Public  Funeral  in  England  :  copious  monies  settled  on  his 
Widow  and  Family  :  all  honours  paid  to  him,  for  his  own  sake  and 
his  Father-in-law's. 

*  Ludlow,  i.  240. 

t  Wood,  iii.  300;    Whitlocke,  p.  491. 
X  Letter  XXIII.  vol.  i.  p.  152. 

§  Hutchinson's  Memoirs  (London,  1806),  p.  195  ;  Ludlow,  pp.  414,  449, 
450.  &c. 


196  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 


March  2^th,  1652.  Above  two  years  ago,  when  this  Rump  Parha- 
ment  was  in  the  flush  of  youthful  vigour,  it  decided  on  reforming  the 
Laws  of  England,  and  appointed  a  working  Committee  for  that  object, 
our  learned  friend  Bulstrode  one  of  them.  Which  working  Committee 
finding  the  job  heavy,  gradually  languished  ;  and  after  some  Acts  for 
having  Law-proceedings  transacted  in  the  English  tongue,  and  for 
other  improvements  of  the  like  magnitude,  died  into  comfortable  sleep. 
On  my  Lord  General's  return  from  Worcester,  it  had  been  poked  up 
again  ;  and,  now  rubbing  its  eyes,  set  to  work  in  good  earnest  ;  got  a 
subsidiary  Committee  appointed,  of  Twenty-one  persons  not  members 
of  this  House  at  all.  To  say  and  suggest  what  improvements  were 
really  wanted  :  such  improvements  they  the  working  Committee 
would  then,  with  all  the  readiness  in  life,  effectuate  and  introduce  in 
the  shape  of  specific  Acts  Accordingly,  on  March  25th,  first  day  of 
th  ;  new  year  1652,  learned  Bulstrode,  in  the  name  of  this  working 
Committee,  reports  that  the  subsidiary  Committee  has  suggested  a 
variety  of  things  ;  among  others  some  improvement  in  our  method  of 
Transferring  Property, — of  enabling  poor  John  Doe,  who  finds  at 
present  a  terrible  difficulty  in  doing  it,  to  inform  Richard  Roe,  "  I 
"  John  Doe  do,  in  very  fact,  sell  to  thee  Richard  Roe,  such  and  such  a 
"  Property, — according  to  the  usual  human  meaning  of  the  word  sale; 
"  and  it  is  hereby,  let  me  again  assure  thee,  indisputably  SOLD  to  thee 
"  Richard,  by  me  John: ''  which,  my  learned  friend  thinks,  might  really 
be  an  improvement.  To  which  end  he  will  introduce  an  Act  :  nay 
there  shall  farther  be  an  Act  for  the  '  Registry  of  Deeds  in  each 
County,' — if  it  please  Heaven.  '  Neglect  to  register  your  Sale  of 
'  Land  in  this  promised  County-Register  within  a  given  time,'  enacts 
the  learned  Bulstrode,  'such  Sale  shall  be  void.  Be  exact  in  register- 
'  ing  it,  the  Land  shall  not  be  subject  to  any  incumbrance.'  Incum- 
brance :  yes,  but  what  is  'incumbrance.'''  asks  all  the  working 
Committee,  with  wide  eyes,  when  they  come  actually  to  sit  upon  this 
Bill  of  Re  ^i  try,  and  to  hatch  it  into  some  kind  of  perfection  :  What 
is  '  incumbrance?'  No  mortal,  can  tell.  They  sit  debating  it,  pain- 
fully sifting  it, '  for  three  months  ;^*  three  months  by  Booker's  Almanac, 
and  the  Zodiac  Horologe  :  Marc^  violets  have  become  June  roses; 
and  still  they  debate  what  'incumbrance'  is;— and  indeed,  I  think, 
could  never  fix  it  at  all  ;  and  are  perhaps  debating  it,  if  so  doomed,  in 
some  twijight  foggy  section  of  Dante's  Nether  World,  to  all  Eternity, 
at  this  hour  ! — Are  not  these  a  set  of  men  likely  to  reform  English 
Law  .'*  Likely  these  to  strip  the  accumulated  owl-droppings  and  foul 
guano-mountains  from  your  rock-island,  and  lay  the  reality  bare, — ^in 
the  course  of  Eternities  !  The  wish  waxes  livelier  in  Colonel  Pride 
that  he  could  see  a  certain  addition  made  to  the  Scots  Colours  hung  in 
Westminster  Hall  yonder. 

I  add  only,  for  the  sake  of  Chronology,  that  on  the  fourth  day  after 
this  appearance  of  Bulstrode  as  a  Law-reformer,  occurred  the  famous 
Black  Monday  ;  fearfulest  eclipse  of  the  Sun  ever  seen  by  mankind. 
Came  on  about  nine  in  the  morning  ;  darker  and  darker  ;  ploughmen 
unyoked  their  teams,  stars  came  out,  birds  sorrowfully  chirping  took 

*  Ludlow,  i.  430;  Parliamentary  History,  x.x.  84;  Commons  Journals,  vii.  67, 
lie,  &c. 


DUTCH  WAR.  ie>7 


to  roost,  men  in  amazement  to  prayers  :  a  day  of  much  obscurity  ; 
Black  Monday,  or  Mirk  Monday  ;  29th  March,  1652.*  Much  noised 
of  by  Lilly,  Booker,  and  the  buzzard  Astrologer  tribe.  Betokening 
somewhat  ?  Behke  that  Bulstrode  and  this  Parliament  will,  in  the 
way  of  Law-reform  and  otherwise,  make  a  Practical  Gospel,  or  real 
Reign  of  God,  in  this  England  ?— 

July  ()th,  1652.  A  great  external  fact  which,  no  doubt,  has  its  effect 
on  all  internal  movements,  is  the  War  with  the  Dutch.  The  Dutch, 
ever  since  our  Death-Warrant  to  Charles  First,  have  looked  askance 
at  the  New  Commonwealth,  which  wished  to  stand  well  with  them  ; 
and  have  accumulated  offence  on  offence  against  it.  Ambassador 
Dorislaus  was  assassinated  in  their  country  ;  Charles  Second  was 
entertained  there  ;  evasive  slow  answers  were  given  to  tough  St.  John, 
who  went  over  as  new  Ambassador  :,  to  which  St.  John  responding 
with  great  directness,  in  a  proud,  brief  and  very  emphatic  manner, 
took  his  leave,  and  came  home  again.  Came  home  again  ;  and  passed 
the  celebrated  Navigation  Act,t  forbidding  that  any  goods  should  be 
imported  into  England  except  either  in  English  ships  or  in  ships  of 
the  country  where  the  goods  were  produced.  Thereby  terribly  maim- 
ing the  '  Carrying  Trade  of  the  Dutch  ; '  and  indeed,  as  the  issue 
proved,  depressing  the  Dutch  Maritime  Interest  not  a  little,  and 
proportionally  elevating  that  of  England.  Embassies  in  consequence, 
from  their  irritated  High  Mightinesses  ;  sea-fightings  in  consequence; 
and  much  negotiating,  apologising,  and  bickering  mounting  ever 
higher  ; — which  at  length,  at  the  date  above  given,  issues  in  declared 
War.  Dutch  War  :  cannonadings  and  fierce  sea-fights  in  the  narrow 
seas  ;  land-soldiers  drafted  to  fight  on  shipboard  ;  and  land-officers, 
Blake,  Dean,  Monk,  who  became  very  famous  sea-officers  ;  Blake  a 
thrice-famous  one  ; — poor  Dean  lost  his  life  in  this  business.  They 
doggedly  beat  the  Dutch,  and  again  beat  them  :  their  best  Van 
Tromps  and  De  Ruyters  could  not  stand  these  terrible  Puritan  Sailors 
and  Gunners  The  Dutch  gradually  grew  tame.  The  public  mind, 
occupied  with  sea-fights  and  sea- victories,  finds  again  that  the  New 
Representative  must  be  patiently  waited  for  ;  that  this  is  not  a  time 
for  turning  out  the  old  Representative,  which  has  so  many  affairs  on 
its  hands. 

But  the  Dutch  War  brings  another  consequence  in  the  train  of  it : 
renewed  severity  against  Delinquents.  The  necessities  of  cash  for 
this  War  are  great  :  indeed  the  grand  business  of  Parliament  at 
present  seems  to  be  that  of  Finance, — finding  of  sinews  for  such  a 
War.  Any  remnants  of  Royal  lands,  of  Dean-and-Chapter  lands, — 
sell  them  by  rigorous  auction  :  the  very  lead  of  the  Cathedrals  one  is 
tempted  to  sell ;  nay  almost  the  Cathedrals  themselves,^  if  any  one 
would  buy  them.  The  necessities  of  the  Finance  Department  are 
extreme.  Money,  money  :  our  Blakes  and  Monks,  in  deadly  wrestle 
with  the  Dutch,  must  have  money  ! 

Estates  of  Delinquents,  one  of  the  readiest  resources  from  of  old, 
cannot,  in  these  circumstances,  be  forgotten.  Search  out  Delinquents; 

*  Balfour,  iv.  349;    Law's  Memorials,  p.  6. 

f  Introduced,  5  August,  1651 ;  passed  9  October,  1651  :  given  in  Scobell,  ii.  176. 

X  Parliamentary  History,  xx.  90. 


ig^  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 


in  every  County  make  stringent  inquest  after  them  !  Many,  in  past 
years,  have  made  hght  settlements  with  lax  Committee-men  ;  neigh- 
bours, not  without  pity  for  them.  Many  of  minor  sort  have  been 
overlooked  altogether.  Bring  them  up,  every  Delinquent  of  them  ; 
up  hither  to  the  Rhadamanthus-bar  of  Goldsmiths'  Hall  and  Haber- 
dashers' Hall  ;  sift  them,  search  them  ;  riddle  the  last  due  sixpence 
out  of  them.  The  Commons  Journals  of  these  months  have  formid- 
able ell-long  Lists  of  Delinquents;  List  after  List;  who  shall,  on 
rigorous  terms,  be  ordered  to  compound.  Poor  unknown  Royalist 
Squires,  from  various  quarters  of  England  ;  whose  names  and  sur- 
names excite  now  no  notion  in  us  except  that  of  No.  i  and  No.  2: 
my  Lord  General  has  seen  them  '  crowding  by  thirties  and  forties  in 
a  morning'*  about  these  Haberdasher-Grocer  Halls  of  Doom,  with 
haggard  expression  of  countenance ;  soliciting,  from  what  austere 
official  person  they  can  get  a  word  of,  if  not  mercy,  yet  at  least  swift 
judgment.  In  a  way  which  affected  my  Lord's  General  feelings.  We 
have  now  the  third  year  of  Peace  in  our  borders  :  is  this  what  you 
call  Settlement  of  the  Nation  ? 


LETTER  CXXVL 

The  following  Letter  '  to  my  honoured  Friend  Mr.  Hungerford  the 
Elder.'  which  at  any  rate  by  order  of  time  introduces  itself  here,  has 
probably  some  reference  to  these  Delinquent  businesses.  There  were 
three  Hungerfords  in  Parliament,  all  Wiltshire  people  ;  two  of  them 
Puritans,  but  purged  out  by  Pride  :  Henry,  Esq.  '  recruiter '  for  Bedwin 
since  1646;  Sir  Edward,  recruiter  for  Chippenham  in  like  manner. 
The  third,  Anthony  Hungerford,  original  Member  for  Malmesbury. 
declared  for  the  King  in  1642  ;  was  of  course  disabled,  and  is  and 
continues  a  DeHnquent.  One  might  guess,  but  nobody  can  know, 
that  this  Note  was  perhaps  addressed  to  the  first  of  these  Hungerfords, 
in  reference  to  the  affairs  of  the  last.  Or,  as  probably,  it  might  refer 
to  Sir  Edward's  affairs  ;  who  is  now  'deceased,  and  has  a  V\  idow 
soliciting.f  A  hasty  Note,  on  some  'business'  now  unknown,  about 
Avhich  an  unknown  '  gentleman  '  has  been  making  inquiry  and  negotia- 
tion ;  for  the  answer  to  which  an  unknown  'servant'  of  som.e  '  Mr. 
Hungerford  the  Elder'  is  waiting  in  the  hall  of  Oliver's  House,— the 
Cockpit,  I  believe,  at  this  date  :— in  such  faintly  luminous  state, 
reveahng  little  save  its  own  existence,  must  this  small  Document  be 
left. 

For  my  ho7iotired  Friend  Mr.  Hungerford  the  Elder,  at  his 
House :  These. 

'  London, '  30th  July,  1653. 

I  am  very  sorry  my  occasions  will  not  permit  me  to  return  toj 
you  as  I  would.     I  have  not  yet  fully  spoken  with  the  Gentleman  I 

*  Speech,  postea. 

t  Commons  Journals,  vii.  260  (18  February,  1652-3).  %  reply. 


THE  RUMP.  199 


sent  to  wait  upon  you ;  when  I  shall  do  it,  I  shall  be  enabled  to  be 
more  particular.  Being  unwilling  to  detain  your  servant  any  longer, 
■ — with  my  service  to  your  Lady  and  Family,  I  take  my  leave  and 
rest, 

Your  affectionate  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

It  is  a  sad  reflection  with  my  Lord  General,  in  this  Hungerford  and 
other  businesses,  that  the  mere  justice  of  any  matter  will  so  little  avail 
a  man  in  Parliament  :  you  can  make  no  way  till  you  have  got  up 
some  party  on  the  subject  there  !t  In  fact,  red-tape  has,  to  a  lament- 
able extent,  tied  up  the  souls  of  men  in  this  Parliament  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  England.  They  are  becoming  hacks  of  office  ;  a 
savour  of  (Godliness  still  on  their  lips,  but  seemingly  not  much  deeper 
with  some  of  them.  I  begin  to  have  a  suspicion  they  are  no  Parlia- 
ment !  If  the  Commonwealth  of  England  had  not  still  her  Army 
Parliament,  rigorous  devout  Council  of  Officers,  men  in  right  life-and- 
death  earnest,  who  have  spent  their  blood  in  this  Cause,  who  in  case 
of  need  can  assemble  and  act  again, — what  would  become  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  England  .-^  Earnest  persons,  from  this  quarter  and 
that,  make  petition  to  the  Lord  General  and  Officers,  That  they  would 
be  pleased  to  take  the  matter  in  hand,  and  see  right  done.  To  which 
the  Lord- General  and  Officers  answer  always  :  Wait,  be  patient  :  the 
Parliament  itself  will  yet  do  it. 

What  the  '  state  of  the  Gospel  in  Wales  '  is,  in  Wales  or  elsewhere, 
I  cannot  with  any  accuracy  ascertain  ;  but  see  well  that  this  ParHa- 
ment  has  shewn  no  zeal  that  way  ;  has  shackled  rHther,  and  tied  up 
with  its  sorrowful  red-tape  the  movements  of  men  that  had  any  zeal.J; 
Lamentable  enough.  The  light  of  the  Everlasting  Truth  was  kindled  ; 
and  you  do  not  fan  the  sacred  flame,  you  consider  it  a  thing  which 
may  be  left  to  itself !  Unhappy  :  and  for  what  did  we  fight  then,  and 
wrestle  with  our  souls  and  our  bodies  as  in  strong  agony  ;  besieging 
Heaven  with  our  prayers,  and  Earth  and  its  Strengths,  from  Naseby 
on  to  Worcester,  with  our  pikes  and  cannon .?  Was  it  to  put  an 
Official  Junto  of  some  Three-score  Persons  into  the  high  saddle  in 
England  ;  and  say,  Ride  ye.?  They  would  need  to  be  Three-score 
beautifuller  men  ;  Our  blood  shed  like  water,  our  brethren's  bones 
whitening  a  hundred  fields  ;  Tredah  Storm,  Dunbar  death-agony,  and 
God's  voice  from  the  battle-whirlwind  ;  did  they  mean  no  more  but 
you  ! — My  Lord-General  urges  us  always  to  be  patient  :  Patience, 
the  Parliament  itself  will  yet  do  it.     That  is  what  we  shall  see  !^- 

On  the  whole,  it  must  be  seriously  owned  by  every  reader,  this 
present  Fag-end  of  a  Parliament  of  England  has  failed  altogether  to 
realise  the  high  dream  of  those  old  Puritan  hearts.  '  Incumbrance/ 
it  appears,  cannot  in  the  abstract  be  defined  :  but  if  you  would  know 
in  the  concrete  what  it  is,  look  there  !  The  thing  we  fought  for,  and 
gained  as  if  by  miracle,  it  is  ours  this  long  while,  and  yet  not  ours  ; 
within  grasp  of  us,  it  lies  there  unattainable,  enchanted  under  ParUa- 

*  Collinson's  History  of  Somersetshire,  iii.  357  (Note), 
f  Speech,  postea.  +  Ibid. 


200  7'HE   LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 


mentary  formulas.  Enemies  are  swept  away  ;  extinguished  as  in  the 
brightness  of  the  Lord:  and  no  Divine  Kingdom,  and  no  clear 
incipiency  of  such,  has  yet  in  any  measure  come  ! — These  are  sorrow- 
ful reflections. 

For,  alas,  such  high  dream  is  difficult  to  realise  !  Not  the  Stuart 
Dynasty  alone  that  opposes  it  ;  all  the  Dynasties  of  the  Devil,  the 
whole  perversions  of  this  poor  Earth, Avithout  us  and  within  us,  oppose 
it. — Yea,  answers  with  a  sigh  the  heart  of  my  Lord-General  : 
Yea,  it  is  difficult,  and  thrice  difficult ;  and  yet  woe  to  us,  if  we  do 
not  with  our  whole  soul  try  it,  make  some  clear  beginning  of  it ;  if  we 
sit  defining  '  incumbrances '  instead  of  bending  every  muscle  to  the 
wheel  that  is  encumbered  !  Who  art  thou  that  standest  still  ;  that 
having  put-to  thy  hand,  turnest  back.^  In  these  years  of  miracle  in 
England,  were  there  not  great  things,  as  if  by  divine  voices,  audibly 
promised  t  '  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord  ! ' — And  is  it  all  to  end 
here  ?  In  Juntos  of  Three-score  ;  in  Grocers-Hall  Committees,  in 
red-tape,  and  official  shakings  of  the  head  ? — 

My  Lord  General,  are  there  no  voices,  dumb  voices  from  the  depths 
of  poor  England's  heart,  that  address  themselves  to  you,  even  you  ? 
My  Lord  General  hears  voices  ;  and  would  fain  distinguish  and  dis- 
criminate them.  Which,  in  all  these,  is  the  God's  voice  .-^  That  were 
the  one  to  follow.  My  Lord  General,  I  think,  has  many  meditations, 
of  a  very  mixed,  and  some  of  a  very  abstruse  nature,  in  these  months. 

August  i^th  1652.  This  day  came  a  '  Petition  from  the  Officers 
of  my  Lord  General's  Army,'  which  a  little  alarmed  us.  Petition 
craving  for  some  real  reform  of  the  Law  :  some  real  attempt  towards 
setting  up  a  Gospel  Ministry  in  England  ;  real  and  general  ousting  of 
scandalous,  incompetent  and  plainly  diabolic  persons  from  all  offices 
of  Church  and  State  ;  real  beginning,  in  short,  of  a  Reign  of  Gospel 
Truth  in  this  England  ; — and  for  one  thing,  a  swift  progress  in  that 
most  slow-going  Bill  for  a  New  Representative  ;  an  actual  ending  of 
this  present  Fag-end  of  a  Parliament,  which  has  now  sat  very  long  ! 
So,  in  most  respectful  language,  prays  this  Petition*  of  the  Officers. 
Petition  prefaced,  they  say,  with  earnest  prayer  to  God  :  that  was  the 
preface  or  prologue  they  gave  it  ; — what  kind  of  epilogue  they  might 
be  prepared  to  give  it,  one  does  not  learn  :  but  the  men  carry  swords 
at  their  sides  ;  and  we  have  known  them  ! — '  Many  thought  this  kind 
*of  Petition  dangerous  ;  and  counselled  my  Lord  General  to  put  a 

*  stop  to  the  like  :  but  he  seemed  to  make  light  of  it,'  says  Bulstrode. 
In  fact,  my  Lord  General  does  not  disapprove  of  it  :  my  Lord  General, 
after  much  abtruse  meditation,  has  decided  on  putting  himself  at  the 
head  of  it.  He,  and  a  serious  minority  in  ParHament,  and  in  England 
at  large,  think  with  themselves,  once  more,  If  it  were  not  for  this 
Armv   Parliament,   what   would    become   of  us? — Speaker  Lenthall 

*  thanked  '  these  Officers,  with  a  smile  which  I  think  must  have  been 
of  the  grimmest,  like  that  produced  by  eating  thistles. 

September  \\th,  1652.      The  somnolent  slow-going  Bill  for  a  New 

Representative,  which  has  slept  much,  and  now  and  then  pretended  to 

move   a  little,  for  long  years  past,  is  resuscitated  by  this  Petition  ; 

comes  out  rubbing  its  eyes,  disposed  for  decided  activity  ; — and  in 

*  Whiilocke,  p.  316. 


THE  RUMP.  26t 


fact  sleeps  no  more  ;  cannot  think  of  sleep  any  more,  the  noise  round 
it  waxing  ever  louder.  Settle  how  your  Representative  shall  be  :  for 
be  it  now  actually  must  ! 

This  Bill,  which  has  slept  and  waked  so  long,  does  not  sleep  ggain  : 
but,  How  to  settle  the  conditions  of  the  New  Representative  ? — there 
is  a  question  !     My  Lord  General  will  have  good  security  against  'the 
Presbyterial    Party '   that  they    come  not  into    power   again  ;    good 
security  against  the  red-tape  Party,  that  they  sit  not  for  three  months 
defining   an    incumbrance   again.     How    shall    we    settle   the    Ne\ 
Representative  ;  on  the  whole,  what  or  how  shall  we  do  ?     For  the  oI< 
stagnancy  is  verily  broken  up  :  these  petitioning  Army  Officers,  wit 
all  the  earnest  armed  and  unarmed  men   of  England  in  the  rear  ( 
them,  have  verily  torn  us  from  our  moorings  :  and  we  do  go  adrift,- 
with  questionable  havens,  on  starboard  and  larboard,  very  difficult  ( 
entrance  ;  with    Mahlstroms   and   Niagaras  very  patent  right  ahead 
We  are  become  to  mankind  a  Rump  Parliament ;  sit  here  we  canno. 
much  longer  ;  and  we  know  not  what  to  do  ! 

'  During  the  month  of  October,  some  ten  or  twelve  conferences 
took  place,' — private  conferences  between  the  Army  Officers  and  the 
Leaders  of  the  J  arliament  :  wherein  mothing  could  be  agreed  upon. 
Difficult  to  settle  the  New  Representatives  ;  impossible  for  this  Old 
Misrepresentative  or  Rump  to  continue  !  What  shall  or  can  be  done .? 
Summon,  without  popular  intervention,  by  earnest  selection  on  your 
and  our  part,  a  Body  of  godly  wise  Men,  the  Best  and  Wisest  we  can 
find  in  England  :  to  them  entrust  the  whole  question  ;  and  do  you 
abdicate,  and  depart  straightway,  say  the  Officers.  Forty  good  Men, 
or  a  Hundred-and-forty ;  choose  them  well, — they  will  define  an  in- 
cumbrance in  less  than  three  months,  we  may  hope,  and  tell  us  what 
to  do  !  Such  is  the  notion  of  the  Army  Officers,  and  my  Lord 
General  ;  a  kind  of  Puritan  '  Convention  of  the  Notables,'  so  the 
French  would  call  it  :  to  which  the  Parliament  Party  see  insuperable 
objections.  What  other  remedy,  then  ?  The  Parliament  Party  mourn- 
fully insinuate  that  there  is  no  remedy,  except, — except  continuance  of 
the  present  Rump  !* 

November  jth,  1652.  '  About  this  time,'  prior  or  posterior  to  it,  while 
such  conferences  and  abstruse  considerations  are  in  progress,  my  Lord 
General,  walking  once  in  St.  James's  Park,  beckons  the  learned  Bul- 
strode,  who  is  also  there  ;  strolls  gradually  aside  with  him,  and  begins 
one  of  the  most  important  Dialogues.  Whereof  learned  Bulstrode 
has  preserved  some  record  ;  which  is  unfortunately  much  dimmed  by 
just  suspicion  of  dramaturgy  on  the  part  of  Bulstrode  ;  and  shall  not 
be  excerpted  by  us  here  It  tends  conspicuously  to  shewy^W/,  how 
Cromwell  already  entertained  most  alarming  notions  of  '  making  one- 
self a  King,'  and  even  wore  them  pinned  on  his  s'eeve,  for  the  inspec- 
tion of  the  learned  ;  and  secondly,  how  Bulstrode,  a  secret-royalist  in 
the  worst  of  times,  advised  him  by  no  means  to  think  of  that,  but  to 
call  in  Charles  Stuart, — who  had  an  immense  popularity  among  the 
Powerful  in  England  just  then  !     '  My  Lord  General  did  not  in  words 

*  express  any  anger,  but  only  by  looks  and  carriage  ;  and  turned  aside 

*  trom  me  to  other  company,' — as  this   Editor,  in  quest  of  certainty 

*  Speech,  fostca. 


202  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

and  insight,  and  not  of  doubt  and  fat  drowsy  pedantry,  will  now  also 
do! 

November  1652 — March  1653.  The  Dutch  War  prospers  and  has 
prospered,  Blake  and  Monk  beating  the  Dutch  in  tough  sea-fights  ; 
Delinquents,  monthly  Assessments,  and  the  lead  of  Cathedrals  furnish- 
ing the  sinews  :  the  Dutch  are  about  sending  Ambassadors  to  treat 
of  Peace.  With  home  affaii-s,  again,  it  goes  not  so  well.  Through 
winter,  through  spring,  this  Bill  for  a  New  Representative  goes  along 
in  its  slow  gestation ;  reappearing  Wednesday  after  Wednesday  ; 
painfully  struggling  to  take  a  shape  that  shall  fit  both  parties,  Parlia- 
ment Grandees  an  Army  Grandees  both  at  once.  A  thing  difficult  ; 
a  thing  impossible  !  Parliament  Grandees,  now  become  a  con- 
temptible Rump,  wish  they  could  grow  into  a  Reputable  f^ull  Parlia- 
ment again,  and  have  the  Government  and  the  Governing  Persons  go 
on  as  they  are  now  doing  :  this  naturally  is  their  wish.  Naturally  too 
the  Army  Party's  wish  is  the  reverse  of  this  :  that  a  Full  free  Parlia- 
ment, with  safety  to  the  Godly  Interests,  and  due  subordination  of 
the  Presbyterian  and  other  factions,  should  assemble  ;  but  also  that 
the  present  Governing  Persons,  with  their  red-tape  habits  unable  to 
define  an  incumbrance  in  three  months,  should  for  most  part  be  out  of 
it.  Impossible  to  shape  a  Bill  that  will  fit  both  of  these  Parties  : 
Tom  Thumb  and  the  Irish  Giant,  you  cannot,  by  the  art  of  Parlia- 
mentary tailoring,  clip  out  a  coat  that  will  fit  them  both  !  We  can 
fancy  '  conferences,'  considerations  deep  and  almost  awful  ;  my  Lord 
General  looking  forward  to  possibilities  that  fill  even  him  with  fear. 
Puritan  Notables  they  will  not  have  ;  these  present  Governing  men 
are  clear  against  that  :  not  Puritan  Notables  ; — and  if  they  them- 
selves, by  this  new  Bill  or  otherwise,  insist  on  staying  there,  what  is 
to  become  of  them  1 

Dryasdust  laments  that  this  invaluable  Bill,  now  in  process  of 
gestation,  is  altogether  lost  to  Posterity  ;  no  copy  even  of  itself,  much 
less  any  record  of  the  conferences,  debates,  or  contemporaneous  con- 
siderations on  it,  attainable  even  in  fractions  by  mankind.  Much  is 
lost,  my  erudite  friend  ;— and  we  must  console  ourselves  !  The  sub- 
stantial essence  of  the  Bill  came  out  afterwards  into  full  practice,  in 
Oliver's  own  Parliaments.  The  present  form  of  the  Bill,  I  do  clearly 
perceive,  had  one  clause.  That  all  the  Members  of  this  present  Rump 
should  continue  to  sit  without  re-election  ;  and  still  better,  another. 
That  they  should  be  a  General  Election  Committee,  and  have  power 
to  say  to  every  new  Member,  "  Thou  art  dangerous,  thou  shalt  not 
enter  ;  go  ! "  This  clearly  in  the  Bill  :  and  not  less  clearly  that  the 
Lord  General  and  Army  Party  would  in  nowise  have  a  Bill  with  this 
in  it,— or  indeed  have  any  Bill  that  was  to  be  the  old  story  over  again 
under  a  new  name.  So  much,  on  good  evidence,  is  very  clear  to  me  ; 
—the  rest,  which  is  all  obliterated,  becomes  not  inconceivable.  Cost 
what  it  may  cost,  this  Rump  Parliament  which  has  by  its  conduct 
abundantly  '  defined  what  an  incumbrance  is,'  shall  go  about  its  busi- 
ness. Terrible  Voices,  supernal  and  other,  have  said  it,  awfully 
enough,  in  the  hearts  of  some  men  !  Neither  under  its  own  shabby 
figure,  nor  under  another  more  plausible,  shall  it  guide  the  Divine 
Mercies  and  Miraculous  Affairs  of  this  Nation  any  farther. 


THE  RUMP.  203 

The  last  of  all  the  conferences  was  held  at  my  Lord  General's  house 
in  Whitehall,  on  Tuesday  evening,  19th  of  April,  1653.  Above  twenty 
leading  Members  of  Parliament  present,  ai^d  many  Officers.  Con- 
ference of  which  we  shall  have  some  passmg  glimpse  from  a  sure 
hand  by  and  by  *  Conference  which  came  to  nothing,  as  all  the 
others  had  done.  Your  Bill  vvith  these  clauses  and  visible  tendencies 
in  it  cannot  pass,  says  the  one  party  :  Your  scheme  of  Puritan 
Rotables  seems  full  of  danger,  says  the  other.  What  remedy  ?  "  No 
remedy  except,— except  that  you  leave  us  to  sit  as  we  are,  for  a  while 
yet!"  suggest  the  Official  persons. — "In  no  wise!"  answer  the 
Officers,  with  a  vehemence  of  look  and  tone,  which  my  Lord  General, 
seemingly  anxious  to  do  it,  cannot  repress.  You  must  not,  and  cannot 
sit  longer,  say  the  Officers  ;-  -and  their  look  says  even,  Shall  not  ! 
Bulstrode  went  home  to  Chelsea,  very  late,  with  the  tears  in  his  big 
dull  eyes,  at  thought  of  the  courses  men  were  getting  into.  Bulstrode 
and  Widdrington  were  the  most  eager  for  sitting ;  Chief-Justice 
St.  John,  strange  thing  in  a  Constitutional  gentleman,  declared  that 
there  could  be  no  sitting  for  us  any  longer.  We  parted,  able  to  settle 
on  nothing,  except  the  engagement  to  meet  here  again  tomorrow 
morning,  and  to  leave  the  Bill  asleep  till  something  were  settled  on. 
*A  leading  person,'  Sir  Harry  Vane  or  another,  undertook  that 
nothing  should  be  done  in  it  till  then. 

Wednesday,  20th  April,  1653.  My  Lord  General  accordingly  is  in 
his  reception-room  this  morning,  '  in  plain  black  clothes  and  grey 
worsted  stockings  ; '  he,  with  many  Officers  :  but  few  Members  have 
yet  come,  though  punctual  Bulstrode  and  certain  others  are  there. 
Some  waiting  ;  some  impatience  that  the  Members  would  come.  The 
Members  do  not  come  :  instead  of  Members,  comes  a  notice  that  they 
are  busy  getting  on  with  their  Bill  in  the  House  ;  hurrying  it  double- 
quick  through  all  the  stages.  Possible?  New  message  that  it  will 
be  Law  in  a  little  while,  if  no  interposition  take  place  !  Bulstrode 
hastens  off  to  the  House  :  my  Lord  General,  at  first  incredulous,  does 
also  now  hasten  off, — nay  orders  that  a  Company  of  Musketeers  of 
his  own  regiment  attend  him.  Hastens  off,  with  a  very  high  expres- 
sion of  countenance,  I  think  ; — saying  or  feeling  :  Who  would  have 
believed  it  of  them .?  "  It  is  not  honest  ;  yea,  it  is  contrary  to  common 
honesty  !  " — My  Lord  General,  the  big  hour  is  come  ! 

Young  Colonel  Sidney,  the  celebrated  Algernon,  sat  in  the  House 
this  morning  ;  a  House  ot  some  Fifty-three.f  Algernon  has  left  dis- 
tinct note  of  the  affair  ;  less  distinct  we  have  from  Bulstrode,  who 
was  also  there,  who  seems  in  some  points  to  be  even  wilfully  wrong. 
Solid  Ludlow  was  far  off"  in  Ireland,  but  gathered  many  details  in 
after-years  ;  and  faithfully  wrote  them  down  in  the  unappeasable 
indignation  of  his  heart.  Combining  these  three  originals,  we  have, 
after  various  perusals  and  collations  and  considerations,  obtained  the 
following  authentic,  moderately  conceivable  account.  I 

*  Speech,  postca ,  see  also  Whitlocke.  p.  529. 

f  That  is  Cromwell's  number;  Ludlow,  far  distant,  and  not  credible  on  this 
occasion,  says  '  Eighty  or  a  Hundred.' 

X  Blcncowe's  Sidney  Papers  (London,  1S25),  pp.  139-4T  :  A^'hitlocke.  p.  529; 
Ludlow,  ii,  456 ;— the  last  two  are  reprinted  in  Parliamentary  History,  xx.  128. 


504  THE  LllJLE   PARLIAMENT. 


'The  Parliament  sitting  as  usual,  and  being  in  debate  upon  the  Bill 

*  with  the  amendments,  which  it  was  thought  would  have  been  passed 

*  that  day,  the  Lord  General  Cromwell  came  into  the  House,  clad  m 
'  plain  black  clothes  and  grey  worsted  stockings,  and  sat  down,  as  he 
'  used  to  do,  in  an  ordinary  place.'  For  some  time  he  hstens  to  this 
interesting  debate  on  the  Bill  ;  beckoning  once  to  Harrison,  who 
came  over  to  him,  and  answered  dubitatingly,  Whereupon  the  Lord 
General  sat  still  for  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  longer.  But  nowJ;he 
([uestion  being  to  be  put,  That  this  Bill  do  now  pass,  he  beckons 
again  to  Harrison,  says,  "  '  This  is  the  time  ;  I  must  do  it ! ' " — and 
so  '  rose  up,  put  off  his  hat,  and  spake.  At  the  first,  and  for  a  good 
'  while,  he  spake  to  the  commendation  of  the  Parliament  for  their 
'  pains  and  care  of  the   public  good  ;  but  afterwards  he  changed  his 

*  style,  told  them  of  their  injustice,  delays  of  justice,  self-interest,  and 
'  other  faults,'  -  rising  higher  and  higher,  into  a  very  aggravated  style 
indeed.  An  honourable  Member,  Sir  Peter  ^^'ent^vorth  by  name,  not 
known  to  my  readers,  and  by  me  better  known  than  trusted,  rises  to 
order,  as  we  phrase  it ;  says,  "  It  is  a  strange  language  this  ;  unusual 
within  the  walls  of  Parliament  this  !  And  from  a  trusted  servant  too  ; 
and  one  whom  we  have  so  highly  honoured  ;  and  one"  —  "'  Come, 
come  !'"  exclaims  my  L  jrd  General  in  a  very  high  key,  "  we  have 
had  enough  of  this," — and  in  fact  my  Lord  General  now  blazing  all  up 
into  clear  conflagration,  exclaims,  "'I  will  put  an  end  to  your  prat- 
ing, '  "  and  steps  forth  into  ihe  floor  of  the  House,  and  '  clapping  on 
his  hat,'  and  occasionally  '  stamping  the  floor  with  his  feet,'  begins  a 
discourse  which  no  man  can  report  !  He  says— Heavens  !  he  is 
lieard  saying  :  '"It  is  not  fit  that  you  should  sit  here  any  longer  !* 
You  have  sat  too  long  here  for  any  good  you  have  been  doing  lately. 
'  You  shall  now  give  place  to  better  men  !^ — Call  them  in  ! '"  adds  he 
briefly,  to  Harrison^  in  word  of  command:  and  'some  twenty  or 
thirty '  grim  musketeers  enter^  with  bullets  in  their  snaphances ; 
grimly  prompt  for  orders  ;  and  stand  in  some  attitude  of  Carry-arms 
there.  Veteran  men  :  men  of  might  and  men  of  war,  their  faces  are 
as  the  faces  of  lions,  and  their  feet  are  swift  as  the  roes  upon  the 
mountains  ;-  not  beautiful  to  honourable  gentlemen  at  this  moment  1 

"  You  call  yourselves  a  Parliament,"  continues  my  Lord  General  in 
clear  blaze  of  conflagration  :  "  '  You  are  no  Parliament ;  I  say  you 
are  no  Parliament!  Some  of  you  are  drunkards,'"  and  his  eye 
flashes  on  poor  Mr.  Chalonei,  an  official  man  of  some  value,  addicted 

to  the  bottle;  "'some  of  you    are '"  and  he  glares  into  Harry 

Marten,  and  the  poor  Sir  Peter  who  rose  to  order,  lewd  livers  both  ; 
*'  living  in  open  contempt  of  God's  Commandments.  Following  your 
own  greedy  appetites,  and  the  Devil's  Commandments.  '  Corrupt 
unjust  persons,' "  and  here  I  think  he  glanced  '  at  Sir  Bulstrode  Whit- 

*  locke,  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Great  Seal,  giving  him  and 
'  others  very  sharp  language,  though  he  named  them  not  : '  "'  Corrupt 
*■  unjust  persons  ;  scandalous  to  the  profession  of  the  Gospel  :  ^  how 
can  you  be  a  Parliament  for  God's  People  ?  Depart,  I  say  ;  and  let 
us  have  done  with  you.     In  the  name  of  God, — go  !  " 

The  House  is  of  course  all  on  its  feet, — uncertain  almost  whether 
not  on  its  head  :  such  a  scene  as  w;is  never  seen  before  in  any  House 


DISMISSAL   OF   THE  RUMP.  205 


of  Commons.     History  reports  with  a  shudder  that  my  Lord  General, 
Hfting  the    sacred  Mace  itself,  said,  "  What   shall  we  do  with  this 
bauble  ?     Take  it  away  !  " — and  gave  it  to  a  musketeer.     And  now, — 
"  Fetch  him  down  ! "  says  he  to    Harrison,   flashing  on  the  Speaker, 
Speaker  Lenthall,  more   an  ancient   Roman  than  anything  else,  de- 
clares. He  will  not  come  till  forced.     "  Sir,"   said   Harrison,   "  I    will 
lend  you  a  hand  ; "   on   which   Speaker  Lenthall  came  down,  and 
gloomily  vanished.     They  all  vanished  ;  flooding  gloomily  clamorous'y 
out,  to  their  ulterior  businesses,  and  respective  places  of  abode  :  the 
Long  Parliament  is   dissolved  !     "  '  It's  you   that  have  forced  me  to 
this,'"  exclaims  my  Lord  General  :   "'  I  have  sought  the  Lord  night 
and  day,  that  He  would  rather  slay  me  than  put  me  upon  the  doing 
of  this  work.' "     '  At  their  going   out,  some  say  the  Lord   General 
said  to  young  Sir  Harry  Vane,  calHng  him  by  his  name,  That  /^^  might 
have  prevented  this  ;  but  that  he  was  a  juggler,  and  had  not  common 
honesty.'     "  '  O  Sir  Harry  Vane,'  thou  with  thy  subtle  casuistries  and 
abstruse  hair-splittings,  thou  art  other   than  a  good  one,  I   think  ! 
The  Lord  deliver  me  from  thee,  Sir  Harry  Vane  ! ' "     '  All  being  gone 
out,  the  door  of  the  House  was  locked,  and  the  Key  with  the  Mace, 
as  I  heard,  was  carried  away  by  Colonel  Otley  ; ' — and  it  is  all  over, 
and  the  unspeakable  catastrophe  has  come,  and  remains. 

Such  was  the  destructive  wrath  Oi*  my  Lord  General  Cromwell 
against  the  Nominal  Rump  Parliament  of  England.  Wrath  which 
innumerable  mortals  since  have  accounted  extremely  diabolic  ;  which 
some  now  begin  to  account  partly  divine.  Divine  or  diabohc,  it  is  an 
indisputable  fact  ;  left  for  the  commentaries  of  men.  The  Rump 
Parliament  has  gone  its  ways  ; — and  truly,  except  it  be  in  their  own, 
I  know  not  in  what  eyes  are  tears  at  their  departure.  They  went 
very  softly,  softly  as  a  Dream,  say  all  witnesses.  "  We  did  not  hear 
a  dog  bark  at  their  gomg  !  "  asserts  my  Lord  General  elsewhere. 

It  is  said  my  Lord  General  did  not,  on  his  entrance  into  the  House, 
contemplate  quite  as  a  certainty  this  strong  measure  ;  but  it  came 
upon  him  like  an  irresistable  impulse,  or  inspiration,  as  he  heard  their 
Parliamentary  eloquence  proceed.  "  Perceiving  the  Spirit  of  God  so 
strong  upon  me,  1  would  no  longer  consult  flesh  and  blood.'*  He 
has  done  it,  at  all  events  ;  and  is  responsible  for  the  results  it  may 
have.  A  responsibility  which  he,  as  well  as  most  of  us,  knows  to  be 
awful  :  but  he  fancies  it  was  in  answer  to  the  English  Nation  and  to 
the  Maker  of  the  English  Nation  and  of  him  ;  and  he  will  do  the 
best  he  may  with  it. 


LETTER   CXXVII. 


We  have  to  add  here  an  Official  Letter,  of  small  significance  in  it- 
self, but  curious  for  its  date,  the  Saturday  after  this  great  Transaction, 
and  for  the  other   indications   it  gives.     Except  the  Lord  General, 

»  Godw  in,  ill.  456  (who  cites  Echard ;  not  much  of  an  authority  in  such  mat- 
ters]. 


2o6  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

"  Comman<ier-in-Chief  of  all  the  forces  raised  and  to  be  raised,'  there 
is  for  tlie  moment  no  Authority  very  clearly  on  foot  in  England  ; — 
though  Judges,  and  all  manner  of  Authorities  whatsoever  do,  after 
some  little  preliminary  parleying^  consent  to  go  on  as  before. 

The  draining  of  the  Fens  had  been  resumed  under  better  auspices 
when  the  War  ended  ;"*  and  a  new  Company  of  Adveniurers,  dmong 
whom  Oliver  himself  is  one,  are  vigorously  proceeding  with  a  New 
Bedford  Level, — the  same  that  yet  continues,  A  '  Petition  'of  theirs, 
addressed  '  To  the  Lord  General,'  in  these  hasty  hours,  sets  forth 
that  upon  the  '  20th  of  this  instant  April '  (exactly  while  Oliver  was 
turning  out  the  Parliament!),  'about  a  Hundred-and-fifty  persons,' 
from  the  towns  of  Swaffham  and  Botsham, — which  Towns  had  peti- 
tioned about  certain  rights  of  theirs,  and  got  clear  promise  of  redress 
in  fit  time, — did  '  tumultaously  assemble,'  to  seek  redress  for  them- 
selves ;  did  '  by  force  expel  your  Petitioner's  workmen  from  their  diking 
'  working  in  the  said  Fens  ; '  did  tumble  in  again  '  the  dikes  by  them 
made  ; '  and  in  fine  did  peremptorily  signify  that  if  they  or  any  other 
came  again  to  dike  in  these  Fens,  it  would  be  worse  for  them.  '  The 
evil  effects  of  which ' — are  very  apparent  indeed.  Whereupon  this 
Official  Letter,  or  Warrant  ;  written  doubtless  in  the  press  of  much 
other  business. 

*  To  Mr.   Parker^  Agent  for  the  Company  of  Adventurers  for 
Draining  the  Great  Level  of  the  Fens  J 

'Whitehall,    23rd  April,  1653. 

Mr.  Parker, 

I  hear  some  unruly  persons  have  lately  committed  great  out- 
rages in  Cambridgeshire,  about  Swaffham  and  Botsham,  in  throwing 
dowu  the  works  making  by  the  Adventurers,  and  menacing  those 
they  employ  thereabout.  Wherefore  I  desire  you  to  send  one  of  my 
Troops,  with  a  Captain,  who  may  by  all  means  persuade  the  people 
to  quiet,  by  letting  them  know.  They  must  not  riotously  do  anything, 
for  that  must  not  be  suffered  :  but  *  that '  if  there  be  any  wrong  done 
by  the  Adventurers, — upon  complaint,  such  course  shall  be  taken  as 
appertains  to  justice,  and  right  will  be  done.     I  rest. 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.t 

The  Declaration  of  the  Lord  General  and  his  Council  of  Officers X 
which  came  out  on  the  Friday  following  the  grand  Catastrophe,  does 
not  seem  to  be  of  Oliver's  composition  ;  it  is  a  Narrative  of  calm 
pious  tone,  of  considerable  length  ;  promises,  as  a  second  Declaration 
does  still  more  explicitly, §  a  Real  Assembly  of  the  Puritan  Nobles  :— 
and  on  the  whole  can  be  imagined  by  the  reader  ;  nay  we  shall  hear 
the  entire   substance   of  it,  from  Oliver's  own  mouth,   before  long. 

"  Act  lor  that  object  (Scobeil,  li.   33),  29  May   1649. 

i  From  the  Records  of  the  Fen  Office,  in  Sergeant's  Inn,  London  ;  communis 
cated,  with  other  Papers  relating  thereto,  by  Samuel  Wells,  Esq. 

}  22  April,  Cromwelliana,  p.  120.  §  30  April,  ibid.  p.  122. 


SUMMONS.  207 


These  Declarations  and  other  details  we  omit.  Conceive  that  all 
manner  of  Authorities,  with  or  without  some  little  preambling,  agree 
to  go  on  as  heretofore  ;  that  adherences  arrive  from  Land-Generals 
and  Sea-Generals  by  return  of  post  ;  that  the  old  Council  of  State 
having  vanished  with  its  Mother,  a  new  Interim  Council  of  State, 
with  'Oliver  Cromwell  Captain  General' at  the  head  of  it,  answers 
equally  well  ;  in  a  word,  that  all  people  are  looking  eagerly  forward 
to  these  same  '  Known  Persons,  Men  fearing  God,  and  of  approved 
Integrity,'  who  are  now  to  be  got  together  from  all  quarters  of  England, 
tc  say  what  shall  be  done  with  this  Commonwealth, — whom  there  is 
now  no  Fag  end  of  a  corrupt  Parliament  to  prevent  just  men  from 
choosing  with  their  best  ability.  Conceive  all  this ;  and  read  the 
following 


SUMMONS. 
To 

Forasmuch  as,  upon  the  dissolution  of  the  late  Parliament,  it 
became  necessary,  that  the  peace,  safety  and  good  government  of  this 
Commonwealth  should  be  provided  for  :  An  order  thereunto,  divers 
Persons  fearing  God,  and  of  approved  Fidelity  and  Honesty,  are,  by 
myself  with  the  advice  of  my  Council  of  Officers,  nominated  ;  to 
whom  the  great  charge  and  trust  of  so  weighty  affairs  is  to  be  com- 
mitted :  And  having  good  assurance  of  your  love  to,  and  courage  for, 
God  and  the  interest  of  His  Cause,  and  'that '  of  the  good  People  of 
this  Commonwealth  : 

I.Oliver  Cromwell,  Captain  General  and  Commander-in-chief  of 
all  the  Armies  and  Forces  raised  and  to  be  raised  within  this  Com- 
monwealth do  hereby  summon  and  require  You, ,  being  one 

of  the  Persons  nominated,— Personally  to  be  and  appear  at  the 
Council-Chamber,  commonly  known  or  called  by  the  name  of  the 
Council-Chamber  at  Whitehall,  within  the  City  of  Westminster,  upon 
the  Fourth  day  of  July  next  ensuing  the  date  hereof;  Then  and  there 
to  take  upon  you  the  said  Trust  ;  unto  which  you  are  hereby  called, 

and  appointed  to  serve  as  a  Member  for  the  County  of .     And 

hereof  you  are  not  to  fail. 

Given  under  my  hand  and  seal  the  6th  day  of  June,  1653. 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  125). 


2o8  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT, 


SPEECH  FIRST. 

A  HuNDRED-AND-FORTY  of  these  Summonses  were  issued  ;  and 
of  all  the  parties  so  summoned,  '  only  two '  did  not  attend.  Discon- 
solate Bulstrode  says,  '  Many  of  this  Assembly  being  persons  of 
'  fortune  and  knowledge,  it  was  much  wondered  at  by  some  that  they 
'  would  at  this  Summons,  and  from-  such  hands,  take  upon  them  the 
'  Supreme  Authority  of  this  Nation ;  considering  how  little  right 
'  Cromwell  and  his  Officers  had  to  give  it,  or  those  Gentlemen  to  take 
*  it.'*  My  disconsolate  friend,  it  is  a  sign  that  Puritan  England  in 
general  accepts  this  action  of  Cromwell  and  his  Officers,  and  thanks 
them  for  it,  in  such  a  case  of  extremity  ;  saying  as  audibly  as  the 
means  permitted  :  Yea,  we  did  wish  it  so  !  Rather  mournful  to  the 
disconsolate  official  mind  !— Lord  Clarendon  again,  writing  with 
much  latitude,  has  characterised  this  Convention  as  containing  in  it 
'  divers  Gentlemen  who  had  estates,  and  such  a  proportion  of  credit ' 
in  the  world  as  might  give  some  colour  to  the  business,  but  consisting 
on  the  whole  of  a  very  miserable  beggarly  sort  of  persons,  acquainted 
with  nothing  but  the  art  of  praying  ;  '  artificers  of  the  meanest  trades,' 
if  they  even  had  any  trade  : — all  which  the  reader  shall,  if  he  please, 
add  to  the  general  ^?/rt;/^-mountains,  and  pass  on  not  regarding. 

The  undeniable  fact  is,  these  men  were,  as  Whitlocke  intimates,  a 
quite  reputable  Assembly  ;  got  together  by  anxious  '  consultation  of 
the  godly  Clergy '  and  the  chief  Puritan  lights  in  their  respective 
Counties  ;  not  without  much  earnest  revision,  and  solemn  considera- 
tion in  all  kinds,  on  the  part  of  men  adequate  enough  for  such  a  work, 
and  desirous  enough  to  do  it  well.  The  List  of  the  Assembly  exists  ;t 
not  yet  entirely  gone  dark  for  mankind.  A  fair  proportion  of  them 
still  recognisable  to  mankind.  Actual  Peers  one  or  two  :  founders  of 
Peerage  Families,  two  or  three,  which  still  exist  among  us, — Colonel 
Edward  Montague,  Colonel  Charles  Howard,  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper. 
And  better  than  King's  Peers,  certain  Peers  of  Nature  ;  whom  if  not 
the  King  and  his  pasteboard  Norroys  have  had  the  luck  to  make 
Peers  of,  the  living  heart  of  England  has  since  raised  to  the  Peerage, 
and  means  to  keep  there, — Colonel  Robert  Blake  the  Sea-King,  for 
one.  '  Known  persons,'  I  do  think  ;  *  of  approved  integrity,  men 
fearing  God  ; '  and  perhaps  not  entirely  destitute  of  sense  any  one  of 
them  !  Truly  it  seems  rather  a  distinguished  Parliament,— even 
though  Mr.  Praisegod  Barbone,  'the  Leather-merchant  in  Fleet- 
street,'  be,  as  all  mortals  must  admit,  a  member  of  it.  The  fault,  I 
hope,  is  forgivable  ?  Praisegod,  though  he  deals  in  leather,  and  has  a 
name  which  can  be  misspelt,  one  discerns  to  be  the  son  of  pious 
parents  ;  to  be  himself  a  man  of  piety,  of  understanding  and  weight, 

*  Whitelocke,  p.  534.  f  Somers  Tracts,  i.  216. 


SPEECH  7.         '  209 


— and  even  of  considerable  private  capital,  my  witty  flunkey  friends  ! 
We  will  leave  Praisegod  to  do  the  best  he  can,  I  think.  — And  old 
Francis  Rouse  is  there  from  Devonshire  ;  once  member  for  Truro  ; 
Provost  of  Eton  College  ;  whom  by  and  by  they  make  Speaker  ; — 
whose  Psalms  the  Northern  Kirks  still  sing.  Richard  Mayor  of 
Hursley  is  there,  and  even  idle  Dick  Norton  ;  Alexander  J  affray  of 
Aberdeen,  Laird  Swinton  of  the  College  of  Justice  in  Edinburgh  ; 
Alderman  Ireton,  brother  of  the  late  Lord  Deputy,  colleague  of 
Praisegod  in  London  In  fact,  a  real  Assembly  of  the  Notables  in 
Puritan  England  ;  a  Parliament,  Parliamentum^  or  real  Spcakmg- 
Apparatus  fbr  the  now  dominant  Interest  in  England,  as  exact  as 
could  well  be  got, — much  more  exact,  I  suppose,  than  any  ballot-box, 
free  hustings  or  ale-barrel  election  usually  yields. 

Such  is  the  Assembly  called  the  Little  Parliament,  and  wittily 
Barcbones's  Parliamejit;  which  meets  on  the  4th  of  July.  Their 
witty  name  survives  ;  but  their  history  is  gone  all  dark  ;  and  no  man, 
for  the  present,  has  in  his  head  or  in  his  heart  the  faintest  intimation  of 
what  they  did  or  what  they  aimed  to  do.  They  are  very  dark  to  us  ; 
and  will  never  be  illuminated  much  !  Here  is  one  glance  of  them 
face  to  face  ;  here  in  this  Speech  of  Oliver's, — if  we  can  read  it ;  and 
listen  along  with  them  to  it.  There  is  this  one  glance  ;  and  for  six 
generations,  we  may  say,  in  the  English  mind  there  has  not  been 
another. 

Listening  from  a  distance  of  two  Centuries,  across  the  Death-chasms, 
and  howling  kingdoms  of  Decay,  it  is  not  easy  to  catch  everything  ! 
But  let  us  faithfully  do  the  best  we  can.  Having  once  packed  Dryas- 
dust, and  his  unedifying  cries  of  "  Nonsense  !  Mere  Hypocrisy  ! 
Ambitious  Dupe^^  ! "  &c.  &c.  about  his  business  ;  closed  him  safe 
under  hatches,  and  got  silence  established, — we  shall  perhaps  hear  a 
word  or  two  ;  have  a  real  glimpse  or  two  of  things  long  vanished  ; 
and  see  for  moments  this  fabulous  Barebones's  Parliament  itself,  stand- 
ing dim  in  the  heart  of  the  extinct  Centuries,  as  a  recognisable 
fact,  once  flesh  and  blood,  now  air  and  memory  ;  not  untragical  to 
us  ! 

Read  this  first,  from  the  old  Newspapers  ;  and  then  the  Speech  it- 
self, which  a  laborious  Editor  has  with  all  industry  copied  and  cor- 
rected from  Two  Contemporaneous  Reports  by  different  hands,  and 
various  editions  of  these.  Note,  however  :  The  Italic  sentences  in 
brackets,  most  part  of  which,  and  yet  perhaps  not  enough  of  which  I 
have  suppressed,  are  evidently  by  an  altogether  modern  hand  ! 

''July  4M,  1653.  This  being  the  day  appointed  by  the  Letters  of 
'  Summons  from  his  Excellency  the  Lord  General,  for  the  meeting  of 

*  the  Persons  called  to  the  Supreme  Authority,  there  came  about  a 
'  Hundred-and-twenty  of  them  to  the  Council-Chamber  in  Whitehall. 

*  After  each  person  had  given  in  a  Ticket  of  his  Name,  they  all  entered 
'  the  room,  and  sat  down  in  chairs  appointed  for  them,  round  about 
'"  the  table.     Then  his  Excellency  the  Lord  General,  standing  by  the 

*  window  opposite  to  the  middle  of  the  table,  and  as  many  of  the 
'  Officers  of  the  Army  as  the  roon-i  could  well  contain,  some  on  his 
'  right  hand  and  others  on  his  left,  and  about  him, — made  the  foUow- 
-  ing  Speech  to  the  Assembly  :' 


2IO  THK  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 


Gentlemen, 

I  suppose  the  Summons  that  hath  been  instrumental  to  bring 
you  hither  give~  you  well  to  understand  the  occasion  of  your  being 
here.  Hovvbeit,  1  have  something  farther  to  impart  to  you,  which  is 
an  Instrument  drawn  up  by  the  consent  and  advice  of  the  principal 
Offi^  rs  of  the  Army  ;  which  is  a  little  (as  we  conceive)  more  signifi- 
cant than  the  Letter  of  the  Summons.  We  have  that  here  to  tender 
you  ;  and  somewhat  likewise  to  say  farther  for  our  own  exoneration  ;* 
which  we  hope  may  be  somewhat  farther  for  your  satisfaction.  And 
withal  seeing  you  sit  here  somewhat  uneasily  by  reason  of  the  scant- 
ness  of  the  room,  and  heat  oi  the  weather;  I  shall  contract  myself 
with  lespect  thereunto. 

We  have  n.ot  thought  it  amiss  a  little  to  remind  you  of  that  Series 
of  Providences  wherein  the  Lord  hath  appeared,  dispensing  wonderful 
things  to  these  Nations  from  the  beginning  of  our  Troubles  to  this 
very  day. 

If  I  should  look  much  backward,  we  might  remind  you  of  the  state 
of  affairs  as  they  were  before  the  Short,  that  is  the  last,  Parliament, — 
in  what  posture  the  things  of  this  Nation  then  stood  :  but  they  do  so 
well,  I  presume,  occur  to  all  your  memories  and  knowledge,  that  I 
shall  not  need  to  look  so  far  backward.  Nor  yet  to  those  hostile  occa- 
sions which  arose  between  the  King  that  was  and  the  Parliament  t 
that  then  followed.  And  indeed  should  1  begin  much  later,  the  thmgs 
that  would  fall  very  necessarily  before  you,  would  rather  be  for  a  His- 
tory than  for  a  verbal  Discourse  at  this  present. 

But  thus  far  we  may  look  back.  You  very  woll  know,  it  pleased 
God,  much  about  the  midst  of  this  War,  to  winnow  ^f  1  may  so  say) 
the  Forces  of  this  Nation  ;J  and  to  put  them  into  the  hands  of  other 
men  of  other  principles  than  those  that  did  engage  at  the  first.  By 
what  ways  and  means  that  was  brought  about,  would  ask  more  time 
than  is  allotted  me  to  remind  you  of  it.  Indeed  there  are  Stories  that 
do  recite  those  Transactions,  and  give  you  narratives  of  matters  of 
fact  ;  but  those  things  wherein  the  life  and  power  of  them  lay  ;  those 
strange  windings  and  turnings  of  Providence  ;  those  very  great  ap- 
pearances of  God,  in  crossing  and  thwarting  the  purposes  of  men,  that 
He  might  raise  up  a  poor  and  contemptible  company  of  men, §  neither 
versed  in  military  affairs,  nor  having  much  natural  propensity  to  them, 
'  into  wonderful  success —  ! '  Simply  by  their  owning  a  Principle  of 
Godliness  and  Religion  ;  which  so  soon  as  //  came  to  be  owned,  and 
the  state  of  affairs  put  upon  tlie  foot  of  that  account,!!  how  God 
blessed  them,  furthering  all  undertakings,  yet  using  the  most  impro- 
bable and  the  most  contemptible  and  despicable  means  (for  that  we 
shall  ever  own)  :  is  very  well  known  to  you. 

What  the  several  Successes  and  Issues  have  been,  is  not  fit  to  men- 
tion at  this  time  neither ; — though  I   confess  I   thought  to  have  en- 

*  '  exoneration '  does  not  here  mean  '  excuse '  or  '  shifting  away  of  blame,    but 
mere  laying  down  of  office  with  due  form. 
t  The  Long  Parliament. 

X  Self-denying  Ordinance ;  beginning  of  1645  :  see  vol.  i.  p.  117  at  seq. 
§  Fairfax's  Army.  ||  upon  that  footing. 


SPEECH  I.  211 


larged  myself  upon  that  subject  ;  forasmuch  as  Considering  the  works 
of  God,  and  the  operations  of  His  hands,  is  a  principal  part  of  our 
duty  ;  and  a  great  encouragement  to  the  strengthening  of  our  hands 
and  of  our  faith,  for  that  which  is  behind.*  And  among  other  ends 
which  those  marvellous  Dispensations  have  been  given  us  for,  that's  a 
principal  end,  which  ought  to  be  minded  by  us. 

'  Certainly'  in  this  revolution  of  affairs,  as  the  issue  of  those  Suc- 
cesses which  God  was  pleased  to  give  to  the  Army,  and  '  to '  the 
Authority  that  then  stood,  there  were  very  great  things  brought  about ; 
— besides  those  dints  that  came  upon  the  Nationsf  and  places  where 
the  War  itself  was,  very  great  things  in  Civil  matters  too.  '  As  first,' 
the  bringing  of  Offenders  to  justice, — and  the  Greate^^t  of  them. 
Bringing  ot  the  State  of  this  Government  to  the  name  (at  least)  of  a 
Commonwealth.  Searching  and  sifting  of  all  persons  and  places. 
The  King  removed,  and  brought  to  justice  ;  and  many  great  ones 
with  him.  The  House  of  Peers  laid  aside.  The  House  of  Commons 
itself,  the  representative  of  the  People  of  England,  winnowed,  sifted, 
and  brought  to  a  handful  ;  as  you  very  well  remember. 

And  truly  God  would  not  rest  there  : — for  by  the  way,  although  it's 
fit  for  us  to  ascribe;];  our  failings  and  miscarriages  to  ourselves,  yet  the 
gloriousness  of  the  work  may  well  be  attributed  to  God  Himself,  and 
may  be  called  His  strange  work.  You  remember  well  that  at  the 
Change  of  the  Government  there  was  not  an  end  of  our  Troubles, 
[A'^  !\ — although  in  that  year  were  such  high  things  transacted  as  in- 
deed made  it  to  be  the  most  memorable  year  (1  mean  the  year  1648) 
that  this  Nation  ever  saw.  So  many  Insurrections,§  Invasions,  secret 
Designs,  open  and  public  Attempts,  all  quashed  in  so  short  a  time, 
and  this  by  the  very  signal  appearance  of  God  Himself;  which,  I 
hope,  we  shall  never  forget  ! — You  know  also,  as  I  said  before,  that, 
as  the  first  effect  of  that  memorable  year  of  1648  was  to  lay  a  foun- 
dation, by  bringing  Offenders  to  Pimiahment,  so  it  brought  us  like- 
wise to  the  Change  of  Government  : — although  it  were  worth  the 
time  '  perhaps,  if  one  had  time,'  to  speak  of  the  carriage  of  some  in 
places  of  trust,  in  most  eminent  places  of  trust,  which  was  such  as 
(had  not  God  miraculously  appeared)  would  have  frustrated  us  of  the 
hopes  of  all  our  undertakings.  I  mean  by  the  closure  of  the  Treaty 
that  was  endeavoured  with  the  King  ;!|  whereby  they  would  have  put 
into  his  hands  all  that  we  had  engaged  for,  and  all  our  security  should 
have  been  a  little  piece  of  Paper  !  That  thing  going  off,  you  very 
well  know  how  it  kept  this  Nation  still  in  broils  by  sea  and  land. 
And  yet  what  God  wrought  in  Ireland  and  Scotland  you  likewise 
know  ;  until  He  had  finished  these  Troubles,  upon  the  matter,1I  by 
His  marvellous  salvation  wrought  at  Worcester. 

I  confess  to  you,  that  I  am  very  much  troubled  in  my  own   spirit 

*  still  to  come.  f  England,  Ireland,  Scotland. 

X  '  intitle  '  /;/  <?''/^. 

+  Kent,  St.  Neot"s.  Colchester,  Welsh  Poyer  at  Perrbroke,  Scotch  Hamilton  at 
Preston,  &c.  Szc. 

II  Tieaty  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  asrain  and  acain  f-ndeavoured. 

^  Me^ms  '  so  to  speak  ;'  a  common  phrase  01  ii.9se  .imes  ;  a  perpetual  Qne  witli 
Clarendon,  for  iiistance. 


212  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT 

that  the  necessity  of  afifairs  requires  I  should  be  so  short  in  those 
things  :  because,  as  I  told  you,  this  is  the  leanest  part  of  the  Trans- 
actions, this  mere  historical  Narrative  of  them  ;  there  being  in  every 
particular  ;  in  the  King's  first  going  from  the  Parliament,,  in  the 
puUing-down  of  the  Bishops,  the  House  of  Peers,  in  every  step 
towards  that  Change  of  the  Government,  — I  say  there  is  not  any  one 
of  these  things,  thus  removed  and  reformed,  but  hath  an  evident 
print  of  Providence  set  upon  it,  so  that  he  who  runs  may  read  it.  I 
am  sorry  I  have  not  an  opportunity  to  be  more  particular  on  these 
points,  which  I  principally  designed,  this  day  ;  thereby  to  stir  up  your 
hearts  and  mine  to  gratitude  and  confidence. 

I  shall  now  begin  a  little  to  remind  you  of  the  passages  that  have 
been  transacted  since  Worcester.  Coming  from  whence,  with  the 
rest  of  my  fellow  Officers  and  Soldiers,  we  did  expect,  and  had  some 
reasonable  confidence  our  expectations  would  not  be  frustrated.  That, 
having  such  an  history  to  look  back  unto,  such  a  God,  so  eminently 
visible,  even  our  enemies  confessing  that  "  God  Himself  was  certainly 
"  engaged  against  them,  else  they  should  never  have  been  disap- 
"  pointed  in  every  engagement," — and  that  may  be  used  by  the  way, 
That  if  we  had  but  miscarried  in  the  least,*  all  our  former  mercies 
were  in  danger  to  be  lost  : — I  say,  coming  up  then,  we  had  some  con- 
fidence That  the  mercies  God  had  shewn,  and  the  expectations  which 
were  upon  our  hearts,  and  upon  the  hearts  of  all  good  men,  would 
have  prompted  those  who  were  in  Authority  to  do  those  good  things 
which  might,  by  honest  men,  have  been  judged  fit  for  such  a  God,  and 
worthy  of  such  mercies  ;  and  indeed  been  a  discharge  of  duty  from 
those  to  whom  all  these  mercies  had  been  shewn,  for  the  true  interest 
of  this  Nation  !  [Ft-j/] — If  I  should  now  labour  to  be  particular  in 
enumerating  how  businesses  have  been  transacted  from  that  time  to 
the  Dissolution  of  the  late  Parliament,  indeed  I  should  be  upon  a 
theme  which  would  be  troublesome  to  myself.  For  I  think  I  may  say 
for  myself  and  my  fellow  Officers,  That  we  have  rather  desired  and 
studied  Healing  and  Looking-forward  than  to  rake  into  sores  and  to 
look  backward, — to  give  things  forth  in  those  colours  that  would  not 
be  very  pleasing  to  any  good  eye  to  look  upon.  Only  this  we  shall 
say  for  our  own  vindication,  as  pointing  out  the  ground  for  that  un- 
avoidable necessity,  nay  even  that  duty  that  was  incumbent  upon  us, 
to  make  this  last  great  Change — I  think  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  offer  a 
word  or  two  to  that  [Hear,  Hear .'].  As  I  said  before,  a\  e  are  loath  to 
rake  into  businesses,  were  there  not  a  necessity  so  to  do. 

Indeed  we  may  say  that,  ever  since  the  coming-up  of  myself  and 
those  Gentlemen  who  have  been  engaged  in  the  military  part,  it  hath 
been  full  in  our  hearts  and  thoughts.  To  desire  and  use  all  the  fair  and 
lawful  means  we  could  to  have  the  Nation  reap  the  fruit  of  all  the 
blood  and  treasure  that  had  been  spent  in  this  cause  :  and  we  have 
had  many  desires,  and  thirstings  in  our  spirits,  to  find  out  ways  and 
means  wherein  we  might  be  anywise  instrumental  to  help  it  forward. 
We  were  very  tender,  for  a  long  time,  so  much  as  to  petition.  For 
SQme  of  the  Officers  being  Members  ;  and  others  having  very  good 
*  lost  on»  battle  ol  these  many, 


SPEECH  /.         '  5f5 


acquaintance  with,  and  some  relations  to.  divers  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment,— we  did,  from  time  to  time,  solicit  such  ;  thinking  if  there  had 
been  nobody  to  prompt  them,  nor  call  upon  them,  these  things  might 
have  been  attended  to,  from  ingenuity*  and  integrity  in  those  that  had 
it  in  their  power  to  answer  such  expectations. 

Truly  when  we  saw  nothing  would  be  done,  we  did,  as  we  thought 
according  to  our  duty,  a  little,  to  remind  them  by  a  Petition  ;  which  I 
suppose  you  have  seen  :  it  was  delivered,  as  I  remember  in  August 
last.t  What  effect  that  had,  is  likewise  very  well  known.  The  truth 
is,  we  had  no  return  at  all  for  our  satisfaction, — a  few  words  given  us  ; 
the  things  presented  by  us,  or  the  most  of  them,  we  were  told,  *'  were 
under  consideration  :"  and  those  not  presented  by  us  had  very  little 
or  no  consideration  at  all.  Finding  the  People  dissatisfied  in  every 
corner  of  the  Nation,  and  'all  men'  laying  at  our  doors  the  non- 
performance of  these  things,  which  had  been  promised,  and  were  of 
duty  to  be  performed,— truly  we  did  then  think  ourselves  concerned, 
if  we  would  (as  becomes  honest  men)  keep  up  the  reputation  of  honest 
men  in  the  world.  And  therefore  we,  divers  times,  endeavoured  to 
obtain  meetings  with  divers  Members  of  Parliament ; — and  we  did  not 
begin  those  till  about  October  last.  And  in  these  meetings  we  did, 
with  all  faithfulness  and  sincerity,  beseech  them  that  they  would  be 
mindful  of  their  duty  to  God  and  men,  in  the  discharge  of  the  trust 
reposed  in  them.  I  believe  (as  there  are  many  gentlemen  here  know), 
we  had  at  least  ten  or  twelve  meetings  ;  most  humbly  begging  and 
beseeching  of  them.  That  by  their  own  means  they  would  bring  forth 
those  good  things  which  had  been  promised  and  expected  ;  that  so  it 
might  appear  they  did  not  do  them  by  any  suggestion  from  the  Army, 
but  from  their  own  ingenuity  :  so  tender  were  we  to  preserve  them  in 
the  reputation  of  the  People.  Having  had  very  many  of  those  meet- 
ings ;  and  declaring  plainly  that  the  issue  would  be  the  displeasure 
and  judgment  of  God,  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  People,  the  putting  of 
*  all '  things  into  a  confusion  :  yet  how  little  we  prevailed  we  very  well 
know,  and  we  believe  it's  not  unknown  to  you. 

At  last,  when  indeed  we  saw  that  things  v/ould  not  be  laid  to  heart, 
we  had  a  very  serious  consideration  among  ourselves  what  other  ways 
to  have  recourse  unto  [  Yea,  that  is  the  question  /^  ;  and  when  we  grew 
to  more  closer  considerations,  then  they  '  the  Parliament  men '  began 
to  take  the  Act  for  a  Representative^  to  heart,  and  seemed  exceeding 
willing  to  put  it  on.  And  had  it  been  done  with  integrity,  there  could 
nothing  have  happened  more  welcome  to  our  judgments  than  that. 
But  plainly  the  intention  was.  Not  to  give  the  People  a  right  of  choice  ; 
it  would  have  been  but  a  seeming  right :  that  *  semblance '  of  giving 
them  a  choice  was  only  to  recruit  the  House,  the  better  to  perpetuate 
themselves.  And  truly,  having  been,  divers  of  us,  spoken  unto  to  give 
way  hereunto,  to  which  we  made  perpetual  aversions,  indeed  abomi- 
nating the  thoughts  of  it, — we  declared  our  judgments  against  it,  and 
our  dissatisfaction  with  it.  And  yet  they  that  would  not  hear  of  a 
Representative  formerly,  when  it  lay  three  years  before  them,  without 
proceeding  one  line,  or  making  any  considerable  progress, — I  say,  those 

*  ingenuousness.  f  Commons  Journals,  vii,  164  (12  Aug.  1652). 

i  For  a  New  Parliament  and  Alc'.liod  of  Eleclion. 


2!4  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 


that  would  not  hear  of  this  Bill  formerly,  did  now,  when  they  saw  us 
falling  into  more  closer  considerations,  make,  instead  of  protracting 
theii  'Bill,  as  much  preposterous  haste  with  it  on  the  other  side,  and 
run  into  that  '  opposite  '  extremity. 

Finding  that  this  spirit  was  not  according  to  God  ;  and  that  .the 
whole  weight  of  this  Cause, — which  must  needs  be  very  dear  unto  us 
who  had  so  of  en  adventured  our  lives  for  it,  and  we  believe  it  was  so 
to  you, — did  hang  upon  the  business  now  in  hand  ;  and  seeing  plainly 
that  there  was  not  here  any  consideration  to  assert  this  Cause,  or 
provide  security  for  //,  but  only  to  cross  the  troublesome  people  of  the 
Army,  who  by  this  time  were  high  enough  in  their  displeasures  : 
Truly,  I  say,  when  we  saw  all  this,  having  power  in  our  hands,  '  we 
could  not  resolve '  to  let  such  monstrous  proceedings  go  on,  and  so  to 
throw  away  all  our  liberties  into  the  hands  of  those  whom  we  had 
fought  against  'yPresbyterian-Royalists ;  at  Preston  and  elsewhere — 
^''fought  agains^^  yea  and  beaten  to  7'nin^  your  Excellency  might 
add!]  ;  we  came,  first,  to  this  conclusion  among  ourselves,  That  if  we 
had  he^njoiight  out  of  our  liberties  and  rights,  Necessity  would  have 
taught  us  patience;  but  that  to  deliver  them 'sluggishly' up  would 
render  us  the  basest  persons  in  the  world,  and  worthy  to  be  accounted 
haters  of  God  and  of  His  People.  When  it  pleased  God  to  lay  this 
close  to  our  hearts  ;  and  indeed  to  shew  us  that  the  interest  of  His 
People  was  grown  cheap,  '  that  it  was '  not  at  all  laid  to  heart,  but 
that  if  thinj^s  came  to  real  competition,  His  Cause,  even  among  them- 
selves, would  also  in  every  point  go  to  the  ground  :  indeed  this  did 
add  more  considerations  to  us,  That  there  was  a  duty  incumbent 
upon  us, 'even  upon  us.'  And, — I  speak  here,  in  the  presence  of 
some  that  were  at  the  closure  of  our  consultations,  and  as  before  the 
Lord, — the  thinking  of  an  act  of  violence  was  to  us  worse  than  any 
battle  that  ever  we  were  in,  or  that  could  be,  to  the  utmost  hazard  of 
our  lives  \_I/ear  him  /]  :  so  willing  were  we,  even  very  tender  and 
desirous  if  possible  that  these  men  might  quit  their  places  with 
honour. 

1  am  the  longer  upon  this  ;  because  it  hath  been  in  our  own  hearts 
and  consciences,  justifying  us,  and  hath  never  been  yet  thoroughly 
imparted  to  any  ;  and  we  had  rather  begin  with  you  than  have  done 
it  before  ; — and  do  think  indeed  that  this  Transaction  is  more  proper 
for  a  verbal  communication  than  to  have  it  put  into  writing.  I  doubt, 
he  whose  pen  is  most  gentle  in  England  would,  in  recording  that, 
have  been  tempted,  whether  he  would  or  no,  to  dip  it  deep  in  anger 
and  wrath  [Stifled  cries  from  Dryasdust\ — I3ut  affairs  being  at  this 
posture  ;  we  seeing  plainly,  even  in  some  critical  cases,*  that  the 
Cause  of  the  People  of  God  was  a  despised  thing  ; — truly  we  did 
believe  then  that  the  hands  of  other  men  '  than  these '  must  be  the 
hands  to  be  used  for  the  work.  And  we  thought  then,  it  was  very 
high  time  to  look  about  us,  and  to  be  sensible  of  our  duty  [Oliver's 
voice  sG?newhat  rising;  Major-Gejzeral  Harrison  and  the  othei's 
looking  rather  animated  f]. 

If,  I  say,  I  should  take  up  your  time  to  tell  you  what  instances  we 
have  to  satisfy  our  judgments  and  consciences,  That  these  are  not 
*  '  things  '  i/i  orig. 


SPEECH  i.  ^i^ 


vain  imaginations,  nor  things  fictitious,  but  which  fell  within  the  com- 
pass of  our  own  certain  knowledge,  it  would  bring  me,  I  say,  to  wh^.t 
I  would  avoid,  to  rake  into  these  things  too  much.  Only  this.  If 
anybody  was  in  competition  for  any  place  of  real  and  signal  trust,  '  if 
any  really  public  interest  was  at  stake  in  that  Parliament,'  how  hard 
and  difficult  a  matter  was  it  to  get  anything  carried  without  making 
parties, — without  practices*  indeed  unworthy  of  a  Parliament  !  When 
things  must  be  carried  so  in  a  Supreme  Authority,  indeed  I  think  it 
is  not  as  it  ought  to  be,  to  say  no  worse  {^Nor  do  /.] ! — Then  when  we 
came  to  other  trials,  as  in  that  case  of  Wales,  'of  estabhshing  a 
Preaching  Ministry  in  Wales,'  which,  I  must  confess  for  my  own 
part,  I  set  myself  upon,-  if  I  should  relate  what  discountenance  that 
business  of  the  poor  People  of  God  there  had  (who  had  menf 
watching  over  them  like  so  many  wolves,  ready  to  catch  the  lambs  so 
soon  as  they  were  brought  forth  into  the  world)  ;  how  signally  that 
Business  was  trodden  under  foot  '  in  Parliament,'  to  the  discounte- 
n^incing  of  the  Honest  People,  and  the  countenancing  of  the  Malig- 
nant Party,  of  this  Commonwealth —  !  I  need  but  say  it  was  so. 
For  many  of  you  know,  and  by  sad  experience  have  felt  it  to  be  so. 
And  somebody  I  hope  will,  at  leisure,  better  impart  to  you  the  state 
of  that  Business  '  of  Wales  ; '  which  really,  to  myself  and  Officers, 
was  as  plain  a  trial  of  their  spirits,  '  the  Parliament's  spirits,'  as  any- 
thing,— it  being  known  to  many  of  us  that  God  had  kindled  a  seed 
there  {^Siich  is  the  metaphor^^  indeed  hardly  to  be  paralleled  since  the 
Primitive  Time. — 

I  would  these  had  been  all  the  instances  we  had  !  Finding,  '  how- 
ever,' which  way  the  spirits  of  men  went,  finding  that  good  was  never 
intended  to  the  People  of  God, — I  mean,  when  I  say  the  People  of 
God,  I  mean  the  large  comprehension  of  them,  under  the  several 
Forms  of  Godhness  in  this  Nation  ; — finding,  I  say,  that  all  tenderness 
wns  forgotten  to  the  Good  People  (though  it  was  by  their  hands  and 
their  means,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  that  those  sat  where  they  did), 
— we  thought  this  a  very  bad  requital  !  I  will  not  say,  they  were 
come  to  an  utter  inability  of  working  Reformation, — though  I  might 
say  so  in  regard  to  one  thing  :  the  Reformation  of  the  Law,  so  much 
groaned  under  in  the  posture  it  now  is  in  \^Hear,  hear  /\  That  was  a 
thing  we  had  many  good  words  spoken  for  ;  but  we  know  that  many 
months  together  were  not  enough  for  the  settling  of  one  word,  "  In- 
cumbrances" [^Three  calendar  months!  A  grim  smile  on  some 
faces \ — I  say,  finding  that  this  was  the  spirit  and  complexion  of 
men,—  although  the:e  were  faults  for  which  no  man  should  lift  up  his 
hand  against  t  e  Superior  Magistrate  ;  not  simply  for  these  faults 
and  failings — yet  when  we  saw  that  this  '  New  Representative  of 
theirs '  was  meant  to  perpetuate  men  of  such  spirits  ;  nay  when  we 
had  it  from  their  own  mouth,  That  they  could  not  endure  to  hear  of 
the  Dissolution  of  this  Parliament  :  we  thought  this  an  high  breach 
of  trust.  If  they  had  been  a  Parliament  never  violence  was  upon,! 
sitting  as  free  and  clear  as  any  in  former  ages,  it  was  thought,  tins,  to 
be  a  breach  of  trust,  such  as  a  greater  could  not  be. 

*  '  things    hi  orig.  f  Clergymen  so-called. 

I  Had  no  Pride's  Purge,  Apprentice-not  or  the  like  ever  come  upom  them. 


jiiS  THE  LITTLE  PAkLlAMENT. 

And  that  we  might  not  be  in  doubt  about  these  matters  ;  having 

had  that  Conference  among  ourselves  which  I  gave  you  an  account 

of,  we  did  desire  one  more, — ^and  indeed  it  was  the  night  before  the 

Dissolution  ;  it  had  been  desired  two  or  three  nights  before  :  we  did 

desire  that  we  might  speak  with  some  of  the  principal  persons  of  the 

House.     That  we  might  with   ingenuity  open  our  hearts  to  them  ; 

that  we  might  either  be  convinced  of  the  certainty  of  their  intentions  ; 

or  else  that  they  would  be  pleased  to  hear  our  expedients  to  prevent 

these  inconveniences.     And  indeed  we  could  not  attain  our  desire  till 

the  night  before  the  Dissolution.     There  is  a  touch  of  this  in  our 

Declaration.*     As  I  said  before,  at  that  time  we  had  often  desired  it, 

and  at  that  time  we  obtained  it  :  where  about  Twenty  of  them  were, 

none  of  the  least  in  consideration  for  their  interest  and  ability  ;  with 

whom  we  desired  some   discourse    upon   these    things  ;  and   had  it. 

And  it  pbased  these  Gentlemen,  who    are  here,  the   Officers  of  the 

Army,  to  d«-ire  me  to  offer  their  sense  for   them,  which    I  did,  and  it 

was  sliortiy  thus  :  We  told  them  "  the  reason  of  our  desire  to  wait 

"  upon  them  now  was,  that  we  might  know  from_^  them,  What  security 

"  lay  in  their  manner  of  proceeding,  so  hastened,  for  a  new  Represen- 

"  tative  ;  wherein  they  had  made  a  few  qualifications,    such  as  they 

"  were  :  and  ilow  the  whole  business   would,  '  in   actual  practice,'  be 

"  executed  :  Of  which  we  had  as  yet  no   account  ;  and  yet  we  had 

"  our  interest,  our  lives,  estates  and  families  therein  concerned  ;  and, 

"  we  thought  hkewise,  the  Honest  People  had   interest  in  us  :  '  How 

"  all  this  was  to  be  ?'     That  so,  if  it  did  seem  they  meant  to  appear 

"  in  such  honest  and  just  ways  as  might  be   security   to  the  Honest 

"  Interest,  we  might  therein  acquiesce  :  or  else  that  they  would  hear 

*•  what  we  had  to  offer."     Indeed,  when  this  desire  was  made,  the 

answer  was,  "  That  nothing  would  do  good  for  this  Nation  but  the 

"  continuance  of  this  Parliament  !  "     We  wondered  we  should  have 

such  a  return.     We  said  little  to  that  :  but,  seeing  they  would  not 

give  us    satisfaction   that  their   ways  were  honourable  and  just,  we 

craved  their  leave  to  make  our  objections.     We  then  told  them.  That 

the  way  they  were  going  in  would  be  impracticable.     '  That '  we  could 

not  tell  how  to  send  out  an  Act,  with  such   qualitications  as  to  be  a 

rule  for  electing  and  for  being  elected,  Until  we  first  knew  who  the 

persons    were    that   should   be    admitted    to   elect.     And  above    all, 

Whether  any  of  the  qualifications  reached  '  so  far  as   to  include'  the 

Presbyterian  Party.f     And  we  were  bold  to  tell  them,  That  none  of 

that  judgment  who  had  deserted  this  Cause   and  Interest  J  should 

have  any  power  therein.     We  did  think  Ave  should  profess  it.  That  we 

had  as  good  deliver  up  our  Cause  into  the  hands   of  any  as  into  the 

hands  of  those  who  had  deserted  us,  or  who  were  as  neuters  !     For 

it's  one  thing  to  love  a  brother,  to  bear  with  and  love  a  person  of 

different  judgment  in  matters  of  religion  ;  and  another  thing  to  have 

anybody  so  far  set  in  the  saddle  on  that  account,  as  to  have  all  the 

rest  of  his  brethren  at  mercy. 

Truly,  Gentlemen,  having  this  discourse  concerning  the  imprac- 

*  Of  April  22;   referred  to,  not  given,  at  p.  206. 

t  '  Presbytery    ?«  oriir. 

X  None  of  your  Royalist,  Hamilton-Invasion  Presbyterians. 


SPEECH  /.  517 


ticableness  of  the  thing,  the  bringing-in  of  neuters,  and  such  as  had 
deserted  this  Cause,  whom  we  very  well  knew ;  objecting  likewise 
how  dangerous  it  would  be  by  drawing  concourses  of  people  in  the 
several  Counties  (every  person  that  was  within  the  qualification  or 
without)  ;  and  how  it  did  fall  obvious  to  us  that  the  power  would  con^e 
into  the  hands  of  men  who  had  very  little  affection  to  this  Cause  : 
the  answer  again  was  made,  and  that  by  very  eminent  persons,  "That 
nothing  would  save  the  Nation  but  the  continuance  of  this  Parlia- 
ment." This  being  so,  we  humbly  proposed, — since  neither  our 
counsels,  our  objections  to  their  way  of  proceeding,  nor  their  answers 
to  justify  that,  did  give  us  satisfaction  ;  nor  did  we  think  they  ever 
intended  to  give  us  any,  which  indeed  some  of  them  have  since  de- 
clared '  to  be  the  fact,' — we  proposed  to  them,  I  say,  our  expedient ; 
which  was  indeed  this  :  That  the  Government  of  the  Nation  being  in 
such  a  condition  as  we  saw,  and  things  '  being '  under  so  much  ill 
sense  abroad,  and  likely  to  end  in  confusion  '  if  we  so  proceeded,' — 
we  desired  they  would  devolve  the  trust  over  to  some  Well-affected. 
Men,  such  as  had  an  interest  in  the  Nation,  and  were  known  to  be 
of  good  affection  to  the  Commonwealth,  Which,  we  told  them,  was 
no  new  thing  when  this  Land  was  under  the  like  hurlyburlies.  And 
we  had  been  labouring  to  get  precedents  'out  of  History' to  con- 
vince them  of  it ;  and  it  was  confessed  by  them  it  had  been  no  new 
thing.  This  expedient  we  offered  out  of  the  deep  sense  we  had  of 
the  Cause  of  Christ ;  and  were  answered  so  as  I  told  you,  That 
nothing  would  save  this  Nation  but  the  continuance  of  that  Parlia- 
ment. *  The  continuance  : '  they  would  not '  be  brought  to '  say  the 
perpeiuatino  of  it,,  at  this  time  ;  yet  we  found  their  endeavours  did 
directly  tend  that  way  ;  they  gave  us  this  answer,  "  That  the  thing  we 
"  offered  was  of  a  very  high  nature  and  of  tender  consideration  : 
"  How  would  money  be  raised  ?" — and  made  some  other  objections. 
We  told  them  '  how  ; '  and  that  we  here  offered  an  expedient  fiv^ 
times  better  than  that  *  of  theirs,'  for  which  no  reason  was  given,  nor 
we  thought  could  be  given  [14^/ijy  should  the  Fag-end  of  this  poor  old 
Parliament  now  fallen  impotent  except  to  raise  money  for  itself^  con- 
tinue ?  No  reason  is  ^iven^  ?tor  we  think  can  be,  that  will  convince 
mankind^  ;  and  desired  them  that  they  would  lay  things  seriously 
to  heart !  They  told  us.  They  would  take  time  for  the  consideration 
of  these  things  till  tomorrow  ;  they  would  sleep  upon  them,  and  con- 
sult some  friends  :  'some  friends,' — though,  as  I  said,  there  were  about 
Twenty-three  'of  them  here,  and  not  above  Fifty- three  in  the  House. 
And  at  parting,  two  or  three  of  the  chief  of  them,  one  of  the  chief 
\0  Sir  Harry  Vane/],  and  two  or  three  more,  did  tell  us.  That  they 
would  endeavour  to  suspend  farther  proceedings  about  their  Bill  for  a 
New  Representative  until  they  had  another  conference  with  us.  And 
upon  this  we  had  great  satisfaction  ;  and  had  hope,  if  our  expedient 
could  receive  a  loving  debate,  that  the  next  day  w^e  should  have  some 
such  issue  thereof  as  would  give  satisfaction  to  all."^  And  herewith 
they  went  away,  'it'  being  late  at  night. 

The   next  morning,   we  considering  how  to   order   what    we  had 
farther  to  offer  to  them  in  the  evening,  word  was  brought  us  that  the 
*  '  hoping  by  conference  to  have  satisfaction  to  all '  ///  ori£. 


2iS  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT, 


House  was  proceeding  with  all  speed  upon  the  New  Representative  ! 
We  could  not  believe  it,  that  such  persons  would  be  so  unworthy  ;  we 
remained  there  till  a  second  and  a  third  messenger  came,  with  tidings 
That  the  House  was  really  upon  that  business,  and  had  brought  it 
near  to  the  issue, — and  with  that  height"^  as  was  never  before  exer- 
cised ;  leaving  out  all  things  relating  to  the  due  exercise  of  the  quali- 
fications (which  had  appeared  all  along  '  in  it  till  now  ')  ;  and  'mean- 
ing,' as  we  heard,  to  pass  it  only  on  paper,  without  engrossing,  for  the 
quicker  despatch  of  it. — Thus,  as  we  apprehend,  would  the  Liberties 
of  the  Nation  have  been  thrown  away  into  the  hands  of  those  who 
had  never  fought  for  it.  And  upon  this  we  thought  it  our  duty  not  to 
suffer  it  [AV?  .'J.— And  upon  this  the  House  was  dissolved,  even  when 
the  Speaker  was  going  to  put  the  last  question  \IM  HIM  travel,  at 
any  rate  !\ 

I  have  too  much  troubled  you  with  this  :  but  we  have  made  this 
relation  that  you  might  know  that  what  hath  been  done  in  the  Disso- 
lution of  the  Parliament  was  as  necessary  to  be  done  as  the  preserva- 
tion of  this  Cause.  And  the  necessity  which  led  us  to  do  that,  hath 
brought  us  to  this  'present'  issue.  Of  exercising  an  extraordinary 
way  and  course  to  draw  You  together  '  here  ; '  upon  this  account,  that 
you  are  men  who  know  the  Lord,  and  have  made  observations  of  His 
marvellous  Dispensations  ;  and  may  be  trusted,  as  far  as  men  may 
be  trusted,  with  this  Cause. 

It  remains  now  for  me  to  acquaint  you  '  a  httle'  farther  with  what 
relates  to  your  taking  upon  you  this  great  Business.  '  But  indeed ' 
that  is  contained  in  the  Paperf  here  in  my  hand,  which  will  be  offered 
presently  to  you  to  read.:^  But  having  done  that  we  have  done  {^Dis- 
solving of  the  Parliament ;  which  cannot  be  repented  of  and  need  not 
be  boasted  of  !'\  upon  such  ground  of  necessity  as  we  have  '  now '  de- 
clared, which  was  not  a  feigned  necessity  but  a  real, — '  it  did  behove 
us,'  to  the  end  we  might  manifest  to  the  world  the  singleness  of  our 
hearts  and  our  integrity  who  did  these  things,  Not  to  grasp  at  the 
power  ourselves,  or  keep  it  in  military  hands,  no  not  for  a  day  ;  but, 
as  far  as  God  enabled  us  with  strength  and  ability,  to  put  it  into  the 
hands  of  Proper  Persons  that  might  be  called  from  the  several  parts 
of  the  Nation.  This  necessity  ;  and  I  hope  we  may  say  for  ourselves, 
this  integrity  of  concluding  to  divest  the  Sword  of  all  power  in  the 
Civil  Administration, — hath  been  that  that  hath  moved  us  to  put  You 
to  this  trouble  '  ot  coming  hither  : '  and  having  done  that,  truly  we 
think  we  cannot,  with  the  discharge  of  our  own  consciences,  but  offer 
somewhat  to  you  on  the  devolving  of  the  burden  on  your  shoulders. § 

*  violence,  height  of  temper. 

t  An  Indenture  or  Instrument  of  Government,  some  account  of  which  can  be 
found,  if  any  one  is  curious  about  it,  in  Parliamentary  History,  xx.  175. 

X  Considerable  discrepancies  in  the  Two  Reports  throughout  this  paragraph  ; 
indicating  some  embarrassment  and  intricacy  in  the  Speaker.  Which  with  our 
best  industry  we  endeavour  to  reconcile  ;  to  illicit  from  them  what  the  real  utter- 
ance, or  thought  and  attempted  utterance,  of  the  Speaker  may  have  been.  The 
two  Reporters  being  faithful  according  to  their  ability,  and  the  Speaker  faithful  to 
his,  all  discrepancies  ought  to  dissolve  themselves  in  clearer  insight  and  convic- 
tion ;   as  we  hope  they  do. 

§  'for  our  own  exoneration' ?;2  «?r/^. 


SPEECH  7.  1\^ 


It  hath  been  the  practice  of  others  who  have,  voluntarily  and  out  of  a 
sense  of  duty,  divested  themselves,  and  devolved  the  Government 
into  new  hands  ;  I  say,  it  hath  been  the  practice  of  those  that  have 
done  so  ;  it  hath  been  practised,  and  is  very  consonant  to  reason,  To 
lay  'down,'  together  with  their  Authority,  some  Charge  'how  to  em- 
ploy it  '*  (as  we  hope  we  have  done),  and  to  press  the  duty  '  of  employ- 
ing it  well  : '  concerning  which  we  have  a  word  or  two  to  otTer  you. 

Truly  God  hath  called  you  to  this  Work  by,  1  think,  as  wonderful 
providences  as  ever  passed  upon  the  sons  of  men  in  so  short  a  time. 
And  truly  I  think,  taking  the  argument  of  necessity,  for  the  Govern- 
ment must  uoi  fal/ ;  taking  the  appearance  of  the  hand  of  God  in  this 
thing, — '  1  think'  you  would  have  been  loath  it  should  have  been  re- 
signed into  the  hands  of  wicked  men  and  enemies  !  I  am  sure,  God 
would  not  have  it  so.  It's  come,  therefore,  to  you  by  the  way  of  neces- 
sity ;  by  the  way  of  the  wise  Providence  of  God, — through  weak  hands. 
And  therefore,  I  think,  coming  through  our  hands,  though  such  as  we 
are,  it  may  not  be  ill  taken  if  we  do  otTer  somewhat  (as  I  said  before) 
as  to  the  discnarge  of  the  Trust  which  is  now  incumbent  upon  you 
{Certainly  not  !\  And  although  I  seem  to  speak  of  that  which  may 
have  the  face  and  interpretation  of  a  Charge,  it's  a  very  humble  one  : 
and  if  he  that  means  to  be  a  Servant  to  you,  \^o  hath  now  called  you 
to  the  exercise  of  the  Supreme  Authority,  discharge  what  he  conceives 
to  be  a  duty  to  you,  we  hope  you  will  take  it  in  good  part. 


And  truly  I  shall  not  hold  you  long  in  it ;  because  I  hope  it's 
written  in  your  hearts  to  approve  yourselves  to  God.  Only  this 
Scripture  I  shall  remember  to  you,  which  hath  been  much  upon  my 
spirit  :  Hosea,  xi.  I2,  "  Judah  yet  ruleth  with  God,  and  is  faithful  with 
the  Saints."  It's  said  before,  that  "  Ephraim  compassed  God  about 
with  lies,  and  the  house  of  Israel  with  deceit."  How  God  hath  been 
compassed  about  by  fastings  and  thanksgivings,!  and  other  exercises 
and  transactions,  I  think  we  have  all  cause  to  lament.  Truly  you  are 
called  by  God.  'as  Judah  was,'  to  "rule  with  Him,"  and  for  Him. 
And  you  are  called  to  be  faithful  with  the  Saints  who  have  been  in- 
strumental to  your  call.  '  Again,'  Second  Samuel,  xxi.  3,  "  He  that 
ruleth  over  men,"  the  Scripture  saith,  "  must  be  just,  ruling  in  the  fear 
of  God"  \Groa7ts  from  Dryasdust.  Patience,  my  friend /  Really, 
does  not  all  this  seem  an  incredibility  ; — a  palpable  hypocrisy,  since  it 

*  He  seems  embarrassed  lest  he  be  thought  to  assume  authority  over  this  new 
Little  Parliament,  and  to  treat  them  as  if  he  were  their  King.  The  dissolving  of 
the  old  Parliament  has  also  its  embarrassment,  though  not  so  prominent  here  ; 
and  both  together  make  an  intricate  paragraph.  Our  Two  Reports,  from  this 
point,  virtually  coincide  again. 

t  There  was  a  Monthly  Fast,  the  Last  Wednesday  of  every  month,  held  dulr 
for  about  Seven  Years;  till,  after  the  King's  Death,  we  abolished  it.  Immense 
preaching  and  howling,  all  over  the  sountry,  there  has  been  on  these  stated  Wed- 
nesdays; sincere  and  insincere.  Not  to  speak  of  due  Thanksgivings  for  victories 
and  felicities  innumerable  ,  all  ending  in  this  infelicitious  condition  !  His  Excel- 
lency thinks  we  ought  to  restram  such  habits,  not  to  imitate  Ephraim,  or  the  Long 
Parliament,  in  such.  The  rest  of  this  Discourse  is  properly  a  Seimon  of  his;  and 
one  conceived  in  a  different  style. 


220 


THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT 


is  not  the  month  of  an  ifnbecile  that  speaks  ?  My  estunable,  timber- 
headed^  leadenhearted  friend,  can  there  be  any  doubt  of  it  !\ 

And  truJy  it's  better  to  pray  for  you  than  to  counsel  you  in  that 
matter,  That  you  may  exercise  the  judgment  of  mercy  and  truth  !  It's 
better.  I  say,  to  pray  for  you  than  counsel  you  ;  to  ask  wisdom  from 
Heaven  for  you  ;  which  1  am  confident  many  thousands  of  Saints  do 
this  day,  'and'  have  done,  and  will  do,  through  the  permission  of 
God  and  His  assistance.  I  say  it's  better  to  pray  than  advise  :  yet 
truly  I  think  of  another  Scripture,  which  is  very  useful,  though  it 
seems  to  be  for  a  common  application  to  every  man  as  a  Christian, — 
wherein  he  is  counselled  to  ask  wisdom  ;*  and  he  is  told  what  that  is. 
That's  "from  Above,"  we  are  told  ;  it's  "pure,  peaceable,  gentle  and 
easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits  ;"  it's  "without 
partiality  and  without  hypocrisy."  Truly  my  thoughts  run  much  upon 
this  place.  That  to  the  execution  of  judgment  (the  judgment  of  truth, 
for  that's  the  judgment)  you  must  have  wisdom  "  from  Above  ;  "  and 
that's  "  pure."  That  will  teach  you  to  exercise  the  judgment  of  truth  ; 
it's  "  without  partiality."  Purity,  impartiality,  sincerity  :  these  are  the 
effects  of  "  wisdom,"  and  these  will  help  you  to  execute  the  judgment  of 
truth.  And  then  if  God  give  you  hearts  to  be  "easy  to  entreated,"  io 
be  "peaceably  spirited,*  to  be  "full  of  good  fruits,"  bearing  good  fruits 
to  the  Nation,  to  men  as  men,  to  the  People  of  God,  to  all  in  their 
several  stations, — this  will  teach  you  to  execute  the  judgment  of  mercy 
and  truth  [  Yes,  if  thou  understand  it :  still  yes,  and  nothing  else 
will/].  And  I  have  little  more  to  say  to  this.  I  shall  rather  bend  my 
prayers  for  you  in  that  behalf,  as  I  said  ;  and  many  others  will. 

Truly  the  "judgment  of  truth,"  it  will  teach  you  to  be  as  just 
towards  an  Unbeliever  as  towards  a  Believer  ;  and  it's  our  duty  to  do 
so.  I  confess  I  have  said  sometimes,  foolishly  it  may  be  :  I  had 
rather  miscarry  to  a  Believer  than  an  Unbeliever.!  This  may  seem 
a  paradox  : — but  let's  take  heed  of  doing  that  which  is  evil  to  either  I 
Oh,  if  God  fill  your  hearts  with  such  a  spirit  as  Moses  had,  and  as 
Paul  had,  -which  was  not  a  spirit  for  Believers  only,  but  for  the  whole 
People  !  Moses,  he  could  die  for  them  ;  wish  himself  "blotted  out 
of  God's  Book  : ''%  Paul  could  wish  himself  "  accursed  for  his  country- 
men after  the  flesh  "§  [Let  us  never  forget  that,  in  Moses  and  Paul. 
—A7'e  not  these  aiiiazing  sentimetits,  07i  their  part,  my  estimable, 
timberheaded,  leadenhearted  friend?]  :  so  full  of  affection  were  their 
spirits  unto  all.  And  truly  this  would  help  you  to  execute  the  judg- 
ment of  truth,  and  of  mercy  also. 

A  second  thing  is.  To  desire  you  would  be  faithful  with* the  Saints  ; 

^  be  touched  with  them.     And  I  hope,  whatever  others  may  think, 

-L  may  be  a  matter  to  us  all  of  rejoicing  to  have  our  hearts  touched 

with  reverence  be  it  spoken)  as  Christ,  "  being  full  of  the  spirit,"  was 

touched  with  our  infirmities,"  that  He  might  be  merciful.    So  should 

'  But  the  Wisdom   that  is  from  Above  is  first  pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle 
'  and  easy  to  be  entreated;   full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without  partiality,  and 
\vithout  liypocrisy.     And  the  fruit  of  righteousness  is  sown  in  peace  of  them  that 
naKe  peace '    (fames,  iii.  17,  18). 

f  Do  wrong  to  a  srood  than  to  a  bad  man  ;  a  remarkable  sentiment. 
;  Exodus,  xxxii.  32.  §  Romans,  ix.  3. 


SPEECH  I.  221 


we  be  ;  we  should  be  pitiful.  Truly,  this  calls  us  to  be  very  much 
touched  with  the  infirmities  of  the  Saints  ;  that  we  may  have  a  re- 
spect unto  all,  and  be  pitiful  and  tender  towards  all,  though  of 
different  judgments.  And  if  I  did  seem  to  speak  something  that 
reflected  on  those  of  the  Presbyterial  judgment, — truly  I  think  if  we 
have  not  an  interest  of  love  for  them  too,  we  shall*  hardly  answer 
this  of  being  faithful  to  the  Saints. 

In  my  pilgrimage,  and  some  exercises  I  have  had  abroad,  I  did 
read  that  Scripture  often.  Forty-first  of  Isaiah  ;  where  God  gave  me, 
and  some  of  my  fellows,  encouragement  '  as  to  '  what  He  would  do 
there  and  elsewhere;  which  he  hath  performed  for  us.  He  said, 
"He  would  plant  in  the  wilderness  the  cedar,  the  shittah-tree,  and 
"  the  myrtle  and  the  oil-tree  ;  and  he  would  set  in  the  desert  the  fir- 
"  tree,  and  the  pine-tree,  and  the  box-tree  together."  For  what  end 
will  the  Lord  do  all  this  ?  "  That  they  may  see,  and  know,  and  con- 
"  sider  and  understand  together.  That  the  hand  of  the  Lord  hath 
"  done  this  ;" — that  it  is  He  who  hath  wrought  all  the  salvations  and 
deliverances  we  have  received.  For  what  end  !  To  see  and  know, 
and  understand  together,  that  He  hath  done  and  wrought  all  this  for 
the  good  of  the  Whole  Flock  \^E7fen  so.  For  ^  Sai7tts^  7cad^Good 
Menj^  andit  is  true  to  the  eiid  of  the  'world\  Therefore,  I  beseech 
you, — but  I  think  I  need  not, — have  r  care  of  the  Whole  Plock  ! 
Love  the  sheep,  love  the  lambs  ;  love  all,  tender  all,  cherish  a'nd 
countenance  all,  in  all  things  that  are  good.  And  if  the  poorest 
Christian,  the  most  mistaken  Christian,  shall  desire  to  Jive  peaceably 
and  quietly  under  you, — I  say,  if  any  shall  desire  but  to  lead  a  life  of 
godhness  and  honesty,  let  him  be  protected. 

I  think  I  need  not  advise,  much  less  press  you,  to  endeavour  the 
Promoting  of  the  Gospel  ;  to  encourage  the  Ministry  ;t  such  a 
Ministry  and  such  Ministers  as  be  faithful  in  the  Land  ;  upon  whom 
the  true  character  is.  Men  that  have  received  the  Spirit,  which 
Christians  will  be  able  to  discover,  and  do  'the  wilL  of ; '  men  that 
'"have  received  Gifts  from  Him  who  is  ascended  up  on  high,  who 
"  hath  led  captivity  captive,  to  give  gifts  to  men,";];  even  for  this  same 
work  of  the  Ministry  !  And  truly  the  Apostle,  speaking  in  another 
place,  in  the  Twelfth  of  the  Romans^  when  he  has  summed  up  all  the 
mercies  of  God,  and  the  goodness  of  God  ;  and  discoursed,  in  the 
former  Chapters,  of  the  foundations  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  those  things 
that  are  the  subject  of  those  first  Eleven  Chapters, — he  beseecheth 
them  to  "  present  their  bodies  a  living  sacrifice"  \Note  that  I\  He 
beseecheth  them  that  they  would  not  esteem  highly  of  themselves, 
but  be  humble  and  sober-minded,  and  not  stretch  themselves  beyond 
their  line  ;  and  also  that  they  would  have  a  care  for  those  that  "  had 
received  gifts  '  to  the  uses  there  mentioned.  I  speak  not, — I  thank 
God  it  is  far  from  my  heart,— for  a  Ministry  deriving  itself  from  the 
Papacy,  and  pretending  to  that  which  is  so  much  insisted  on,  "  ^no.- 
cession'^  \^^  Hear,  hear /"  from  the  Puseyites\  The  true-  Succession 
is  through  the  Spirit — \I  should  say  so  !\ — given  in  its  measure.  The 
Spirit  is  given  for  that  use,  '  To  make  proper  Speakers -forth  of  God's 

^  '  will '  ill  orig.  f  Preaching  Clergy.  %  Ephesifins,  iv,  8, 


523  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 


eternal  Truth  :'  and  that's  right  Succession.  But  I  need  not  dis- 
course of  these  things  to  you  ;  who,  I  am  persuaded,  are  taught  of 
God,  much  more  and  in  a  greater  measure  than  myself,  concerning 
these  things. 

Indeed,  I  have  but  one  more  word  to  say  to  you  ;  though  in  that 
perhaps  I  shall  shew  my  weakness  :  it's  by  way  of  encouragement  to 
go  on  in  this  Work.  And  give  me  leave  to  begin  thus.  1  confess  I 
never  looked  to  see  such  a  Day  as  this, — it  may  be  nor  you  either, — 
when  Jesus  Christ  should  be  so  owned  as  He  is,  this  day,  in  this 
Work.  Jesus  Christ  is  owned  this  day  by  the  Call  of  You  ;  and  you 
own  Him,  by  your  willingness  to  appear  for  Him.  And  you  manifest 
this,  as  far  as  poor  creatures  may  do,  to  be  a  Day  of  the  Power  of 
Christ.  I  know  you  well  remember  that  Scripture,  "  He  makes  His 
People  willing  in  the  day  of  his  Power."*  God  manifests  this  to  be 
the  Day  of  the  Power  of  Christ ;  having,  through  so  much  blood,  and 
so  much  trial  as  hath  been  upon  these  Nations,  made  this  to  be  one 
of  the  great  issues  thereof :  To  have  His  People  called  to  the 
Supreme  Authority  \^A  thing,  I  confess,  worth  stfivmg  for  ;  and  the 
ojie  thing  worth  striving  for  I\  He  makes  this  to  be  the  greatest 
mercy,  next  to  His  own  Son.  God  hath  owned  His  Son  ;  and  He 
hath  owned  you,  and  made  you  own  Him.  I  confess  I  never  looked 
to  have  seen  such  a  day  ;  I  did  not. — Perhaps  you  are  not  known  by 
face  to  one  another;  'indeed'  I  am  confident  you  are  strangers, 
coming  from  all  parts  of  the  Nation  as  you  do  :  but  we  shall  tell  you 
that  indeed  we  have  not  allowed  ourselves  the  choice  of  one  person 
in  whom  we  had  not  this  good  hope,  That  there  was  in  him  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  and  love  to  all  His  People  and  Saints  \What  a  Parlia- 
ment ;  unexa7npled  before  and  since  i7i  this  world  l\ 

Thus  God  hath  owned  you  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  ;  and  thus,  by 
coming  hither,  you  own  Him  :  and,  as  it  is  in  Isaiah,  xliii.  21, — it's 
an  high  expression  ;  and  look  to  your  own  hearts  whether,  now  or 
hereafter,  God  shall  apply  it  to  you :  "  This  People,"  saith  God,  "  I 
have  formed  for  Myself,  that  they  may  shew  forth  my  praise  "  I  say, 
it's  a  memorable  passage  ;  f  and,  I  hope,  not  unfitly  applied  :  the 
Lord  apply  it  to  each  of  your  hearts  !  I  shall  not  descent  upon  the 
words  ;  they  are  plain  :  indeed  you  are  as  like  the  "  forming  of  God  " 
as  ever  people  were.  If  a  man  should  tender  a  Book  to  you  *  to  swear 
you  upon,'  I  dare  appeal  to  all  your  consciences,  Neither  directly  nor 
indirectly  did  you  seek  for  your  coming  hither.  You  have  been 
passive  in  coming  hither  ;  being  called, — and  indeed  that's  an  active 
work, — 'though  not  on  our  part  ! '  "This  people  have  I  formed :'' 
consider  the  circumstances  by  which  you  are  "  called "  hither ; 
through  what  strivings  [At  Marston  Moor,  at  Naseby,  Dunbar,  and 
elsewhere.'],  through  what  blood  you  are  come  hither, — where  neither 
you  nor  I,  nor  no  man  living,  three  months  ago,  had  any  thought  to 
have  seen  such  a  company  taking  upon  them,  or  rather  being  called 
to  take,  the  Supreme  Authority  of  this  Nation  !  Therefore,  own  your 
call !  Indeed,  I  think  it  may  be  truly  said  that  there  never  was  a 
Supreme  Authority  consisting  of  such  a  Body,  above  One-hundred- 

*  Psalm  ex.  3,  a  favourite  Psalm  of  Oliver's,  —as  we  know  already,  and  SQli(J 
J^udlpw  knows,  f  '  place'  in  orig. 


SPEECH  L  223 


and-forty,  I  believe ;  '  never  such  a  Body '  that  came  into  the 
Supreme  Authority  '  before,'  under  such  a  notion  '  as  this,'  in  such  a 
way  of  owning  God,  and  being  owned  by  Him.  And  therefore  I  may 
also  say,  never  such  a  "  People "  so  "  formed,"  for  such  a  purpose 
'were'  thus  called  before  \jriicse  are  lucent  considerations j  lucent 
nay  radiant  /]. 

If  it  were  a  time  to  compare  your  standing  with  '  that  of  those  that 
have  been  "  called  "  by  the  Suffrages  of  the  People. — {^He  does  not  say 
what  the  result  would  be^ — Which  who  can  tell  how  soon  God  may 
fit  the  People  for  such  a  thing  ?  None  can  desire  it  more  than  I  ! 
Would  all  were  the  Lord's  people  ;  as  it  was  said,  "  Would  all  the 
Lord's  people  were  Prophets  "  [^Fit  to  sit  in  Parliament  and  make 
Laws  J,  alas,  hitherto  but  few  of  them  cajt''^  prophesy  f^^  I  would  all 
were  fit  to  be  called.  It  ought  to  be  the  longing  of  our  hearts  to  see 
men  brought  to  own  the  Interest  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  give  me  leave 
to  say  :  If  I  know  any  thing  in  the  world,  what  is  there  likelier  to  win 
the  People  to  the  interest  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  love  of  Godhness 
(and  therefore  what  stronger  duty  lies  on  you,  being  thus  called),  than 
an  humble  and  godly  conversation  1  So  that  they  may  see  '  that '  you 
love  them  ;  '  that '  you  lay  yourselves  out,  time  and  spirits,  for  them  ! 
Is  not  this  the  likeliest  way  to  bring  them  to  their  liberties  1  [To  make 
them  fn-e  by  being  servants  of  God;  free,  and  fit  to  elect  for  Parlia- 
ment P''?^  And  do  not  you,  by  this,  put  it  upon  God  to  find  out  times 
and  seasons  for  you  ;  '  fit  seasons'  by  putting  forth  His  Spirit  ?  At 
least  you  convince  them  that,  as  men  fearing  God  have  fought  them 
out  of  their  bondage  under  the  Regal  Power,  so  men  fearing  God  do 
now  rule  them  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  take  care  to  administer  Good 
unto  them. — But  this  is  some  digression.  I  say,  own  your  call  ;  for  it 
is  of  God  !  Indeed,  it  is  marvellous,  and  it  hath  been  unprojected. 
It's  not  long  since  either  you  or  we  came  to  know  of  it.  And  indeed 
this  hath  been  the  way  God  dealt  with  us  all  along.  To  keep  things 
from  our  eyes  all  along,  so  that  we  have  seen  nothing,  in  all  His  dis- 
pensations, long  beforehand  ; — which  is  also  a  witness,  in  some 
measure,  to  our  integrity — ["  Integrity  /  "  from  Dryasdust. — Husht^ 
my  friejtd,  it  is  incredible  /  A  fiat  impossibility,  how  can  it  be 
believed?  To  the  hufnan  Owl,  living  in  his  perenial  London  Fog., 
in  his  Twilight  of  all  imaginable  corrupt  Exhalations,  and  with 
his  poor  head,  too  overspicn  to  such  e.  tent  with  red-tape,  parlia- 
mentary eloquence,  force  of  public  opinion  and  such  like,  how  shall  the 
Azure  Firmaments  and  Everlasting  Stars  become  credible?  They 
are  and  remai7i  incredible.  From  his  shut  sense  all  light-rays  are 
victoriously  repelled;  no  light  shall  get  admittance  there.  In  no 
Heaven^ s-light  will  he  for  his  part  ever  believe ; — ////  at  last,  as 
is  the  necessity  withal,  it  come  to  him  as  lightning!  Then  he 
will  believe  it].  I  say,  you  are  called  with  an  high  calling.  And 
why  should  we  be  afraid  to  say  or  think.  That  this  may  be  the 
door  to  usher  in  the  Things  that  God  has  promised ;  which  have 
been  prophesied  of;  which  He  has  set  the  hearts  of  His  People 
to   wait    for    and    expect  ?*      We    know   who    they  are    that    shall 

*  Hundred-and-t^nth  Psalm,    and  other  Scriptures,  ar^  known  to  Ludlow  aii4 
U5l 


524  THE  LITTLE  PARLLAMENT. 

war  with  the  Lamb,  "  against  His  enemies  ;"  they  shall  be  "  a  people 
called,  and  chosen  and  faithful."  And  God  hath,  in  a  Military  way, — we 
may  speak  it  without  flattering  ourselves,  and  I  believe  you  know  it, — 
He  hath  appeared  with  them, '  with  that  same  "  people," '  and  for  them  ; 
and  now  in  these  Civil  Powers  and  Authorities,  *  does  not  He  appear  ?' 
These  are  not  ill  prognostications  of  the  God  we  wait  for.  Indeed  I 
do  think  some  »'hat  is  at  the  door  :  we  are  at  the  threshold  ; — and 
therefore  it  becomes  us  to  lift  up  our  heads,  and  encourage  ourselves 
in  the  Lord.  And  we  have  thought,  some  of  us,  that  it  is  our  duties  to 
endeavour  this  way  ;  not  merely  to  look  at  that  Prophecy  in  Daniel, 
"  And  the  Kingdom  shall  not  be  delivered  to  another  people,"  '  and 
passively  wait/  Truly  God  hath  brought  this  to  your  hands  ;  by  the 
owning  of  your  call  ;  blessing  the  Military  Power.  The  Lord  hath 
directed  their  \pur\  hearts  to  be  instrumental  to  call  you  ;  and  set  it 
upon  our  hearts  to  deliver  over  the  Power  "to  another  people '* 
\_Therc/ore  ''w*?"  are  not  the  persons  prophesied  of  }\ — But  I  may 
appear  to  be  beyond  my  line  here  ;  these  things  are  dark.  Only,  I 
desire  my  thoughts  "^  to  be  exercised  in  these  things,  and  so  I  hope 
are  yours. 

Truly  seeing  things  are  thus,  that  you  are  at  the  edge  of  the 
Promises  and  Prophecies  —\_Does  not  say  what  results^— hx.  least,  if 
there  were  neither  Promise  nor  Prophecy,  yet  you  are  carrying  on 
the  best  things,  you  are  endeavouring  after  the  best  things  :  and,  as  I 
have  said  (>lsewhere,t  if  I  were  to  choose  any  servant,  the  meanest 
Officer  for  the  Army  or  the  Commonwealth,  I  would  choose  a  godly 
man  tbr.t  hath  principles.  Especially  where  a  trust  isto  be  committed. 
Because  I  know  where  to  have  a  man  that  hath  principles.  I  believe 
if  any  one  of  you  should  choose  a  servant,  you  would  do  thus.  And 
I  would  all  our  Magistrates  were  so  chosen  : — this  may  be  done  ; 
there  may  be  good  effects  of  this  !  Surely  it's  our  duty  to  choose 
men  that  fear  the  Lord,  and  will  praise  the  Lord  :  such  hath  the 
Lord  "  formed  for  Himself  ;  "  and  He  expects  no  praises  from  other 
*than  such'  \0  Secretary  of  the  Ho7ne  Department,  my  right  honour- 
able frie7id  /]. 

This  being  so,  truly  it  puts  me  in  mind  of  another  Scripture,  that 
famous  Psalm,  Sixty-eighth  Psalm  \\  which  indeed  is  a  glorious 
Prophecy,  I  am  persuaded,  of  the  Gospel  Churches, — it  may  be,  of 

*  '  senses'  in  orig. 

t  In  some  Speech  now  lost :— probably  in  many  Speeches;  certainly  in  all 
manner  of  Practice  and  Action. 

%  We  remember  it  ever  since  Dunbar  morning;  let  us  read  a  passage  or  two  of 
it  again  :  His  Excellency  and  the  Little  Parliament  will  perhaps  wait  a  moment ; 
and  it  may  do  us  good  ! 

'  Let  God  arise,  let  his  enemies  be  scattered  :  let  them  also  that  hate  Him  flee 
'  before  Him.  As  smoke  is  driven  away,  so  drive  them  away  ;  as  wax  melteth 
'  before  the  fire,  so  let  the  wicked  perish  before  the  presence  of  God,'  The  un- 
happy ! 

'  But  let  the  righteous  be  glad  :  let  them  rejoice  before  God,  yea  let  them  rejoice 
'  exceedingly.  Sing  unto  God,  sing  praises  to  His  name.  A  father  of  the  father- 
'  less,  and  a  judge  of  the  widows,  is  God  in  His  Holy  Habitation. 

'  O  God,  when  Thou  wentest  forth   before  Thy  People, the  Earth  shook, 

'  the  Heavens  also  dropped.  Kings  of  Armies  did  flee  apace  ;  and  she  that  tarried 
'  ftt  home  divided  the  spoil.'     Ye  poor  and  brave,  be  ye  of  courage  !     Though  v§ 


\ 


SPEECH  L  225 


the  Jews  also.  There  it  prophesies  that  "  He  will  bring  His  People 
"  again  from  the  depths  of  the  Sea,  as  once  He  led  Israel  through  the 
"  Red  Sea."  And  it  may  be,  as  some  think,  God  will  bring  the  Jews 
home  to  their  station  "  from  the  isles  of  the  sea,"  and  answer  their 
expectations  "  as  from  the  depths  of  the  sea."  But  '  at  all  events ' 
sure  I  am,  when  the  Lord  shall  set  up  the  glory  of  the  Gospel  Church, 
it  shall  be  a  gathering  of  people  as  "  out  of  deep  waters,"  "  out  of  the 
multitude  of  waters  :"  such  are  His  People,  drawn  out  of  the  multi- 
tudes of  the  Nations  and  People  of  this  world. — And  truly  that  Psalm 
is  very  glorious  in  many  other  parts  of  it  :  When  he  gathers  them, 
•'great  was  the  company"  of  them  that  publish  His  word.  "  Kings 
of  Armies  did  flee  apace,  and  they  that  tarried  at  home  divided  the 
spoil "  [Consider  Charles  Stuart,  First  and  Second ;  a?td  what  we  see 
this  day  /]  ;  and  although  ye  have  lain  among  the  pots,  yet  shall  ye 
"  be  as  the  wings  of  a  dove,  covered  with  silver,  and  her  feathers 
"  with  yellow  gold  "  [Hah  /\  And  indeed  the  triumph  of  that  Psalm 
is  exceeding  high  and  great ;  and  God  is  accomplishing  it.  And  the 
close  of  it, — that  closeth  with  my  heart,  and  I  do  not  doubt  with 
yours,  "The  Lord  shakes  the  hills  and  mountains,  and  they  reel" 
And  God  hath  a  Hill  too  ;  "an  high  Hill  as  the  Hill  of  Bashan  :  and 
"  the  chariots  of  God  are  twenty-thousand,  even  thousands  of  Angels, 
"  and  God  will  dwell  upon  this  Hill  forever  !"— [Procul  profani  ! 
The  )nan  is  without  a  soul  that  looks  into  this  Great  Soul  of  a  man^ 
radiant  with  the  sphmdours  of  very  Heaven^  and  sees  nothing'  there 
but  the  shadow  of  his  own  mean  darkness.  Ape  of  the  Dead  Sea^ 
peering  asquint  ijito  the  Holy  of  Holies,  let  us  have  done  with  com- 
jnentaries.      Thou  canst  not  fathom  it.]. 

I  am  sorry  I  have  troubled  you,  in  such  a  place  of  heat  as  this  is, 
so  long.  All  I  have  to  say,  in  my  own  name,  and  that  of  my  fellow 
Officers  who  have  joined  with  me  in  this  work,  is  :  That  we  shall 
commend  you  to  the  grace  of  God,  to  the  guidance  of  His  Spirit  : 
'That'  having  thus  far  served  you,  or  rather  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 

*  in  regard  to  you,'  we  shall  be  ready  in  our  stations,  according  as 
the  Providence  of  God  shall  lead  us, to  be  subservient  to  the  'farther' 
work  of  God,  and  to  that  Authority  which  we  shall  reckon  God  hath 
set  over  us.  And  though  we  have  no  formal  thing  to  present  you 
with,  to  which  the  hands,  or  visible  expressions,  of  the  Officers  and 
Soldiers  of  the  three  Nations  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  'are 
set ; '  yet  we  may  say  of  them,  and  we  may  say  also  with  confidence 
for  our  brethren  at  Sea,-*with  whom  neither  in  Scotland,  Ireland, 
nor  at  Sea,  hath  there  been  any  artifice  used  to  persuade  their  con- 
sents to  this  work,— that  nevertheless  their  consents  have  flowed  in 
to  us  from  all  parts,  beyond  our  expectations  :  and  we  may  with  all 

'  have  lain  among  the  pots,  yet  shall  ye  be  as  the  wings  of  a  dove,  covered  with 

•  silver,  and  her  feathers  with  yellow  gold. 

•  The  Hill  of  God  is  as  the  Hill  of  Bashan;  an  high  Hill  as  the  Hill  of  Bashan.' 
Inexpugnable,  that!  'Why  leap  ye,  ye  high  Hills  i*  This  is  the  Hill  of  God. 
'  which  God  desireth  to  dwell  in  :  yea  the  I  ord  \\\]\  dwell  in  it  forever.     The, 

•  chariots  of  God  are  twenty-thousand,  even  thous  mds  of  Angels  ,  the  Lord  iS 

*  among  them,  as  in  binai  in  the  holy  place,' 

VOL.  IL 


226  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

confidence  say,  that  as  we  have  their  approbation  and  full  con.  cnt  to 
the  other  work,  so  you  have  their  hearts  and  affections  unto  this.* 
And  not  only  theirs  :  we  have  very  many  Papers  from  the  Churches 
of  Christ  throughout  the  Nation  ;  wonderfully  both  approving  what 
hath  been  done  in  removing  of  obstacles,  and  approving  what  we 
have  done  in  this  very  thing.  And  having  said  this,  we  shall  trouble 
you  no  more.  But  if  you  will  be  pleased  that  this  Instrumentf  be 
read  to  you,  which  I  have  signed  by  the  advice  of  the  Council  of 
Officers, — we  shall  then  leave  you  to  your  own  thoughts  and  the 
guidance  of  God  ;  to  dispose  of  yourselves  for  a  farther  meeting,  as 
you  shall  see  cause.  J 

I  have  only  this  to  add.  The  affairs  of  the  Nation  lying  on  our 
hands  to  be  taken  care  of ;  and  we  knowing  that  both  the  Affairs  at 
Sea,  the  Armies  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  and  the  providing  of  things 
for  the  preventing  of  inconveniences,  and  the  answering  of  emer- 
gencies, did  require  that  there  should  be  no  Interruption,  but  that 
care  ought  to  be  taken  for  these  things  ;  and  foreseeing  likewise  that 
before  you  could  digest  yourselves  into  such  a  method,  both  for  place, 
time  and  other  circumstances,  as  you  shall  please  to  proceed  in,  some 
time  would  be  required, — which  the  Commonwealth  could  not  bear 
in  respect  to  the  managing  of  things  :  I  have,  within  a  week  '  past,' 
set  up  a  Council  of  State,  to  whom  the  managing  of  affairs  is  com- 
mitted. Who,  I  mxay  say,  very  voluntarily  and  freely,  before  they 
see  how  the  issue  of  things  will  be,  have  engaged  themselves  in  busi- 
ness ;  eight  or  nine  of  them  being  Members  of  the  House  that  late 
was.  —I  say  I  did  exercise  that  powci'  which,  I  thought,  was  devolved 
upon  me  at  that  time  ;  to  the  end  affairs  might  not  have  any  interval 

*  or  interruption.'  And  now  when  you  are  met,  it  will  ask  some  time 
for  the  settling  of  your  affairs  and  your  way.  And,  '  on  the  other 
hand,'  a  day  cannot  be  lost,  *  left  vacant,'  but  they  must  be  in  con- 
tinual Council  till  you  take  farther  order.  So  that  the  whole  matter 
of  their  consideration  also  which  regards  them  is  at  your  disposal,  as 
you  shall  see  cause.  And  therefore  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  acquaint 
you  with  thus  much,  to  prevent  distractions  in  your  way  :  That  things 
have  been  thus  ordered  ;  that  your  affairs  will  '  not  stop,  but '  go  on, 

*  in  the  meanwhile,' — till  you  see  cause  to  alter  this  Council ;  they 
having  no  authority  or  continuance  of  sitting,  except  simply  until  you 
take  farther  order.  § 

The  reader  has  now  struggled  through  •this  First  Speech  of  my 

*' other  work'  delicately  means  dissolving  the  old  Parliament;  'this'  is 
assemblinj^  of  you,  '  this  very  thing.' 

t  The  Instrument  is  to  be  found  among  the  Old  Pamphlets  ;  but  being  of  a 
much  lower  strain,  mere  constitutionalities,  &c.,  in  phrase  and  purport  alike  leaden, 
we  do  not  read  it. 

X  Report  in  Parliamentary  History,  and  tiie  common  Pamphlets,  ends  here. 

*  Milton  State- Papers,  pp.  106-114  :  and  Parliamentary  History,  xx.  153-175; 
which  latter  is  identical  with  Harleian  Miscellany  (London,  1810),  vi.  331-344. 
Our  Report,  in  some  cramp  passages,  which  could  not  always  be  indicated  without 
confusion,  is  a  tertium  quid  between  these  two.  Generally  throughout  we  adhere 
ta  Milton's,  which  is  the  more  concise,  inteHigible  and  every  way  better  Report. 


\ 


SPEECH  I.  227 


Lord  General's  ;  not  without  astonishment  to  find  that  he  has  some 
understanding  of  it.  The  Editor  has  had  his  difficulties  :  but  the 
Editor  too  is  astonished  to  consider  how  such  a  Speech  should  have 
lain  so  long  before  the  English  Nation  asking,  "  Is  there  no  meaning 
whatever  in  me,  then?"— with  negatory  response  from  almost  all 
persons.  Incompetent  Reporters  ; — still  more  the  obscene  droppings 
of  an  extensive  Owl-population,  the  accumulated  guano  of  Human 
Stupor  in  the  course  of  ages,  do  render  Speeches  unintelligible  !  It 
ought  to  be  added,  that  my  i.ord  General  always  spoke  extempore  ; 
ready  to  speak,  if  his  mind  were  full  of  meaning  ;  very  careless  about 
the  words  he  put  it  into.  And  never,  except  in  one  instance,  which 
we  shall  by  and  by  come  upon,  does  he  seem  to  have  taken  any  charge 
as  to  what  Report  might  be  published  of  it.  One  of  his  Parliaments 
once  asks  him  for  a  correct  Report  of  a  certain  Speech,  spoken  some 
days  before  :  he  declares,  "  He  cannot  remember  four  lines  of  it."* 
It  appears  also  that  his  meaning,  much  as  Dryasdust  may  wonder, 
was  generally  very  well  understood  by  his  audience  : — it  was  not  till 
next  generation,  when  the  owl-droppings  already  lay  thick,  and  Human 
Stupor  had  decidedly  set  in,  that  the  cry  of  Unintelligibility  was 
much  heard  of.  Tones  and  looks  do  much  ;  yes,  and  the  having- 
a  meaning  in  you  is  also  a  great  help  !  Indeed,  I  fancy  he  must  have 
been  an  opaque  man  to  whom  these  utterances  of  such  a  man,  all  in  a 
blaze  with  such  a  conviction  of  heart,  had  remained  altogether  dark. 

The  printed  state  of  this  Speech,  and  still  more  of  some  others, 
will  impose  hard  duties  on  an  Editor  ;  which  kind  readers  must  take 
their  share  of  In  the  present  case,  it  is  surprising  how  little  change 
has  been  needed,  beyond  the  mere  punctuation  ;  correct  division  into 
sentences.  Not  the  slightest  change  of  meaning  has,  of  course,  any- 
where seemed,  or  shall  anywhere  seem,  permissible  ;  nor  indeed  the 
twentieth  part  of  that  kind  of  liberty  which  a  skilful  Newspaper 
Reporter  takes  with  every  speech  he  commits  to  print  in  our  day. 

A  certain  Critic,  whom  I  sometimes  cite  from,  but  seldom  without 
some  reluctance,  winds  up  his  multifarious  Commentaries  on  the  pre- 
sent Speech  in  the  following  extraordinary  way  : 

*  Intelligent  readers,'  says  he,  *  have  found  intelligibility  in  this 
'  Speech  of  Oliver's  :  but  to  one  who  has  had  to  read  it  as  a  painful 
'  Editor,  reading  every  fibre  of  it  with  magnifying  glasses,  has  to  do, 

*  — it  becomes  all  glowing  with   intelligibility,  with  credibility  ;  with 

*  the  splendour  of  genuine  Veracity  and  heroic  Depth  and  Manfulness  ; 
'  and  seems  in  fact,  as  Oliver's  Speeches  generally  do,  to  an  altogether 
'  singular  degree,  the  express  image  of  the  soul  it  came  from  ! — Is  not 
'  this  the  end  of  all  speaking,  and  wagging  of  the  tongue  in  every  con- 

*  ceivable  sort,  except  the  false  and  accursed  sorts  ?     Shall  we  call 

*  Oliver  a  bad  Speaker,  then  ;   shall  we  not,  in  a  very  fundamental 

*  sense,  call  him  a  good  Speaker  ?— 

'Art  of  Speech  ?     Art  of  Speech  ?     The  Art  of  Speech,  I  take  it, 

*  will  first  of  all  be  the  art  of  having   something  genuine  to  speak  ! 

*  Into  what  strange  regions  has  it  carried  us,  that  same  sublime  "Art,' 
'  taken  up  otherwise  !     One  of  the  saddest   bewilderments,  when  I 

*  look  at  all  the  bearings   of  it,  nay  properly  the  fountain  of  all  the 

*  Burton's  Diary. 

I  2 


228  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

sad  bewilderments,  under  which  poor  mortals  painfully  somnamlDulate 
in  these  generations.  "  I  have  made  an  excellent  Speech  about  it, 
written  an  excellent  Book  about  it,"  and  there  an  end.  How  much 
better,  hadst  thou  done  a  moderately  good  deed  about  it,  and  not 
had  anything  to  speak  at  all  !  He  who  is  about  doing  some  mute 
veracity  has  a  right  to  be  heard  speaking,  and  consulting  of  the 
doing  of  it  ;  and  properly  no  other  has.  The  light  of  a  man  shining 
all  as  a  paltry  phosphorescence  on  the  surface  of  him,  leaving  the 
interior  dark^  chaotic,  sordid,  dead-alive, — was  once  regarded  as  a 
most  mournful  phenomenon  ! 

'  False  Speech  is  probably  capable  of  being  the  falsest  and  most 
accursed  of  all  things.  False  Speech  ;  so  false  that  it  has  not  even 
the  veracity  to  know  that  it  is  false, — as  the  poor  commonplace  Imr 
still  does  !  I  have  heard  speakers  who  gave  rise  to  thoughts  in  me 
iliey  were  little  dreaming  of  suggesting  !  Is  man  then  no  longer  an 
•'  Incarnate  Word,"  as  Novalis  calls  him, — sent  into  this  world  to 
utter  out  of  him,  and  by  all  means  to  make  audible  and  visible  what 
of  C^^rti'V Message  he  has  ;  sent  hither  and  made  alive  even  for  that, 
and  for  no  other  definable  object  .'*  Is  there  no  sacredness,  then,  any 
longer,  in  the  miraculous  tongue  of  man  .?  Is  his  head  become  a 
wretched  cracked  pitcher,  on  which  you  jingle  to  frighten  crows,  and 
make  bees  hive  ?  He  fills  me  with  terror,  this  two4cgged  Rhetorical 
Phantasm  !  I  could  long  for  an  Oliver  without  P'^etoric  at  all.  I 
could  long  for  a  Mahomet,  whose  persuasive-eloqaence,  with  wild- 
flashing  heart  and  scimitar,  is  :  "  Wretched  mortal,  give  up  that  ;  or 
by  the  Eternal,  thy  Maker  and  mine,  I  will  kill  thee  !  Thou  blas- 
phemous scandalous  Misbirth  of  Nature,  is  not  even  that  the  kindest 
thing  I  can  do  for  thee,  if  thou  repent  not  and  alter  in  the  name  of 
Allah?"'— 


LETTERS   CXXVIIL,   CXXIX. 

Concerning  this  Puritan  Convention  of  the  Notables,  which  in 
English  History  is  called  the  Little  Parliament^  and  derisively  Ba7'e- 
bones's  Parliament^  we  have  not  much  more  to  say.  They  are,  if  by 
no  means  the  remarkablest  Assembly,  yet  the  Assembly  for  the  re- 
markablest  purpose  who  have  ever  met  in  the  Modern  World.  The 
business  is.  No  less  than  introducing  of  the  Christian  Religion  into 
real  practice  in  the  Social  Affairs  of  this  Nation.  Christian  Religion, 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  :  such,  for  many  hundred 
years,  has  been  the  universal  solemnly  recognised  Theory  of  all  men's 
Affairs  V.Theory  sent  down  out  uf  Heaven  itself:  bui  the  question  is 
now  that  Wi;^;^Licing  it  to  Practice  in  said  Affairs  ;— a  most  noble, 
gfurely,  andH)  ''it  necessary  attempt  ;  which  should  not  have  been  put 


WHITEHALL.  ±2^ 

off  so  long  in  this  Nation  I  We  have  conquered  the  Enemies  of 
Christ  ;  let  us  now,  in  real  practical  earnest,  set  about  doing  the  Com- 
mandments of  Christ,  now  that  there  is  free  room  for  us  !  Such  was 
the  purpose  of  this  Puritan  Assembly  of  the  Notables,  which  History 
calls  the  Little  Parliament,  or  derisively  Barebo7ies^s  Parliament. 

It  is  well  known  they  failed  :  to  us,  alas,  it  is  too  evident  they  could 
not  but  fail.  Fearful  impediments  lay  against  that  effort  of  theirs  : 
the  sluggishness,  the  slavish  half-and-halfness,  the  greediness,  the 
cowardice,  the  general  opacity  and  falsity  of  some  ten  million  men 
against  it ; — alas,  the  whole  world,  and  what  we  call  the  Devil  and  all 
his  angels  against  it !  Considerable  angels,  human  and  other  :  most 
extensive  arrangements,  investments,  to  be  sold  off  at  a  tremendous 
sacrifice  ; — in  general  the  entire  set  of  luggage-traps  and  very  exten- 
sive stock  of  merchant-goods  and  real  and  floating  property,  amassed 
by  that  assiduous  Entity  above-mentioned,  for  a  thousand  years  or 
more  !  Yox  these,  and  also  for  other  obstructions,  it  could  not  take 
effect  at  that  time;— and  the  Little  Parliament  became  a  Batebones's 
Parliament,  and  had  to  go  its  ways  again. 

Read  these  two  Letters,  of  small  or  no  significance  as  to  it  or  its 
affairs  ;  and  then  let  us  hasten  to  the  catastrophe. 


LETTER  CXXVIIL 


In  the  Commons  Journals,*  while  this  Little  Parliament  sat,  we  find 
that,  among  other  good  services,  the  arrangement  of  the  Customs 
Department  was  new-modelled ;  that  instead  of  Farmers  of  the 
Customs,  there  was  a  '  Committee '  of  the  Parliament  appointed  to 
regulate  and  levy  that  impost :  Committee  appointed  on  the  23rd  of 
September,  1653  :  among  whom  we  recognise  *  Alderman  Ireton,' 
the  deceased  General's  Brother ;  '  Mr.  Mayor,'  of  Hursley,  Richard 
Cromwell's  Father-in-law  ;  '  Alderman  Tichborne  ; '  '  Colonel  Mon- 
tague,' afterwards  Earl  of  Sandwich  ;  and  others.  It  is  to  this  Com- 
mittee that  Oliver's  Letter  is  addressed.  It  has  no  date  of  time  :  but 
as  the  Little  Parliament  ended,  in  Self-dissolution  and  Protectorship, 
on  the  1 2th  of  December,  the  date  of  the  Letter  lies  between  the 
23rd  September  and  that  other  limit.  My  Lord  General,— who  is 
himself  a  Member  of  the  Parliament,  he  and  his  chief  Officers  having 
been  forthwith  invited  to  sit, — feels  evidently  that  his  recommendations 
when  grounded  in  justice,  ought  to  be  attended  to. 

For  my  honoured  Friejtds,  the  Committee  for  Regulating  the  Cms- 
toms :  These  present. 

'  Whitehall,  October  1653.' 

Gentlemen, 

I    am    sorry  after  recommendation  of  a  Friend  of  mine  the 
Bearer  hereof, — considering  him  in  relation  to  his  poor  Parents  an 

*  vii.  323.  2j  September,  1653. 


236  THE  LITTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

object  of  pity  and  commiseration,  yet  well  deserving  and  not  less 
qualified  for  employment,— he  should  find  such  cold  success  amongst 
you. 

His  great  necessities  and  my  love  once  more  invite  me  to  write 
unto  you,  in  his  behalf,  To  bestow  on  him,  if  it  may  not  be  in  the  City 
by  reason  of  multiplicity  of  suitors,  a  place  in  the  Out-ports  ;  and  I 
doubt  not  but  his  utmost  abilities  will  be  improved  to  the  faithful 
discharging  of  such  trust  as  you  shall  impose  on  him,  for  the  good 
of  the  Commonwealth.  And  thereby  you  will  engage  him  who 
remains, 

Your  affectionate  friend, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 


LETTER  CXXIX. 


Who  ^  Henry  Weston '  is,  or  his  '  Brother  Ford,'  or  whether  '  his 
House'  is  in  the  Rutlandshire  *  Oakham '  or  another,  I  do  not  in  the 
least  know.  Neither  has  *  Mr.  Draper'  elsewhere  come  across  me. 
Happily  we  can  hope  he  officiates  well  in  Kent ;  and  read  this  Letter 
without  other  light  than  its  own 

For  my  honoured  Friend,  Henry  Weston,  Esqinre,  at  his  House  in 
Oakham ;  These. 

'Whitehall,'  i6th  November,  1653. 

Sir,  my  noble  Friend, 

Your  Brother  Ford  was  lately  with  me,  acquainting  me  with 
my  presumption  in  moving  for,  and  your  civility  in  granting  the 
Advowson  of  Speldhurst  to  one  Mr,  Draper,  who  is  now  incumbent 
there,  and  who,  it  seems,  was  there  for  three  or  four  years  before  the 
death  of  the  old  incumbent,  by  virtue  of  a  sequestration. 

Sir,  I  had  almost  forgot  upon  what  account  I  made  thus  bold  with 
you  ;  but  now  have  fully  recollected.  I  understand  the  person  is  very 
able  and  honest,  well  approved  of  by  most  of  the  good  Mmisters 
thereabout  ;  and  much  desired  by  the  honest  people  who  are  in  a 
Religious  Association  in  those  parts  thereabouts.  Wherefore  I  now 
most  heartily  own  and  thank  you  for  your  favour  shewed  Mr.  Draper 
for  my  sake  ;  beseeching  the  continuance  of  your  respects  to  the 
Gentleman, — who  shall  be  very  much  tied  to  pay  you  all  service  ;  and 
so  shall,  in  what  lieth  in  his  power. 

Your  affectionate  friend  to  serve  you, 

Oliver  CROMWELL.f 

*  Letter  genuine,  fesfe  me  ;  reference  unfortunately  lost. 

t  Additional  Ayscough  MSS.  no.  12,098.  A  Copy,  in  an  old  hand,  with  this 
endorsement:  'The  Generell  Cromwells  letter  about  Spelderst  Hving;'  and  this 
Note  appended  :  '  In  an  old  Bible  I  had  from  England  with  other  Books,  March 
1726.'     Some  Transatlantic  Puritan,  to  all  appearance. 


WHITEHALL.  231 


And  now  to  Parliament  afifairs  again, — to  the  catastrophe  now  nigh. 

On  the  whole,  we  have  to  say  of  this  Little  Parliament,  that  it  sat 
for  five  months  and  odd  days,  very  earnestly  striving  ;  earnestly, 
nobly, — and  by  no  means  unwisely,  as  the  ignorant  Histories  teach. 
But  the  farther  it  advanced  towards  real  Christianism  in  human 
affairs,  the  louder  grew  the  shrieks  of  Sham  Christianism  everywhere 
profitably  lodged  there  ; — and  prudent  persons,  responsible  for  the 
issue,  discovered  that  of  a  truth,  for  one  reason  or  another,  for 
reasons  evident  and  for  reasons  not  evident,  there  could  be  no  success 
according  to  that  method.  We  said,  the  History  of  this  Little  ParHa- 
ment  lay  all  buried  very  deep  in  the  torpors  of  Human  Stupidity,  and 
was  not  likely  ever  to  be  brought  into  daylight  in  this  world.  In  their 
five  months  time  they  passed  various  good  Acts,  chose,  with  good 
insight,  a  new  Council  of  State  ;  took  wise  charge  of  the  needful 
Supplies  ;  did  all  the  routine  business  of  a  Parliament  in  a  quite 
unexceptionable,  or  even  in  a  superior  manner.  Concerning  their 
Council  of  State,  I  find  this  Note  ;  which,  though  the  Council  had 
soon  to  alter  itself,  and  take  new  figures,  may  be  worth  appending  here.* 

Routine  business  done  altogether  well  by  this  Little  Parliament. 
But,  alas,  they  had  decided  on  abolishing  Tithes,  on  supporting  a 
Christian  Ministry  by  some  other  method  than  Tithes  : — nay  far 
worse,  they  had  decided  on  abolishing  the  Court  of  Chancery  ! 
Finding  grievances  greater  than  could  be  borne  ;  finding,  for  one 
thing,  '  Twenty-three  thousand  Causes  of  from  five  to  thirty  years 
continuance,  lying  undetermined  in  Chancery,  it  seemed  to  the  Little 
Parliament  that  some  Court  ought  to  be  contrived  which  would 
actually  determine  these  and  the  like  Causes  ; — and  that,  on  the  whole, 
Chancery  would  be  better  for  abolition.  Vote  to  that  effect  stands  regis- 
tered in  the  Commons  Journals  ;t  but  still,  for  near  two  hundred 
years  now,  only  expects  fulfilment. — So  far  as  one  can  discover  in  the 
huge  twilight  of  Dryasdust,  it  was  mainly  by  this  attack  on  the 
Lavvyers,  and  attempt  to  abolish  Chancery,  that  the  Little  Parhament 
perished.  Tithes  helped,  no  doubt ;  and  the  clamours  of  a  safely 
settled  Ministry,  Presbyterian-Royalist  many  of  them.  But  the 
Lawyers  exclaimed  :  "  Chancery  ?  Law  of  the  Bible  ?  Do  you 
mean  to  bring-in  the  Mosaic  Dispensation,  then  ;  and  deprive  men 
of  their  properties .?  Deprive  men  of  their  properties ;  and 
us  of  our  learned  wigs  and    lucrative    longwindedness, — with  your 

*  Council  of  State  elected, — Tuesday  ist  November,  1653  (Commons  Journals, 
vii.  344).  The  Election  is  by  ballot,  113  Members  present;  '  Colonel  Montague  ' 
(Sandwich),  '  Colonel  Cromwell'  (Henry),  and  '  Sir  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,' are 
three  of  the  Four  Scrutineers.  Among  the  Names  reported  as  chosen,  here  are 
some,  with  the  Numbers  voting  for  them  :  Lord  General  Cromwell  (113,  one  and 
all);  Sir  Gilbert  Pickering  (Poet  Dryden's  Uncle, — no);  Desborow  (74);  Harrison 
(58)  ;  Mayor  (of  Hursley, — 57);  Colonel  Montague  (59);  Ashley  Cooper  (60)  ;  Lord 
Viscount  Lisle  (Algernon  Sidney's  Brother,— 58)  ;  Colonel  Norton,  idle  Dick, 
recovered  from  the  Pride's  Purge  again,  but  liable  to  relapse  again,— 57).  The 
Council  is  of  Thirty-one ;  Sixteen  of  the  Old  or  Interim  Council  (above  referred  to 
in  Cromwell's  Speech)  are  to  continue;  Fifteen  new  :  these  mentioned  here  are  all 
among  the  Old,  whom  the  Lord  General  and  his  Officers  had  already  nominated. 

t  vii.  296  ;  5  August,  1653. 


^p  THE  Uttle  Parliament. 


search  for  '  Simple  Justice,'  and  *  God's  Law '  instead,  of  Learned- 
Sergeant's  Law  ?"— There  was  immense  'carousing  in  the  Temple' 
when  this  Parliament  ended  ;  as  great  tremors  had  been  in  the  like 
quarters  while  it  continued.* 

But  in  brief,  on  Friday,  the  2nd  of  December,  1653,  there  came  a 
'  Report  from  the  Tithes-Committee,'  recommending  that  Ministers 
of  an  incompetent  simoniacal,  loose,  or  otherwise  scandalous  nature, 
plainly  unfit  to  preach  any  Gospel  to  immortal  creatures,  should  have 
a  Travelling  Commission  of  chosen  Puritan  Persons  appointed,  to 
travel  into  all  Counties,  and  straightway  inspect  them,  and  eject  them, 
and  clear  Christ's  Church  of  them  :  —whereupon  there  ensued  high 
debatings  :  Accept  the  Report,  or  not  accept  it?  High  debatings,  for 
the  space  of  ten  days  ;  with  Parliamentary  manoeuvrings,  not  neces- 
sary to  specify  here.  Which  rose  ever  higher  ;  and  on  Saturday  the 
loth,  had  got  so  high  that,  as  I  am  credibly  informed,  certain  leading 
persons  Avent  about  colleaguing  and  consulting,  instead  of  attending 
Pubhc  Worship  on  the  Lord's  Day  : — and  so,  on  Monday  morning 
early,  while  the  extreme  Gospel  Party  had  not  yet  assembled  in  the 
House,  it  was  surreptitiously  moved  and  carried,  old  Speaker  Rouse 
somewhat  treacherously  assenting  to  it,  '  That  the  sitting  of  this  Par- 
'  liament  any  longer,  as  now  constituted,  will  not  be  for  the  good  of  the 

*  Commonwealth  ;  and  that  therefore  it  is  requisite  to  deliver  up  unto 
'  the  Lord  General  Cromwell  the  Powers  which  we  received  from 
'  him  ! '      Whereupon,    adds  the   same  Rhadamantine  Record, '  the 

*  House  rose  ;  and  the  Speaker,  with  many  of  the  Members  of  the 
'  House,  departed  our  of  the  House  to  Whitehall:  where  they,  being  the 
'greater  number  o!"  the  Members  sitting  in  Parliament,  did,  by  a 
'  Writing,'  hasti'y  1  cdacted  in  the  waiting-room  there,  and  signed  on 
separate  bits  of  i^qpcr  hastily  wafered  together, '  resign  unto  his  Excel- 
'  lency  their  said  Powers.  And  Mr.  Speaker,  attended  by  the  Mem- 
'  bers,  did  present  the  same  unto  his  Excellency  accordingly,' — and 
retired  into  private  life  again.'f 

The  Lord  General  Cromwell  testified  much  emotion  and  surprise 
at  this  result  ; — emotion  and  surprise  which  Dryasdust  knows  well 
how  to  interpret.  In  fact  the  Lord  General  is  responsible  to  England 
and  Heaven  for  this  result  ;  and  it  is  one  of  some  moment  !  He  and 
the  established  Council  of  State,  *'  Council  of  Officers  and '  non- 
established  '  Persons  of  Interest  in  the  Nation,'  must  consider  what 
they  will  now  do  ! 

Clearly  enough  to  them,  and  to  us,  there  can  only  one  thing  be 
done  :  search  be  made.  Whether  there  is  any  King,  Konning,  Can- 
ning, or  Supremely  Able-Man  that  you  can  fall  in  with,  to  take 
charge  of  these  conflicting  and  colliding  elements,  drifting  towards 
swift  wreck  otherwise  ;— any  '  Parish  Constable,'  as  Oliver  himself 
defines  it,  to  bid  good  men  keep  the  peace  to  one  another.  To  your 
unspeakable  good-luck,  such  Supremely  Able-Man,  King,  Constable, 

*  Exact  Relation  of  the  Transactions  of  the  late  Parliament,  by  a  Member  of 
the  same  (London,  1654)  :  reprinted  in  Somers  Tracts,  vi.  266-84. 

t  Commons  Journals,  vii.  363;   Exact  Relation,  ubi  sup-a  ;  Whitlocke,  p.  551, 


Protector,  233 


or  by  whatever  name  you  will  call  him,  is  already  found, — known  to 
all  persons  for  years  past:  your  Puritan  Interest  is  not  vet  necessarily 
a  wreck ;  but  may  still  float,  and  do  what  farther  is  in  it,  while  he 
can  float ! 

From  Monday  onwards,  the  excitement  of  the  public  mind  in  old 
London  and  whithersoever  the  news  went,  in  those  winter  days,  must 
have  been  great.  1'he  '  Lord  General  called  a  Council  of  Officers  and 
other  Persons  of  Interest  in  the  Nation,'  as  we  said ;  and  there  was 
'much  seeking  of  God  by  prayer,' and  abstruse  advising  of  this  matter, 
— the  matter  being  really  great,  and  to  some  of  us  even  awful !  The 
dialogues,  conferences,  and  abstruse  advisings  are  all  lost  ;  the  result 
we  know  for  certain.  Monday  was  nth  of  December;  on  Friday 
1 6th,  the  result  became  manifest  to  all  the  world  :  That  the  ablest  of 
Englishmen,  Oliver  Cromwell,  was  henceforth  to  be  recognised  for 
Supremely  Able  ;  and  that  the  Title  of  him  was  to  be  Lord  Pro- 
tector OF  THE  Commonwealth  of  England,  Scotland  and 
Ireland,  with  '  Instrument  of  Government,'  '  Council  of  Fifteen  or 
of  Twenty-one,'  and  other  necessary  less  important  circumstances,  of 
the  like  conceivable  nature. 

The  Instrument  of  Government,  a  carefully  constitutional  piece  in 
Forty-two  Articles  :  the  Ceremony  of  Installation,  transacted  with 
due  simplicity  and  much  modest  dignity, '  in  the  Chancery  Court  in 
Westminster  Hall,'  that  Friday  afternoon  ;— the  chair  of  state,  the 
Judges  in  their  robes,  Lord  Mayors  with  caps  of  maintenance  ;  the 
state-coaches,outriders,  outrunners,  and' great  shoutings  of  the  people;' 
the  procession  from  and  to  Whitehall,  and  '  Mr.Lockier  the  Chaplain's 
Exhortation '  to  us  there  :  these,  with  the  inevitable  adjuncts  of  the 
case,  shall  be  conceived  by  ingenious  readers,  or  read  in  innumer- 
able Pamphlets  and  Books,"'*'  and  omitted  here.  '  His  Highness  was 
'  ill  a  rich  but  plain  suit ;  black  velvet,  with  cloak  of  the  same  :  about 
'his  hat  a  broad  band  of  gold.'  Does  the  reader  see  him  .?  A  rather 
likely  figure,  I  think.  Stands  some  five  feet  teh  or  more  ;  a  man  of 
strong  solid  stature,  and  dignified,  now  partly  military  carriage  :  the 
expression  of  him  valour  and  devout  intelligence, — energy  and  deli- 
cacy on  a  basis  of  simplicity.  Fifty-four  years  old,  gone  April  last  ; 
brown  hair  and  moustache  are  getting  grey.  A  figure  of  sufficient 
impressiveness  ; — not  lovely  to  the  man-milliner  species,  nor  pretend- 
ing to  be  so.  Massive  stature  ;  big  massive  head,  of  somewhat  leonine 
aspect  ; — wart  above  the  right  eyebrow  ;  nose  of  considerable  blunt- 
aquiline  proportions  ;  strict  yet  copious  lips,  full  of  all  tremulous  sen- 
sibihties,  and  also,  if  need  were,  of  all  fiercenesses  and  rigours  ;  deep 
loving  eyes,  call  them  grave,  call  them  stern,  looking  from  under  those 
craggy  brows  as  if  in  lifelong  sorrow,  and  yet  not  thinking  it  sorrow, 
thinking  it  only  labour  and  endeavour:  on  the  whole,  a  right  noble  lion- 
face  and  hero-face  ;  and  to  me  royal  enough. t  The  reader,  in  his 
mind,  shall  conceive  this  event  and  its  figures. 

Conceived  too,  or  read  elsewhere  than  here,  shall  Dryasdust's  mul- 

*  Whitlocke.pp.  552-61  ;  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  131,  in  Parliamen- 
tary History,  xx.);  &c.  &c. 

t  Maidston's  Letter  to  Winthrop,  in  Thiirl  e,  i.  763-8  ;  Cooper's  Portraits; 
Mask  of  Cromwell's  Face  (in  the  Statuaries'  Shops). 


S3i  ■  THE  IJTTLE  PARLIAMENT. 

tifarious  unmelodious  commentaries  be, — and  likewise  Anti-Dryas- 
dust's ;  the  two  together  cancelhng  one  another  ;  and  amounting, 
pretty  well  by  this  time,  to  zero  for  us  '  Love  of  power/  as  flunkeys 
love  it,  remains  the  one  credibility  for  Dryasdust ;  and  will  forever 
remain.  To  the  valet-soul  how  will  you  demonstrate  that,  in  this 
world,  there  is  or  was  anything  heroic  ?  You  cannot  do  it  ;  you  need 
not  try  to  do  it. — I  cite  with  some  reluctance  from  a  Manuscript 
Author,  often  enough  referred  to  here,  the  following  detached  sen- 
tences, and  so  close  this  Seventh  Part. 

*  Dryasdust  knows  not  the  value  of  a   King,'  exclaims  he  ;   *  the  be- 

*  wildered  mortal  has  forgotten  it.     Finding  King's-cloaks  so  cheap, 

*  hung  out  on  every  hedge,  and  paltry  as  beggars'  gabardines,  he  says, 

*  "  What  use  is  in  a  King.?     This  King's-cloak,  if  this   be  your    King, 

*  is  naught !  " — 

*  Power  ?     Love  of  power?     Does  "power"   mean  the  faculty   of 

*  giving  places,  of  having  newspaper  paragraphs,  of  being  waited  on 

*  by  sycophants?  To  ride  in  gilt  coaches,  escorted  by  the  flunkeyisms 

*  and  most  sweet  voices, — I  assure  thee,  it  is  not  the  Heaven  of  all, 
'  but  only  of  many  !     Some  born  Kings  I  myself  have  known,  of  stout 

*  natural  hmbs,  who,   in   shoes   of  moderately  good   fit,   found   quiet 

*  'walki7ig  handier  ;  and  crowned  themselves,  almost  too  sufficiently, 
'  by  putting  on  their  own  private  hat,  with  some  spoken  or  speechless, 

*  "  God  enable  me  to  be  King  of  what  lies   under  this  !      For  Eterni- 

*  ties  he  undet  it,  and  Infinitudes,— and  Heaven  also  and  Hell.     And 

*  it  is  as  big  as  the  Universe,  this  Kingdom  ;  and  I  am    to  conquer 

*  it,  or  be  forever  conquered  by  it,  now  while  it  is  called  Today  I " 

'  The  love  of  "  power,"  if  thou  andersta^id  what  to  the  manful  heart 
'"power"  signifies,  is  a  very  noble  and  indispensable  love.     And 

*  here  and  there,  in  the  outer  world  too,  there  is  a  due  throne  for  the 

*  noble  man; — which  let  him  see  well  that  he  seize,  and  valiantly 
'  defend  against  all  men  and  things.     God  gives  it  him  ;  let  no  Devil 

*  take  it  away.  Thou  also  art  called  by  the  God's-message  :  This,  if 
'  thou  canst  read  the  Heavenly  omens  and  dare  do  them,  this  work  is 

*  thine.  Voiceless,  or  with  no  articulate  voice.  Occasion,  god-sent, 
'  rushes  storming  on,  amid  the  world's  events  ;  swift,  perilous  ;  like  a 
'whirlwind,  Hght  a  fleet  lightning-steed  :  manfully  thou  shalt  clutch 

*  it  by  the  mane,  and  vault  into  thy  seat  on  it,  and  ride  and  guide 
'  th&re,  thou  !  Wreck  and  ignominious  overthrow,  if  thou  have 
'  dai:ed  when  the  Occasion  was  not  thine  :  everlasting  scorn  to 
'  thee  if  thou  dare  not  when  it  is  ; — if  the  cackling  of  Roman 
'  geese  and  Constitutional  ganders,  if  the  clack  of  human  tongues 
'  and  leading-articles,  if  the  steel  of  armies  and  the  crack  of  Doom 
'  deter  thee,  when  the  voice  was  God's  ! — Yes,  this  too  is  in  the 
'  law  for  a  man,  my  poor  quack-ridden,  bewildered  Constitutional 
'  friends  ;  and  we  ought  to  remember  this  withal.  Thou  shalt  is 
'  written  upon  Life  in  characters  as  terrible  as  Thoti  shalt  not, — 
'  though  poor  Dryasdust  reads  almost  nothing  but  the  latter 
'  hitherto.' 

And  so  we  close  Part  Seventh  ;  and  proceed  to  trace  with  all  piety, 
what  faint  authentic  vestiges  of  Oliver's  Protectorate  the  envious 
Stupidities  have  not  yet  obliterated  for  us. 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART   VIII. 

FIRST   PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

^654. 


237 


LETTERS   CXXX.— CXXXIII. 

The  3rd  of  September  ever  since  Worcester  Battle  has  been  kept 
as  a  Day  of  Thanksgiving  ;  commemorative  of  the  mercy  at  Dunbar 
in  1650,  and  of  the  crowning-mercy  which  followed  next  year  ; — a 
memorable  day  for  the  Commonwealth  of  England.  By  Article 
Seventh  of  the  Instrument  of  Government,  it  is  now  farther  provided 
that  a  Parliament  shall  meet  on  that  auspicious  Anniversary  when  it 
next  comes  round.  September  3rd,  1654,  then  shall  the  First  Pro- 
tectorate Parliament  meet ;  successive  Parliaments,  one  at  least  every 
Three  years,  are  to  follow,  but  this  shall  be  the  First.  Not  to  be  dis- 
solved or  prorogued  for  at  least  Five  months.  Free  Parliament  of 
Four-hundred  ;  for  England  Three-hundred-and-forty,  for  Scotland 
Thirty,  for  Ireland  Thirty  ;  farrly  chosen  by  election  of  the  People, 
according  to  rules  anxiously  constitutional,  laid  down  in  that  same 
Instrument,-  -which  we  do  not  dwell  upon  here.  Smaller  Boroughs 
are  excluded  ;  among  Counties  and  larger  Boroughs  is  a  mere  equable 
division  of  representatives  according  to  their  population  :  nobody  to 
vote  that  has  not  some  clearly  visible  property  to  the  value  of  Two- 
hundred  Pounds  ;  all  others  to  vote,  or  to  be  voted  for, — except,  of 
course,  all  such  as  have  appeared  against  the  Parliament  in  any  of 
these  Wars  '  since  the  First  of  January,  1642,'  and  'not  since  given 
signal  testimony'  of  their  repenting  that  step.  To  appearance,  a  very 
reasonable  Reform  Bill ; — understood  to  be  substantially  the  same 
with  that  invaluable  measure  once  nearly  completed  by  the  Rump  : 
only  with  this  essential  difference,  That  the  Rump  Members  are  not 
now  to  sit  by  nature  and  without  election  ;  not  now  to  decide,  they, 
in  case  of  extremity.  Thou  shalt  sit.  Thou  shalt  not  sit  ;—  others  than 
they  will  now  decide  that,  in  cases  of  extremity.  How  this  Parlia- 
ment, in  its  Five-months  Session,  will  welcome  the  new  Protector  and 
Protectorate  is  naturally  the  grand  question  during  those  Nine  or  Ten 
Months  that  intervene.  A  question  for  all  Englishmen  ;  and  most  of 
all  for  Oliver  Protector  ; — who  however,  as  we  can  perceive,  does  not 
allow  it  to  overawe  him  very  much  ;  but  diligently  doing  this  day  the 
day's  duties,  hopes  he  may  find,  as  God  has  often  favoured  him  to 
do,  some  good  solution  for  the  morrow,  whatsoever  the  morrow  pleare 
to  be.  A  man  much  apt  to  be  overawed  by  any  question  that  is 
smaller  than  Eternity,  or  by  any  danger  that  is  lower  than  God's  Dis- 
pleasure, would  not  suit  well  in  Oliver's  place  at  present  !  Perhaps 
no  more  perilous  place,  that  I  know  clearly  of,  was  ever  deliberately 
accepted  by  a  man.  *  The  post  of  honour,' — the  post  of  terror  and  of 
danger  and  forlorn-hope  :  this  man  has  all  along  been  used  to  occupy 
such. 


238  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT 

To  see  a  little  what  kind  of  England  it  was,  and  what  kind  of  inci- 
pient Protectorate  it  was,  take,  as  usual,  the  following  small  and  few 
fractions  of  Authenticity,  of  various  completion,  fished  from  the 
doubtful  slumber-lakes  and  dust-vortexes,  and  hang  them  out  at  their 
places  in  the  void  night  of  things.  They  are  not  very  luminous  ;  but 
if  they  were  well  let  alone,  and  the  positively  tenebrific  were  well 
forgotten,  they  might  assist  our  imaginations  in  some  slight  measure. 

Sunday,  iZth  December,  1653.  A  certain  loud-tongued,  loud- 
minded  Mn  Feak,  of  Anabaptist- Leveller  persuasion,  with  a  Colleague, 
seemingly  Welsh,  named  Powel,  have  a  Preaching-Establishment, 
this  good  while  past,  in  Blackfriars  ;  a  Preaching-Establishment  every 
Sunday,  which  on  Monday  Evening  becomes  a  National-Charter  Con- 
vention as  we  should  now  call  it  :  there  Feak,  Powel  and  Company 
are  in  the  habit  of  vomiting  forth  from  their  own  inner-man,  into  other 
inner-men  greedy  of  such  pabulum,  a  very  flamy  fuliginous  set  of 
doctrines,— such  as  the  human  mind,  superadding  Anabaptistry  to 
Sansculottism,  can  make  some  attempt  to  conceive.  Sunday  the 
1 8th,  which  is  two  days  after  the  Lord  Protector's  Installation,  this 
Feak-Powel  Meeting  was  unusually  large  ;  the  Feak-Powel  inner- 
man  unusually  rharged.  Elements  of  soot  and  fire  really  copious  ; 
fuliginous-flamy  in  a  very  high  degree  !  At  a  time,  too,  when  all 
Doctrine  does  not  satisfy  it  elf  with  spouting,  but  longs  to  become  in- 
stant Action.  *  Go  and  tell  your  Protector,'  said  the  Anabaptist  Pro- 
phet, That  he  has  deceived  the  Lord's  l^eople  ;  '  that  he  is  a  perjured 
villain,'— '  will  not  reign  long,' or  I  am  deceived;  'will  end  worse 
than  the  last  Protector  did,'  the  tyrant  Crooked  Richard  !  Say,  I 
said  it !— A  very  foul  chimney  indeed,  here  got  on  fire.     And  *  Major- 

*  General  Harrison,  the  most  eminent  man  of  the  Anabaptist  Party, 

*  being  consulted  whether  he  would  own  the  new  Protectoral  Govern- 

*  ment,  answered    frankly,   No  ;'— was  thereupon   ordered   to   retire 
home  to  Stafibrdshire,  and  keep  quiet.* 

Does  the  reader  bethink  him  of  those  old  Leveller  Corporals  at 
Burford,  and  Diggers  at  St.  George's  Hill  five  years  ago  ;  of  Quaker- 
isms, Calvinistic  Sansculottisms,  and  one  of  the  strangest  Spiritual 
Developments  ever  seen  in  any  country  ?  The  reader  sees  here  one 
foul  chimney  on  fire,  the  Feak-Powel  chimney  in  Blackfriars  ;  and 
must  consider  for  himself  what  masses  of  combustible  material,  noble 
fuel  and  base  soot  and  smoky  explosive  fire-damp,  in  the  general 
EngHsh  Household  it  communicates  with  !  Republicans  Proper,  of 
the  Long  Parliament ;  Republican  Fifth-Monarchists  of  the  Little 
Parliament  ;  the  solid  Ludlows,  the  fervent  Harrisons  :  from  Harry 
Vane  down  to  Christopher  Feak,  all  manner  of  Republicans  find 
Cromwell  unforgivable.  To  the  Harrison-and-Feak  species  Kingship 
in  every  sort,  and  government  of  man  by  man,  is  carnal,  expressly 
contrary  to  various  Gospel  Scriptures.  Very  horrible  for  a  man  to 
think  of  governing  men  ; — whether  he  ought  even  to  govern  cattle, 
and  drive  them  to  field  and  to  needful  penfold,  '  except  in  the  way  of 
love  and  persuasion,'  seems  doubtful  to  me  !  But  fancy  a  Reign  of 
Christ  and  his  "Saints  ;  Christ  and  his  Saints  just  about  to  come  — 
had  not  Oliver  Cromwell  stept  in  and  prevented  it !  The  reader  dis- 
*  Thurloe.  i.  641;— 442,  591,  621. 


ASSASSINS.  239 


cerns  combustibilities  enough  ;  conflagrations,  plots,  stubborn  dis- 
affections,  and  confusions  on  the  Republican  and  Republican-Ana- 
baptist side  of  things.  It  is  the  first  Plot-department,  which  my  Lord 
Protector  will  have  to  deal  with,  all  his  life  long.  This  he  must 
wisely  damp  down,  as  he  may.  Wisely  :  for  he  knows  what  is  noble 
in  the  matter,  and  what  is  base  in  it ;  and  would  not  sweep  the  fuel 
and  the  soot  both  out  of  doors  at  once. 

Tuestlay,  \\th  February^  1653-4.  'At  the  Ship-Tavern  in  the  Old- 
Bailey,  kept  by  Mr.  Thomas  Amps,'  we  come  upon  the  second  life- 
long Plot-department  :  Eleven  truculent,  rather  threadbare  persons, 
sitting  over  small  drink  there,  on  the  Tuesday  night,  considering  how 
the  Protector  might  be  assassinated.  Poor  broken  Royalist  men  ; 
payless  Old-Captains,  most  of  them,  or  such  like  ;  with  their  steeple- 
hats  worn  very  brown,  and  jack-boots  slit,— and  projects  that  cannot 
be  executed.  Mr.  Amps  knows  nothing  of  them,  except  that  they 
came  to  him  to  drink  ;  nor  do  we.  Probe  them  with  questions  ;  clap 
them  in  the  Tower  for  a  while  •!*'  Guilty,  poor  knaves  ;  but  not  worth 
hanging: — disappear  again  into  the  general  mass  of  Royahst  Plotting, 
and  ferment  there. 

The  Royalists  have  lain  quiet  ever  since  Worcester  ;  waiting  what 
issue  matters  would  take.  Dangerous  to  meddle  with  a  Rump  Par- 
liament, or  other  steadily  regimented  thing  ;  safer  if  you  can  find  it 
fallen  out  of  rank  ;  hopefullest  of  all,  when  it  collects  itself  into  a 
Single  Head.  The  Royalists  judge,  with  some  reason,  that  if  they 
could  kill  Oliver  Protector,  this  Commonwealth  were  much  endan- 
gered. In  these  Easter  weeks,  too,  or  Whitsun  weeks,  there  comes 
*  from  our  Court '  (Charles  Stuart's  Court)  *at  Paris,'  great  encourage- 
ment to  all  men  of  spirit  in  straitened  circumstances.  A  Royal  Pro- 
clamation "  By  the  King,"  drawn  up,  say  some,  by  Secretary  Claren- 
don ;  setting  forth  that  'Whereas  a  certain  base  mechanic  fellow,  by 
name  Oliver  Cromwell,  has  usurped  our  throne,  much  to  our  and 
others'  inconvenience,  whosoever  will  kill  the  said  mechanic  fellow 
'by  sword,  pistol  or  poison,'  shall  have  ^500  a-year  settled  upon  him, 
with  colonelcies  in  our  Army,  and  other  rewards  suitable,  and  be  a 
made  man,— 'on  the  word  and  faith  of  a  Christian  King.'t  A  Pro- 
clamation which  cannot  be  circulated  except  in  secret  ;  but  is  well 
worth  reading  by  all  loyal  men.  And  so  Royalist  Plots  also  succeed 
one  another,  thick  and  threefold  through  Oliver's  whole  life  ; — but 
cannot  take  effect.  Vain  for  a  Christian  King  and  his  cunningest 
Chancellors  to  summon  all  the  Sinners  of  the  Earth,  and  whatsoever 
of  necessitous  Truculent-Flunkeyism  there  may  be,  and  to  bid,  in  the 
name  of  Heaven  and  of  Another  place,  for  the  Head  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well :  once  for  all,  they  cannot  have  it  ; — not  till  he  has  entirely  done 
with  it,  and  can  make  them  welcome  to  their  benefit  from  it !  We 
shall  come  upon  these  Royalist  Plots,  Rebellion  Plots  and  Assassin 
Plots,  in  the  order  of  time  ;  and  have  to  mention  them,  though  with 
brevity.  Oliver  Protector,  I  suppose,  understands  and  understood 
his  Protectorship  moderately  well,  and  what  Plots  and  other  Hydra- 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  135). 

t  Thurloe,  ii.  248.     '  Given  at  Paris  3rd  May  (23rd  April  by  old  style),  1654.' 


240  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


coils  were  inseparable  from  it  ;  and  contrives  to  deal  with  these  too, 
like  a  conscientious  man,  and  not  like  a  hungry  slave. 

Secretary  Thurloe,  once  St.  John's  Secretary  in  Holland,  has  come 
now,  ever  since  the  Little-Parliament  time,  into  decided  action  as 
Oliver's  Secretary,  or  the  State  Secretary  ;  one  of  the  expertesi  Secre- 
taries in  the  real  meaning  of  the  word  Secretary,  any  State  or  work- 
ing King  could  have.  He  deals  with  all  these  Plots  ;  it  is  part  of  his 
function,  supervised  by  his  Chief.  Mr.  John  Milton,  we  all  lament  to 
know,  has  fallen  blind  in  the  Public  Service  ;  hves  now  in  Bird-cage 
Walk,  still  doing  a  little  when  called  upon  ;  bating  no  jot  of  heart  or 
hope.  Mr.  Milton's  notion  is,  That  this  Protectorate  of  his  Highness 
Oliver  was  a  thing  called  for  by  the  Necessities  and  the  Everlasting 
Laws  ;  and  that  his  Highness  had  now  to  quit  himself  like  a  Chris- 
tian Hero  in  it,  as  in  other  smaller  things  he  has  been  used  to  do."'^ 

March  2oih,  165  5-4.  By  the  Instrument  of  Government,  the 
Lord  Protector  with  his  Council,t  till  once  the  First  Parliament  were 
got  together,  was  empowered  not  only  to  raise  monies  for  the  needful 
supplies,  but  also  '  to  make  Laws  and  Ordinances  for  the  peace  and 
welfare  of  these  Nations ; '  which  latter  faculty  he  is  by  ro  means 
slack  to  exercise.  Of  his  '  Sixty  Ordinances'  passed  in^'this  manner 
before  the  Parliament  met,  which  are  well  approved  of  by  good 
judges,  we  cannot  here  afford  to  say  much  :  but  there  is  one  bearing 
date  as  above,  which  must  not  be  omitted.  First  Ordinance  relating 
to  the  Settlement  of  a  Gospel  Ministry  in  this  Nation  ;  Ordinance 
of  immense  interest  to  Puritan  England  at  that  time.  An  object 
which  has  long  been  on  the  anvil,  this  same  '  Settlement ; '  much 
laboured  at,  and  striven  for,  ever  since  the  Long  Parliament  began 
and  still,  as  all  confess,  no  tolerable  result  has  been  attained.  Yet  is 
it  not  the  greatest  object  ;  properly  the  soul  of  all  these  struggles  and 
confused  wrestlings  and  battlings,  since  we  first  met  here.?  For  the 
thing  men  are  taught,  or  get  to  believe,  that  is  the  thing  thej'  will  in- 
fallibly do:  the  kind  of  '  Gospel '  you  settle,  kind  of  '  Ministry  '  you 
settle,  or  do  not  settle,  the  root  of  all  is  there  !  Let  us  see  what  the 
Lord  Protector  can  accomplish  in  this  business. 

Episcopacy  being  put  down,  and  Presbytery  not  set  up,  and  Church- 
Government  for  years  past  being  all  a  Church-Anarchy,  the  business 

*  Defensio  Scainda. 

t  Fifteen  in  number,  which  he  may  enlarge  to  Twenty-one,  if  he  see  good, 
^ot  removable  any  of  them,  except  by  himself  with  advice  of  the  rest.  Avery 
remarkable  Majesty's  Ministry;— of  which,  for  its  own  sake  and  the  Majesty's, 
take  this  List,  as  it  stood  in  1654  : 

F'hilip  Viscount  Lisle  (Algernon  Sidneys  Brother):  Fleetwood;  Lambert; 
Montague  (of  Hichinbrook) ;  De-borow  (Protector's  Brother-in-law)  ;  Ashley 
Cooper  (Earl  of  Shaftesbury  afterwards) ;  Walter  Strickland  (Member  for  Mine- 
head  iri  the  Long  Parliament,  once  Ambassador  in  Holland) ;  Colonel  Henry  Law- 
rence (for  Westmoreland  in  the  Long  Parliament,  became  President  of  the 
Council)  ;  Mayor  (of  Hursley) ;  Francis  Rouse  (our  old  friend)  ;  pious  old  Major- 
™^';^l  Skippon  ;  Colonels  Philip  Jones  and  Sydenham;  Sirs  Gilbert  Pickering 
and  Charles  Wolseley,  of  whom  my  readers  do  not  know  much.  Fifteen  Coun- 
cillors in  all.  To  whom  Nathaniel  Fiennes  (son  of  Lord  .^av  and  Sele)  was  after- 
Wiirds  added:  with  the  Earl  of'Mulgrave;  and  another,  Colonel  Mackworth,  who 
soon  died  (Thurloe,  iii.  581).  Thudoe  is  Secretary:  and  blind  Milton,  now  with 
assistants,  is  L.atin  '  ecretai  \'. 


CHURCH-GO  VERNMENT.  241 

is  somewhat  difficult  to  deal  with.  The  Lord  Protector,  as  we  find, 
takes  it  up  in  simplicity  and  integrity,  intent  upon  the  real  heart  or 
practical  outcome  of  it  ;  and  makes  a  rather  satisfactory  arrange- 
ment. Thirty-eight  chosen  Men,  the  acknowledged  Flower  of  English 
Puritanism,  are  nominated  by  this  Ordinance  of  the  20th  of  March,* 
nominated  a  Supreme  Commission  for  the  Trial  of  Public  Preachers. 
Any  person  pretending  to  hold  a  Church-living,  or  levy  tithes  or 
clergy-dues  in  England,  has  first  to  be  tried  and  approved  by  these 
men.  Thirty-eight,  as  Scobell  teaches  us  ;  nine  are  Laymen,  our 
friend  old  Francis  Rouse  at  the  head  of  them  ;  twenty-nine  are 
Clergy.  His  Highness,  we  find,  has  not  much  inquired  of  what  Sect 
they  are  ;  has  known  them  to  be  Independents,  to  be  Presbyterians, 
one  or  two  of  them  to  be  even  Anabaptists  ; — has  been  careful  only 
of  one  characteristic,  That  they  were  men  of  wisdom,  and  had  the 
root  of  the  matter  in  them.  Owen,  Goodwin,  Sterry,  Marshall,  Man- 
ton,  and  others  not  yet  quite  unknown  to  men,  were  among  these 
Clerical  Triers  .;  the  acknowledged  Flower  of  Spiritual  England  at 
that  time  ;  and  intent,  as  Oliver  himself  was,  with  an  awful  earnest- 
ness, on  actually  having  the  Gospel  taught  to  England. 

This  is  the  First  branch  or  limb  of  Oliver's  scheme  for  Church- 
Government,  this  Ordinance  of  the  20th  March,  1653-4.  A  Second, 
which  completes  what  little  he  could  do  in  the  matter  at  present, 
developed  itself  in  August  following.  By  this  August  Ordinance,t  a 
Body  of  Commissioners,  distinguished  Puritan  Gentry,  distinguished 
Puritan  Clergy,  are  nominated  in  all  Counties  of  England,  from 
Fifteen  to  Thirty  in  each  County  ;  who  are  to  inquire  into  '  scanda- 
lous, ignorant,  insufficient,'  and  otherwise  deleterious  alarming  Minis- 
ters of  the  Gospel ;  to  be  a  tribunal  for  judging,  for  detecting,  ejecting 
them  (only  in  case  of  ejection,  if  they  have  wives,  let  some  small 
modicum  of  living  be  allowed  them)  :  and  to  sit  there,  judging  and 
sifting,  till  gradually  all  is  sifted  clean,  and  can  be  kept  clean.  This 
is  the  Second  branch  of  Oliver's  form  of  Church-Government  :  this, 
with  the  other  Ordinance,  makes  at  last  a  kind  ol  practicable  Eccle- 
siastical arrangement  for  England. 

A  very  republican  arrangement,  such  as  could  be  made  on  the 
sudden  ;  contains  in  \i^  however,  the  germ  or  essence  of  all  conceiv- 
able arrangements,  that  of  worthy  men  to  judge  of  the  worth  of  men; 
— and  was  found  in  practice  to  work  well.  As  indeed,  any  arrange- 
ment will  work  well,  when  the  men  in  it  have  the  root  of  the  matter 
at  heart  ;  and,  alas,  all  arrangements,  when  the  men  in  them  have 
not,  work  ill  and  not  well  !  Of  the  Lay  Commissioners,  from  fifteen 
to  thirty  in  each  County,  it  is  remarked  that  not  a  few  are  political 
enemies  of  Oliver's  :  friends  or  enemies  of  his,  Oliver  hopes  they  are 
men  of  pious  probity,  and  friends  to  the  Gospel  m  England.  My 
Lord  General  Fairfax,  the  Presbyterian  ;  Ihomas  Scot,  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  the  fanatical  Republican  ;  Lords  Wharton,  Say,  Sir 
Arthur  Haselrig,  Colonel  Robert  Blake,  Mayor  of  Hursley,  Dunch  of 
Pusey,  Montague  of  Hinchinbrook,  and  other  persons  known  to  us, — 
are  of  these  Commissioners.    Richard  Baxter,  who  bcldom  sat,  is  one 

"  ^9obeU,  li.  279,  80,  t  28  August,  1654  (Scobell,  \\.  335-47/« 


242  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

of  the  Clergy  for  his  County  :  he  testifies,  not  in  the  willingest 
manner,  being  no  friend  to  Oliver,  That  these  Commissioners,  of  one 
sort  and  the  other,  with  many  faults,  did  sift  out  the  ddeterious 
alarming  Ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and  put-in  the  salutary  in  their 
stead,    with    very    considerable    success, — giving   us,    'able,  serious 

*  Preachers  who  lived  a  godly  life,  of  what  tolerable  opinion  soever 

*  they  were  ; '  so  that  '  many  thousands  of  souls  blessed  God '  for 
what  they  had  done  ;  and  grieved  sore  when,  with  the  return  of  the 
Nell-Gwynn  Defender,  and  his  Four  Surplices  or  what  remained  of 
them,  it  was  undone  again.*  And  so  with  these  Triers  and  these 
Expurgators  both  busy,  and  a  faithful  eye  to  watch  their  procedure, 
we  will  hope  the  Spiritual  Teaching- Apparatus  of  England  stood  iiow 
on  a  better  footing  than  usual,  and  actually  succeeded  in  teaching 
somewhat. 

Of  the  Lord  Protector's  other  Ordinances  ;  Ordinance  '  declaring 
the  Law  of  Treason,'  Ordinances  of  finance,  of  Amnesty  for  Scot- 
land, of  Union  with  Scotland,  and  other  important  matters,  we  must 
say  nothing.     One  elaborate  Ordinance,  Mn  sixty-seven  Articles,' for 

*  Reforming  the  Court  of  Chancery,'  will  be  afterwards  alluded  to  with 
satisfaction,  by  the  Lord  Protector  himself.  Elaborate  Ordinance  ; 
containing  essential  improvements,  say  some  ; — which  has  perhaps 
saved  the  Court  of  Chancery  from  abolition  for  a  while  longer  !  For 
the  rest,  '  not  above  Two-hundred  Hackney-coaches'  shall  henceforth 
be  allowed  to  ply  in  this  Metropolis  and  six  miles  round  it ;  the  ever- 
increasing  numbei  of  them,  blocking  up  our  thoroughfares,  threatens 
to  become  insupportable.! 

April  i^th,  1654.  This  day.  let  it  be  noted  for  the  sake  of  poor 
Editors  concerned  with  undated  Letters,  and  others,  his  Highness 
removed  from  his  old  Lodging  in  the  Cockpit,  into  new  properly 
Royal  Apartments  in  Whitehall,  now  ready  for  him,|  and  lived  there 
henceforth,  usually  going  out  to  Hampton  Court  on  the  Saturday 
afternoon.  He  has  *  assumed  somewhat  of  the  state  of  a  King  ; ' 
due  ceremonial,  decent  observance  beseeming  the  Protector  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  England  ;  life-guards,  ushers,  state-coaches, — in 
which  my  erudite  friend  knows  well  what  delight  this  Lord  Protector 
had  !  Better  still,  the  Lord  Protector  has  concluded  good  Treaties  ; 
received  congratulatory  Embassies,—  France,  Spain  itself  have  sent 
Embassies.  Treaty  with  the  Dutch,  with  Denmark,  Sweden,  Por- 
tugal ;§  all  much  to  oui  satisfaction.  Of  the  Portuguese  Treaty  there 
will  perhaps  another  word  be  said.  As  for  the  Swedish,  this,  it  is 
well  known,  was  managed  by  our  learned  friend  Bulstrode  at  Upsal 
itself  ;  whose  Narrative  of  that  formidable  Embassy  exists,  a  really 
curious  life-picture  by  our  Pedant  friend  ;  whose  qualities  are  always 
fat  and  good  ; — whose  parting  from  poor  Mrs.  Whitlocke  at  Chelsea, 
in  those  interesting  circumstances,  may  be  said  to  resemble  that  of 
Hector  from  Andromache,  in  some  points. 

*  Baxter's  Life,  Part  i.  72. 

+  Scobell,  ii.  313  ;  Newspapers  (inCromwelliana,  p.  139). 
X  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p,  139). 

S  Dutch  Treaty  signed,  5  April,  1654;  Swedish,  28  April;  Portuguese,  10 
July  ;  Danish  Claimg  settled,  31  July  (Godwin,  iv.  49-56). 


WHrTEHALL.  243 


And  now  for  our  Two  small  Letters,  for  our  First  Protectorate  Par- 
liament, without  wa^te  of  another  word  ! 


LETTER  CXXX. 

For  my  loving  Brother^  Richard  Mayor,  Esquire,  at  Hursley  in 
Hampshire :   TJiese. 

•Whitehall,"  4th  May,  1654. 

Dear  Brother, 

1  received  your  loving  Letter  ;  for  which  I  thank  you  :  and 
surely  were  it  fit  to  proceed  in  that  Business,  you  should  not  in  the 
least  have  been  put  upon  anything  but  the  trouble  ;  for  indeed  the 
land  in  Essex,  with  some  money  in  my  hand,  should  have  gone  to- 
wards it. 

But  indeed  I  am  so  unwilling  to  be  a  seeker  after  the  world,  having 
had  so  much  favour  from  the  Lord  in  giving  me  so  much  without 
seeking  ;  and  '  am '  so  unwilling  that  men  should  think  me  so,  which 
they  will  though  you  only  appear  in  it  (for  they  will,  by  one  means  or 
other,  know  it), — that  indeed  I  dare  not  meddle  nor  proceed  therein. 
Thus  I  have  told  you  my  plain  thoughts. 

My  hearty  love  I  present  to  you  and  my  Sister,  my  blessing  and 
love  to  dear  Doll  and  the  little  one.     With  love  to  all, 

I  rest, 

Your  loving  brother, 

Oliver  P.* 

A  '  business '  seemingly  of  making  an  advantageous  purchase  of 
land  for  Richard  ;  which  Mayor  will  take  all  the  trouble  of,  and  even 
advance  the  money  for  ;  but  which  Oliver  P.,  for  good  reasons  given, 
*  dare  not  meddle'  with.  No  man  can  now  guess  what  land  it  was, — 
nor  need  much.  In  the  Pamphletary  dust-mountains  is  a  confused 
story  of  Cornet  Joyce's,t  concerning  Favvley  Park  in  Hampshire  ; 
which,  as  the  dim  dateless  indications  point  to  the  previous  winter  or 
summer,  and  to  the  'Lord  General  Cromwell'  as  looking  towards  that 
property  for  his  Son  Richard, — may  be  the  place,  for  aught  we  know  ! 
The  story  sets  forth,  with  the  usual  bewildered  vivacity  of  Joyce  : 
How  Joyce,  the  same  who  took  the  King  at  Holmby,  and  is  grown 
now  a  noisy  Anabaptist  and  Lieutenant-CDloncl, — how  Joyce,  I  say, 
was  partly  minded  and  fully  entitled  to  purchase  Fawley  Park,  and 
Richard  Cromwell  was  minded  and  not  fully  entitled  :  how  Richard's 
Father  thereupon  dealt  treacherously  with  the  said  Joyce ;  spake 
softly  to  him,  then  quarrelled  with  him,  menaced  him  (owing  to  Faw- 
ley Park)  ;  nay  ended  by  flinging  him  into  prison,  and  almost  reduc- 

*  Noble,  i.  330 ;   Harris,  p.  515  : — one  of  the  Pusey  Letters, 
t  True  Narrative  of  the  Causes  of  the  Lord  General  C'ro  nvvell's  anger  and  in- 
dignation asjainst    Lieutenant-C!oloncl  George  Joyce:  reprinted   (without  date)  ijl 


244  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


ing  him  to  his  needle  and  thimble  again,— greatly  to  the  enragement 
and  distraction  of  the  said  Joyce.  All  owing  to  Fawley  Park,  thmks 
Joyce  and  prints  ; — so  that  my  Lord  Protector,  if  this  Park  be  the 
place,  is  very  wise  '  not  to  meddle  or  proceed  therein.'  And  so  we 
leave  it. 


LETTER   CXXXL 


Monk,  in  these  summer  months,  has  a  desultory  kind  of  Rebellion 
in  the  Highlands,  Glencairn's  or  Middleton's  Rebellion,  to  deal  with; 
and  is  vigorously  coercing  and  strangling  it.  Colonel  Alured,  an  able 
officer,  but  given  to  Anabaptist  notions,  has  been  sent  into  Ulster  to 
bring  over  certain  forces  to  assist  Monk.  His  loose  tongue,  we  find, 
has  disclosed  designs  or  dispositions  in  him  which  seem  questionable. 
The  Lord  Protector  sees  good  to  revoke  his  Commission  to  Alured, 
and  order  him  up  to  Town. 

'  To  the  Lord  Fleetwood^  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland  :  These ^ 

'  Whitehall,   i6th  May,  1654. 

Sir, 

By  the  Letter  I  received  from  you,  and  by  the  information  of 
the  Captain  you  sent  to  me,  I  am  sufficiently  satisfied  of  the  evil  in- 
tentions of  Colonel  Alured ;  and  by  some  other  considerations  amongst 
ourselves,  tending  to  the  making  up  a  just  suspicion, — by  the 
advice  of  friends  here,  I  do  revoke  Colonel  Alured  from  that  Em- 
ployment. 

Wherefore  I  desire  you  to  send  for  him  to  return  to  you  to  Dublin  ; 
and  that  you  cause  him  to  deliver  up  the  Instructions  and  Authorities 
into  your  hands,  which  he  hath  in  reference  to  that  Business  ;  as  also 
such  monies  and  accounts  concerning  the  same, — according  to  the 
Letter,  herein  enclosed,  directed  to  him,  which  I  entreat  you  to  deliver 
when  he  comes  to  you. 

I  desire  '  you '  also,  to  the  end  the  Service  may  not  be  neglected, 
nor  'for'  one  day  stand,  it  being  of  so  great  concernment.  To  em- 
ploy some  able  Officer  to  assist  in  Colonel  Alured's  room,  until  the 
men  be  shipped  off  for  their  design.  We  purpose  also,  God  willing, 
to  send  one  very  speedily  who,  we  trust,  shall  meet  them  at  the  place, 
to  command  in  chief.  As  for  provision  of  victual  and  other  neces- 
saries, we  shall  hasten  them  away  ;  desiring  that  these  Forces  may  by 
no  means  stay  in  Ireland  ;  because  we  purpose  they  shall  meet  their 
provision  in  the  place  they  are  designed  '  for.' 

If  any  farther  discovery  be  with  you  about  any  other  passages  on 
Colonel  Alured's  part,  I  pray  examine  them,  and  speed  them  to  us  ; 
and  send  Colonel  Alured  over  hither  with  the  first  opportunity.  Not 
iiaving  more  upon  this  subject  at  present, 

I  rest. 

Your  loving  father, 

OxnrKR  P, 


WHITEHALL,  M^ 


'P.S.'  I  desire  you  that  the  Officer,  whom  you  appoint  to  assist 
the  shipping  of  the  Forces,  may  have  the  money  in  Colonel  Alured's 
hands,  for  carrying  on  the  Service  ;  and  also  that  he  may  have  what 
remains  at  Carrickfergus  for  the  Commander-in-chief,  who  shall  call 
for  it  there."*^ 

This  is  the  Enclosure,  above  spoken  of : 

LETTER  CXXXII. 

^  To  Colonel  Alured :  These? 

1 6th  May,  1654. 
Sir, 

I  desire  you  to  deliver  up  into  the  hands  of  Lieutenant-General 
Fleetwood  such  Authorities  and  Instructions  as  you  had  for  the  prose- 
cution of  the  Business  of  the  Highlands  in  Scotland  ;  and  'that'  you 
forthwith  repair  tome  to  London  ;  the  reason  whereof  you  shall  know 
when  you  come  hither,  which  I  would  have  you  do  with  all  speed.  I 
would  have  you  also  give  an  account  to  the  Lieutenant-General,  before 
you  come  away,  how  far  you  have  proceeded  in  this  Service,  and 
what  money  you  have  in  your  hands,  which  you  are  to  leave  with 
him. 

I  rest, 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.f 

This  Colonel  Alured  is  one  of  several  Yorkshire  Alureds  somewhat 
conspicuous  in  these  wars  ;  whom  we  take  to  be  Nephews  or  Sons 
of  the  valuable  Mr.  Alured  or  Ald'red  who  wrote  'to  old  Mr 
'  Chamberlain,' — in  the  last  generation,  one  morning,  during  the 
Parliament  of  1628,  when  certain  honourable  Gentlemen  held  their 
Speaker  down, — a  Letter  v/hich  we  thankfully  read  %  One  of  them, 
John,  was  Member  in  this  Long  Parliament  ;  a  Colonel  too,  and 
King's  Judge  ;  who  is  now  dead.  Here  is  another.  Colonel  Matthew 
Alured,  a  distinguished  soldier  and  republican  ;  who  is  not  dead  ;  but 
whose  career  of  usefulness  is  here  ended.  '  Repairing  forthwith  to 
London,'  to  the  vigilant  Lord  Protector,  he  gives  what  account  he  can 
of  himself ;  none  that  will  hold  water,  I  perceive  ;  lingers  long  under 
a  kind  of  arrest  '  at  the  Mews  '  or  elsewhere  ;  soliciting  either  freedom 
and  renewed  favour,  or  a  fair  trial  and  punishment  ;  gets  at  length 
committal  to  the  Tower,  trial  by  Court  Martial,— dismissal  from  the 
service. §  A  fate  like  that  of  several  others  in  a  similar  case  to  his. — 
Poor  Allured  !  But  what  could  be  done  with  him  i  He  had 
Republican  Anabaptist  notions  ;  he  had  discontents,  enthusiasms, 
which  might  even  ripen  into  tendencies  to  correspond  with  Charles 
Stuart.  Who  knows  if  putting  him  in  a  stone  waistcoat,  and  general 
strait-waistcoat  of  a  mild  form,  was  not  the  mercifullest  course  that 
could  be  taken  with  him  t 

*  Ihurloe,  ii.  285.  f  Ibid.  286.  J  Vol.  i.  P-  49  ^^  ^^?- 

§  Whitlocke,  pp.499.  510;  Thurloe,  ii.  294,  313,  414;  Burton's  Diary  (London, 
1828),  iii.  46;  Commons  Journals,  vii.  678. 


546  FTRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMFNT 


He  must  stand  here  as  the  representative  to  us  of  one  of  the  fatallest 
elements  in  the  new  Lord  Protector's  position  :  the  Repubhcan 
discontents  and  tendencies  to  plot,  fermenting  in  his  own  Army,  Of 
which  we  shall  perhaps  find  elsewhere  room  to  say  another  word. 
Republican  Overton,  Milton's  friend,  whom  we  have  known  at  Hull 
and  elsewhere  ;  Okey,  the  fierce  dragoon  Colonel,  and  zealous 
Anabaptist  ;  Allured  whom  we  see  here  ;  Ludlow  sitting  sulky  in 
Ireland  :  all  these  are  already  summoned  up,  or  about  being 
summoned,  to  give  account  of  themselves.  Honourable,  brave  and 
faithful  men  :  it  is,  as  Oliver  often  says,  the  saddest  thought  of  his 
heart  that  he  must  have  old  friends  like  them  for  enemies  !  But  he 
cannot  help  it ;  they  will  have  it  so.     They  must  go  their  way,  he  is. 

Much  need  of  vigilance  in  this  Protector  !  Directly  on  the  back  of 
these  Repubhcan  commotions,  come  out  Royalist  ones  ;  with  which 
however  the  Protector  is  less  straitened  to  deal.  Lord  Deputy 
Fleetwood  has  not  yet  received  his  Letter  at  Dublin,  when  here 
in  London  emerges  a  Royalist  Plot  ;  the  first  of  any  gravity  ;  known 
in  the  old  Books  and  State-Trials  as  'Vowel  and  Gerard's  Plot,  or 
Somerset  Fox's  Plot.  Plot  for  assassinating  the  Protector,  as  usual. 
Easy  to  do  it,  as  he  goes  to  Hampton  Court  on  a  Saturday, — Saturday 
the  20th  of  May,  for  example.  Provide  thirty  stout  men  ;  and  do  it 
then.  Gerard,  a  young  Royalist  Gentleman,  connected  with  Royalist 
Colonels  afterwards  Earls  of  Macclesfield, — he  v.  ill  provide  Five-and- 
twenty  ;  some  Major  Henshaw,  Colonel  Finch,  or  I  know  not  who, 
shall  bring  the  other  Five.  '  Vowel  a  Schoolmaster  at  Islington,  who 
'  taught  many  young  gentlemen,'  strong  for  Church  and  King,  cannot 
act  in  the  way  of  shooting  ;  busies  himself  consulting,  and  providing 
arms.  '  Billingsley  the  Butcher  in  Smithfield,'  he,  aided  by  Vow®l, 
could  easily  '  seize  the  Troopers  '  horses  grazing  in  Islington  fields  ; ' 
while  others  of  us  unawares  fall  upon  the  "soldiers  at  the  Mews  ?  Easy 
then  to  proclaim  King  Charles  in  the  City  ;  after  which  Prince  Rupert 
arriving  with  '  Ten-thousand  Irish,  English  and  French,'  and  all  the 
Royalists  rising, — the  King  should  have  his  own  again,  and  we  were 
all  made  men  ;  and  Oliver  once  well  killed,  the  Commonwealth  itself 
were  as  good  as  dead  !  Saturday  the  20th  of  May  ;  then,  say  our 
Paris  expresses,  then  !  — 

Alas,  in  the  very  birthtime  of  the  hour,  *  five  of  the  Conspirators  are 
seized  in  their  beds  ;  '  Gerard,  Vowel,  all  the  leaders  are  seized  ; 
Somerset  Fox  confesses  for  his  life  ;  whosoever  is  guilty  can  be  seized  : 
and  the  Plot  is  like  water  spilt  upon  the  ground  !  A  High  Court  of 
Justice  must  decide  upon  it ;  and  with  Gerard  and  Vowel  it  will 
probably  go  hard. 


WHITEHALL.  t^f 


LETTER  CXXXIII. 

Refers  to  a  small  private  or  civic  matter  :  the  Vicarage  of  Christ- 
Church,  Newgate  Street,  the  patronage  of  which  belongs  to  '  the 
'  Mayor,  Commonalty  and  Citizens  of  London  as  Governors  of  the 
'  Royal  Hospital  of  St.  Bartholomew'  ever  since  Henry  the  Eighth's 
time  "^  The  former  incumbent,  it  would  seem,  had  been  removed  by 
the  Council  of  State  ;  some  Presbyterian  probably,  who  was  not 
without  cause  offensive  to  them.  If  now  the  Electors  and  the  State 
could  both  agree  on  Mr.  Turner, — it  would  'silence'  several  questions, 
thinks  the  Lord  Protector.  Whether  they  did  agree?  Who  'Mr. 
Turner,'  of  such  '  repute  for  piety  and  learning,'  was  ?  These  are 
questions. 

To  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  Thomas  Rymer,  Knight,  Lord 
Mayor  of  London  :    These. 

•  Whitehall,"  5th  July,  1654. 

My  Lord  Mayor, 

It  is  not  my  custom  now,  nor  shall  be,  without  some  special 
cause  moving,  to  interpose  anything  to  the  hinderance  of  any  in  the 
free  course  of  their  presenting  persons  in  the  Public  Ministry. 

But,  well  considering  how  much  it  concerns  the  public  peace,  and 
what  an  opportunity  may  be  had  of  promoting  the  interest  of  the 
Gospel,  if  some  eminent  and  fit  person  of  a  pious  and  peaceable  spirit 
and  conversation  were  placed  in  Christ-Church, — and  though  I  am  not 
ignorant  what  interest  the  State  may  justly  challenge  to  supply  the 
place,  which  by  an  Order  of  State  is  become  void,  notwithstanding 
any  resignation  that  is  made  : 

Yet  forasmuch  as  your  Lordship  and  the  rest  of  the  Governors  of  St. 
Bartholomew's  Hospital  are  about  to  present  thereunto  a  person 
of  known  nobility  and  integrity  before  you,  namely  Mr.  Turner,  I  am 
contented,  if  you  think  good  so  to  improve  the  present  opportunity  as 
to  present  him  to  the  place,  '  and  thus '  to  have  all  other  questions 
silenced  ; — which  will  not  alone  be  the  fruit  thereof ;  but  I  believe  alsp 
the  true  good  of  the  Parish  therein  concerned  will  be  thereby  much 
farthered.     I  rest, 

Your  assured  friend, 

Oliver  P. 

*  P.S.'  I  can  assure  you  few  men  of  his  time  in  England  have 
a  better  repute  for  piety  and  learning  than  Mr.  Turner.t 

I  am  apt  to  think  the  Mr.  Turner  in  question  may  have  been  Jerom 
Turner,  of  whom  there  is    record  in  Wood  :X  a  Somersetshire  man, 

*  Elmes's  Topographical  Dictionary  of  London,  in  voce. 

t  Lansdowne  Mss.  1236,  fol.  104.  'I  he  Signature  alone  of  the  Letter  is  Oliver's  j 
but  he  has  added  th^i  Postcript  in  his  own  hand. 
J  Athenae,  iii.  404. 


^4^  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


distinguished  among  the  Puritans  ;  who  takes  refuge  in  Southampton, 
and  preaches  with  zeal,  learning,  piety  and  general  approbation 
during  the  Wars  there.  He  afterwards  removed  '  to  Neitherbury,  a 
'  great  country  Parish  in  Dorsetshire,'  and  continued  there, '  doing  good 
'  in  his  zealous  w  ly.'  If  this  were  he,  the  Election  did  not  take  effect 
according  to  Oliver's  program  ; — perhaps  Jerom  himself  declined  it? 
He  died,  still  at  Neitherbury,  next  year  ;  hardly  yet  past  middle  age. 
'  He  had  a  strong  memory,  which  he  maintained  good  to  the  last  by 
'  temperance,'  says  old  Antony  :  '  He  was  well  skilled  in  Greek  and 
'  Hebrew,  was  a  fluent  preacher,  but  too  much  addicted  to  Calvinism,' 
— which  is  to  be  regretted.  '  Pastor  ingilantissimns,  doctrind  et 
pietate  msignis  :^  so  has  his  Medical  Man  characterised  him;  one 
*  Dr.  Loss  of  Dorchester,'  who  kept  a  Note-book  in  those  days. 
Reqiiiescai,  j-eqitiescant. 

The  High  Court  of  Justice  has  sat  upon  Vowel  and  Gerard;  found 
them  both  guilty  of  High  Treason  :  they  lie  under  sentence  of  death 
while  this  Letter  is  a-writing  ;  are  executed  five  days  hence,  loth  July, 
1654  ;  and  mike  an  edifying  end.*  Vowel  was  hanged  at  Charing 
Cross  in  the  morning  ;  strong  for  Church  and  King.  The  poor  young 
Gerard,  being  of  gentle  blood  and  a  soldier,  petitioned  to  have  behead- 
ing ;  and  'lad  it.  the  same  evening,  in  the  Tower.  So  ends  Plot  First. 
Othei  Royalists,  Plotters  or  suspect  of  Plotting, — Ashburnham,  who 
rode  with  poor  Charles  First  to  the  Isle  of  Wight  on  a  past  occasion  ; 
Sir  Richard  Willis,  who,  I  think,  will  be  useful  to  Oliver  by  and  by, 
—  these  and  a  list  of  others  t  were  imprisoned  ;  were  questioned, 
dismissed  ;  and  the  Assassin  Project  is  rather  cowed  down  for  a 
while 

Writs  for  the  New  Parliament  are  out,  and  much  electioneering 
interest  over  England  :  but  there  is  still  an  anecdote  connected  with 
this  poor  Gerard  and  the  loth  of  July,  detailed  at  great  length  in  the 
old  Books,  which  requires  to  be  mentioned  here.  About  an  hour  after 
Gerard,  there  died,  in  the  same  place,  by  the  same  judicial  axe,  a 
Portuguese  Nobleman,  Don  Pantaleon  Sa,  whose  story,  before  this 
tragic  end  of  it,  was  already  somewhat  twisted  up  with  Gerard's.  To 
wit,  on  the  23rd  of  November  last  this  same  young  Major  Gerard  was 
walking  in  the  crowd  of  Exeter  'Change,  where  Don  Pantaleon, 
Brother  of  the  Portuguese  Ambassador,  chanced  also  to  be.  Some 
jostling  of  words,  followed  by  drawing  of  rapiers,  took  place  between 
them  ;  wherein  as  Don  Pantaleon  had  rather  the  Worse,  he  hurried 
home  to  the  Portuguese  Embassy  ;  armed  some  twenty  of  his  fol- 
lowers, in  headpieces,  breastpieces,  with  sword  and  pistol,  and 
returned  to  seek  revenge.  Gerard  was  gone  ;  but  another  man, 
whom  they  took  for  him,  these  rash  Portugals  slew  there  ;  and  had 
to  be  repressed,  after  much  other  riot,  and  laid  in  custody,  by  the 
watch  or  soldiery.  Assize-trial,  in  consequence,  for  Don  Pantaleon  ; 
clear  Trial  in  the  '  Upper  Bench  Court,'  jury  half  foreigners  ;  and 
rigorous  sentence  of  death  ; — much  to  Don  Pantaleon' 5  amazement, 
who  pleaded  and  got  his  Brother  to  plead  the  rights  of  Ambassadors^ 

*  State  Trials  (T.ondon,  t8io),  v.  516-39. 

f  Newspapers,  1-8  June,  1654  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  143). 


SPEECH  11.  249 


all  manner  of  rights  and  considerations  ;  all  to  no  purpose.  The  Lord 
Protector  would  not  and  could  not  step  between  a  murderer  and  the 
Law  :  poor  Don  Pantaleon  perished  on  the  same  block  with  Gerard  ; 
two  Tragedies,  once  already  in  contact,  had  their  fifth-act  together. 
Don  Pantaleon's  Brother,  all  sorrow  and  solicitation  being  fruitless, 
signed  the  Portuguese  Treaty  that  very  day,  and  instantly  departed 
for  his  own  country,  with  such  thoughts  as  we  rnay  figure."^ 


SPEECH    11. 

But  now  the  new  Parliament  has  got  itself  elected  ;  not  without 
much  interest  :— the  first  Election  there  has  been  in  England  for 
fourteen  years  past.  Parliament  of  Four-hundred,  thirty  Scotch, 
thirty  Irish ;  freely  chosen  according  to  the  Instrument,  according  to 
the  Bill  that  was  in  progress  when  the  Rump  disappeared.  What  it 
will  say  to  these  late  inarticulate  births  of  Providence,  and  high 
transactions  ?     Something  ediiying,  one  may  hope. 

Open  Malignants,  as  we  know,  Qould  not  vote  or  be  voted  for,  to 
this  Parliament ;  only  active  Puritans  or  quiet  Neutrals,  who  had  clear 
property  to  the  value  of  ^200.  Probably  as  fair  a  Representative  as, 
by  the  rude  method  of  counting  heads,  could  well  be  got  in  England. 
The  bulk  of  it,  I  suppose,  consists  of  constitutional  Presbyterians  and 
use-and-wont  Neutrals  ;  it  well  represents  the  arithmetical  account  of 
heads  in  England  :  whether  the  real  divine  and  human  value  of  think- 
ing-souls in  England  — that  is  a  much  deeper  question  ;  upon  which 
the  Protector  and  this  First  Parliament  of  his  may  much  disagree. 
It  is  the  question  of  questions,  nevertheless  ;  and  he  that  can  answer 
it  best  will  come  best  off  in  the  long-run.  It  was  not  a  successful 
Parliament  this,  as  we  shall  find.  The  Lord  Protector  and  it  differed 
widely  in  certain  fundamental  notions  they  had  ! — 

We  recognise  old  faces,  in  fair  proportion,  among  those  Four- 
hundred  ; — many  new  withal,  who  never  become  known  to  us. 
Learned  Bulstrode,  now  safe  home  from  perils  in  Hyperborean 
countries,  is  here  ;  elected  for  several  places,  the  truly  valuable 
man.  Old-Speaker  Lenthall  sits,  old  Major-General  Skippon,  old 
Sir  William  Masham,  old  Sir  Francis  Rouse.  My  Lord  Herbert 
(Earl  of  Worcester's  son)  is  here  ;  Owen,  Doctor  of  Divinity,  for 
Oxford  University  ; — a  certain  rot  entirely  useless  Guibon  Goddard, 
for  the  Town  of  Lynn,  to  whom  we  owe  some  Notes  of  the  procedure. 
Leading  Officers  and  high  Official  persons  have  been  extensively 
elected  ;  several  of  them  twice  and  thrice  :  Fleetwood,  Liminert,  the 
Claypoles,  Dunches,  both  the  young  Cromwells  ;  MontPgur  for  his 
County,  Ashley  Cooper  for  his.     On  the  other  hand,  my  Lord  P  airfax 

*  Whitlocke,  pp.  550,  577' 


fiSO  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

is  here ;  nay  Bradshaw,  Haselrig,  Robert  Wallop,  Wildman,  and 
Republicans  are  here.  Old  Sir  Harry  Vane  ;  not  young  Sir  Harry 
who  sits  meditative  in  the  North.  Of  Scotch  members  we  mention 
only  Laird  Swinton,  and  the  Earl  of  Hartfell  ;  of  the  Irish,  Lord 
Broghill  and  Commissary- General  Reynolds,  whorr;  we  once  saw 
fighting  well  in  that  country.*— And  now  hear  the  authentic  Bul- 
strode  ;  and  then  the.  Protector  himself. 

'September  -^d,  1654. — The  Lord's  day,  yet  the  day  of  the  Parlia- 
'ment's  meeting.  The  Members  met  in  the  ahernooii  at  sermon,  in 
'  the  Abbey  Church  at  Westminster  :  after  sermon  they  attended  the 
'  Protector  in  the  Painted  Chamber  ;  who  made  a  Speech  to  them  of 
'the  cause  of  their  summons,'  Speech  unreported;  'after  which,  they 
'  went  to  the  House,  and  adjourned  to  the  next  morning. 

'  Monday,  Septeitiber  \th. — The  Protector  rode  in  state  from  White- 
'  hall  to  the  Abbey  Church,  in  Westminster.  Some  hundreds  of 
'  gentlemen  and  Officers  went  before  him  bare  ;  with  the  Life-guard  ; 

*  and  next  before  the  coach,  his  pages  and  laqueys  richly  clothed.  On 
'  the  other  side  of  his  coach  went  Strickland,  one  of  his  Council,  and 

*  Captain  of  his  Guard,  with  the  Master  of  the  Ceremonies  ;  both  on 
'foot.  On  the  other  side  went  Howard,!  Captain  of  the  Life-guard. 
'  In  the  coach  with  him  were  his  son  Henry,  and  Lambert  ;  both  sat 
'bare.   After  him  came  Claypole,  Master  of  the  Horse  ;  with  a  gallant 

*  led  horse  richly  trapped.  Next  came  the  Commissioners  of  the  Great 
Seal,'  Lisle,  Widdrington,  and  I  ;  J  Commissioners  of  the  Treasury,  and 
'  divers  of  the  Council  in  coaches  ;  last  the  ordinary  Guards. 

'  He  alighting  at  the  Abbey  Church  door,'  and  entering, '  the  Officers 
'  of  the  Army  and  the  Gentlemen  went  first  ;  next  them  four  maces  ; 
'  then  the  Commissioners  of  the  Seal,  Whitlocke  carrying  the  Purse ; 
'  after,  Lambert  carrying  the  Sword  bare  :  the  rest  followed.      His 

*  Highness  was  seated  over  against  the  Pulpit  ;  the  Members  of  the 
'  Parliament  on  both  sides. 

'After  the  sermon,  which  was  preached  by  Mr.  Thomas  Goodwin, 
'  his  Highness  went,  in  the  same  equipage,  to  the  Painted  Chamber. 
'  Where  he  took  seat  in  a  chair  of  state  set  upon  steps,'  with  a  canopy 
over  it,  under  which  his  Highness  sat  covered,  'and  the  Members 
upon  benches  round  about  sat  all  bare.  All  being  silent,  his  '  Highness,' 
rising,  'put  off  his  hat,  and  made  a  large  and  subtle  speech  'to  them.'| 

Here  is  a  Report  of  the  Speech,  'taken  by  one  who  stood  very 
near,'  and  '  published§  to  prevent  mistakes.'  As  we,  again,  stand  at 
some  distance, — two  centuries  with  their  chasms  and  ruins, — our 
hearing  is  nothing  like  so  good  !  To  help  a  little,  I  have,  with  re- 
luctance, admitted  from  the  latest  of  the  Commentators  a  few  annota- 
tions ;  and  intercalated  them  the  best  I  could  ;  suppressing  very 
many.     Let  us  listen  well  ;  and  again  we  shall  understand  somewhat. 

Gentlemen, 

You  are  met  here  on  the  greatest  occasion  that,  I  believe,  Eng- 

*  Letter  LXXII.  p.  50. 

t  Colonel  Charles,  ancestor  of  the  Earl  of  Carlisle. 

i  Whitlocke,  p.  582. 

§  ByG.  Sawbridge,  at  the  Bid/e  on  'Ludgate  Hill,  London,  1654. 


SPEECH  It.  2^1 


land  ever  saw;  having  upon  your  shoulders  the  Interests  of  Three 
great  Nations  with  the  territories  belonging  to  them  ; — and  truly,  I 
believe  I  may  say  it  without  any  hyperbole,  you  have  upon  your 
shoulders  the  Interest  of  all  the  Christian  People  in  the  world. 
And  the  expectation  is,  that  I  should  let  you  know,  as  far  as  I 
have  cognisance  of  it,  the  occasion  of  your  assembling  together  at 
this  time. 

It  hath  been  very  well  hinted  to  you  this  day,*  that  you  come  hither 
to  settle  the  Interests  above  mentioned  :  for  your  work  here,  in  the 
issue  and  consequences  of  it,  will  extend  so  far,  '  even  to  all  Christian 
people.'  In  the  way  and  manner  of  my  speaking  to  you,  I  shall  study 
plainness  ;  and  to  speak  to  you  what  is  truth,  and  what  is  upon  my 
heart,  and  what  will  in  some  measure  reach  to  these  great  concern- 
ments. 

After  so  many  changings  and  turnings,  which  this  Nation  hath 
laboured  under,  to  have  such  a  day  of  hope  as  this  is,  and  such  a 
door  of  hope  opened  by  God  to  us,  truly  I  believe,  some  months 
since,  would  have  been  beyond  all  our  thoughts  !— I  confess  it  would 
have  been  worthy  of  such  a  meeting  as  this  is.  To  have  rememberedf 
that  which  was  the  rise  '  of,'  and  gave  the  first  beginning  to  all  these 
Troubles  which  have  been  upon  this  Nation  :  and  to  have  given  you 
a  series  of  the  Transactions, — not  of  men,  but  of  the  Providence  of 
God,  all  along  unto  our  late  changes  :  as  also  the  ground  of  our  first 
undertaking  to  oppose  that  usurpation  and  tyranny!};  which  was  upon 
us,  both  in  civils  and  spirituals  ;  and  the  several  grounds  particularly 
applicable  to  the  several  changes  that  have  been.  But  I  have  two 
or  three  reasons  which  divert  me  from  such  a  way  of  proceeding  at 
this  time. 

If  I  should  have  gone  in  that  way,  *then'  that  which  lies  upon  my 
heart  '  as  to  these  things,' — which  is  *  so '  written  there  that  if  I 
would  blot  it  out  I  could  not, — would  *  itself  have  spent  this  day  :  the 
providences  and  dispensations  of  God  have  been  so  stupendous.  As 
David  said  in  the  like  case.  Psalm  xl.  5,  "  Many,  O  Lord  my  God, 
"  are  thy  wonderful  works  which  thou  hast  done,  and  thy  thoughts 
'■'■  which  are  to  us-ward  :  they  cannot  be  reckoned  up  in  order  unto 
*'  thee  :  if  I  would  declare  and  speak  of  them,  they  are  more  than  can 
**  be  numbered." — Truly,  another  reason,  unexpected  by  me,  you  had 
today  in  the  sermon  :§  you  had  much  recapitulation  of  Providence  ; 
much  allusion  to  a  state  and  dispensation  in  respect  of  discipline  and 
correction,  of  mercies  and  deliverances,  '  to  a  state  and  dispensation 
similar  to  ours,' — to,  in  truth,  the  only  parallel  of  God's  dealing  with 
us  that  I  know  in  the  world,  which  was  largely  and  wisely  held  forth 
to  you  this  day  :  To  Israel's  bringing  out  of  Egypt  through  a  wilder- 
ness by  many  signs  and  wonders,  towards  a  Place  of  Rest, — I  say 
towards  it.||    And  that  having  been  so  well  remonstrated  to  you  this 

*  in  the  Sermon  we  have  just  heard. 

+  commemorated.  X  Of  Charles,  Wentworth,  Laud  and  Company. 

§  This  Sermon  of  Goodwin's  is  not  in  the  collected  Edition  of  his  Works  ;   not 
among  the  King's  Pamphlets;  not  in  the  Bodleian  Library.     We  gather  what  the 
subject  was,  from  this  Speech,  and  know  nothing  of  it  otherwise. 
.  Ij  not  yet  at  it ;   nota  bene. 


252  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

day,  is  another  argument  why  I  shall  not  trouble  you  with  a  recapitu- 
lation of  those  things  ; — though  they  are  things  which  I  hope  will 
<iever  be  forgotten,  because  written  in  better  Books  than  those  of 
paper  ; — written,  I  am  persuaded,  in  the  heart  of  every  good  man  ! 

'  But'  a  third  reason  was  this  :  What  I  judge  to  be  the  end  of  your 
meeting,  the  great  end,  which  was  likewise  remembered  to  you  this 
day  ;*  to  wit.  Healing  and  Settling.  The  remembering  of  Transac- 
tions too  particularly,  perhaps  instead  of  healing, — at  least  in  the 
hearts  of  many  of  you, — might  set  the  wound  fresh  a-bleeding.  *  And' 
1  must  profess  this  unto  you,  whatever  thoughts  pass  upon  me  :  That 
if  this  day,  if  this  meeting,  prove  not  healing,  what  shall  we  do  !  But, 
as  I  said  before,  I  trust  it  is  in  the  minds  of  you  all,  and  much  more 
in  the  mind  of  God,  to  cause  heahng.  It  must  be  first  in  His  mind  : — • 
and  He  being  pleased  to  put  it  into  yours,  this  will  be  a  Day  indeed, 
and  such  a  Day  as  generations  to  come  will  bless  you  for  ! — I  say, 
for  this  and  the  other  reasons,  I  have  forborne  to  make  a  particular  re- 
membrance and  enumeration  of  things,  and  of  the  manner  of  the  Lord's 
bringing  us  through  so  many  changes  and  turnings  as  have  passed 
upon  us. 

Hovvbeit,  I  think  it  will  be  more  than  necessary  to  let  you  know,  at 
least  so  well  as  1  may,  in  what  condition  this  Nation,  or  rather  these 
Nations  were,  when  the  present  Governmentf  was  undertaken.  And 
for  order's  sake  :  It's  very  natural  to  consider  what  our  condition  was, 
in  Civils  ;  '  and  then  also'  in  Spirituals. 

What  was  our  condi<^ion  !  Every  man's  hand  almost  was  against 
his  brother  ; — at  least  his  heart  '  was  ;'  little  regarding  anything  that 
should  cement,  and  might  have  a  tendency  in  it  to  cause  us  to  grow 
into  one.  All  the  dispensations  of  God  ;  His  terrible  ones,  when  He 
met  us  in  the  way  of  His  judgment;];  in  a  Ten-years  Civil  War  ;  and 
His  merciful  ones  :  they  did  not,  they  did  not  work  upon  us  !§  *  No.* 
But  we  had  our  humours  and  interests  ; — and  indeed  I  fear  our 
humours  went  for  more  with  us  than  even  our  interests.  Certainly,  as 
it  falls  out  in  such  cases,  our  passions  were  more  than  our  judgments. 
—  Was  not  everything  almost  grown  arbitrary  ?  Who  of  us  knew 
where  or  how  to  have  right  'done  him,'  without  some  obstruc- 
tion or  other  intervening  ?  Indeed  we  were  almost  grown  arbitrary  in 
everything. 

•  What  was  the  face  that  was  upon  our  affairs  as  to  the  Interest  of 
the  Nation?  As  to  the  Authority  in  the  Nation  ;  to  the  Magistracy  ; 
to  the  Ranks  and  Orders  of  men, — whereby  England  hath  been  known 
for  hundreds  of  years .?  [  The  Levellers  !\  A  nobleman,  a  gentleman, 
a  yeoman  ;  'the  distinction  of  these  :'  that  is  a  good  interest  of  the 
Nation,  and  a  great  one  !  The  'natural'  Magistracy  of  the  Nation, 
was  it  not  almost  trampled  under  foot,  under  despite  and  contempt, 
by  men  of  Levelling  principles.?  I  beseech  you.  For  the  orders  of  men 
and  ranks  of  men,  did  not  that  Levelling  principle  tend  to  the  reduc- 
ing of  all  to  an  equality  '^.   Did  it  '  consciously  '  think  to  do  so  ;  or  did  it 

*   in  the,f)ermon.  f  Protectorate. 

1  punishment  for  our  sins. 

§  Reiteration   of  the  word  is  not  an  uncommon  mode  of  emphasis  with  Oliver* 


SPEECH  II.  25: 


'only  unconsciously'  practise  towards  that  for  property  and  interest  ?  'At 
all  events/  what  was  the  purport  of  it  but  to  make  the  Tenant  as  liberal  a 
fortune  as  the  Landlord  ?  Which,  I  think,  if  obtained,  would  not  have 
lasted  long  !  The  men  of  that  principle,  after  they  had  served  their 
own  turns,  would />^^«  have  cried  up  property  and  interest  fast  enough! 
— This  instance  is  instead  of  many.  And  that  the  thing  did  '  and 
might  well '  extend  far,  is  manifest  ;  because  it  was  a  pleasing  voice 
to  all  Poor  Men,  and  truly  not  unwelcome  to  all  Bad  Men.  \^Far 
extended  classes,  these  two  both  /]  To  my  thinking,  this  is  a  consi- 
deration which,  in  your  endeavours  after  settlement,  you  will  be  so 
well  minded  of,  that  I  might  have  spared  it  here  :  but  let  that 
pass. — 

*  Now  as  to  Spirituals-'  Indeed  in  Spiritual  things  the  case  was 
more  sad  and  deplorable  '  still  ; '  and  that  was  told  to  you  this  day 
eminently.  The  prodigious  blasphemies  ;  contempt  of  God  and 
Christ,  denying  of  Him,  contempt  to  Him  and  His  ordinances,  and  of 
the  Scriptures  :  a  spirit  visibly  acting*  those  things  foretold  by  Peter 
and  Jude  ;  yea  those  things  spoken  of  by  Paul  to  Timothy  !  Paul 
declaring  some  things  to  be  worse  than  the  Antichristian  state  (of 
which  he  had  spoken  in  the  First  to  Timothy,  Chapter  fourth,  verses 
first  and  second,  '  under  the  title  of  the  Latter  Times  '),  tells  us  what 
should  be  the  lot  and  portion  of  the  Last  Times.  He  says  {Secotid  to 
Timothy,  Chapter  third,  verses  second,  third,  fourth),  "In  the  Last 
*'  Days  perilous  times  shall  come  ;  men  shall  be  lovers  of  their  own 
"selves,  covetous,  boasters,  proud,  blasphemers,  disobedient  to 
"  parents,  unthankful,"  and  so  on.  But  in  speaking  of  the  Anti- 
christian state,  he  told  us  {First  to  Timothy,  Chapter  fourth,  verses 
first  and  second),  that  *'  in  the  latter  days  "  that  state  shall  come  in  ; 
*not  the  last  days  but  the  latter,' — wherein  "there  shall  be  a  depart- 
"  ing  from  the  faith,  and  a  giving  heed  to  seducing  spirits  and  doc- 
"  trines  ot  devils,  speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy,"  and  so  on.  This  is  only 
his  description  of  the  latter  times,  or  those  of  Antichrist ;  and  we  are 
given  to  understand  that  there  are  last  times  coming,  which  will  be 
worse  !t— and  surely  it  may  be  feared,  these  are  our  times.  For  when 

*  a  general  temper  visibly  bringing  out  in  practice. 

t  There  is  no  express  mention  of  Antichrist  either  here  or  elsewhere  in  the 
Text  of  Timothy  at  all  ;  but,  I  conclude,  a  full  conviction  on  the  part  of  Cromwell 
and  all  sound  Commentators  that  Antichrist  is  indubitably  shadowed  forth  there. 
Antichrist  means,  with  them  and  him,  the  Pope;  to  whom  Laud,  &c.,  with  his 
•  four  surplices  at  Allhallowtide'  and  other  clothweb  and  cobweb  furniture,  are  of 
kindred.  "  We  have  got  rid  of  Antichrist,"  he  seems  to  intimate,  "we  have  got 
pretty  well  done  with  Antichrist :  and  are  we  now  coming  to  something  worse  f 
To  the  Levellers,  namely  1  The  Latter  times  are  over,  then;  and  we  are  coming 
now  into  the  Last  times?"  It  is  on  this  contrast  of  comparative  and  superlative, 
Latter  diXidi  Last,  that  Oliver's  logic  seems  to  ground  itself:  Paul  says  nothing  of 
Antichrist,  nor  anything  directly  of  the  one  time  being  worse  or  better  than  the 
other;  only  the  one  time  is  'latter,'  the  other  is  'last.'— This  paragraph  is  not 
iiiiportant  ;  but  to  gain  any  meaning  from  it  whatever,  some  small  changes  have 
been  necessary.  I  do  not  encumber  the  reader  with  double  samples  of  what  at  best 
is  grown  obsolete  to  him  :  such  as  wish  to  see  the  original  unadulterated  unin- 
telligibility,  will  find  it,  in  clear  print,  p.  321,  vol.  xx.  of  Parlia7nentary  History^ 
grid  satisfy  them§elve§  whether  I  haye  read  well  or  ill, 


254  ^        FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

men  forget  all  rules  of  Law  and  Nature,  and  break  all  the  bonds  that 
fallen  man  hath  on  him  ;  '  obscuring '  the  remainder  of  the  image  of 
God  in  their  nature,  which  they  cannot  blot  out,  and  yet  shall  en- 
deavour to  blot  out,  "  having  a  form  of  godliness  without  the  power," 
■ — '  surely'  these  are  sad  tokens  of  the  last  times  ! 

And  indeed  the  character  wherewith  the  spirit  and  principle  is  des- 
cribed in  that  place  '  of  Scripture,'  is  so  legible  and  visible,  that  he 
who  runs  may  read  it  to  be  amongst  us.  For  by  such  "  the  Grace  of 
God  is  turned  into  wantonness,"  and  Christ  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
made  a  cloak  for  all  villany  and  spurious  apprehensions.  [Threatening 
to  go  a  strange  course^  those  Anti?iomiany  Levelling ^  day-dreaming 
Delusionists  of  ours /]  And  though  nobody  will  own  these  things 
publicly  as  to  practice,  the  things  being  so  abominable  and  odious  ; 
yet  'the  consideration',  how  this  principle  extends  itself,  and  whence 
it  had  its  rise,  makes  me  to  think  of  a  Second  sort  of  Men,  *  tending 
in  the  same  direction  ;'  who,  it's  true,  as  I  said,  will  not  practise  nor 
own  these  things,  yet  can  tell  the  Magistrate  "  That  he  hath  nothing 
"to  do  with  men  holding  such  notions  :  These,  *  forsooth,'  are  matters 
*'  of  conscience  and  opinion  :  they  are  matters  of  Religion  ;  what  hath 
"the  Magistrate  to  do  with  these  things?  He  is  to  look  to  the  out- 
"ward  man,  not  to  the  inward," — 'and  so  forth.'  And  truly  it  so 
happens  that  though  these  things  do  break  out  visibly  to  all,  yet  the 
principle  wherewith  these  things  are  carried  on  so  forbids  the 
Magistrate  to  meddle  with  them,  that  it  hath  hitherto  kept  the 
offenders  from  punishment.* 

Such  considerations,  and  pretensions   to  "liberty  of  conscience," 

*  what  are  they  leading  us  towards  ! '  Liberty  of  Conscience,  and 
Liberty  of  the  Subject, — two  as  glorious  things  to  be  contended  for,  as 
any  that  God  hath  given  us  ;  yet  both  these  abused  for  the  patronising 
of  villanies  !  Insomuch  that  it  hath  been  an  ordinary  thing  to  say, 
and  in  dispute  to  affirm,  "That  the  restraining  of  such  pernicious 
"  notions  was  not  in  the  Magistrate's  power  ;  he  had  nothing  to  do 
"  with  it.  Not  so  much  as  the  printing  of  a  Bible  in  the  Nation  for 
"the  use  of  the  People,  'was  competent  to  the  Magistrate,'  lest  it 
"  should  be  imposed  upon  the  consciences  of  men," — "  for  they  would 
"  receive  the  same  traditionally  and  implicitly  from  the  Magistrate,  if 
"it  were  thus  received!"  The-  afore-mentioned  abominations  did 
thus  swell  to  this  height  among  us. 

'  So  likewise'  the  axe  was  laid  to  the  root  of  the  Ministry.!  It  was 
Antichristian,  it  was  Babylonish,  '  said  they.'  It  suffered  under  such 
a  judgment,  that  the  truth  is,  as  the  extremity  was  great  accordin;^  to 
the  former  system,;);   I  wioii   it  prove  not  as  great  according  to  this. 

The  latest  of  the  Commentators  says:  'This  drowsy  paragraph  has  not 
'  much  Pohtical  ^  Philosophy  in  it,  according  to  our  modern  established  Litany 
'of'"  toleration,"  "  freedom  of  opinion,"  "no  man  responsible  for  what  opinions  he 

*  may  form, "  &c.  &c,  ;  but  it  has  some  honest  human  sagacity   in  it,  of  a  much 

*  more  perennial  and  valuable  character.  Worth  looking  back  upon,  worth  looking 
^up  towards,  -as  the  blue  skies  and  stars  might  be,  if  through  the  great  deep 
'  element  of   "  temporary  London  Fog  "  there  were  any  chance  of  seeing  them  !— 

*  Strange  exhalations   have  risen  upon  us,  and  the  Fog  is  very  deep  :  nevertheless 

*  rery  indubitably  the  ttars  still  are.'  +  Preaching  Clergy. 

ij:  '  on  that  hand    in  orig.     He  alludes  tg  the  Presbyterian  system. 


SPEECH  11.  255 


The  former  extremity  *  we  suffered  under  '  was,  That  no  man,  though 
he  had  never  so  good  a  testimony,  though  he  had  received  gifts  from 
Christ,  might  preach,  unless  ordained.  So  now  '  I  think  we  are  at 
the  other  extremity,  when '  many  affirm,  That  he  who  is  ordained 
hath  anulhty,  or  Antichristianism,  stamped  '  thereby'  upon  his  calhng; 
so  that  he  ought  not  to  preach,  or  not  be  heard. — I  wish  it  may  not  be 
too  justly  said,  That  there"  was  severity  and  sharpness '  in  our  old  system !' 
Yea,  too  much  of  an  imposing  spirit  in  matters  of  conscience  ;  a  spirit 
Unchristian  enough  in  any  times,  most  unfit  for  these  'times' — deny- 
ing liberty  '  of  conscieace '  to  men  who  have  earned  it  with  their 
blood  ;  who  have  earned  civil  liberty,  and  religious  also,  for  those 
[Stifled  munmirs  from  the  Presbyterian  Sect^  who  would  thus  impose 
upon  them  ! — 

We  may  reckon,  among  these  our  Spiritual  evils,  an  evil  that  hath 
more  refinedness  in  it,  more  colour  for  it,  and  hath  deceived  more 
people  of  integrity  than  the  rest  have  done  ; — for  few  have  been 
catched  by  the  former  mistakes  except  such  as  have  apostatised  from 
their  holy  profession,  such  as  being  corrupt  in  their  consciences  have 
been  forsaken  by  God,  and  left  to  such  noisome  opinions.  But,  I  say, 
there  is  another  error  of  more  refined  sort  ;  '  which '  many  honest 
people  whose  hearts  are  sincere,  many  of  them  belonging  to  God, 
'  have  fallen  into  : '  and  that  is  the  mistaken  notion  ot  the  Fifth 
Monarchy — 

[Yes,  your  Highness  ! — But  will  his  Highness  and  the  old  Parlia- 
ment be  pleased  here  to  pause  a  little,  till  a  faithful  Editor  take  the 
great  liberty  of  explaining  somewhat  to  the  modern  part  of  the  audi- 
ence? Here  is  a  Note  saved  from  destruction  ;  not  without  difficulty. 
To  his  Highness  and  the  old  Parliament  it  will  be  inaudible  ;  to 
them,  standing  very  impassive, — serene,  immovable  in  the  fixedness 
of  the  old  Eternities, — it  will  be  no  hardship  to  wait  a  little  !  And  to 
us  who  still  live  and  listen,  it  may  have  its  uses. 

'  The  common  mode  of  treating  Universal  History,'  says  our  latest 
impatient  Commentator,  '  not  yet  entirely  fallen  obsolete  in  this 
'  country,  though  it  has  been  abandoned  with  much  ridicule  every- 
'  where  else  for  half  a  century  now,  was  to  group  the  Aggregate  Tran- 
'  sactions  of  the  Human  Species  into  Four  Monarchies  :  the  Assyrian 
'  Monarchy  of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  Company  :  tiie  Persians  of  Cyrus 
'  and  ditto  ;  the  Greek  of  Alexander  ;  and  lastly  the  Roman.  These 
'  I  think  were  they,  but  am  no  great  authority  on  the  subject.  Under 
'  the  dregs  of  this  last,  or  Roman  Empire,  which  is  maintained  yet 
'  by  express  name  in  Germany,  Das  heili^e  Romische  Reich,  we  poor 
'  moderns  still  live.  But  now  say  Major-General  Harrison  and  a 
'  number  of  men,  founding  on  Bible  Prophecies,  Now  shall  be  a  Fifth 
'  Monarchy,  by  far  the  blessedest  and  the  only  real  one, — the  Monarchy 
'  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  Saints  reigning  for  him  here  on  Earth, — if  not 
'  he  himself,  which  is  probable  or  possible, — for  a  thousand  years,  &c. 

'  &c. O  Heavens,  there  are  tears  for  human   destiny  ;  and  im- 

'  mortal  Hope  itself  is  beautiful  because  it  is  steeped  in  Sorrow,  and 
'  foolish  Desire  hes  vanquished  under  its  feet  !  They  who  merely 
*  laugh  at  Harrison  take  but  a  small  portion  of  his  meaning  with 


256  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

^  them.     Thou,  with  some  tear  for  the  valiant  Harrison,  if  with  any 

*  thought  of  him  at  all,  tend  thou  also  valiantly,  in  thy  day  and  gene- 

*  ration,  w  hither  he  was   tending  ;  and  know  that,  in  far  wider  and 

*  diviner  figure  than  tjiat  of  Harrison,  the  Prophecy  is  very  sure, 
<  — that  it  shall  be  sure  while  one  brave  man  survives  among  the  dim 

*  bewildered  populations  of  this  world.  Good  shall  reign  on  this 
'Earth:  has  ?z^/ the  Most  High  said  it?  To  approve  Harrison,  to 
'  justify  Harrison,  will  avail  little  for  thee  ;  go  and   do  likewise.     Go 

*  and  do  better,  thou  that  disapprovest  him.  Spend  thou  thy  life  for 
'  the  Eternal ;  we  will  call  thee  also  brave,  and  remember  thee  for  a 

*  while  ! ' 

So  much  for  '  that  mistaken  notion  of  the  Fifth  Monarchy  : '  and 
now  his  Highness,  tragically  audible  across  the  Centuries,  continues 
again  :] 

*— Fifth  Monarchy.  A  thing  pretending  more  spirituality  than  any- 
thing else.     A  notion  I  hope  we  all   honour,  and  wait,  and  hope  for 

*  the  fulfilment  of :'  That  Jesus  Christ  will  have  a  time  to  set  up  His 
Reign  in  our  hearts  ;  by  subduing  those  corruptions  and  lusts  and 
evils  that  are  there  ;  which  now  reign  more  in  the  world  than,  I  hope, 
in  due  time  they  shall  do.  And  when  more  fulness  of  the  Spirit  is 
poured  forth  to  subdue  iniquity,  and  bring-in  everlasting  righteousness, 
then  will  the  approach  of  that  glory  be.  [Most  true ; — and  not  till 
then  /]  The  carnal  divisions  and  contentions  among  Christians,  so 
common,  are  not  the  symptoms  of  that  Kingdom  ! — But  for  men,  on 
this  principle,  to  betitle  themselves,  that  they  are  the  only  men  to  rule 
kingdoms,  govern  nations,  and  give  laws  to  people,  and  determine  of 
property  and  liberty  and  everything  else, — upon  such  a  pretension  as 
this  is  : — truly  they  had  need  '  to  '  give  clear  manifestations  of  God's 
presence  with  them,  before  wise  men  will  receive  or  submit  to  their 
conclusions  !  Nevertheless,  as  many  of  these  men  have  good  mean- 
ings, which  I  hope  in  my  soul  they  have,  it  will  be  the  wisdom  of  all 
knowing  and  experienced  Christians  to  do  as  Jude  saith.  '  Jude,' 
when  he  reckoned  up  those  horrible  things,  done  upon  pretences,  and 
haply  by  some  upon  mistakes  :  "  Of  some,"  says  he,  "  have  com- 
passion, making  a  difference  ;  others  save  with  fear,  pulling  them 
out  of  the  fire."*  I  fear  they  will  give  too  often  opportunity  for  this 
exercise  !  But  I  hope  the  same  will  be  for  their  good.  If  men  do  but 
*so  much  as  '  pretend  for  justice  and  righteousness,  and  be  of  peace- 
able spirits,  and  will  manifest  this,  let  them  be  the  subjects  of  the 
Magistrate's  encouragement.  And  if  the  Magistrate,  by  punishing 
visible  miscarriages,  save  them  by  that  discipline,  God  having  ordained 
him  for  that  end,—  I  hope  it  will  evidence  love  and  not  hatred  '  so ' 
to  punish  where  there  is  cause.     \Hear  !'\ 

Indeed  this  is  that  which  doth  most  declare  the  danger  t  of  that 
spirit.  For  if  these  were  but  notions, —  I  mean  these  instances  I  have 
given  you  of  dangerous  doctrines  both  in  Civil  things  and  Spiritual  ; 
if,  I  say,  they  were  but  notions,  they  were  best  let  alone.     Notions  will 

*  Jude,  22,  23.     A  passage  his  Highness  frequently  refers  to. 
t  This  fact,    that   they   come  so   often   to  '  visible   miscarriages,    these  Fifth- 
Mpnarchists  and  Speculative  Levellers,  who  '  iiave  good  meanings. 


SPEECH  IL  257 


hurt  none  but  those  that  have  them.  But  when  they  come  to  such 
practices  as  telling  us,  '  for  instance/  That  Liberty  and  Property  are 
not  the  badges  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ ;  when  they  tell  us,  not 
that  we  are  to  regulate  Law,  but  that  Law  is  to  be  abrogated,  indeed 
subverted  ;  and  perhaps  wish  to  bring  in  the  Judaical  Law — 

[Latest  Commentator  loquitur:  'This,  as  we  observed,  was  t)ie 
'  cry  that  Westminster  raised  when  the  Little  Parliament  set  about 

*  reforming  Chancery.     What  countenance  this  of  the  Mosaic   Law 

*  might  have  had  from  Harrison  and  hi^  minority,  one  does  not  know. 

*  Probably  they  did  find  the  Mosaic  Law,  in  some  of  its  enactments, 

*  more  cognate  to  Eternal  Justice  and  "the  mind  of  God  "  than  West- 

*  minster- Hal!  Law  was  ;  and  so  might  reproachfully  or  admonitorily 
'  appeal    to    it   on    occasion,    as   they    had    the   clearest    title  and 

*  call  to  do  :  but  the  clamour  itself,  as  significant  of  any  practical  in- 

*  tention,  on  the  part  of  that  Parliament,  or  of  any  considerable  Sect 
'  in  England,  to  bring  in   the   Mosaic   Law,  is   very  clearly  a  long- 

*  wigged  one,  rising  from  the  Chancery  regions,  and  is  descriptive  of 
'  nothing  but  of  the   humour  that   prevailed  there.     His  Highness 

*  alludes  to  it  in  passing  ;  and  from  him  it  was  hardly  worth  even 
''that  allusion.'] 

-Judaical  Law  ;  instead  of  our  known  laws  settled  among  us  :  this 
is  worthy  of  every  Magistrate's  consideration.  Especially  where 
every  stone  is  turned  to  bring  in  confusion.  I  think,  I  say,  this  will 
be  worthy  of  the  Magistrate's  consideration.  \Shall  he  step  beyond 
his  province,  then,  yout  Highness?  And  interfere  with  Jreedom  of 
opinion  f — "  /  think,  I  say,  it  will  be  worth  his  while  to  consider 
about  it  I ''^ 

Whilst  these  things  were  in  the  midst  of  us  ;  and  whilst  the  Nation 
was  rent  and  torn  in  spirit  and  principle  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
after  this  sort  and  manner  I  have  now  told  you  ;  family  against  family, 
husband  against  wife,  parents  against  children  ;  and  nothing  in  the 
liearts  and  minds  of  men  but  "  Overturn,  overturn,  overturn  ! "  (a 
Scripture  phrase  very  much  abused,  and  apphed  to  justify  unpeace- 
able  practices  by  all  men  of  discontented  spirits), —the  common 
Enemy  sleeps  not  :  our  adversaries  in  civil  and  religious  respects  did 
take  advantage  of  these  distractions  and  divisions,  and  did  practise 
accordingly  in  the  three  Nations  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland. 
We  know  very  well  that  Emissaries  oif  the  Jesuists  never  came  in 
such  swarms  as  they  have  done  since  those  things'^  were  set  on  foot. 
iVnd  I  tell  you  that  divers  Gentlemen  here  can  bear  witness  with  me 
How  that  they,  '  the  Jesuits,'  have  had  a  consistory  abroad  which  rules 
all  the  affairs  of  things  ["  ^^^^-^  ^^'^"^'.^•^' "  rough  and  ready  f]  in 
England,  from  an  Archbishop  down  to  the  other  dependents  upon 
him.  And  they  have  fixed  in  England,  of  which  we  are  able  to  pro- 
duce the  particular  Instruments  in  most  of  the  limits  of  their  Cathe 
i'rals 'or  pretended  Dioceses, — an  Episcopal  Power  [Regular  Epis- 
copacy of  their  own  J\  with  Archdeacons,  &c.  And  had  persons 
*  Speculations  of  the  Levellers,  Fifth-Monarchists,  &c.  &c. 

VOL.  II.  % 


258  FIRST  PRO-'  ECTORATE  PARLIAMENT 

authorised  to  exercise  and  distribute  those  things  [/  bef^in  to  love  that 
rough  and  ready  method,  in  comparison  with  some  others  /]  ;  who 
pervert  and  deceive  the  people.  And  all  this,  while  we  were  in 
that  sad,  and  as  I  said  deplorable  condition 

And  in  the  mean  time  all  endeavours  possible  were  used  to  hinder 
the  work  '  of  God'  in  Ireland,  and  the  progress  of  the  work  of  God  in 
Scotland  ;  by  continual  intelligences  and  correspondences,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  from  hence  into  Ireland,  and  from  hence  into 
Scotland."*^  Persons  were  stirred  up,  from  our  divisions  and  discom- 
posure of  affairs,  to  do  all  they  could  to  ferment  the  War  in  both 
these  places.  To  add  yet  to  our  misery,  whilst  we  were  in  this  con- 
dition, we  were  in  a  '  foreign '  War.  Deeply  engaged  in  War  with 
the  Portuguese  ;t  whereby  our  Trade  ceased  :  the  evil  consequences 
by  that  War  were  manifest  and  very  considerable.  And  not  only 
this,  but  we  had  a  War  with  Holland  ;  consuming  our  treasure  ; 
occasioning  a  vast  burden  upon  the  people.  A  War  that  cost  this 
Nation  full  as  much  as  the  '  whole  '  Taxes  came  unto  ;  the  Navy 
being  a  Hundred-and-Sixty  Ships,  which  cost  this  Nation  above 
£\oopoo  a-month  ;  besides  the  contingencies,  which  would  make  it 
;^i  20,000.  That  very  one  War  {sic)  did  engage  us  to  so  great  a 
charge. — At  the  same  time  also  we  were  in  a  W^ar  with  France.  \A 
Bickering  and  Skit  mis Iiing,  and  Liability  to  War  ;—Mazarin,  as  yet, 
thinking  our  side  the  weaker.']  The  advantages  that  were  taken  of  the 
discontents  and  divisions  among  ourselves  did  also  ferment  that  War, 
and  at  least  hinder  us  from  an  honourable  peace  ;  every  man  being 
confident  we  could  not  hold  out  long.  And  surely  they  did  not 
calculate  amiss,  if  the  Lord  had  not  been  exceedingly  gracious  to  us  !  I 
say,  at  the  same  time  we  had  a  War  with  France.  \Yes, your  Highness 
said  so,~and  we  admit  it  !~\  And  besides  the  sufferings  in  respect  to 
the  Trade  of  the  Nation,  it's  most  evident  that  the  Purse  of  the 
Nation  could  not  have  been  able  much  longer  to  bear  it,— by  reason 
of  the  advantages  taken  by  other  States  to  improve  their  own,  and 
spoil  our  Manufacture  of  Cloth,  and  hinder  the  vent  thereof ;  which 
is  the  great  staple  commodity  of  this  Nation.  \^And  has  continued  to 
be ./]  Such  was  our  condition  :  spoiled  in  our  Trade,  and  we  at  this 
vast  expense  ;  thus  dissettled  at  home,  and  having  these  engagements 
abroad. 

Things  being  so,— and  I  am  persuaded  it  is  not  hard  to  convince 
every  person  here  they  were  so,— what  a  heap  of  confusions  were 
upon  these  poor  Nations  !  And  either  things  must  have  been  left  to 
sink  into  the  miseries  these  premises  would  suppose,  or  else  a  remedy 
must  be  applied.  {Apparently ./]  A  remedy  hath  been  applied  :  that 
hath  been  this  Government ;  \  a  thing  I  shall  say  little  unto.  The 
thing  is  open  and  visible  to  be  seen  and  read  by  all  men  ;  and  there- 
fore let  it  speak  for  itself.  \Even  so,  your  Highness  ,  there  is  a  silence 

*  Middleton-Glencairn  Revolts,  and  what  not. 

t  Who  protected  Rupert  in  his  quasi-piracies,  and  did  require  chastisement 
from  us. 

T  He  means,  and  his  hearers  understand  him  to  mean,    Form  of  Government 
mainly  ;  but  he  diverges  now  and  then  into  our  modern  acceptation  of  the  word 
'Government,  —Administration  or  Supreme  Authority. 


SPEECH  II. 


prouder  and  nobler  than  any  speech  one  is  used  to  hear."]  Only  let  me 
say  this, — because  I  can  speak  it  with  comfort  and  confidence  before 
a  Greater  than  you  all  :  That  in  the  intention  of  it,  as  to  the  approv- 
ing of  our  hearts  to  God,  let  men  judge  as  they  please,  it  was 
calculated  '  with  our  best  wisdom '  for  the  interest  of  the  People. 
For  the  interest  of  the  People  alone,  and  for  their  good,  without  re- 
spect had  to  any  other  interest.  And  if  that  be  not  true  [IVi'th 
animation  !\  I  shall  be  bold  to  say  again,  Let  it  speak  for  itself. 
Truly  I  may, — I  hope,  humbly  before  God,  and  modestly  before  you, 
— say  somewhat  on  the  behalf  of  the  Government.  S^Recite  a  little 
"  what  it  speaks  for  itself,"  after  all  ?]  Not  that  I  would  discourse 
of  the  particular  heads  of  it,  but  acquaint  you  a  httle  with  the  effects 
it  has  had  :  and  this  not  for  ostentation's  sake,  but  to  the  end  I  may 
at  this  time  deal  faithfully  with  you  ;  and  acquaint  you  with  the  state 
of  things,  and  what  proceedings  have  been  entered  into  by"*  this 
Government,  and  what  the  state  of  our  affairs  is.  This  is  the  main 
end  of  my  putting  you  to  this  trouble. 

The  Government  hath  had  some  things  in  desire  ;  and  it  hath  done 
some  things  actually.  It  hath  desired  to  reform  the  Laws.  I  say  »o 
reform  them  [Hear!]: — and  for  that  end  it  hath  called  together 
Persons,  without  offence  be  it  spoken,  of  as  great  ability  and  as  great 
interest  as  are  in  these  Nations,t  to  consider  how  the  Laws  might  be 
made  plain  and  short,  and  less  chargeable  to  the  People ;  how  to 
lessen  expense,  for  the  good  of  the  Nation.  And  those  things  are  in 
preparation,  and  Bills  prepared  ;  which  in  due  time,  I  make  no  ques- 
tion, will  be  tendered  to  you.  'In  the  meanwhile'  there  hath  been 
care  taken  to  put  the  administration  of  the  Laws  into  the  hands 
of  just  men  [Mat/hew  Hale,  for  instance.']  ;  men  of  the  most 
known  integrity  and  ability.     The  Chancery  hath  been  reformed — 

[From  the  Moderns  :  *  Only  to  a  very  small  extent  and  in  a  very 
temporary  manner,  your  Highness  !  His  Highness  returns  upon  the 
Law,  on  subsequent  occasions,  and  finds  the  reform  of  it  still  a  very 
pressing  matter.  Difficult  to  sweep  the  intricate  foul  chimneys  of 
Law  his  Highness  found  it, — as  we  after  two  centuries  of  new  soot 
and  accumulation  now  acknowledge  on  all  hands,  with  a  sort  of 
silent  despair,  a  silent  wonder  each  one  of  us  to  himself,  "What,  in 
God's  name,  is  to  become  of  all  that .?  " '] 

— hath  been  reformed  ;  I  hope,  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  good  men  : 
and  as  for  the  things,  'or  causes,'  depending  there,  which  made  the 
burden  and  work  of  the  honourable  Persons  intrusted  in  those  ser- 
vices too  heavy  for  their  ability,  it^  hath  referred  many  of  them  to 
those  places  where  Englishmen  love  to  have  their  rights  tried,  the 
Courts  of  Law  at  Westminster. 

This  Government  hath,  '  farther,'  endeavoured  to  put  a  stop  to  that 
heady  way  (likewise  touched  of  'in  our  Sermon 'this  day)  of  every 
man  making  himself  a  Minister  and  Preacher.  [Commission  of 
Triers;  Yea/]     It  hath  endeavoured  to  settle  a  method  for  the  ap- 

*  '  been  upon    in  orig. 

t  Ordinance  for  the  Reform  of  Chancery :  supra,  p.  240. 

±  The  Government. 


56o  FIRST  PROTECTdRATE  PARLIAMEMT 

proving  and  sanctioning  of  men  of  piety  and  ability  to  discharge  that 
work.  And  I  think  I  may  say  it  hath  committed  the  business  to  the 
trust  of  Persons,  both  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Independent  judg- 
ments, of  as  known  abihty,  piety  and  integrity,  as  any,  I  beheve, 
this  Nation  hath.  And  I  beheve  also  that,  in  that  care  they  have 
taken,  they  have  laboured  to  approve  themselves  to  Christ,  to  the 
Nation  and  to  their  own  consciences.  And  indeed  I  think,  if  there 
be  anything  of  quarrel  against  them, — though  I  am  not  here  to  justify 
the  proceedings  of  any, — it  is  that  they,  'in  fact,'  go  upon  such  a 
character  as  the  Scripture  warrants  :  To  put  men  into  that  great 
Employment,  and  to  approve  men  for  it,  who  are  men  that  have 
"  received  gifts  from  Him  that  ascended  up  on  high,  and  gave  gifts" 
for  the  work  of  the  Ministry,  and  for  the  edifying  of  the  Body  of 
Christ.  The  Government  hath  also  taken  care,  we  hope,  for  the 
expulsion  [Coiwnissioii  of  Expiirgatioft,  too.']  of  all  those  who  may  be 
judged  any  way  unfit  for  this  work  ;  who  are  scandalous,  and  the 
common  scorn  and  contempt  of  that  function. 

One  thing  more  this  Government  hath  done  :  it  hath  been  instru- 
mental to  call  a  free  Parliament  ; — which,  blessed  be  God,  we  see 
here  this  day  !  I  say,  a  free  Parliament.  [Mark  the  iteration  J]  And 
that  it  may  continue  so,  I  hope  is  in  the  heart  and  spirit  of  every  good 
man  in  Englaiid, — save  such  discontented  persons  as  1  have  formerly 
mentioned.  It's  that  which  I  have  desired  above  my  life,  so  I  shall 
desire  to  keep  it  above  my  life.     [  Verily  ?] 

I  did  before  mention  to  you  the  plunges  we  were  in  with  respect  to 
Foreign  States  ;  by  the  War  with  Portugal,  France,  the  Dutch,  the 
Danes,  and  the  little  assurance  we  had  from  any  of  our  neighbours 
round  about.  I  perhaps  forgot,  but  indeed  it  was  a  caution  upon  my 
mind,  and  I  desire  now  it  may  be  so  understood,  That  if  any  good 
hath  been  done,  it  was  the  Lord,  not  we  His  poor  instruments. — 

[Pity  if  this  pass  entirely  for  '  cant,'  my  esteemed  modern  friends  ! 
It  is  not  cant,  nor  ought  to  be.  O  Higginbotham,  there  is  a 
Selbstodtiins^,  a  killing  of  Self,  as  my  friend  Novahs  calls  it,  which  is, 
was,  and  forever  will  be,  '  the  beginning  of  all  morality,'  of  all  real 
work  and  worth  for  man  under  this  Sun.] 

—I  did  instance  the  Wars  ;  which  did  exhaust  your  treasure  ;  and 
put  you  into  such  a  condition  that  you  must  have  sunk  therein,  if  it 
had  continued  but  a  few  months  longer  :  this  I  can  affirm,  if  strong 
probability  may  be  a  fit  ground.  And  now  you  have,  though  it  be 
not  the  first  in  time,— Peace  with  Swedeland  ;  an  honourable  peace  ; 
through  the  endeavours  of  an  honourable  Person  here  present  as  the 
instrument.  [  Whitlocke  seen  blushing  !\  I  say  you  have  an  honour- 
able peace  with  a  Kingdom  which,  not  many  years  since,  was  much  a 
friend  to  France,  and  lately  perhaps  inclinable  enough  to  the  Spaniard. 
And  I  believe  you  expect  not  much  good  from  any  of  your  Catholic 
neighbours.  [No  .-  ive  are  7iot  exactly  their  darlings  I]  ;  nor  yet  that 
they  would  be  very  willing  you  should  have  a  good  understanding  with 
your  Protestant  friends.  Yet,  thanks  be  to  God,  that  Peace  is  con- 
cluded ;  and  as  I  said  before,  it  is  an  honourable  Peace. 
You  have  a  Peace  with  the  Danes,— a  State  that  lay  contiguous  to 


SPEECH  II.  261 


that  part  of  this  Island  [Vour  Montroses,  Middletons  came  always^ 
with  their  Mosstroopers  and  Harpy  hosts,  out  of  the  Danish  quarter.^ 
which  hath  given  us  the  most  trouble.  And  certainly  if  your  enemies 
abroad  be  able  to  annoy  you,  it  is  likely  they  will  take  their  advantage 
(where  it  best  lies)  to  give  you  trouble  from  that  country.  But  you 
have  a  Peace  there,  and  an  honourable  one.  Satisfaction  to  your 
Merchants'  ships  ;  not  only  to  their  content,  but  to  their  rejoicing.*  I 
beHeve  you  will  easily  know  it  is  so, — '  an  honourable  peace.'  You 
have  the  Sound  open,  which  used  to  be  obstructed.  That  which  was 
and  is  the  strength  of  this  Nation,  the  Shipping,  will  now  be  supplied 
thence.  And,  whereas  you  were  glad  to  have  anything  of  that  kindf 
at  secondhand,  you  have  now  all  manner  of  commerce  there,  and  at  as 
much  freedom  as  the  Dutch  themselves,.'  who  used  to  be  the  carriers 
and  venders  of  it  to  us  ;'  and  at  the  same  rates  and  tolls  ;— and  I 
think,  by  that  Peace,  the  said  rates  now  fixed  upon  cannot  be  raised 
to  you  '  in  future.' 

You  have  a  Peace  with  the  Dutch  :  a  Peace  unto  which  T  shall  say 
little,  seeing  it  is  so  well  known  in  the  benefit  and  consequences  there- 
of. And  I  think  it  was  as  desirable,  and  as  acceptable  to  the  spirit  of 
this  Nation,  as  any  one  thing  that  lay  before  us.  And,  as  I  believe  no- 
thing so  much  gratified  our  enemies  as  to  see  us  at  odds  '  with  that 
Commonwealth  ;'  so  I  persuade  myself  nothing  is  of  more  terror  or 
trouble  to  them  than  to  see  us  thus  reconciled.  '  Truly '  as  a  Peace 
with  the  Protestant  States  hath  much  security  in  it,  so  it  hath  as  much 
of  honour  and  of  assurance  to  the  Protestant  Interest  abroad  ;  with- 
out which  no  assistance  can  be  given  thereunto.  I  wish  it  may  be 
written  upon  our  hearts  to  be  zealous  for  that  Interest  !  For  if  ever 
it  were  like  to  come  under  a  condition  of  suffering,  it  is  now.  In  all 
the  Emperor's  Patrimonial  Territories,  the  endeavour  is  to  drive  the 
Protestant  part  of  the  People  out,  as  fast  as  is  possible  ;  and  they  are 
necessitated  to  run  to  Protestant  States  to  seek  their  bread.  And  by 
this  conjunction  of  Interests,  I  hope,  you  will  be  in  a  more  fit  capacity 
to  help  them.  And  it  begets  some  reviving  of  their  spirits,  that  you 
will  help  them  as  opportunity  shall  serve.     [We  will .'^ 

You  have  a  Peace  likewise  with  the  Crown  of  Portugal ;  which 
Peace,  though  it  hung  long  in  hand,  yet  is  lately  concluded.  It  is  a 
Peace  which,  your  Merchants  make  us  believe,  is  of  good  concern- 
ment to  their  trade  ;  the  rate  of  insurance  to  that  country  having  been 
higher,  and  so  the  profit  which  could  bear  such  rate,;J:  than  to  other 
places.  And  one  thing  hath  been  obtained  in  this  treaty,  which  never 
*  before'  was,  since  the  Inquisition  was  set  up  there  :  That  our  people 
which  trade  thither  have' Liberty  of  Conscience, — 'liberty  to  worship 
in  Chapels  of  their  own. 

Indeed  Peace  is,  as  you  were  well  told  today,  desirable  with  all 

*  '  Danish  claims  settled,'  as  was  already  said  somewhere,  'on  the  31st  of  July;' 
Dutch  and  English  Commissioners  did  it,  in  Goldsmiths'  Hall ;  met  on  the  27th  of 
June;  if  the  business  were  not  done  when  August  began,  they  were  then  to  be  'shut 
up  without  fire,  candle,  meat  or  drink,' — and  to  do  it  out  very  speedily!  They 
allowed  our  Merchants ^,^98, 000  for  damages  against  the  Danes.  (Goodwin,  iv. 
49, — who  cites  Dumont,  Traits  2^) 

t  Baltic  produce,  namely. 

j  '  their  assurance  being  greater,  and  so  their  profit  in  trade  thither,'  in  orig^ 


l(i2  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARTJAMRNT. 


men,  as  far  as  it  may  be  had  with  conscience  and  honour  !  We  are 
upon  a  Treaty  wii  h  France.  And  we  may  say  this,  That  if  God  give  us 
honour  in  the  eyes  of  the  Nations  about  us,  we  have  reason  to  bless 
Him  for  it,  and  so  to  own  it.  And  I  dare  say  that  there  is  not  a 
Nation  in  Europe  but  is  very  wilhng  to  ask  a  good  understandmg  with 
you. 

I  am  sorry  I  am  thus  tedious  :  but  I  did  judge  that  it  was 
somewhat  necessary  to  acquaint  you  with  these  things.  And 
things  being  so, — I  hope  you  will  not  be  unwillng  to  hear  a  little 
again  of  the  Sharp  as  well  as  of  the  Sweet!  And  I  should  not  be  faith- 
ful to  you,  nor  to  the  interests  of  these  Nations  which  you  and  I  serve, 
it  1  did  not  let  you  know  all. 

As  I  said  before,  when  this  Government  was  undertaken,  we  were 
in  the  midst  of  those  '  domestic  '  divisions  and  animosities  and  scat- 
terings ;  engaged  also  with  those  '  foreign  '  enemies  round  about  us, 
at  such  a  vast  charge, — ^120,000  a-month  for  the  very  Fleet.  Which 
sum  was  the  very  utmost  penny  of  your  Assessments.  Ay  ;  and  then 
all  your  treasure  was  exhausted  and  spent  when  this  Government  was 
undertaken  :  all  accidental  ways  of  bringing  in  treasure  'were'  to 
a  very  inconsiderable  sum,  consumed  ;— the  '  forfeited '  Lands  sold, 
the  sums  on  hand  spent ;  Rents,  Fee-farms,  Delinquents'  Lands, 
King's,  C2ueen's,  Bishops',  Dean-and-Chapters'  Lands,  sold.  These 
were  spent  when  this  Government  was  undertaken.  I  think  it's  my 
duty  to  let  you  know  so  much.  And  that's  the  reason  why  the  Taxes 
do  yet  lie  so  heavy  upon  the  People  ;— of  which  we  have  abated 
^30,000  a-month  for  the  next  three  months.  Truly  1  thought  it  my 
duty  to  let  you  know,  That,  though  God  hath  dealt  thus  'bountifully' 
with  you,'^  yet  these  are  but  entrances  and  doors  of  hope.  Whereby, 
through  the  blessing  of  God,  you  may  enter  into  rest  and  peace.  But 
you  are  not  yet  entered!  S^Lookitig  7tp,  with  a  mournful  toss  of  the 
head.  I  thiiik. — "  Ah^  Jii),  vour  Hiirhness  ;  not  yet  P'A^ 

You  were  told,  today,  of  a  People  brought  out  of  Egypt  towards  the 
Land  of  Canaan  ;  but  through  unbelief,  murmuring,  repining,  and 
other  temptations  and  sins  wherewith  God  was  provoked,  they  were 
fain  to  come  back  again,  and  linger  many  years  in  the  Wilderness 
before  they  came  to  the  Place  of  Rest.  We  are  thus  far,  through  the 
mercy  of  God.  We  have  cause  to  take  notice  of  it,  That  we  are  not 
brought  into  misery,  '  not  totally  wrecked  ; '  but  '  have,'  as  1  said 
before,  a  door  of  hope  open.  And  I  may  say  this  to  you  :  If  the 
Lord's  blessing  and  His  presence  go  along  with  the  management  of 
affairs  at  this  Meeting,  you  will  be  enabled  .to  put  the  topstone  to  the 
work,  and  make  the  Nation  happy.  But  this  must  be  by  knowing 
the  true  state  of  affairs  !  {Hear  /]  You  are  yet,  like  the  People  under 
Circumcision,  but  raw.f  Your  Peaces  are  but  newly  made.  And 
it's  a  maxim  not  to  be  despised,  "  Though  pea^e  be  made,  yet  it's 
interest  that  keeps  peace  ;" — and  I  hope  you  will  not  trust  such  peace 
except  so  far  as  you  see  interest  upon  it.     '  But  all  settlement  grows 

*  in  regard  to  our  Successes  and  Treaties,  &x.  enumerated  above. 
+  See,   in   Joshtta,  v.    2-8,  the   whole  Jewish   Nation  circumcised  at  once.     So, 
too,  your  itetilements  of  Discord  are  yel  but  indifferently  cicatrised. 


SPEECH  II.  263 


stronger  by  mere  continuance.'  And  therefore  I  wish  that  you  may 
go  forward,  and  not  backward  ;  and  '  in  brief  that  you  may  have  the 
blessing  of  God  upon  your  endeavours  I  It's  one  of  the  great  ends  of 
calhng  this  Parhament,  that  the  Ship  of  the  Commonwealth  may  be 
brought  into  a  safe  harbour  ;  which,  1  assure  you,  it  will  not  be,  with- 
out your  counsel  and  advice. 

You  have  great  works  upon  your  hands.  You  have  Ireland  to  look 
unto.  There  is  not  much  done  to  the  Planting  thereof,  though  some 
things  leading  and  preparing  for  it  are.  It  is  a  great  business  to  settle 
the  Government  of  that  Nation  upon  ht  terms,  such  as  will  bear  that 
work*  through.— You  have  had  laid  before  you  some  considerations, 
intimating  your  peace  with  several  foreign  States.  But  yet  you  have 
not  made  peace  with  all.  And  if  they  should  see  we  do  not  manage 
our  affairs  with  that  wisdom  which  becomes  us,— truly  we  may  sink 
under  disadvantages,  for  all  that's  done  [Truly,  your  Hig/mess  /] 
And  our  enemies  will  have  their  eyes  open,  and  be  revived,  if  they  see 
animosities  amongst  us  ;  which  indeed  will  be  their  great  advantage. 

I  do  therefore  persuade  you  to  a  sweet,  gracious  and  holy  under- 
standing of  one  another,  and  of  your  business.  [Alas  I^  Concerning 
which  you  had  so  good  counsel  this  day  ;  which  as  it  rejoiced  my  heart 
to  hear,  so  I  hope  the  Lord  will  imprint  it  upon  your  spirits,—  wherein 
you  shall  have  my  Prayers.  [Prayers,  your  highness  ? — //  this  be 
not  ^^  cant,''  what  a  noble  thing  is  it,  O  reader  I  Worth  thinking  of, 
for  a  j^oment^ 

Having  said  this,  and  perhaps  omitted  many  other  material  things 
through  the  frailty  ©f  my  memory,  I  shall  exercise  plainness  and  free- 
ness  with  you  ;  and  say,  That  I  have  not  spoken  these  things  as  one 
who  assumes  to  himself  dominion  over  you  ;  but  as  one  who  doth 
resolve  to  be  a  fellow-servant  with  you  to  the  interest  of  these  great 
affairs,  and  of  the  "People  of  these  Nations.  I  shall  trouble  you  no 
longer  ;  but  desire  you  to  repair  to  your  House,  and  to  exercise  your 
our  liberty  in  the  choice  of  a  Speaker,  that  so  you  may  lose  no  time  in 
carrying  on  your  work.t 

At  this  Speech,  say  the  old  Newspapers,  'all  generally  seemed 
*  abundantly  to  rejoice,  by  extraordinary  expressions  and  hums  at  the 
'conclusion,' — Hum-m-m  !J  'His  Highness  withdrew  into  the  old 
'  House  of  Lords,  and  the  Members  of  Parliament  into  the  Parliament 
'  House.  His  Highness,  so  soon  as  the  Parliament  were  gone  to 
'  tlj^eir  House,  went  back  to  Whitehall,  privately  in  his  barge,  by 
'  water.' 

This  Report  of  Speech  Second,  '  taken  by  one  that  stood  near,'  and 
'  published  to  prevent  mistakes,'  may  be  considered  as  exact  enough 
in  respect  of  matter,  but  in  manner  and  style  it  is  probably  not  so 
close  to  the  Original  Deliverance  as  the  foregoing  Speech  was.  He 
'  who  stood  near '  on  this  occasion  seems  to  have  had  some  conceit  in 

*  Of  planting  Ireland  with  persons  that  will  plough  and  pray,  instead  of  quarrel 
and  blarney ! 

t  Old  Pamphlet  cited  above  :  reprinted  in  Parliamentary  History,  xx.  318-33. 

X  *.  roniwelliana,  p.  i^;  see  also  Guibon  Goddard,  Member  for  Lynn  (in  Burton^ 
X,  Introd.  p.  xviii.k 


264  FIRST  PROTECTORATE   PARLIAMENT. 

his  abilities  as  a  Reporter;  has  pared  off  excrescences,  peculiarities,— 
somewhat  desirous  to  present  the  Portrait  of  his  Highness  without 
the  warts.  He,  or  his  Parliamentary- History  Editor  and  he,  have,  for 
one  thing,  very  arbitrarily  divided  the  Discourse  into  little  fractional 
paragraphs  ;  which  a  good  deal  obstruct  the  sense  here  and  there  ; 
and  have  accordingly  been  disregarded  in  our  Transcript.  Our 
changes,  which,  as  before,  have  been  insignihcant,  are  indicated 
wherever  they  seem  to  have  importance  or  physiognomic  character, — 
indicated  too  often  perhaps  for  the  reader's  convenience.  As  to  the 
meaning,  I  have  not  anywhere  remained  in  doubt,  after  due  study. 
The  rough  Speech  when  read  faithfully  becomes  transparent,  every 
word  of  it;  credible,  calculated  to  produce  conviction,  every  word  of  it; 
— and  that  I  suppose  is  or  should  be,  as  our  impatient  Commentator 
says,  '  the  definition  of  a  good  Speech.  Other  "  good  speeches,"  '  con- 
tinues he,  '  ought  to  be  spoken  in  Bedlam  ; — unless,  indeed,  you  will 

*  concede  them  Drury  Lane,  and  admittance  one  shilling.  Spoken  in 
'  other  locahties  than  these,  without  belief  on   the  speaker's  part,  or 

*  hope  or  chance  of  producing  belief  on  the  hearer's — Ye  Heavens,  as 

*  if  the  good-speeching  individual   were    some  frightful  Wood-and- 

*  leather  Man,  made  at  Niirnberg,  and  tenanted  by  a  Devil  ;  set  to 
'  increase  the  Sum  of  Human  madness,  instead  of  lessening  it  —  ! '  — 
But  we  here  cut  short  our  impatient  Commentator.— The  Reporter  of 
Cromwell,  we  may  say  for  ourselves,  like  the  painter  of  him,  has  not 
to  suppress  the  warts,  the  natural  rugged  physiognomy  of  the  man  ; 
which  only  very  poor  tastes  would  exchange  for  any  other.  He  has 
to  wash  the  natural  face  clean,  however  ;  that  men  may  see  if,  and 
not  the  opaque  mass  of  mere  soot  and  featureless  confusions  which, 
in  two  Centuries  of  considerable  Stupidity  in  regard  to  that  matter, 
have  settled  there. 


END  OF  VOL.  II, 


Oliver  Cromwell's 


LETTERS  AND   SPEECHES 


mTH  ELUCIDATIONS 


THOMAS  CARLYLE 


IN   THREE    VOLUMES 

Vol.  II L 


GEORGE    ROUTLEDGE   AND   SONS 
New- York:  9  Lafayette  Place 

LONPON  and  GLASGOW 


CONTENTS. 


CROMWELL'S    LETTERS   AND    SPEECHES. 

PART   Vlll.— continued. 

First  Protectorate  Parliament.     1654. 

PAGE 

Speech  IIP  Meeting  of  the    First   Protectorate   Parliament,    12  Sept. 

1654 II 

Cannot  have  the  Foundation  of  Government  submitted  to  debate 
in  this  Assembly.  A  free  Parliament  they ;  but  he  also,  in  virtue  of 
whom  they  sit,  must  be  an  unquestioned  Protector.  His  history  since 
he  entered  on  these  Public  Struggles :  Dismissal  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment ;  Abdication  of  the  Little  Parliament ;  Protectorship,  on  what 
founded,  by  whom  acknowledged.  To  proceed  no  farther,  till  they 
acknowledge  it. 

Letter  CXXXIV.  To  R.  Bennet,  Esq.:  Whitehall,  12  Jan.  1654-5       .    32 

Virginia  and  Marryland. 

„  CXXXV.  To  Captain  Crook:  Whitehall,  20  J  an.  1654-5        .     32 

To  watch  Adjutant-Gen.  Allen. 

Speech  IV.  Dissolution  of  the  First  Protectorate  Parliament,  22  Jan. 

1654-5 35 

Regrets  that  they  have  not  communicated  with  him  ;  he  was  not 
uncencerned  with  them ;  has  been  struggling  and  endeavouring  for 
them,  keeping  Peace  r®und  them  ; — does  not  know,  on  their  part, 
whether  they  have  been  alive  or  dead.  Of  trees  that  foster  only  things 
poisonous  under  their  shadew.  Of  disturbances,  once  well  asleep, 
awakened  into  new  perilous  activity  during  these  debates.  Necessary 
^t  they  be  dissolved. 


CONTENTS. 


PART  IX. 
The  Major-Generals.     1655-56. 

PAGE 

Chronological 57 

Letter  CXXXVI.  To  Gen.  Blake:  Whitehall,  13  June,  1655      .         .     63 
The  Dey  of  Tunis.     Instructions. 

„       CXXXVII.  To  Lord  Fleetwood  :  Whitehall,  22  June,  1655       •     66 

By  the    Rev.   Mr.    Brewster.     Henry  Cromwell  gone  to 
Ireland.     Private  feelings. 

„     CXXXVIIL  To  Gen.  Blake  :  Whitehall,  30  July,  1655       .        .     69 

Instructions,  Not  yet  to  divide  the   Fleet.      Person  for 
Lisbon.  • 

Compliment 70 

Letter  CXXXIX.  To  Gen.  Blake  :  Whitehall,  13  Sept.  1655     .         .71 

Plate  Fleet. 

„  CXL.  To  Maryland  Commissioners  :  Whitehall,  26  Sept. 

165s 72 

Virginia  and  Maryland. 

Jamaica       ' •       .    75 

Letter  CXLL  To  Gen.  Goodson  :  Whitehall,  Oct.  1655    ...     78 

Of  Jamaica  : — This  and  the  two  following. 

„       CXLIL  To  D.  Serle,  Esq. :  Whitehall,  Oct.  1655      ...     80 

„     CXLIIL  To  Gen.  Fortescue  :  Whitehall,  Nov.  1655  .        .     81 

„       CXLIV.  To  Henry  Cromwell :  Whitehall,  21  Nov.  1655    .         .     84 
The  Disaffected  in  Ireland. 

,,        CXLV.  To  Generals   Blake    and    Montague  :    Whitehall,   28 

April,  1656 87 

By  Capt.  Lloyd.     Suggestions  :  Cadiz,  Puntal,  Gibraltar. 

„      CXLVL  To  the  same  :  Whitehall,  6  May,  1656  .         .         .         .89 
Claims  on-Portugal. 

„    CXLVIl.  To  Richard  Cromwell :  Whitehall,  29  May,  1656         .     91 
Can  see  Newhall. 

,,  CXLVIIL  To  Henry  Cromwell:  Whitehall,  26  Aug.  1656  .         .     95 
Dangers  in  Ireland. 

Speech  V.  Meeting  of  the  Second  Protectorate  Parliament,  17  Sept. .     98 
.    1656      .         .         .         .         ,         

Our  difficulties  :  Spain,  and  why  we  have  gone  to  war  with  Spain ; 
J*apists,  Cavaliers,  Levellers,  Fiith  Monarchists  ; — the  need  there  was 


CONTENTS.  5 


of  Major-Generals  Our  remedies  :  To  prosecute  the  war  with  vigour  ; 
to  maintain  steadily  the  aim  of  all  these  struggles,  Liberty  of  Con  - 
science  and  a  pure  Gospel  Ministry ;  to  reform  the  Law  : — to  reform 
Manners  ;  that  will  be  the  grand  remedy  of  all.  Finance.  Exhorta* 
tion  ;  Divine  encouragement  and  hope  :  Eighty-fifth  Psalm. 


PAG* 


PART  X* 

SECOND  PROtfiCTOftATte  PARLIAMENT.      1657-5S. 

Letter  CXLIX.  To-  the  Mayor  of  Newcastle  :  Whitehall,   18  Dec. 

1656 129 

Presbyterians  and  Independents. 

„  CL.  To  Cardinal  Mazarin :  Whitehall,  26  Dec.  1656        .     130 

Quarrel  between  Charles  Stuart  and  his  Brother. 

Speech  VI.  To  the  Second  Protectorate  Parliament,  23  Jan.  1656-7    .     133 
Thanks  for  their  Congratulation  on  the  failure  of  Sindercomb's 
Plot. 

Kingship 138 

Leti'ER  CLI.  To  the  same  Parliament :  Whitehall,  25  Dec.  1656        .     14O 
Case  of  James  Nayler. 

Speech  VII.  To  the  same  Parliament,  31  March,  1657        ...     144 
Reception  of  their  Petition  and  Advice  with  their  Offer  of  the 
Title  of  King.     Returns  pious  thanks;    craves  time  to  consider; 
will  then  answer. 

,,       VIII.  To  a  Committee  of  the  same  Parliament,  3  April,  1657  .      146 
Answers  with  praise  as  to  the    Petition  and  Advice  generally, 
but  as  to  the  Title  of  King,  with  distinct  though  not  emphatic  No. 

„  IX.  Conference  with  the  Committee  of  Ninety- nine  in  regard 

to  the  Title  of  King,  II  April,  1657    .         .         .         .150 

Difficulty  as  to  how  they  shall  proceed  in  this  matter  of  Confer- 
ring. 

19  X.  Second  Conference  with  the  same,  13  April,  1657  .         .158 

Endeavours  to  rebut  their  arguments,  used  in  the  former  Confer- 
ence, in  favour  of  the  Title.  Not  of  necessity  ;  at  best  only  of  ex- 
pediency or  advantage.  John  Hampden  and  the  Ironsides.  Leaves 
the  matter  undecided  :  Conference  to  be  renewed. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Speech  XI.  Third    Conference  with  the  Committee  of  Ninety- nine, 

20  April,  1657 170 

Replies  to  their  argrument  drawn  from  Law  ;  contends  that  what- 
ever Title  they,  the  Parliament,  establish,  be  it  that  of  Protector, 
or  another,  will  be  Law.  For  the  rest,  the  matter  not  an  essential ; 
unimportant  in  comparison  with  others  in  this  New  Instrument  of 
Government, — to  which  others  let  us  rather  address  ourselves. 
Conference  to  be  renewed  on  the  morrow. 

),        XII.  Fourth  Conference  with  the  same,  21  April,  1657  .         .175 
Animadverts  on  various  Articles  of  the  Petition  and  Advice,  or 
New  Instrument,  which  seem  to  require    reconsideration  ;   leaves 
that  of  the  Kingship  unmeddled  with. 

„       XIII.  To  the  Second  Protectorate  Parliament  in  a  body,  8  May, 

1657 :        .        .     199 

Briefly  refuses  the  Title  of  King. 

„        XIV.  To  the  same,  9  June,  1657,  on  the  Presentation  of  some 

Bills  for  assent 202 

Thanks  for  their  Supplies  of  Money,  as  the  Custom  is. 

Letter  CLII.  To  Gen.  Blake:  Whitehall,  10  June,  1657  .        .        .204 

Jewel  for  the  victory  at  Santa  Cruz. 

„       CLIII.  To  Gen.  Montague:  Whitehall,  11  Aug.  1657      .         .    206 
Order  to  sail. 

„        CLIV.  To  J.  Dunch,  Esq.:  Hampton  Court,  27  Aug.  1657     .     206 
To  call  at  Hampton  Court. 

„         CLV.  To  Gen.  Montague  :  Hampton  Court,  30  Aug.  1657    .     207 
In  sanction  of  his  treatment  of  the  Dutch  ships. 

„       CLVL  To  Sir  W.  Lockhart  :  Whitehall,  31  Aug.  1657  .         .     207 
Mardike  and  Dunkirk.     Peremptory :  To  bring  Mazarin  to  the 
point. 

„      CLVII.  To  the  same  :  same  date 21I 

Same  subject. 

Speech  XV.  To  the  Two  Houses  of  Parliament ;  Opening  of  the 
Second  Session  of  the  Second  Protectorate  Parliament, 
20  Jan.  1657-8 216 

Reasons  for  thankfulness  in  such  a  Meeting  :  Religious  Liberty, 
the  great  object  of  our  struggles,  gained,  and  in  the  way  of  being 
made  secure  ;  Peace  hitherto  ;  a  Godly  Ministry.  Understand  the 
Works  of  God,  what  God  has  done  for  you ;— and  persevere  and 
prosper* 


CONTENTS. 


Speech  XVI.  To  the  Two  Houses  of  Parliament ;  the  Commons 
having  raised  debates  as  to  the  Title  of  the  other 
House,  25  Jan.  1657-8 222 

Perils  of  the  Nation  ;  perils  of  the  Protestant  Interest  in  Europe 
at  large  ;  pressing  need  there  is  of  unanimity.  Exhortation  and 
Remonstrance  :  Do  not  sacrifice  great  vital  interests  for  titles  and 
niceties. 

,^      XVn.  Dissolution    of   the    Second   Protectorate    Parliament, 

4  Feb.  1657-8     ........    236 

What  he  might  have  expected  in  this  Meeting  of  Parliament ; 
what  he  has  found  in  it  :  Angry  debating  ;  and  the  Nation  on  the 
verge  of  conflagation  thereby.     Dissolves  the  Parliament. 

l^EATH  OF  THE  PROTECTOR        *  •  •  *  «  .  •  •      244 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART    \lll.— {Continued.) 

FIRST   PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

1654. 


li 


SPEECH    111. 

This  Tlrst  Protectorate  Parliament,  we  said,  was  not  successful. 
It  chose,  judiciously  enough,  old  Lenthall  for  Speaker ;  appointed, 
judiciou^y  enough,  a  Day  of  general  Fasting  :— but  took,  directly  after 
that,  into  constitutional  debate  about  Sanctioning  the  Form  of 
'Government  (which  nobody  was  specially  asking  it  to  '  sanction ') ; 
about  Parliament  and  Single  Person  ;  powers  of  Single  Person  and 
*of  Parliament ;  Coordination,  Subordination  ;  and  other  bottomless 
subjects  ; — in  which  getting  always  the  deeper  the  more  it  puddled  in 
them,  inquiry  or  intimation  of  inquiry  rose  not  obscurely  in  the 
•distance,  Whether  this  Government  should  be  by  a  Parliament  and 
Single  Person  ?  These  things  the  honourable  gentlemen,  with  true 
industry,  debated  in  Grand  Committee,  '  from  eight  in  the  morning 
^  till  eight  at  night,  with  an  hour  for  refreshment  about  noon,'  debates 
•waxing  ever  hotter,  question  ever  more  abstruse, — through  Friday, 
Saturday,  Monday ;  ready,  if  Heaven  spared  them,  to  debate 
lit  farther  for  unlimited  days.  Constitutional  Presbyterian  persons, 
Use-and- wont  Neuters  ;  not  without  a  spicing  of  sour  RepubHcans,  as 
Bradshaw,  Haselrig,  Scott,  to  keep  the  batch  in  leaven. 

His  Highness  naturally  perceived  that  this  would  never  do,  not 
this  ; — sent  therefore  to  the  Lord  Mayor,  late  on  Monday  night  I 
think,  to  look  after  the  peace  of  the  City  ;  to  Speaker  Lenthall,  that  he 
must  bring  his  people  to  the  Painted  Chamber  before  going  farther  : 
and  early  on  Tuesday  morning,  poor  Mr.  Guibon  Goddard,  Member 
for  Lynn,  just  about  to  proceed  again,  from  the  Eastern  parts,  towards 
his  sublime  constitutional  day's  work,  is  overwhelmed  by  rumours, 
*That  the  Parliament  is  dissolved;  that,  for  certain,  the   Council  of 

*  State,  and  a  Council  of  War,  had  sat  together  all  the  Sabbath-day 

*  before,  and  had  then  contrived  this  Dissolution  ! ' 

*  Notwithstanding,"  continues   Guibon,  '  I  was  resolved  to  go  to 

*  Westminster,  to  satisfy  myself  of  the  truth  ;  and  to  take  my  share 
'  of  what  I  should  see  or  learn  there.     Going  by  water  to  Westminster, 

*  I  was  told  that  the  Parliament-doors  were  locked  up,  and  guarded 

*  with  soldiers,  and  that  the  Barges  were  to  attend  the  Protector  to 

*  the  Painted  Chamber.  As  I  went,  I  saw  two  Barges  at  the  Privy 
'  Stairs.'  River  and  City  in  considerable  emotion.  '  Being  come  to 
'  the  Hall,  I  was  confirmed  in  what  I  had  heard.  Nevertheless  I  did 
'  purpose  not  to  take  things  merely  upon  trust ;  but  would  receive  an 

*  actual  repulse,  to  confirm  my  faith.  Accordingly,  I  attempted  up 
'  the  Parliament  stairs  ;  but  a  guard  of  Soldiers  was  there,  who  told 
'  me,  "  There  was  no  passage  that  way;  the  House  was  locked  up, 

*  and  command  given  to  give  no  admittance  to  any  ; — if  I  were  ^ 


ta  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

*  Member,  I  might  go  into  the  Painted  Chamber,  where  the  Protector 

*  would  presently  be."     The  Mace  had  been  taken  away  by  Commis- 

*  sary- General  Whalley.     The  Speaker  and   all   the  members  were 

*  walking  up  and  down  the  Hall,  the  Court  of  Requests,  and  the  Painted 

*  Chamber ;  expecting  the  Protector's  coming.     The  passages  there 

*  likewise  were  guarded  with  soldiers.'* 

No  doubt  about  it,  therefore,  my  honourable  friend  !  Dissolution, 
or  something,  is  not  far.  Between  nine  and  ten^  the  Protector  arrived, 
with  due  escort  of  Officers,  halberts,  Lifeguards  ;  took  his  place, 
covered,  under  *  the  state '  as  before,  we  all  sitting  bareheaded  on  our 
benches  as  before  ;  and  with  fit  salutation  spake  to  us  ; — as  follows. 
'  Speech  of  an  hour  and  a  half  long ; '  taken  in  characters  by  the 
former  individual  who  '  stood  near ; '  audible  still  to  modern  men. 
Tuesday  morning,  12th  September,  1654  ;  a  week  and  a  day  since  the 
last  Speech  here. 

In  this  remarkable  Speech,  the  occasion  of  which  and  the  Speaker 
of  which  are  very  extraordinary,  an  assiduous  reader,  or  '  modern 
hearer,'  will  find  Historical  indications,  significant  shadowings-forth 
both  of  the  Protectorate  and  the  Protector  ;  which,  considering  whence 
they  come,  he  will  not  fail  to  regard  as  documentary  in  those  matters. 
Nay  perhaps,  here  for  the  first  time,  if  he  read  with  real  industry, 
there  may  begin  to  paint  itself  for  him,  on  the  void  Dryasdust  Abyss, 
hitherto  called  History  of  Oliver,  some  dim  adumbration  of  How  this 
business  of  Assuming  the  Protectorate  may  actually  have  been.  It 
was,  many  years  ago,  in  reading  these  Speeches,  with  a  feeling  that 
they  must  have  been  credible  when  spoken,  and  with  a  strenuous 
endeavour  to  find  what  their  meaning  was,  and  try  to  believe  it,  that 
to  the  present  Editor  the  Commonwealth,  and  Puritan  Rebellion 
generally,  first  began  to  be  conceivable.     Such  was  his  Experience. — 

But  certainly  the  Lord  Protector's  place,  that  September  Tuesday, 
1654,  is  not  a  bed  of  roses  !  His  painful  asseverations,  appeals  and 
assurances  have  made  the  Modern  part  of  h^s  audience  look,  more 
than  once,  with  questioning  eyes.  On  this  point,  take  from  a  certain 
Commentator  sometimes  above  cited  from,  and  far  oftener  suppressed, 
the  following  rough  words  : 

'"Divers  persons  who  do  know  whetner  I  lie  in  that,"  says  the 
'  Lord  Protector.  What  a  position  for  a  hero,  to  be  reduced  con- 
'  tinually  to  say  He  does  not  lie  !— Consider  well,  nevertheless.  What 
'else  could  Oliver  do?  To  get  on  with  this  new  Parliament  was 
'  clearl-y  his  one  chance  of  governing  peaceably.  To  wrap  himself  up 
'  in  stern  pride,  and  refuse  to  give  any  explanation  :  would  that  have 

*  been  the  wise  plan  of  dealing  with  them  ?  Or  the  stately  and  not-so- 
^  wise  plan  ?  Alas,  the  wise  plan,  when  all  lay  yet  as  an  experiment, 
'  with  so  dread  issues  in  it  to  yourself  and  the  whole  world,  was  not 
'  very  discoverable.  Perhaps  not  quite  reconcilable  with  the  stately 
'  plan,  even  if  it  had  been  discovered  ! ' 

And  again,  with  regard  to  the  scheme  of  the  Protectorship,  which 

his  Highness  says  was  done  by  "  the  Gentlemen  that  undertook  to 

frame  this  Government,"  after  divers  days  consulting,  and  without 

the  least  privity  of  his  :  '  You  never  guessed  what  they  were  doing,' 

*  Ayscough  MSS.  printed  in  Burton's  Diary,  i.,  Introd.  p.  xxxiii. 


SPEECH  III.  13 


your  Highness  ?  Alas,  his  Highness  guessed  it, — and  yet  must  not 
say,  or  think,  he  guessed  it.  There  is  something  sad  in  a  brave 
man's  being  reduced  to  explain  himself  from  a  barrel-head  in  this 
manner  '  Yet  what,  on  the  whole,  will  he  do  ?  Coriolanus  curled 
his  lip,  and  scowled  proudly  enough  on  the  sweet  voices  :  but  Corio- 
lanus had  likewise  to  go  over  to  the  Volscians  ;  Coriolanus  had  not 
the  slightest  chance  to  govern  by  a  free  Parliament  in  Rome  !  Oliver 
was  not  prepared  for  these  extremities  ;  if  less  would  serve.  Perhaps 
in  Oliver  there  is  something  of  better  than  "silent  pride.'"'  Oliver 
will  have  to  explain  himself  before  God  Most  High,  ere  long  ; — and 
it  will  not  stead  him  there,  that  he  went  wrong  because  his  pride,  his 

"personal  dignity,"  his   &c.   &c.    were    concerned. Who  would 

govern  men  !  "  Oh.  it  were  better  to  be  a  poor  fisher,"  exclaimed 
Danton,  "  than  to  meddle  with  governing  of  men  ! "  "I  would 
rather  keep  a  flock  of  sheep  ! ''  said  Oliver.  And  who  but  a  Flunkey 
would  not,  if  his  real  trade  lay  m  keeping  sheep .? ' — 

On  the  whole,  concludes  our  Commentator:  'As  good  an  explana- 
tion as  the  case  admits  of, — from  a  barrel-head,  or  "  raised  platform 
under  a  state."  Where  so  much  that  is  true  cannot  be  said  ;  and 
yet  nothing  that  is  false  shall  be  said, — under  penalties  forgotten  in 
our  Time  !  With  regard  to  those  asseverations,  and  reiterated  appeals, 
note  this  also  :  An  oath  was  an  oath  then  ;  not  a  solemn  piece  of 
blasphemous  cant,  as  too  often  since.  No  conte7nporary  that  I  have 
met  with,  who  had  any  opportunity  to  judge,  disbelieved  Oliver  in 
these  protestations  ;  though  many  believed  that  he  was  unconsciously 
deceiving  himself.  Which,  of  course,  we  too,  where  needful,  must 
ever  remember  that  he  was  liable  to  do  ;  nay,  if  you  will,  that  he  was 
continually  doing.  But  to  this  Commentator,  at  this  stage  in  the 
development  of  things,  "Apology"  seems  not  the  word  for  Oliver 
Cromwell  ; — not  that,  but  a  far  other  word  !  The  Modern  part  of 
his  Highness's  audience  can  listen  now,  I  think,  across  the  Time- 
gulfs,  in  a  different  mood  ; — with  candour,  with  human  brotherhood, 
with  reverence  and  grateful  love.  Such  as  the  noble  never  claim  in 
vain  from  those  who  have  any  nobleness.  This  of  tasking  a  great 
soul  continually  to  prove  to  us  that  he  was  not  a  liar,  is  too  un- 
washed a  way  of  welcoming  a  Great  Man  1  Scrubby  Apprentices 
of  tender  years,  to  them  it  might  seem  suitable  ;— still  more  readily 
to  Apes  by  the  Dead  Sea!'  Let  us  have  done  with  it,  my  friend ; 
and  listen  to  the  Speech  itself,  of  date,  Painted  Chamber,  12th  Sep- 
tember, 1654,  the  best  we  can  ! 

Gentlemen, 

It  is  not  long  since  I  met  you  in  this  place,  upon  an 
occasion  which  gave  me  much  more  content  and  comfort  than 
this  doth.  That  which  I  have  now  to  say  to  you  will  need  no  pre- 
amble, to  let  me  into  my  discourse  :  for  the  occasion  of  this 
meeting  is  plain  enough.  I  could  have  wished  with  all  my  heart 
there  had  been  no  cause  for  it. 

At  our  former  meeting  1  did  acquaint  you  what  was  the  first  rise 
of  this  Government,  which  hath  called  you  hither,  and  by  the 
authority    of    which    you  have    come  hither     Among  other  thin^^s 


14  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

which  I  then  told  you  of,  I  said,  You  were  a  Free  Parliament. 
And  'truly'  so  you  are — whilst  you  own  the  Government  and 
Authority  which  called  you  hither.  But  certainly  that  word  *  Free 
Parliament '  implied  a  reciprocity,*  or  it  implied  nothing  at  all  } 
Indeed  there  was  a  reciprocity  implied  and  expressed  ;  and  I  think 
your  actions  and  carriages  ought  to  be  suitable  !  But  I  see  it  will  be 
necessary  for  me  now  a  little  to  magnify  my  Office.  Which  I  have 
not  been  apt  to  do.  I  have  been  of  this  mind,  I  have  been  always 
of  this  mind,  since  I  first  entered  upon  my  Office,  If  God  will  not 
bear  it  up,  let  it  sink  !  [  Yea  !'\  But  if  a  duty  be  incumbent  upon  me 
to  bear  my  testimony  unto  it  (which  in  modesty  I  have  hitherto  for- 
borne), I  am  in  some  measure  necessitated  thereunto.  And  therefore 
that  will  be  the  prologue  to  my  discourse. 

I  called  not  myself  to  this  place.  I  say  again,  I  called  not  myself 
to  this  place  !  Of  that  God  is  witness  : — and  I  have  many  witnesses 
who,  I  do  beheve,  could  lay  down  their  lives  bearing  witness  to  the 
truth  of  that.  Namely,  That  I  called  not  myself  to  this  place  !  \^His 
Highness  is  growing  emphatic.'\  And  being  in  it,  I  bear  not  witness 
to  myself  '  or  my  office  ; '  but  God  and  the  People  of  these  Nations 
have  also  borne  testimony  to  it  'and  me.'  T/t^J  calling  be  from  God 
and  my  testimony  from  the  People, — God  and  the  People  shall  take 
it  from  me,  else  I  will  not  part  with  it.  [Do  you  mark  that,  and  the 
air  and  manner  of  it,  my  honourable  friends  J'\  I  should  be  false  to 
the  trust  that  God  hath  placed  in  me,  and  to  the  interest  of  the  People 
of  these  Nations,  if  I  did. 

"  That  I  called  not  myself  to  this  place,"  is  my  first  assertion. 
"  That  I  bear  not  witness  to  myself  but  have  many  witnesses,"  is  my 
second.  These  two  things  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to  speak  more 
fully  to  you  of. — To  make  plain  and  clear  what  I  have  here  asserted, 
I  must  take  liberty  to  look  '  a  little  '  back. 

I  was  by  birth  a  Gentleman  ;  living  neither  in  any  consideruble 
height,  nor  yet  in  obscurity.  I  have  been  called  to  several  employ^ 
ments  in  the  Nation  :  To  serve  in.  Parliament,  '  and  others  ; '  and,— 
not  to  be  over-tedious, — I  did  endeavour  to  discharge  the  duty  of  an 
honest  man,  in  those  services,  to  God  and  His  People's  Interest,  and 
to  the  Commonwealth  ;  having,  when  time  was,  a  competent  accepta- 
tion in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  some  evidences  thereof.  I  resolve, 
not  to  recite  the  times  and  occasions  and  opportunities,  which  have 
been  appointed  me  by  God  to  serve  Him  in  ;  nor  the  presence  and 
blessings  of  God  therein  bearing  testimony  to  me.  {Well  said,  and 
well  forborne  to  be  said  !\ 

Having  had  some  occasions  to  see,  together  with  my  brethren  and 
countrymen,  a  happy  period  put  to  our  sharp  Wars  and  contests  with 
the  then  common  Enemy,  I  hoped,  in  a  private  capacity,  to  have 
reaped  the  fruit  and  benefit,  together  with  my  brethren,  of  our  hard 
labours  and  hazards  :  the  enjoyment,  to  wit,  of  Peace  and  Liberty, 
and  the  privileges  of  a  Christian  and  a  Man,  in  some  equality  with 
others,  according  as  it  should  please  the  Lord  to  dispense  unto  me. 
And  when,  I  say,  God  had  put  an  end  to  our  Wars^,  or  at  least  brought; 
*  '  reciprocation '  in  orig. 


SPEECH  III.  1% 


them  to  a  very  hopeful  issue,  very  near  an  end, — after  Worcester 
Fight, — I  came  up  to  London  to  pay  my  service  and  duty  to  the  Par- 
liament which  then  sat  ;  hoping  that  all  minds  would  have  been  dis- 
posed to  answer  what  seemed  to  be  the  mind  of  God,  namely,  To 
give  peace  and  rest  to  His  People,  and  especially  to  those  who  had 
bled  more  than  others  in  the  carrying  on  of  the  Military  affairs,— I 
was  much  disappointed  of  my  expectation.  For  the  issue  did  not 
prove  so.  \_Suppressed  inurmu7's  from  Bradshaw  and  Company.'] 
Whatever  may  be  boasted  or  misrepresented,  it  was  not  so,  not  so  ! 

I  can  say,  in  the  simplicity  of  my  soul,  I  love  not,  I  love  not, — I  de- 
clined it  in  my  former  Speech,* — I  say,  I  love  not  to  rake  into  sores, 
or  to  discover  nakednesses  !  The  thing  I  drive  at  is  this  :  I  say  to 
you,  I  hoped  to  have  had  leave,  '  for  my  own  part,'  to  retire  to  a  pri- 
vate life.  I  begged  to  be  dismissed  of  my  charge  ;  I  begged  it  again 
and  again  ; — and  God  be  Judge  between  me  and  all  men  if  I  lie  in 
this  matter!  {Groans  fyom  Dryasdust^  scarcely  audible^  in  the  deep 
silence^  That  I  lie  not  in  matter  of  fact,  is  known  to  very  many 
["  Hum-m-m  !  "  Look  'of  "  Yea  I  "  from  the  Military  Party.']  :  but 
whether  I  tell  a  lie  in  my  heart,  as  labouring  to  represent  to  you 
what  was  not  upon  my  heart,  I  say  the  Lord  be  Judge.t  Let  un- 
charitable men,  who  measure  others  by  themselves,  judge  as  they 
please.  As  to  the  matter  of  fact,  I  say.  It  is  true.  As  to  the  inge- 
nuity and  integrity  of  my  heart  in  that  desire, — I  do  appeal  as  before 
upon  the  truth  of  that  also  ! But  I  could  not  obtain  '  what  I  de- 
sired,' what  my  soul  longed  for.  And  the  plain  truth  is,  I  did  after- 
wards apprehend  some  were  of  opinion  (such  the  difference  of  their 
judgment  from  mine).  That  it  could  not  well  be.:|: 

I  confess  I  am  in  some  strait  to  say  what  I  could  say,  and  what  is 
true,  of  what  then  followed.  I  pressed  the  Parliament,  as  a  Member, 
To  period  themselves  ; — once  and  again,  and  again,  and  ten,  nay 
twenty  times  over.  I  told  them,— for  I  knew  it  better  than  any  one 
man  in  the  Parliament  could  know  it ;  because  of  my  manner  of  life, 
which  had  led  me  everywhere  up  and  down  the  Nation,§  thereby 
giving  me  to  see  and  know  the  temper  and  spirits  of  all  men,  and  of 
the  best  of  men,— that  the  Nation  loathed  their  sitting.  [J/aselrig; 
Scott  and  others  looking  very  grimi]  I  knew  it.  And,  so  far  as  I 
could  discern,  when  they  were  dissolved,  there  was  not  so  much  as  the 
barking  of  a  dog,  or  any  general  and  visible  repining  at  it !  {How 
astonishing  there  should  not  have  been  /]  You  are  not  a  few  here 
present  who  can  assert  this  as  well  as  myself. 

And  that  there  was  high  cause  for  their  dissolution,  is  most  evident: 
not  only  in  regard  there  was  a  just  fear  of  that  Parliament's  perpetu- 
ating themselves,  but  because  it  '  actually '  was  their  design.  '  Yes  ; ' 
had  not  their  heels  been  trod  upon  by  importunities  from  abroad,  even 
to  threats,  I  believe  there  never  would  have  been  '  any '  thoughts  of 
rising,  or  of  going  out  of  that  Room,  to  the  world's  end.     I  myself 

*  Antea,  Speech  I.  vol.  ii.  p.  208. 

t  He  :  Believe  you  about  that  as  you  see  good. 

X  That  I  could  not  be  spared  from  my  post, 

§  While  soldiering,  &c.  ;  the  Original  has,  '  which  was  to  run  up  and  down  the 


i6  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


was  sounded,  and,  by  no  mean  persons  [O  Sir  Harry  Vang  f\,t&^^\.e,6i\ 
and  proposals  were  made  me  to  that  very  end :  That  the  Parhament  * 
might  be  thus  perpetuated  ;  that  the  vacant  places  might  be  suppUed 
by  new  elections  ; — and  so  continue  from  generation  to  generation. 

I  have  declined,  I  have  declined  very  much,  to  open  these  things  to 
you.  \^What  noble  man  would  not,  your  Highness  f\  But,  having 
proceeded  thus  far,  I  must  tell  you  '  this  also  :'  That  poor  men,  under 
this  arbitrary  power,  were  driven,  like  flocks  of  sheep,  by  forty  in  a 
morning  ;  to  the  confiscation  of  goods  and  estates  ;  without  any  man 
being  able  to  give  a  reason  why  two  of  them  had  deserved  to  forfeit 
a  shilling  If  I  tell  you  the  truth.  And  my  soul,  and  many  persons' 
whom  I  see  in  this  place,  were  exceedingly  grieved  at  these  things  ; 
and  knew  not  which  way  to  help  them,  except  by  our  mournings,  and 
giving  our  negatives  when  occasion  served. — I  have  given  you  but  a 
taste  of  miscarriages  '  that  then  were'  I  am  confident  you  have  had 
opportunities  to  hear  much  more  of  them  ;  for  nothing  was  more  ob- 
vious. It's  true  this  will  be  said,  That  there  was  a  remedy  en- 
deavoured •  To  put  an  end  to  this  Perpetual  Parliament,  by  giving  us 
a  future  Representative  How  that  was  gotten,  by  what  importuni- 
ties that  was  obtained,  and  how  unwillingly  yielded  unto,  is  well  known. 

*But'  what  was  this  remedy?  It  was  a  seeming  wilHngness  to 
give  us  Successive  ParHaments.  And  what  was  '  the  nature  of  that 
Succession  ?  It  was,  That  when  one  Parliament  had  left  its  seat, 
another  was  to  sit  down  immediately  in  the  room  thereof,  without  any  ' 
caution  to  avoid  what  was  the  real  danger,  namely.  Perpetuating  of 
the  same  '  men  in '  Parliaments.  Which  is  a  sore,  now,  that  will  ever 
be  running,  so  long  as  men  are  ambitious  and  troublesome, — if  a 
remedy  be  not  found. 

Nay,  at  best  what  will  such  a  remedy  amount  to  ?  It  is  a  conversion 
of  a  Parliament  that  would  have  been  and  was  Perpetual,  to  a  Legis- 
lative Power  Always  Sitting  !  [  Which,  however,  consists  of  different 
men,  yoicr  Highness  I'\  And  so  the  liberties  and  interests  and  lives  of 
people  not  judged  by  any  certain  known  Laws  and  Power,  but  by  an 
arbitrary  Power  ;  which  is  incident  and  necessary  to  Parliaments 
\So  J\  By  an  arbitrary  Power,  I  say  :J  to  make  men's  estates  liable 
to  confiscation,  and  their  persons  to  imprisonment, — sometimes  ^  even' 
by  laws  made  after  the  fact  committed ;  often  by  the  Parliament's 
assuming  to  itself  to  give  judgment  both  in  capital  and  criminal 
things,  which  in  former  ;imes  was  not  known  to  exercise  such  a  judi- 
cature.§     This,  I  suppose,  was  the  case  *  then  before  us.'    And,  in 

*  'it*  in  orig.  +  Antea,  vol.  ii.  p.  198. 

X  Such  as  the  Long  Parliament  did  continually  exert. 

§  Intricate  paragraphs,  this  and  the  foregoing  ;  treating  of  a  subject  complex  in 
itself,  and  very  dehcaie  to  handle  before  such  an  audience.  His  Highness's  logic 
perhaps  hobbles  somewhat  :  but  this  strain  of  argument,  which  to  us  has  fallen  so 
dim  and  obsolete,  was  very  familiar  to  the  audience  he  was  now  addressing, — the 
staple  indeed  of  what  their  debates  for  the  last  three  days  had  been  (Burton,  i. 
Introd.  pp.  25-33;  Whitlocke,  p.  587,  &c.).  '  Perpetuating  of  the  same  men  in 
Parliament  : '  that  clearly  is  intolerable,  says  the  first  Paragraph.  But  not  only 
'^,  says  the  second  Paragraph,  '  a  Legislative  Assembly  always  sitting,'  though  it 
9^i§isi  of  new  men,  is  likewise  intolerable  :  any  Parliament,  as  the  Long  Pariia,- 


SPEECH  III,  ly 


my  opinion,  the  remedy  was  fitted  to  the  disease  !  Especially 
coming  in  the  rear  of  a  Parliament  which  had  so  exercised  its  power 
and  authority  as  that  Parliament  had  done  but  immediately 
before. 

Truly  I  confess, — upon  these  grounds,  and  with  the  satisfaction  of 
divers  other  persons  who  saw  nothing  could  be  had  otherwise, — that 
Parliament  was  dissolved  [^Not  a  doubt  of  it  /] :  and  we,  desiring  to  see 
if  a  few  might  have  been  called  together  for  some  short  time  who 
-  might  put  the  Nation  into  some  way  of  certain  settlement, — did  call 
those  Gentlemen  [Z)^*?  Little  Par limjient ;  we  remember  them  !'\  out 
of  the  several  parts  of  the  Nation.  And  as  I  have  appealed  to 
God  before  you  already,* — though  it  were  a  tender  thing  to  make  ap- 
peals to  God,  yet  in  such  exigences  as  these  I  trust  it  will  not  offend 
His  Majesty  ;  especially  to  make  them  before  Persons  that  know 
God,  and  know  what  conscience  is,  and  what  it  is  to  "  lie  before  the 
Lord  !  "  I  say.  As  a  principle  end  in  calling  that  Assembly  was  the 
settlement  of  the  Nation,  so  a  chief  end  to  myself  was  to  lay  down 
the  Power  which  was  in  my  hands.  \Hum-7n-m  f'\  I  say  to  you 
again,  in  the  Presence  of  that  God  who  hath  blessed,  and  been  with 
me  in  my  adversities  and  successes  :  That  was,  as  to  myself,  my 
greatest  end  !  S^Your  Highness — ? — And'"''  God''^  with  you  ancients  is 
not  a  fabulous  polite  Hearsay^  but  a  tremendous  all-irradiating  Fact 
of  Facts,  not  to  be  "  lied  before  "  without  consequences  ,?]  A  desire 
perhaps,  I  am  afraid,  sinful  enough.  To  be  quit  of  the  Power  God  had 
most  clearly  by  His  Providencef  put  into  my  hands,  before  He  called 
me  to  lay  it  down  ;  before  those  honest  ends  of  our  fighting  were  at- 
tained and  settled. — I  say,  the  Authority  I  had  in  my  hand  being  so 
boundless  as  it  was, — for,  by  Act  of  Parliament,  I  was  General  of  all 
the  Forces  in  the  three  Nations  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  ; 
in  which  unlimited  condition  I  did  not  desire  to  live  a  day, — we  called 
that  Meeting,  for  the  ends  before  expressed. 

What  the  event  and  issue  of  that  Meeting  was,  we  may  sadly  re- 
member. It  hath  much  teaching  in  it,;J:  and  I  hope  will  make  us  all 
wiser  for  the  future  !  But,  '  in  short,'  that  Meeting  not  succeeding,  as 
I  already  said  unto  you,  and  giving  such  a  disappointment  to  our 
hopes,  I  shall  not  now  make  any  repetition  thereof :  only  the  result 
was.  That  they  came  and  brought  too  me  a  Parchment,  signed  by  very 
much  the  major  part  of  them  ;  expressing  their  re-delivery  and  re- 
signation of  the  power  and  authority  that  had  been  committed  them 
back  again  into  my  hands.  And  I  can  say  it,  in  the  presence  of 
divers  persons  here,  who  do  know  whether  I  lie  in  that  \^Hum-m-m  /], 
That  I  did  not  know  one  tittle  of  that  Resignation  '  of  theirs,'  till  they 

ment  has  too  fatally  taught  us,  if  left  to  itself,  is,  by  its  nature,  arbitrary,  of  un- 
limited power,  liable  to  grow  tyrannous  ; — ought  therefore  only  to  sit  at  due  inter- 
vals, and  to  have  other  Powers  (Protectorate,  for  example)  ready  to  check  it  on 
occasion.  All  this  the  ancient  audience  understands  very  well  ;  and  the  modern 
needs  only  to  understand  that  they  understood  it. 

*  '  I  know,  and  I  hope  I  may  say  it,'  follows  in  ori^., — deleted  here,  for  light's 
sake,  though  characteristic. 

t  '  most  providentially '  in  orig. :  has  not  the  modern  meaning ;  means  only  as 
in  the  Text. 

%  Warning  us  not  to  quarrel,  and  get  intp  insoluble  theories,  as  they  dicj. 


i8  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

all  came  and  brought  it,  and  delivered  it  into  my  hands.  Of  this 
also  there  are  in  this  presence  many  witnesses.  [  Yes,  many  are  con- 
vinced of  it,— some  not.']  I  received  this  Resignation  ;  having  formerly 
used  my  endeavours  and  persuasions  to  keep  them  together.  Ob- 
serving their  differences,  I  had  thought  it  my  duty  to  give  advice  to 
them,  that  so  I  might  prevail  with  them  for  union.  But  it  had  the 
effect  I  told  you  ;  and  I  had  my  disappointment. 

When  this  proved  so,  we  were  exceedingly  to  seek  how  to  settle 
things  for  the  future.  My  '  own '  Power  was  again,  by  this  resignation, 
'  become '  as  boundless  and  unlimited  as  before ;  all  things  being 
subjected  to  arbitrariness  ;  and  myself '  the  only  constituted  authority 
that  was  left,'  a  person  having  power  over  the  three  Nations,  without 
bound  or  limit  set ; — and  all  Government,  upon  the  matter,  being 
dissolved  ;  all  civil  administration  at  an  end* — as  will  presently 
appear.  ["  A  grave  situation :  but  who  brought  us  to  it  ?  "  murmur 
my  Lord  Bradshaw  and  others^ 

The  Gentlemen  that  undertook  to  frame  this  Governmentt  did  con- 
sult divers  days  together  (men  of  known  integrity  and  ability).  How 
to  frame  somewhat  that  might  give  us  settlement.     They  did  consult ; 
— and  that  I  was  not  privy  to  their  councils  they  know  it.     [Alas  f\ 
— When  they  had  finished  their  model  in  some  measure,  or  made  a 
good  preparation  of  it,  they  became  communicative.     {Hwn-m-m!'\ 
They  told  me  that  except  I  would  undertake  the  Government,  they 
thought  things  would  hardly  come  to  a  composure  or  settlement,  but 
blood  and  confusion  would  break  in  upon  us.     \A  plain  truth  they 
toldJ]     I  refused  it  again  and  again  ;  not  complimentingly, — as  they 
know,  and  as  God  knows  !     I  confess,  after  many  arguments,  they 
urging  on  me,  "  That  I  did  not  hereby  receive  anything  which  put  me 
"  into  a  higher  capacity  than  before  ;  but  that  it  limited  me  ;  that 
"  it  bound  my  hands  to  act  nothing  without  the  consent  of  a  Council, 
"  until  the  Parliament,  and  then  limited  '  me  '  by  the  Parliament,  as 
"  the  Act  of  Government  expresseth," — I    did  accept   it.     I   might 
repeat  again  to  you,  if  it  were  needful,  but  I  think  it  hardly  is  :  I 
was  arbitrary  in  power ;   having  the  Armies   in  the  three  Nations 
under  my  command  ; — and  truly  not  very  ill  beloved  by  them,  nor 
very  ill  beloved  by  the  People.     By  the  good  People.     And  I  believe 
I  should  have  been  more  beloved  if  they  had  known  the  truth,  as 
things  were,  before  God  and  in  themselves,  and  also  before  divers  of 
those  Gentlemen  whom  I  but  now  mentioned  unto  you.  [His  High- 
ness is  rallying;  getting  out  of  the  Unutterable  into  the  Utter  able  !] 
I  did,  at  the  entreaty  of  divers  Persons  of  Honour  and  Quality,  at 
the  entreaty  of  very  many  of  the  chief  Officers  of  the  Army  then 
present, — '  at  their  entreaty '  and  at  their  request,  I  did  accept  of  the 
place  and  title  of  Protector  :  and  was,  in  the  presence  of  the  Com- 
missioners  of  the   Great    Seal,   the  Judges,   the   Lord   Mayor  and 
Aldermen  of  the  City  of  London,  the  Soldiery,  divers  Gentlemen, 
Citizens,  and  divers  other  people  and  persons  of  quality,  and  so  forth, 
^accompanied  to  Westminster  Hall ;  where  1  took  the  Oath  to  this 
Government.  [Indisputably :  draw  your  own  inferences  from   it  (\ 

*  Civil  Office-bearers  feeling  their  commission  to  be  fild§tJ» 
•j"  f|arv^rMod?l9fGove|:ftinwt, 


SPEECH  IIL  19 


This  was  not  done  in  a  corner  •  it  was  open  and  public  ! — This 
Government  hath  been  exercised  by  a  Council  ;"*  with  a  desire  to  be 
faithful  in  all  things  : — and,  among  all  other  trusts,  to  be  faithful  in 
calling  this  Pa'rliametit. 

And  thus  I  have  given  you  a  very  bare  and  lean  Discourse  ;+  which 
truly  I  have  been  necessitated  to  'do/— and  contracted  in  'the  doing 
of,'  because  of  the  unexpectedness  of  the  occasion,  and  because  I 
would  not  quite  weary  you  nor  myself.  But  this  is  a  Narrative  that 
discovers  to  you  the  series  of  Providences  and  of  Transactions  leading 
me  into  the  condition  wherein  I  now  stand.  The  next  thing  1 
promised  '  to  demonstrate  to'  you,  wherein,  I  hope,  1  shall  be  briefer 
— Though  I  am  sure  the  occasion  does  require  plainness  and  freedom  ! 
— '  But  as  to  this  first  thing,'!}:  That  I  brought  not  myself  into  this 
condition  :  surely  in  my  own  apprehension  I  did  not  !  And  whether 
I  did  not,  the  things  being  true  which  I  have  told  you,  I  shall  submit 
to  your  judgment.  And  there  shall  I  leave  it.  Let  God  do  what  He 
pleaseth. 

The  other  thing,  I  say,  that  I  am  to  speak  of  to  you  is  "That  I 
have  not  '  borne,'  and  do  not  bear,  witness  to  myself."  I  am  far 
from  alluding  to  Him  that  said  so  !§  Yet  truth,  concerning  a  member 
of  His,  He  will  own,  though  men  do  not. — But  I  think.  If  I  mistake 
not,  I  have  a  cloud  of  witnesses.  I  think  so  ;  let  men  be  as  froward 
as  they  will.  \_My  honourable  friends  .^]  I  have  witness  Within, — 
Without,— and  Above  !  But  I  shall  speak  of  my  witnesses  Without  ; 
having  fully  spoken  of  the  W^itness  who  is  Above,  and  '  who  is  '  in  my 
own  conscience,  before.  Under  the  other  headi]  I  spoke  of  these  ; 
because  that  subject  had  more  obscurity  in  it,  and  I  in  some  sort 
needed  appeals  ;— and,  I  trust,  might  lawfully  make  them  (as  lawfully 
as  take  an  oath),  where  the  things  were  not  so  apt  to  be  made  evident 
'otherwise.'  [/«  stich  circumstances,  K?<3:  .^]— I  shall  enumerate  my 
witnesses  as  well  as  I  can. 

When  I  had  consented  to  accept  of  the  Government,  there  was 
some  Solemnity  to  be  performed.  And  that  was  accompanied  by 
some  persons  of  considerableness  in  all  respects  :  there  were  the 
persons  before  mentioned  to  you  ;^  these  accompanied  me,  at  the 
time  of  my  entering  upon  this  Government,  to  Westminster  Hall  to 

*  According  to  the  '  Instrument '  or  Program  of  it.  f  Narration. 

X  This  paragraph  is  characteristic.  One  of  Olivers  warts.  His  Highness, 
in  haste  to  be  through,  is  for  breaking  off  into  the  'next  thing,'  with  hope  of 
greater  '  brevity ;  '  but  then  suddenly  bethinks  him  that  he  has  not  yet  quite  com- 
pletely winded  off  the  'first  thing,'  and  so  returns  to  that.  The  paragraph,  stark 
nonsense  in  the  original  (where  they  that  are  patient  of  such  can  read  it.  Parlia- 
mentary History,  xx.  357J,  iiidicates,  on  intense  inspection,  that  this  is  the  purport 
of  it.  A  glimpse  afforded  us,  through  one  of  Olivers  confused  regurgitations,  and 
incondite  z^/futterances  of  speech,  into  the  real  inner  man  of  him.  Of  which  there 
will  be  other  instances  as  we  proceed. 

§  '  Then  answered  Jesus,  and  said  unto  them, If  I  bear  witness  of  myself, 

'  my  witness  is  not  true.  There  is  Another  that  beareth  witness  pf  m?,'  7o^rff  V, 
31,  32. 

II  '  upon  the  other  account  *  in  orig. 

^  '  before  expressed '  in  ^ri^.       " '  \ 


20  FIRST  PROTECTORATE   PARLIAMENT. 


receive  my  Oath.  There  was  an  express*  consent  on  the  part  of  the:e 
and  other  interested  persons.  And  'there  was  also'  an  impHed  coii- 
sent  of  many  ;  shewing  their  good  hking  and  approbation  thereot'. 
And,  Gentlemen,  I  do  not  think  you  are  altogether  strangers  to  it  in 
your  countries.  Some  did  not  nauseate  it ;  very  many  did  approve  it. 
I  had  the  approbation  of  the  Officers  of  the  Army,  in  the  threj 
Nations  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland.  I  say,  of  the  Officers  :  I 
had  that  by  their  'express'  Remonbtrances,t  and  under  signature. 
But  there,  went  along  with  that  express  consent  of  theirs,  an  implied 
consent  also  '  of  a  body'  of  persons  who  had  '  had'  somewhat  to  do 
in  the  world  ;  who  had  been  instrumental,  by  God,  to  hght  down  the 
Enemies  of  God  and  of  His  People  in  the  three  Nations.  [The 
Soldiery  of  the  Commonwealth.  Persons  of  some  consuierableness," 
these  too  /]  And  truly,  until  my  hands  were  bound,  and  I  '  was ' 
limited  (to  my  own  great  satisfaction,  as  many  can  bear  me  witness)  ; 
while  1  had  in  my  hands  so  great  a  power  and  arbitrariness,— the 
Soldiery  were  a  very  considerable  part  of  these  Nations,  especially 
all  Government  being  dissolved.  I  say,  when  all  Government  was 
thus  dissolved,  and  nothing  to  keep  things  in  order  but  the  Sword  ! 
And  yet  they, — which  many  Histories  will  not  parallel, — even  they 
were  desirous  that  things  might  come  to  a  consistency  ;  and  arbitra- 
riness be  taken  away  ;  and  the  Government  be  put  into  '  the  hands 
of  a  person  limited  and  bounded,  as  in  the  Act  of  Settlement,  whom 
they  distrusted  the  least,  and  loved  not  the  worst.  [^Hearf]  This  was 
another  evidence  '  of  consent,  implied  if  not  express.' 

I  would  not  forget  the  honourable  and  civil  entertainment,  with  the 
approbation  I  found  in  the  great  City  of  London  ;X — which  the  City 
knows  whether  I  directly  or  indirectly  sought.  And  truly  I  do  not 
think  it  folly  to  remember  this.  For  it  was  very  great  and  high  ;  and 
very  public  ;  and  '  included '  as  numerous  a  body  of  those  that  are 
known  by  names  and  titles — the  several  Corporations  and  Societies  of 
citizens  in  this  City, — as  hath  at  any  time  been  seen  in  England.  And 
not  without  some  appearance  of  satisfaction  also. — And  I  had  not  this 
witness  only.  I  have  had  from  the  greatest  County  in  England,  and 
from  many  Cities  and  Boroughs  and  Counties,  express  approbations. 
'  Express  approbations '  not  of  men  gathered  here  and  there,  but 
from  the  County  General-Assizes  ; — the  Grand  Jury,  in  name  of  the 
Noblemen,  Gentlemen,  Yeomen  and  Inhabitants  of  that  County, 
giving  very  great  thanks  to  me  for  undertaking  this  heavy  burd-en  at 
such  a  time  ;  and  giving  very  great  approbation  and  encouragement 
to  me  to  go  through  with  it.  These  are  plain ;  I  have  them  to  shew. 
And  by  these,  in  some  measure,  it  will  appear  "  I  do  not  bear  witness 
to  myself." 

This  is  not  all.  The  Judges,  truly  I  had  almost  forgotten  it 
[Another  little  window  into  his  Highness /\- th^  Judges,  thinking 

*  'explicit'  and  'implicit'  in  the  original;  but  we  must  say  'express'  and 
'  implied,' — the  word  '  implicit '  having  got  itself  tacked  to  '  faith  '  {implicit faith), 
and  become  thereby  hopelessly  degraded  from  any  independent  meaning. 

t  Means  '  Public  Letters  of  Adherence.' 

X  Dinner,  with  all  manner  of  gala,  in  the  common  Roy^l  Stylq  :  8  February, 


SPEECH  III. 


that  there  had  now  come  a  dissolution  to  all  Government,  met  and 
consulted ;  and  did  declare  one  to  another,  That  they  could  not 
administer  justice  to  the  satisfaction  of  their  consciences,  until  they 
had  received  Commissions  from  me.  And  they  did  receive  Com- 
missions from  me  :  and  by  virtue  of  those  Commissions  they  have 
acted  : — and  all  Justices  of  the  Peace  that  have  acted  have  acted  by 
virtue  of  like  Commissions.  Which  was  a  little  more  than  an  implied 
approbation  !  And  I  believe  all  the  Justice  administered  in  the 
Nation  hath  been  by  this  authority.  Which  also  I  lay  before  you  ; 
desiring  you  to  think.  Whether  all  those  persons  now  mentioned  must 
not  come  to  you  for  an  Act  of  Oblivion  and  General  Pardon,  for 
having  acted  under  and  testified  to  this  Government,  if  it  be  disowned 
by  you  ! — 

And  I  have  two  or  three  witnesses  more, — equivalent  to  all  these  I 
have  yet  mentioned,  if  I  be  not  mistaken,  and  greatly  mistaken  !  If 
I  should  say.  All /^/^  that  are  here  are  my  witnesses, — I  should  say 
no  untruth  !  I  know  that  you  are  the  same  persons  here  that  you 
were  in  your  countries'^— But  I  will  reserve  this  for  a  little  ;  this  will 
be  the  issue,  '  the  general  outcome  and  climax,'  of  my  Proof  [Another 
little  window  : — almost  a  half-soliloquy ;  vou  see  the  S  >eech  getti7is^ 
ready  in  the  interior  of  his  Highness?^  I  say  I  have  two  or  three 
witnesses,  of  still  more  weight  than  all  I  have  counted  and  reckoned 
yet.  All  the  People  in  England  are  my  witnesses ;  and  many  in 
Ireland  and  Scotland  !  All  the  Sheriffs  in  England  are  my  witnesses  : 
and  all  that  have  come  in  upon  a  Process  issued  out  by  Sheriffs  are 
my  witnesses.  [My  honoicrable  friends,  how  did  you  come  in  f]  Yea, 
the  Returns  of  the  Elections  to  the  Clerk  of  the  Crown, — not  a  thing 
to  be  blown  away  by  a  breath,— t  e  Returns  on  behalf  of  the  Inhabi- 
tants in  the  Counties,  Cities  and  Boroughs,  all  are  my  witnesses  of 
approbation  to  the  Condition  and  Place  I  stand  in. 

And  I  shall  now  make  ^(9/^  my  last  witnesses  !  [Here  comes  it,  "  the 
issue  of  my  Proof  I "]  And  shall  ask  you,  Whether  you  came  not 
hither  by  my  Writs  directed  to  the  several  Sheriffs  '  of  Counties,'  and 
through  the  Sheriffs  to  the  other  Officers  of  Cities  and  Liberties  ?  To 
which  '  Writs '  the  People  gave  obedience  ;  having  also  had  the  Act 
of  Government  communicated  to  them — to  which  end  great  numbers 
of  copies  '  thereof  were  sent  down  to  be  communicated  to  them.  And 
the  Governmentt  '  was '  also  required  to  be  distinctly  read  unto  the 
People  at  the  place  of  election,  to  avoid  surprises,  '  or  misleadings  of 
them  through  their  ignorance  ;' — where  also  they  signed  the  Inden- 
ture,;!; with  proviso,  "  That  the  Persons  so  chosen  should  7iot  have 
"  power  to  alter  the  Government  as  now  settled  in  one  Single  Person 
"  and  a  Parliament  !"  [My  honourable  friends — /]— And  thus  I  have 
made  good  my  second  Assertion,  "  That  I  bear  not  witness  to  myself;" 
but  that  the  good  People  of  England,  and  you  all  are  my  witnesses. 

Yea,  surely  ! — And  '  now '  this  being  so, — though  I  told  you  in  my 
last  Speech  "  that  you  were  a  Free  Parliament,"  yet  I  thought  it  was 
understood  withal  that  I  was  the  Protector,  and  the  Authority  that 

*  Where  you  had  to  acknowledge  me  before  election,  he  means,  but  does  not  yet 
see  good  to  say. 

t  Act  or  Instrument  of  Government.  J  Writ  of  Return. 


'IT.  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT 

called  you  !  That  I  was  in  possession  of  the  Government  by  a  good 
right  from  God  and  men  !  And  I  believe  that  if  the  learnedest  men 
in  this  Nation  were  called  to  shew  a  precedent,  equally  clear,  of  a 
Government  so  many  ways  approved  of,  they  would  not  in  all  their 
search  find  it. — 1  did  not  in  my  other  Speech  take  upon  me  to  justify 
the  '  Act  of '  Government  in  every  particular  ;  and  1  told  you  the 
reason,  which  was  plain  :  The  Act  of  Government  was  public,  and 
had  long  been  published,  '  in  order'  that  it  might  be  under  the  most 
serious  inspection  of  all  that  pleased  to  peruse  it. 

This  is  what  I  had  to  say  at  present  for  approving*  myself  to  God 
and  my  conscience  in  my  actions  throughout  this  undertaking  ;  and 
for  giving  cause  of  approving  myself  to  every  one  of  your  consciences 
in  the  sight  of  God. — And  if  the  fact  be  so,  why  should  we  sport  with 
it  ?  Wiih  a  business  so  serious  !  May  not  this  character,  this  stamp 
[Stamp  put  upon  a  man  by  the  Most  High  aiid  His  providences^^  bear 
equal  poise  with  any  Hereditary  Interest  that  could  furnish,  or  hath 
furnished,  in  the  Common  Law  or  elsewhere,  matter  of  dispute  and 
trial  of  learning  ?  In  the  like  of  which  many  have  exercised  more  wit, 
and  spilt  more  blood,  than  I  hope  ever  to  live  to  see  or  hear  of  again 
in  this  Nation  !  [Red  and  White  Roses,  for  example :  Henry  of 
Boli7tgbroke  and  the  last  '  Protector.^'] — I  say,  I  do  not  know  why  I 
may  not  balance  this  Providence,  in  the  sight  of  God,  with  any 
Hereditary  Interest  [Nor  do  //]  ;  as  a  thing  less  subject  to  those 
cracks  and  flaws  which  that  '  other '  is  commonly  incident  unto  ;  the 
disputing  of  which  has  cost  more  blood  in  former  times  in  this  Nation 
than  we  have  leisure  to  speak  of  now  ! —  f 

Now,  if  this  be  thus,  and  I  am  deriving  a  title  from  God  and  men 
upon  such  accounts  as  these  are— Although  some  men  be  froward,  yet 
that  your  judgments  who  are  Persons  sent  from  all  parts  of  the  Nation 
.under  the  notion  of  approving  this  Government — [His  Highness, 
bursii?ig  with  meani7ig,  completes  neither  of  these  sentences  ;  but  pours 
himself,  like  an  irregular  torrent,  through  other  orifices  and ope7ii?igs ?\ 
— For  you  to  disown  or  not  to  own  it  :  for  you  to  act  with  Par- 
liamentary Authority  especially  in  the  disowning  of  it  ;  contrary  to 
the  very  fundamental  things,  yea  against  the  very  root  itself  of  this 
Establishment  :  to  sit,  and  not  own  the  Authority  by  which  you  sit, 

is  that  which   I  believe  astonisheth  more  men  than  myself;  and 

doth  as  dangerously  disappoint  and  discompose  the  Nation  as  any 
thing  'that'  could  have  been  invented  by  the  greatest  enemy  to  out- 
peace  and  welfare,  or  '  that '  could  well  have  happened.  [Sorro%v, 
anger,  and  reproach  on  his  Highness'' s  countenajtce ;  the  voice  risen 
so7newhat  i7tto  ALT,  and  rolling  with  a  kind  of  rough  music  in  the 
tones  of  it  I^ 

It  is  true,  as  there  are  some  things  in  the  Establishment  which  are 
fundamental,  so  there  are  others  which  are  not,  but  are  circumstantial. 
Of  these  no  question  but  I  shall  easily  agree  to  vary,  to  leave  out, 
*  according  *  as  I  shall  be  convinced  by  reason.     But  some  things  are 

*  '  By  what  I  have  said,  I  have  approved,'  &c.  tn  orig. :  but  rhetorical  charity 
required  the  change. 


SPEECH  lit,  ^% 


Fundamentals  !  About  which  I  shall  deal  plainly  with  you  :  These 
may  7iot  be  parted  with  ;  but  will,  I  trust,  be  delivered  over  to  pos- 
terity, as  the  fruits  of  our  blood  and  travail.  The  Government  by  a 
Single  Person  and  a  Parliament  is  a  Fundamental !  It  is  the  esse,  it 
is  constitutive.  And  as  for  the  Person, — though  I  may  seem  to  plead 
for  myself,  yet  I  do  not  :  no,  nor  can  any  reasonable  man  say  it.  If 
the  things  throughout  this  Speech  be  true,  I  plead  for  this  Nation, 
and  for  all  honest  men  therein  who  have  borne  their  testimony  as 
aforesaid,  and  not  for  myself !  And  if  things  should  do  otherwise 
than  well  (which  I  would  not  fear),  and  the  Common  Enemy  and  dis- 
contented persons  take  advantage  of  these  distractions,  the  issue  will 
be  put  up  before  God  :  let  Him  own  it,  or  let  Him  disown  it,  as  He 
pleases  !  — 

In  every  Government  there  must  be  Somewhat  Fundamental  \Will 
speak  now  of  Fundamentals. \,  Somewhat  like  a  Magna  Chart  a,  which 
should  be  standing,  be  unalterable.  Where  there  is  a  stipulation  on 
one  side,  and  that  fully  accepted,  as  appears  by  what  hath  been  said, 
surely  a  return*  ought  to  be  ;  else  what  does  that  stipulation  signify? 
If  I  have,  upon  the  terms  aforesaid,  undertaken  this  great  Trust,  and 
exercised  it  ;  and  by  it  called  you, — surely  it  ought  '  by  you '  to  be 
owned. — That  Parliaments  should  not  make  themselves  perpetual  is 
a  Fundamental.  [  Yea ;  all  know  it :  taught  by  example  of  the 
Rwnp  /]  Of  what  assurance  is  a  Law  to  prevent  so  great  an  evil,  if 
it  lie  in  the  same  Legislature  to  unlzM  it  again  ?  [^Must  have  a  single 
Person  to  check  your  Parliament^  Is  such  a  Law  like  to  be  lasting? 
It  will  be  a  rope  of  sand  ;  v/ill  give  it  no  security  ;  for  the  same  men 
may  unbuild  what  they  have  built. 

'  Again,'  is  not  Liberty  of  Conscience  in  Relfgion  a  Fundamental  ? 
So  long  as  there  is  Liberty  of  Conscience  for  the  Supreme  Magistrate 
to  exercise  his  conscience  in  erecting  what  Form  of  Church-Govern- 
ment he  is  satisfied  he  should  set  up  ["  He  is  to  decide  on  the  Form 
of  Church-Government,  then  ?  "  The  Moderns,  especially  the  Volun- 
tary Principle,  stare. \ — why  should  he  not  give  the  like  liberty  to 
others  ?  Liberty  of  Conscience  is  a  natural  right ;  and  he  that  would 
have  it,  ought  to  give  it ;  having  *  himself  liberty  to  settle  what  he 
likes  for  the  Public.  ["  Where  then  are  the  limits  of  Dissent?"  An 
abstruse  question,  my  Voluntary  friends ;  especially  with  a  Gospel 
really  BELIEVED  !]  Indeed  that  hath  been  one  of  the  vanities  of  our 
Contest.  Every  Sect  saith  :  "  Oh,  give  me  liberty  !  "  But  give  it  him, 
and  to  his  power  he  will  not  yield  it  to  anybody  else.  Where  is  our 
ingenuousness  ?  '  Liberty  of  Conscience ' — truly  that  is  a  thing  ought 
to  be  very  reciprocal  !  The  Magistrate  hath  his  supremacy  ;  he  may 
settle  Religion,  'that  is,  Church-Government,'  according  to  his  con- 
science. And  '  as  for  the  People', — I  may  say  it  to  you,  I  can  say  it ; 
All  the  money  of  this  Nation  would  not  have  tempted  men  to  fight 
upon  such  an  account  as  they  have  here  been  engaged  in,  if  they  had 
not  had  hopes  of  Liberty  'of  Conscience'  better  than  Episcopacy 
granted  them,  or  than  would  have  been  afforded  by  a  Scots  Presby- 
tery,— or  an  English  either,  if  it  had  made  such  steps,  and  been  as 


*  reciprocal  engagement. 


24  FIRST  PRO  TECTORA  TE  PARLIAMENT. 

sharp  and  rigid,  as  it  threatened  when  first  set  up  !  *  This,  I  say,  is 
a  Fundamental.  It  ought  to  be  so.  It  is  for  us  and  the  generations 
to  come.  And  if  there  bean  absoluteness  in  the  Imposer  [As  you 
seem  to  argue.\  without  fitting  allowances  and  exceptions  from  the 
rule  ["F////;?^:"  that  is  a  wide  word  J\—yN^  shall  have  the  People 
driven  into  wilderness.  As  they  were,  when  those  poor  and  afflicted 
people,  who  forsook  their  estates  and  inheritances  here,  where  ihey 
lived  plentifully  and  comfortably,  were  necessitated,  for  enjoyment  of 
their  Liberty,  to  go  into  a  waste  howling  wilderness  in  New  England  ; 
— where  they  have,  for  Liberty's  sake,  stript  themselves  of  all  their 
comfort  ,  embracing  rather  loss  of  friends  and  want  than  be  so  en- 
snared and  in  bondage.  [  Yea  !\ 

Another  'Fundamental'  which  I  had  forgotten  is  the  Militia. 
That  is  judged  a  Fundamental  if  anything  be  so.  That  it  should  be 
well  and  equally  placed  is  very  necessary.  For,  put  the  absolute 
power  of  the  Militia  into  'the  hands  of  one  'Person,' — without  a 
check,  what  doth  it  serve  ?  '  On  the  other  hand,'  I  pray  you,  what 
check  is  there  upon  your  Perpetual  Parliaments,  if  the  Government 
be  wholly  stript  of  this  of  the  Militia  ?  '  This  as  we  now  have  it '  is  t 
equally  placed,  and  men's  desires  were  to  have  it  so  ; — namely  in  one 
Person,  and  in  the  Parhament  '  along  with  him '  while  the  Parlia- 
ment sits.  What  signified  a  provision  against  perpetuating  of  Par- 
liaments, if  this  power  of  the  Militia  be  solely  in  the7n?  Think, 
Whether,  without  some  check,  the  Parliament  have  it  not  in  their 
power  to  alter  the  Frame  of  Government  altogether — into  Aristocracy, 
Democracy,  into  Anarchy,  into  anything,  if  this  '  of  the  Mihtia'  be 
fully  in  them  !  Yea,  into  all  confusion  ;  and  that  without  remedy  ! 
If  this  one  thing  be  placed  in  one  '  party,'  that  one,  be  it  Parliament, 
be  it  Supreme  Governor,  hath  power  to  make  what  he  pleases  of  all 
the  rest.  \^^  Hum- m-m  /  "  from  the  old  Parliament.!^ — Therefore  if 
you  would  have  a  balance  at  all  ;  if  you  agree  that  some  Funda- 
mentals must  stand,  as  worthy  to  be  delivered  over  to  Posterity, — 
truly  I  think  it  is  not  unreasonably  urged  that  '  this  power  of  the 
Militia  should  be  disposed  as  we  have  it  in  the  Act  of  Government  : 
— should  be  placed  so  equally  that  no  one  party  neither  in  Parlia- 
ment nor  out  of  Parliament  have  the  power  of  ordering  it.  '  Well ; ' 
— the  Council  are  the  Trustees  of  the  Commonwealth,  in  all  intervals 
of  Parliament  :  and  have  as  absolute  a  negative  upon  the  Supreme 
Officer  in  the  said  intervals,  as  the  Parliament  hath  while  it  is  sitting. 
[.S'^  that  we  are  safe — or  safsh,  your  Highness  ?  No  one  party  has 
power  of  the  Militia  at  any  time.^  The  power  of  the  Militia  cannot 
be  made  use  of ;  not  a  man  can  be  raised,  nor  a  penny  charged  upon 
the  People,  nothing  can  be  done,  without  consent  of  Parliament  ;  and 
in  the  intervals  of  Parliament,  without  consent  of  the  Council.  Give 
me  leave  to  say.  There  is  very  little  power,  none  but  what  is  coordi- 
nate, '  placed '  in  the  Supreme  Officer  ;— and  yet  enough  in  him  in 

*  Liberty  of  Conscience  must  not  be  refused  to  a  People  who  have  fought  and 
conquered  '  upon  such  an  account'  as  ours  was!  For  more  of  Olivers  notions 
concerning  the  Magistrate's  power  in  Church-matters,  see  his  Letter  to  the  bcotch 
Clergy,  antea,  vol.  ii.  124-127. 

t  '  It  is'  iti  orig. 


SPEECH  HI.  25 


that  particular.  He  is  bound  in  strictness  by  the  ParHament,  and 
out  ot  Parliament  by  the  Council,  who  do  as  absolutely  bind  him  as 
the  Parliament  while  sitting  doth. — 

As  for  that  of  Money — I  told  you  some  things  were  Circumstantials 
\Comes  to  the  Circumstantials ?[  ; — as,  for  example,  this  is  :  That  we 
should  have  £;i<y:>poo  to  defray  Civil  Offices, — to  pay  the  Judges  and 
other  Officers  ;  to  defray  the  charges  of  the  Council  in  sending  their 
embassies,  in  keeping  intelligence,  and  doing  what  is  necessary  ;  and 
to  support  the  Governor  in  Chief  -^  All  this  is,  by  the  Instrument, 
supposed  and  intended.  But  it  is  not  of  the  esse  so  much  ;  nor  '  is 
it'  limited  'so  strictly'  as  'even'  the  number  of  Soldiers  is, — 
20,000  Foot  and  10,000  Horse.  [Guard  even  afar  oj^  against  any 
sittkitig  below  the  ininimum  in  that  /^  Yet  if  the  spirits  of  men  were 
composed,  5,000  Horse  and  10,000  Foot  might  serve.  These  things 
are  '  Circumstantial,'  are  between  the  Chief  Officer  and  the  Parlia- 
ment, to  be  moderated,  '  regulated,'  as  occasion  shall  offer. 

Of  this  sort  there  are  many  circumstantial  things,  which  are  not 
like  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians.  But  the  things  which  shall 
be  necessary  to  deliver  over  to  Posterity,  these  should  be  unalterable. 
Else  every  succeeding  Parliament  will  be  disputing  to  alter  the 
Government  ;  and  we  shall  be  as  often  brought  into  confusionf  as  we 
have  Parliaments,  and  so  make  our  remedy  our  disease.  The  Lord's 
Providence,  evil  '  effects  '  appearing,  and  good  appearing,  and  better 
judgment  '  in  ourselves,'  will  give  occasion  for  ordering  of  things  to 
the  best  interest  of  the  People.  Those  things, '  Circumstantial  things,' 
are  the  matter  of  consideration  between  you  and  me. 

I  have  indeed  almost  tired  myself.  What  I  have  farther  to  say  is 
this  [^Does  not  yet  say  it] — I  would  it  had  not  been  needful  for  me  to 
call  you  hither  to  expostulate  these  things  with  you,  and  in  such  a 
manner  as  this  !  But  Necessity  hath  no  law.  Feigned  necessitieo, 
imaginary  necessities, — 'certainly  these'  are  the  greatest  cozenage 
that  men  can  put  upon  the  Providence  of  God,  and  make  pretences 
to  break  known  rules  by.  '  Yes  ; '  but  it  is  as  legal  '  contrary  to 
God's  free  Grace,'  as  carnal,  and  as  stupid  [A  tone  of  anger],  to  think 
that  there  are  no  Necessities  which  are  manifest  '  and  real,'  because 
necessities  may  be  abused  or  feigned  !  And  truly  that  were  my  case,;]: 
if  I  should  so  think  '  here  ; '  and  I  hope  none  of  you  so  think.  I  have 
to  say  l^Says  it  now]  :  The  wilful  throwing  away  of  this  Government, 
such  as  it  is,  so  owned  by  God,  so  approved  by  men,  so  witnessed  to 
(in  the  Fundamentals  of  it)  as  was  mentioned  above,  '  were  a  thing 
which,' — and  in  reference  '  not  to  jfiy  good,  but '  to  the  good  of  these 
Nations  and  of  Posterity, — I  can  sooner  be  willing  to  be  rolled  into 
my  grave  and  buried  with  infamy,  than  I  can  give  my  consent  unto  ! 
[Never  / — Do  you  catch  the  tone  of  that  7wice,  reverberating,  like 
thunder  from  the  roof  of  tht  Painted  Chamber^  over  the  heads  of 
Br  ads  haw,  Haselrig,  Scott  and  Company ;  the  aspect  of  that  lace, 
with  its  lion-mouth,  attd  mournfid eyes, — ki7idled  now  and  radiant  all 
of  it,  with  sorrow,  with  rebuke,  and  wrathful  defiance  ? — Bradshaw 

*  Instrument  of  Government,  Art.  27  (Somers  Tracts, vi.  294). 

f  Means  '  into  anarchy.'  \  To  be  legal,  and  carnal  and  stupid. 


26  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

and  Company  look  on  it  unblanched;  but  will  be  careful  not  to  provoke 
such  a  one.     There  lie  penalties  in  him  /J 

You  have  been  called  hither  to  save  a  Nation, — Nations.  You  had 
the  best  People,  indeed,  of  the  Christian  world  put  into  your  trust, 
when  you  came  hither.  You  had  the  affairs  of  these  Nations  delivered 
over  to  you  in  peace  and  quiet ;  you  were,  and  we  all  are,  put  into  an 
undisturbed  possession,  nobody  making  title  to  us.  Through  the 
blessing  of  God,  our  enemies  were  hopless  and  scattered.  We  had 
peace  at  home  ;  peace  with  almost  all  our  Neighbours  round  about, 
— apt '  otherwise '  to  take  advantages  where  God  did  administer  them. 
'These  things  we  had  few  days  ago  when  you  came  hither.  And 
now  .? ' — To  have  our  peace  and  interest,  whereof  those  were  our  hopes 
the  other  day,  thus  shaken,  and  put  under  such  a  confusion ;  and  our- 
selves {Chiefly  "/  "J  rendered  hereby  almost  the  scorn  and  contempt  of 
those  strangers .  [Z>?//<r^  A^nbassadors  and  the  like^  who  are  amongst 
us  to  negotiate  their  masters'  affairs  !  To  give  the^n  opportunity  to 
see  our  nakedness  as  they  do  :  "A  people  that  have  been  unhinged 
"this  twelve-years  day,*  and  are  unhinged  still," — as  if  scattering, 
division,  and  confusion  came  upon  us  like  things  we  desired  :  *  these, 
which  are  the  greatest  plagues  that  God  ordinarily  lays  upon  Nations 
for  sin  ! 

I  would  be  loath  to  say  these  are  matters  of  our  desire,  t  But  if 
not,  then  why  not  matters  of  our  care, — as  wisely  as  by  our  utmost 
endeavours  we  might,  to  avoid  them  !  Nay  if,  by  such  actings  as 
these  'now '  are,  these  poor  Nations  shall  be  thrown  into  heaps  and 
confusion,  through  blood,  and  ruin,  and  trouble!]: — And  upon  the 
saddest  account  that  ever  was,  if  breaking  '  and  confusion '  should 
come  upon  us  ; — all  because  we  would  not  settle  when  we  could,  when 
God  put  it  into  our  hands !  Your  affairs  now  almost  settled  every- 
where :  and  to  have  all  recoil  upon  us  ;  and  ourselves  '  to  be '  shaken 
in  our  affections,  loosened  from  all  known  and  public  interests  : — as  I 
said  before,  who  shall  answer  for  these  things  to  God  ? 

Who  can  answer  for  these  things  to  God,  or  to  men  ?     *  To  men ' 

to  the  People  who  sent  you  hither  ;  who  looked  for  refreshment  from 
you  ;  who  looked  for  nothing  but  peace  and  quietness,  and  rest  and 
settlement }  When  we  come  to  give  an  account  to  them,  we  shall  have 
It  to  say,  "  Oh,  we  quarrelled  for  the  Liberty  of  E?t^land;  we 
contested,  and  'went  to  confusion,'  for  that  !" — 'Now,'  Wherein,  I 
pray  you,  for  the  '•  Liberty  of  England  }  "     I  appeal  to  the  Lord,  that 

the  desires  and  endeavours  we  have  had Nay  the  things  will  speak 

tor  themselves.  The  "  Liberty  of  England,"  the  Liberty  of  the  People  ; 
the  avoidmg  of  tyrannous  impositions  either  upon  men  as  men,  or 
Christians  as  Christians  ;— is  made  so  safe  by  this  Act  of  Settlement, 
that  It  will  speak  for  itself  And  when  it  shall  appear  to  the  world 
what  really '  hath  been  said  and  done  by  all  of  us,  and  what  our  real 
transactions  were— For  God  can  discover  ;  no  Privilege  [What  f  Not 
even  Privilege  of  Parliament  f\  will  hinder  the  Lord  from  discovering  ! 

*  An  old  phrase ;   '  day '  emphatic. 
+  Politely  oblique  for  '  your  desire.' 

seL'n'^e^^^ril^r^J-^^"  ^^l' S'  Highness  means,  but  does  not  complete  the 
sentence,— as  is  sometimes  his  habit. 


Speech  iit:  '     27 


No  Privilege,  or  condition  of  man  can  hide  from  the  Lord  ;  He  can 
and  will  make  all  manifest,  if  He  see  it  for  His  glory  !*— And  when 
these  '  things,  as  I  say/  shall  be  manifested  :  and  the  People  will  come 
and  ask,  '  Gentlemen,  what  condition  is  this  we  are  in  ?  We  hoped 
•'  for  light  ;  and  behold  darkness,  obscure  darkness  !  We  hoped  for 
"  rest  after  ten-years  Civil  War,  but  are  plunged  into  deep  confusion 
"  again  !  " — Ay  ;  we  know  these  consequences  will  come  upon  us,  if 
God  Almighty  shall  not  find  out  some  way  to  prevent  them. 

I  had  a  thought  within  myself,  That  it  would  not  have  been 
dishonest  nor  dishonourable,  nor  against  true  Liberty,  no  not  '  the 
Liberty '  of  Parliaments,  '  if,'  when  a  Parliament  was  so  chosen  '  as 
you  have  been,'  in  pursuance  of  this  Instrument  of  Government,  and 
in  conformity  to  it,  and  with  such  an  approbation  and  consent  to  it, — 
some  Owning  of  your  Call  and  of  the  Authority  which  brought 
you  hither,  had  been  required  before  your  entrance  into  the  House. 
{Deep  silence  in  the  audience^  This  was  decHned,  and  hath  not  been 
done,  because  I  am  persuaded  scarce  any  man  could  doubt  you  came 
with  contrary  minds.  And  I  have  reason  to  believe  the  people  that 
sent  you  least  of  all  doubted  thereof.  And  therefore  1  must  deal 
plainly  with  you  :  What  I  forbore  upon  a  just  confidence  at  first,  you 
necessitate  me  unto  now  !  [^Paleness  on  some  /aces.]  Seeing  the 
Authority  which  called  you  is  so  little  valued,  and  so  much  slighted, — 
till  some  such  Assurance  be  given  and  made  known,  that  the 
Fundamental  Interest  shall  be  settled  and  approved  according  to  the 
proviso  in  the  'Writ  of  Return,  and  such  a  consent  testified  as  will 
make  it  appear  that  the  same  is  accepted,  I  have  caused  a  stop  to 

BE  PUT  TO  YOUR  ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  PARLIAMENT  HOUSE.      [VoU 

understand  that,  my  honoicrable  friettds .?] 

I  am  sorry,  I  am  sorry,  and  I  could  be  sorry  to  the  death,  that  there 
is  cause  for  this  !  But  there  is  cause  :  and  if  things  be  not  satisfied 
which  are  reasonably  demanded,  I,  for  my  part,  will  do  that  which 
becomes  me,  seeking  my  counsel  from  God.— There  is  therefore 
Somewhat  \A  bit  of  written  Parchment  /]  to  be  offered  to  you  ;  which, 
I  hope,  will  answer,  being  understood  with  the  qualifications  I  have 
told  you, — '  namely,  of  reforming  as  to  Circumstantials,  and  agreeing 
in  the  Substance  and  Fundamentals,  '  that  is  to  say,'  in  the  Form  of 
Government  now  settled,  which  is  expressly  stipulated  in  your 
Indentures  "  not  to  be  altered."  The  making  of  your  minds  known  in 
that  by  giving  your  assent  and  subscription  to  it,  is  the  means  that 
will  let  you  in,  to  act  those  things  as  a  Parliament  which  are  for  the 
good  of  the  People.  And  this  thing  [The  Parchment I\  'when  once 
it  is'  shewn  to  you  and  signed  as  aforesaid,  doth  determine  the 
controversy  ;  and  may  give  a  happy  progress  and  issue  to  this 
Parliament.  [Honourable  gentlemen  look  in  one  another's  faces, —find 
general  blank^ 

The  place  where  you  may  come  thus  and  sign,  as  many  as  God 
shall  make  free  thereunto,  is  in  the  Lobby  without  the  Parliament 
Door.     [My  honourable  friends,  yoti  know  the  way,  donH you  ?] 

The  'Instrument   of  Government  doth  declare  that  you  have  a 

*  'Privilege'  of  Parliament,  in  those  days,  strenuously  forbids  reporting;  but  it 
will  not  serve  in  the  case  referred  to  ! 


28  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

legislative  power  without  a  negative  from  me.  As  the  Instrument 
doth  express  it,  you  may  make  any  Laws  ;  and  if  I  give  not  my 
consent,  within  twenty  days,  to  the  passing  of  your  Laws,  they  are  ipso 
facto  Laws,  whether  I  consent  or  no,— if  not  contrary  to  the  '  Frame 
of  Government.  You  have  an  absolute  Legislative  Power  in  all 
things  that  can  possibly  concern  the  good  ^and  interest  of  the  public  ; 
and  I  think  you  may  make  these  Nations  happy  by  this  Settlement. 
And  I,  for  my  part,  shall  be  willing  to  be  bound  more  than  I  am,  in 
anything  concerning  which  I  can  become  convinced  that  it  may  be  for 
the  good  of  the  People,  or  tend  to  the  preservation  of  the  Cause  and 
Interest  so  long  contended  for."^ 

Go  your  ways,  my  honourable  friends,  and  sign,  so  many  of  you  as 
God  hath  made  free  thereunto  !  The  place,  I  tell  you,  is  in  the  Lobby 
without  the  Parliament  Door.  The  '  Thing,'  as  you  will  find  there,  is 
a  bit  of  Parchment  with  these  words  engrossed  on  it  :  ^  I  do  hereby 
*'''  freely  pro7nise,  and  engage  myself  to  be  true  and  faithful  to  the  Lord 
"  Protector  and  the  Cojn7nonwealth  of  England ,  Scotland  a7id  Ireland  j 
"  and  shall  not  {according  to  the  tenor  0/  the  Indenture  whereby  I  ai7i 
"  returned  to  serve  in  this  present  Parliament)  propose,  or  give  my 
"  consent,  to  alter  the  Government  as  it  is  settled  in  a  Single  Persoji 
"  and  a  Parliame?it^\  Sign  that,  or  go  home  again  to  your  countries. 

Let  honourable  gentlemen  therefore  consider  what  they  will  do  ! — 
•About  a  Hundred  signed  directly,  within  an  hour.'  Guibon  Goddard 
and  all  the  Norfolk  Members  (except  one,  who  was  among  the  direct 
Hundred)  went  and  '  had  dinner  together,'  to  talk  the  matter  over  ; — 
mostly  thought  it  would  be  better  to  sign  :  and  did  sign,  all  but  some 
two.  The  number  who  have  signed  this  first  day,  we  hear,  is  One- 
hundred- an  d-twenty,  One-hundred-and-thirty,  nay  One-hundred-and- 
iox\.y.X  Blank  faces  of*lionourable  gentlemen  begin  to  take  meaning 
again, — some  mild,  some  grim.  Tomorrow  being  Fastday,  there  is  an 
adjournment.  The  recusants  are  treated  '  with  all  tenderness  ; '  most 
of  them  come  in  by  degrees  :  '  Three-hundred  before  the  month  ends.' 
Deep  Republicans,  Bradshaw,  Haselrig,  Thomas  Scott  and  the  like, 
would  not  come  in  ;  still  less  would  shallow  noisy  ones,  as  Major 
Wildman  ; — went  home  to  their  countries  again,  their  blank  faces 
settling  into  permanent  grim.  My  Lord  Protector  molested  no  man 
for  his  recusancy  ;  did  indeed  take  that  absence  as  a  comparative 
favour  from  the  parties.  Harrison  and  other  suspect  persons  are  a 
little  looked  after  :  the  Parliament  resumes  its  function  as  if  little  had 
happened.  With  a  singular  acquiescence  on  the  part  of  the  Public, 
write  our  correspondents,  Dutch  and  other.  The  Pubhc,  which  I 
have  known  rebel  against  crowned  Kings  for  twitching  the  tippet  of  a 
Parliament,  permits  this  Lord  Protector  to  smite  it  on  the  cheek,  and 
say,  "  Have  a  care,  wilt  thou  ! "  Perhaps  this  Lord  Protector  is 
believed  to  mean  better  than  the  King  did .?  There  is  a  difference  in 
the  objects  of  men,  as  the  Public  understands  ; — a  difference  in  the 
men  too  for  rebelling  against  !  At  any  rate,  here  is  singular  sub- 
Old  Pamphlet,  brother  to  the  foregoint^;  reprinted  in  Parliamentary  History. 
XX.  349-69.  "^  ^  ^» 

t  Whitlocke,  p.  587.  +  Goddard,  Whitlocke,  Letter  in  Thurloe, 


SPEECH  III.  29 


mission  everywhere  ;  and  my  Lord  Protector  getting  ready  a  powerful 
Sea-Armament,  neither  his  Parhament  nor  any  other  creature  can  yet 
guess  for  what.* 

Goddard's  report  of  this  Parliament  is  distinct  enough  ;  brief,  and 
not  without  some  points  of  interest ;  '  the  misfortune  is,'  says  one 
Commentator,  '  he  does  not  give  us  names.^  Alas,  a  much  greater 
misfortune  is,  the  Parliament  itself  is  hardly  worth  naming  !  It  did 
not  prove  a  successful  Parliament ; — it  held  on  by  mere  Constitution- 
building  ;  and  effected,  so  to  speak,  nothing.  Respectable  Pedant 
persons  ;  never  doubting  but  the  Ancient  sacred  Sheepskins  would 
serve  for  the  New  Time,  which  also  has  its  sacredness  ;  thinking,  full 
surely,  constitutional  logic  was  the  thing  England  now  needed  of 
them  !  Their  History  shall  remain  blank,  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
I  have  read  their  Debates,  and  counsel  no  other  man  to  do  it.  Wholly 
upon  the  '  Institution  of  Government,'  modelling,  new-modelling  of 
that  :  endless  anxious  spider-webs  of  constitutional  logic  ;  vigilant 
checks,  constitutional  jealousies,  &c.  &c.  To  be  forgotten  by  all 
creatures. 

They  had  a  Committee  of  Godly  Ministers  sitting  in  the  Jerusalem 
Chamber  ;  a  kind  of  miniature  Assembly  of  Divines  ;  intent  upon 
'  Scandalous  Ministers  and  Schoolmasters,'  upon  tender  consciences, 
and  the  like  objects  :  but  there  were  only  Twenty  in  this  Assembly  ; 
they  could  hardly  ever  get  fairly  under  way  at  all  ; — and  have  left  in 
English  History  no  trace  that  I  could  see  of  their  existence,  except  a 
very  reasonable  Petition,  noted  in  the  Record,  That  the  Parliament 
would  be  pleased  to  advance  them  a  little  money  towards  the  purchase 
of  fire  and  candle,— in  these  Id  dark  months.  The  Parliament,  I 
hope  allowed  them  coals  and  few  tallow-lights  ;  but  neither  they 
nor  it  could  accomplish  anything  towards  the  Settling  of  a  Godly 
Ministry  in  England  :  my  Lord  Protector  and  his  Commissions  will 
have  to  settle  that  too  ;  an  object  dear  to  all  good  men.  The  Parlia- 
ment spent  its  time  in  constitutional  jangling,  in  vigilant  contrivances 
of  balances,  checks,  and  that  species  of  entities.  With  difficulty 
could,  at  rare  intervals,  a  hasty  stingy  vote,  not  for  the  indispensable 
Supplies,  but  for  some  promise  of  them,  be  wrung.  An  unprofitable 
Parliament. 

For  the  rest,  they  had  Biddle  the  Socinian  before  them  ;  a  poor 
Gloucester  Schoo  .ster  once,  now  a  very  conspicuous  Heresiarch, 
apparently  of  mild  but  entirely  obstinate  manners, — poor  devil  :  him 
they  put  into  the  Gatehouse  ;  him  and  various  others  of  that  kidney. 
Especially  '  Theauro  John,  who  laid  about  him  with  a  drawn  sword  at 
'  the  door  of  Parliament  House  one  day,'  f — a  man  clearly  needing 
to  be  confined.  '  Theauro  John  :'  his  name  had  originally  been  John 
Davy,  if  1  recollect  ;  but  the  Spirit,  in  some  preternatural  hour,  re- 
vealed to  him  that  it  ought  to  be  as  above.  Poor  Davy  :  his  labours, 
life-adventures,  financial  arrangements,  painful  biography  in  general, 
are  all  unknown  to  us  ;  till,  on  this  '  Saturday,  30th  December,  1654, 
he  very  clearly  knocks  loud  at  the  door  of  the  Parliament  House,'  as 

*  Dutch  Ambassadors,  French,  &c.,  in  Thurloe,   ii.  606,   613,  638  (isth,  i8th 
Sept.  ;   9th  Oct.). 
t  Whitlocke,  p.  592.     See  Goddard  (in  Burton,  i.  Introd.  cxxvi.). 


^0  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


much  as  to  say,  "  What  is  this  you  are  upon  ?  "  and  '  lays  about  him, 
with  a  drawn  sword  ; ' — after  which  all  again  becomes  unknown. 
Seemingly  a  kind  of  Quaker.  Does  the  reader  know  James  Nayler, 
and  the  devout  women  worshipping  him  ?  George  Fox,  in  his  suit  of 
leather,  independent  of  mankind,  looks  down  into  the  soft  Vale  of 
Belvoir,  native  'Vale  of  Bever  :'  Do  not  the  whispering  winds  and 
green  fields,  do  not  the  still  smoke-pillars  from  these  poor  cottages 
under  the  eternal  firmaments,  say  in  one's  heart,  "  George,  wilt  thou 
not  help  us  from  the  wrath  to  come  ?  "  George  finds  in  the  Vale  of 
Bever  'a  very  tender  people.'  In  fact,  most  singular  Quakerisms, 
frightful  Socinianisms,  and  other  portents  are  springing  up  rife  in 
England. 

Oliver  objected,  now  and  always,  to  any  very  harsh  punishment  of 
Biddle  and  Company,  much  as  he  abhorred  their  doctrines.  Why 
burn,  or  brand,  or  otherwise  torment  them,  poor  souls  ?  They, 
wandering  as  we  all  do  seeking  for  a  door  of  hope  into  the  Eternities, 
have,  being  tempted  of  the  Devil  as  we  all  likewise  are,  missed  the 
door  of  hope  ;  and  gone  tumbling  into  dangerous  gulfs, — dangerous, 
but  not  yet  beyond  the  mercy  of  God.  Do  not  burn  them.  They  meant, 
some  of  them,  well ;  bear  visibly  to  me  the  scars  of  stern  true  battle 
against  the  Enemy  of  Man.  Do  not  burn  them  ; — lock  them  up, 
that  they  may  not  mislead  others.  On  frugal  wholesome  diet  in  Pen- 
dennis  Castle,  or  Elizabeth  Castle  in  Jersey,  or  here  in  the  Clink 
Prison  at  London,  they  will  not  cost  you  much,  and  may  arrive  at 
some  composure.  Branding  and  burning  is  an  ugly  business  ; — as 
little  of  that  as  you  can. 

Friday  i^th  September,  1654.  His  Highness,  say  the  old  Lumber- 
Books,  vfent  into  Hyde  Park  ;  made  a  small  picnic  dinner  under  the 
trees,  with  Secretary  Thurloe,  attended  by  a  few  servants  ; — was,  in 
fact,  making  a  small  pleasure-excursion,  having  in  mind  to  try  a  fine 
new  team  of  horses,  which  the  Earl  or  Duke  of  Oldenburg  had  lately 
sent  him.  Dinner  done,  his  Highness  himself  determined  to  drive, — 
two  in  hand  I  think,  with  a  postilion  driving  other  two.  The  horses, 
beautiful  animals,  tasting  of  the  whip,  became  unruly;  galloped, 
would  not  be  checked,  but  took  to  plunging  ;  plunged  the  postilion 
down;  plunged  or  shook  his  Highness  down,  ^dragging  him  by  the 
foot  for  some  time,'  so  that '  a  pistol  went  off  in  his  pocket,'  to  the 
amazement  of  men.  Whereupon  ?  Whereupon— his  Highness  got 
up  again,  little  the  worse  ;  was  let  blood  ;  and  went  about  his  affairs 
much  as  usual  I  *  Small  anecdote  that  figures,  larger  than  life,  in  all 
the  Books  and  Biographies.  I  have  known  men  thrown  from  their 
horses  on  occasion,  and  less  noise  made  about  it,  my  erudite  friend  ! 
But  the  essential  point  was,  his  Highness  wore  a  pistol.— Yes,  his 
Highness  is  prepared  to  defend  himself;  has  men,  and  also  truculent- 
flunkeys,  and  devils  and  devil's-servants  of  various  kinds,  to  defend 
himself  against ;— and  wears  pistols,  and  what  other  furniture  outward 
and  inward  may  be  necessary  for  the  object.  Such  of  you  as  have  an 
eye  that  way  can  Jake  notice  of  it  !  — 

Thursday,    i6th   November,    1654.     On   the   other  hand,   what   a 
gairipse  into  the  interior  domesticities  of  the  Proctector  Househpldj 
*  TtJUrJoe,  i.  652,  3  ;  Lijaiow,  ii.  §(?§, 


SPEECH  III,  31 


have  we  in  the  following  brief  Note  !  Amid  the  darkness  and  buzzard 
dimness,  one  light-beam,  clear,  radiant,  mournfully  beautiful,  like  the 
gleam  of  a  sudden  star,  disclosing  for  a  moment  many  things  to  us  ! 
On  Friday,  Secretary  Thurloe  writes  incidentally  :  '  My  Lord  Pro- 
'  tector's  Mother,  of  Ninety-four  years  old,  died  last  night.  A  little 
'  before  her  death  she  gave  my  Lord  her  blessing,  in  these  words  : 
"The  Lord  cause  His  face  to  shine  upon  you  ;  and  comfort  you  in  all 
'  your  adversities  ;  and  enable  you  to  do  great  things  for  the  glory  of 
'  your  Most  High  God.  and  to  be  a  relief  unto  His  People.  My  dear 
'  Son,  I  leave  my  heart  with  thee.  A  good  night  !  "'* — and  therewith 
sank  into  her  long  sleep.  Even  so.  Words  of  ours  are  but  idle. 
Thou  brave  one,  Mother  of  a  Hero,  farewell  ! — Ninety-four  years  old  : 
the  royalties  of  Whitehall,  says  Ludlow  very  credibly,  were  of  small 
moment  to  her  :  '  at  the  sound  of  a  musket  she  would  often  be  afraid 
'  her  Son  was  shot ;  and  could  not  be  satisfied  unless  she  saw  him 
'  once  a  day  at  least. '"t  She,  old,  weak,  wearied  one,  she  cannot  help 
him  with  his  refractory  Pedant  Parliaments,  with  his  Anabaptist 
plotters.  Royalist  assassins,  and  world-wide  confusions  ;  but  she  bids 
him,  Be  strong,  be  comforted  in  God.  And  so  Good  night  !  And  in 
the  still  Eternities  and  divine  Silences — Well,  are  they  not  divine  ? — 
December  26th,  1654.  The  refractory  Parliament  and  other  dim 
confusions  still  going  on,  we  mark  as  a  public  event  of  some  signifi- 
cance, the  sailing  of  his  Highness's  Sea-Armament.  It  has  long  been 
getting  ready  on  the  Southern  Coast ;  sea-forces,  land-forces  ; — sails 
from  Portsmouth  on  Christmas  morrow,  as  above  marked.;}; — None 
yet  able  to  divine  whither  bound  ;  not  even  the  Generals,  Venables 
and  Penn,  till  they  reach  a  certain  latitude  Many  are  much  inte- 
rested to  divine  !     Our   Brussels  Correspondent  writes  long    since, 

*  The  Lord  Protector's  Government  makes  England  more  formidable 

*  and  considerable  to  all  Nations  than  ever  it  has  been  in  my  days.'  § 


LETTERS   CXXXIV.,  CXXXV. 

Here  are  two  small  Letters,  harmlessly  reminding  us  of  far  inte- 
rests and  of  near  ; — otherwise  yielding  no  new  light ;  but  capable  of 
being  read  without  commentary.  Read  them  ;  and  let  us  hasten  to 
dissolve  the  poor  Constitutioning  Parhament,  which  ought  not  to 
linger  on  these  pages,  or  on  any  page. 

*  Thurloe  to  Pell,  17  Nov.  1654  :  in  Vaughan's  Protectorate  0/  Oliver  Cromwell 
(London,  1839),  i.  81. 
t  Ludlow,  ii,  488.                                   X  P?nn's  Narrative,  in  Thurlof,  iy.  s§^ 
§  Thurloe,  i,  160  ^11  Mar^h  16^3-^).  - 


32  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


LETTER  CXXXIV. 
To  Richard  Bennett  Esq.,  Governor  of  Virginia  :  These. 

Whitehall,  12th  January,  1654. 

Sir, 

Whereas  the  differences  between  the  Lord  Baltimore  and  the 
Inhabitants  of  Virginia  concerning  the  Bounds  by  them  respectively- 
claimed,  are  depending  before  our  Council,  and  yet  undetermined  ; 
and  whereas  we  are  credibly  informed,  you  have  notwithstanding 
gone  into  his  Plantation  in  Maryland,  and  countenanced  some  people 
there  in  opposing  the  Lord  Baltimore's  Officers  ;  whereby,  and  with 
other  forces  from  Virginia,  you  have  much  disturbed  that  Colony  and 
People,  to  the  endangering  of  tumults  and  much  bloodshed  there,  if 
not  timely  prevented  : 

We  therefore,  at  the  request  of  the  Lord  Baltimore,  and  *  of  divers 
other  Persons  of  Quality  here,  who  are  engaged  by  great  adventures 
in  his  interest,  do,  for  preventing  of  disturbances  or  tumults  there, 
will  and  require  you,  and  all  others  deriving  any  authority  from  you. 
To  forbear  disturbing  the  Lord  Baltimore,  or  his  Officers  or  People 
in  Maryland  ;  and  to  permit  all  things  to  remain  as  they  were  before 
any  disturbance  or  alteration  made  by  you,  or  by  any  other  upon  pre- 
tence of  authority  from  you,  till  the  said  Differences  above  mentioned 
be  determined  by  us  here,  and  we  give  farther  order  therein. 

We  rest, 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.* 

Commissioners,  it  would  appear,  went  out  to  settle  the  business  ; 
got  it,  we  have  no  doubt,  with  due  difficulty,  settled.  See  Letter  CXL., 
—26th  September,  1655, '  To  the  Commissioners  of  Maryland.' 


LETTER  CXXXV. 

Here  again,  while  the  Pedant  Parliament  keeps  arguing  and  con- 
stitutioning,  are  discontents  in  the  Army  that  thr-eaten  to  develop 
theniselves.  Dangerous  fermentings  of  Fifth- Monarchy  and  other 
bad  ingredients,  in  the  Army  and  out  of  it  ;  encouraged  by  the  Par- 
lianientary  height  of  temperature.  Charles  Stuart,  on  the  word  of  a 
Christian  King,  is  extensively  bestirring  himself.  Royalist  prepara- 
tions, provisions  of  arms ;  Anabaptist  Petitions  :  abroad  and  at 
home  very  dangerous  designs  on  foot  :  biit  we  have  our  eye  upon 
them. 

The  Scotch  Army  seems,  at  present,  the  questionablest.  '  The  pay 
of  the  men  is  thirty  weeks  in  arrear,'  for  one  thing  ;  the  Anabaptist 

*  Thurloe,  i.  724.  The  signature  only  is  Oliver's  ;  signature,  and  sense.  Thur- 
loe  has  jotted  on  the  back  of  this  :  •  A  duplicate  also  hereof  was  writ,  signed  by 
his  Highness,' 


WHITEHALL,  3^ 


humour  needs  not  that  addition  !  Colonel  Alured,  we  saw,  had  to  be 
dismissed  the  Service,  last  year  ;  Overton  and  others  were  questioned, 
and  not  dismissed.  But  now  some  desperate  scheme  has  risen  among- 
the  Forces  in  Scotland,  of  deposing  General  Monk,  of  making  Re- 
publican Overton  Commander, — and  so  marching  off,  all  but  the  in- 
dispensable Garrison-troops,  south  into  England,  thete  to  seek  pay 
and  other  redress.*  This  Parliament,  now  in  its  Fourth  Month,  sup- 
plies no  money  ;  nothing  but  constitutional  debatings.  My  Lord 
Protector  had  need  be  watchful  !  He  again,  in  this  December,  sum- 
mons Overton  from  Scotland  ;  again  questions  him  ; — sees  good, 
this  time,  to  commit  him  to  the  Tower,t  and  end  his  military  ser- 
vices. The  Army,  in  Scotland  and  elsewhere,  with  no  settlement  yet 
to  its  vague  fermenting  humours,  and  not  even  money  to  pay  its 
arrears,  is  dangerous  enough. 

Does  the  reader  recollect,  a  good  while  ago,  Three  Troopers,  notable 
at  the  moment,  who  appeared  once  before  the  Long  Parliament,  with 
a  Petition  from  the  Army  in  the  year  Forty-seven  .''  Army  Adjutators, 
sturdy  fellows,  fit  for  business  :  the  names  of  them  were  Allen,  Sexby 
and  another.^  I  think  they  got  promotion  shortly  after  ;  were  made 
Cornets,  Captains,  with  hope  of  rising  farther.  One  of  them  we  have 
met  since,  and  hardly  recognised  him, — Ludlow  sleepily  rcmindsme  that 
he  is  the  same  man  :§  Adjutant-General  Allen  who  was  deep  in  the 
Prayer-Meeting  at  Wmdsor.  II  Sexby  too  we  shall  again,  in  sad  cir- 
ca nstances,  fall  in  with.  Here  is  poor  Allen  lor  the  third,  and  we 
hope  last  time. 

Allen  has  been  in  Ireland,  since  that  Prayer- M eet ing ;  in  Ireland 
and  elsewhere,  resolutely  fighting,  earnestly  praying,  as  from  of  old  ; 
has  had  many  darkenings  of  mind  ;  expects,  for  almost  a  year  past, 
'  little  good  from  the  Governments  of  this  world,'  one  or  the  other. 
He  has  honoured,  and  still  would  fain  honour,  '  the  Person  now  in 
chief  place,'  having  seen  in  him  much  '  uprightheartedness  to  the 
Lord  ;'  must  confess,  however,  '  the  late  Change  hath  more  stumbled 
me  than  any  ever  did  ; ' — and  on  the  whole  knows  not  what  he  will 
resolve  upon. II  We  find  he  has  resolved  on  quitting  Ireland,  for  one 
thing ;  has  come  over  to  '  his  Father-in-law  Mr.  Huish's  in  Devon- 
shire ;' — and,  to  all  appearance,  is  not  building  established- churches 
there  !  '  Captain  Unton  Crook,'  of  whom  we  shall  hear  afterwards,  is 
an  active  man,  son  of  a  Learned  Lawyer  ;'*'*  very  zealous  for  the  Pro- 
tector's interest ; — zealous  for  his  own  and  his  Father's  promotion, 
growls  Ludlow.  Desborow,  who  fitted  out  the  late  mysterious  Sea- 
Armament  on  the  Southern  Coast  (not  too  judiciously,  I  doubt),  is 
Commander-in-Chief  in  those  parts. 

*  Posiea,  Speech  IV. ;  and  Thurloe,  iii.  no,  &c. 

t  16  January,  1654-5  (Overton's  Letter,   Thurloe,  iii.  no). 

X  Antea,  vol.  i.  161. 

§  Ludlow,  i.  189  :  '  William  Allen,'  'Edward  Sexby;  '  but  in  the  name  of  the 
third  Trooper  he  is  mistaken  ;  calling  him,  instead  of  Sheppard,     Philips.' 

II  Aniea,  vol.  i.  190. 

<jf  Two  intercepted  Letters  of  Allen's  (Thurloe,  ii.  214,  15),  '  Dublin,  6  April, 
1654.' 

**  Made  Sergeant  Crook  in  1655  (Heath,  p.  693). 

VOL.  in.  c 


34  FIRST  PROTECTORATE   PARLIAMENT. 

*  For  Captain  Union  Crook  at  Exeier :  These! 

Whitehall,  soth  January,  1654. 

Sir 

'Being  informed  by  a  Letter  of  yours  and  General  Desborow, 
also  by  a  Letter  from  the  High  Sheriff  of  Devon,  that  Adjutant- 
General  Allen  doth  very  ill  offices  by  multiplying  dissatisfaction  in 
the  minds  of  men  to  the  present  Government,  I  desire  you  and  the 
Hi"-h  Sheriff  to  make  diligent  inquiry  after  him,  and  try  to  make  out 
what  can  be  made  in  this  kind,  and  to  give  me  speedy  notice  thereof. 
Not  doubting  of  your  care  herein,  1  rest, 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P. 

If  he  be  gone  out  of  the  Country,  learn  whitlier  he  is  gone,  and 
send  me  word  by  next  post."* 

Allen  was  not  gone  out  of  the  Country  ;  he  was  seized  by  Crook,  in 
his  Father-in-law  Mr.  Huish's  house,'  on  the  31st  of  January,  1654-5  ; 
his  papers  searched,  and  himself  ordered  to  be  and  continue  prisoner, 
at  a  place  agreed  upon, — Sand  in  Somersetshire, — '  under  his  note  of 
hand.'  So  much  we  learn  from  the  imbroglios  of  Thtirloe ;^.  where 
also  are  authentic  Depositions  concerning  Allen,  '  by  Captains  John 
Copleston  and  the  said  Unton  Crook  ;'  and  two  Letters  of  Allen's 
own,— one  to  the  Protector  ;  and  one  to  '  Colonel  Daniel  Axtel,'  the 
Regicide  Axtel,  '  Dr.  Philip  Carteret,  or  either  of  them,'  enclosing  that 
other  Letter,  and  leaving  it  to  them  to  present  it  or  not,  he  himself 
thinking  earnestly  that  they  should.  Both  of  these  Letters,  as  well 
as  Unton  Crook's  to  the  Protector,  and  the  authentic  Deposition 
of  Copleston  and    Crook    against  Allen,  are  dated    February  .7th, 

1654-5. 

The  witnesses  depose,^  That  he  has  bragged  to  one  *  Sir  John 
Davis  baronet,'  of  an  interview  he  had  with  the  Protector  not  long 
since, — wherein  he,  Allen,  told  the  Protector  a  bit  of  his  mind  ;  and 
left  him  in  a  kind  of  huff,  and  even  at  a  nonplus  ;  and  so  came  off  to 
the  West  Country  in  a  triumphant  manner.  Farther  he  talks  ques- 
tionable things  of  Ireland,  of  discontents  there,  and  in  laud  of  Lieu- 
tenant-General  Ludlow  ;  says,  There  is  plenty  of  discontent  in  Ire- 
land ;  he  himself  means  to  be  there  in  February,  but  will  first  go  to 
London  again.  The  Country  rings  with  rumour  of  his  questionable 
speeches.  He  goes  to  '  meetings '  about  Bristol,  whither  many  per- 
sons convene, — for  Anabaptist  or  other  purposes.  Such  meetings  are 
often  on  week-days.  Questionabler  still,  he  rides  thither  'with  a 
vizard  or  mask  over  his  face  ;'  '  with  glasses  over  his  eyes,'-  barnacles, 
so  to  speak  !  Nay,  questionablest  of  nil,  riding,  '  on  Friday  the  5th 
of  last  month,'  month  of  January  1654-5,  'to  a  meeting  at  Luppit 
near  Honiton,  Devon,'  there  rode  also  (but  not  I  think  to  the  same 

*  I^nsdowne  MSS.  1236,  fol.  102.     Superscription  torn  off;— only  the  Signature 
is  in  Oliver's  hand  :  Address  supplied  here  by  inference. 
+  iii.  143 ;  see  pp.  140,  i.  +  Ibid.  iii.  140. 


SPEECH  IV.  3S 


place  !)  a  Mr.  Hugh  Courtenay,  once  a  flaming  Royalist  Officer  in 
Ireland,  and  still  a  flaming  zealot  to  the  lost  Cause  ;  who  spake  no- 
thing all  that  afternoon  but  mere  treason,  of  Anabaptists  that  would 
rise  in  London,  of  &;c.  I'tc.  Allen,  as  we  say,  on  the  last  mornmg  of 
January  was  awoke  from  sleep  in  his  Father-in-law  Mr.  Huish's,  by 
the  entrance  of  two  armed  troopers  ;  who  informed  him  that  Captain 
Crook  and  the  High  Sheriff  were  below,  and  that  he  would  have  to 
put  on  his  clothes,  and  come  down. 

Allen's  Letter  to  the  Lord  Protector,  from  Sand  in  Somersetshire, 
we  rather  reluctantly  withhold,*  for  want  of  room.  A  stubborn,  sad, 
stingily  respectful  piece  of  writing  :  Wife  and  baby  terribly  ill  off  ;-t 
Sand  ;  deserves  to  be  resigned  to  the  Lord,  '  before  whom  both  of  us 
shall  ere  long  nakedly  appear  ;' — petitions  that  at  least  he  might  be 
allowed  '  to  attend  ordinances  ;'  which  surely  would  be  reasonable  ! 
Are  there  not  good  horses  that  require  to  be  ridden  with  a  dextrous 
bridle-hand, — delicate,  and  yet  hard  and  strong  ?  Clearly  a  strenuous 
Anabaptist,  this  Allen  ;  a  rugged,  true-hearted,  not  easily  governable 
man  ;  given  to  Fifth- Monarchy  and  other  notions,  though  with  a 
strong  head  to  control  them.  Fancy  him  duly  cashiered  from  the 
Army,  duly  admonished  and  dismissed  into  private  life.  Then  add 
the  Colonel  Overtons  and  Colonel  Alureds,  and  General  Ludlovvs  and 
Major-General  Harrisons,  and  also  the  Charles  Stuarts  and  Christian 
Kings  ; — and  reflect  once  more  what  kind  of  task  this  of  my  Lord 
Protector's  is,  and  whether  he  needs  refractory  Pedant  Parliaments  to, 
worsen  it  for  him! 


SPEECH   IV. 

Finding  this  Parliament  was  equal  to  nothing  in  the  Spiritual  way 
but  tormenting  of  poor  Heretics,  receiving  Petitions  for  a  small  ad- 
vance towards  coal  and  candle  ;  and  nothing  in  the  Temporal,  but 
constitutional  air-fabrics  and  vigilant  checkings  and  balancings, — 
under  which  operations  such  precious  fruits  at  home  and  abroad  were 
ripening, — Oliver's  esteem  for  this  Parliament  gradually  sank  to  a 
marked  degree.  Check,  check, — like  maladroit  ship-carpenters  ham- 
mering, adzing,  sawing  at  the  Ship  of  the  State,  instead  of  diligently 
caulking  and  paying  it ;  idly  gauging  and  computing,  nay  recklessly 
tearing  up  and  remodelling  ;-  when  the  poor  Ship  could  hardly  keep 
the  water  as  yet,  and  the  Pirates  and  Sea-Krakens  were  gathering 
round  !  All  which  most  dangerous,  not  to  say  half-frantic  operations, 
the  Lord  Protector  discerning  well,  and  swallowing  in  silence  as  h.s 
best  was^ — had  for  a  good  while  kept  his  eye  upon  the  Almanac,  vvi  h 
more  and  more  impatience  for  the  arrival  of  the  Third  of  February. 
That  will  be  the  first  dehverance  of  the  poor  labouring  Common-' 

C  \ 


36  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT 

wealth,  when  at  the  end  of  Five  Months  we  send  these  Parliament 
philosophers  home  to  their  countries  again.  Five  months  by  tlie  in- 
strument they  have  to  sit  ;  — O  fly,   lazy   Time  ;  it  is  yet  but  Four 

Months  and Somebody  suggested,   Is  not  the  Soldier-month 

counted  by  Four  Weeks?  Eight-and-twenty  days  are  a  Soldier's 
Month  :  they  have,  in  a  sense,  already  sat  five  months,  these  vigilant 
Honourable  Gentlemen  ! 

Oliver  Protector,  on  Monday  morning,  22nd  January,  1654-5,  sur- 
prises the  C.onstitutioning  Parliament  with  a  message  to  attend  him 
in  the  Painted  Chamber,  and  leave  '  Settling  of  the  Government'  for  a 
while.  They  have  yet  voted  no  Supplies  ;  nor  meant  to  vote  any. 
They  thought  themselves  very  safe  till  February  3rd,  at  soonest.  But 
my  Lord  Protector,  from  his  high  place,  speaks,  and  dissolves. 

Speech  Fourth,  'printed  by  Henry  Hills,  Printer  to  his  Highness 
the  Lord  Protector,'  is  the  only  one  of  these  Speeches,  concerning 
the  reporting,  printing  or  publishing  of  which  there  is  any  visible 
charge  or  notice  taken  by  the  Government  of  the  time.  It  is  ordered 
in  this  instance,  by  the  Council  of  State,  That  nobody  except  Henry 
Hills  or  those  appointed  by  him  shall  presume  to  print  or  reprint  the 
present  Speech,  or  any  part  of  it.  Perhaps  an  official  precaution  con- 
sidered needful ;  perhaps  also  only  a  matter  of  copyright  ;  for  the 
Order  is  so  worded  as  not  to  indicate  which.  At  all  events,  there  is 
no  trace  of  the  Report  having  been  anywhere  interfered  with  ;  which 
seems  altogether  a  spontaneous  one  ;  probably  the  product  of  Rush- 
worth  or  some  such  artist."^ 

The  Speech,  if  read  with  due  intensity,  can  be  understood  ;  and 
what  is  equally  important,  be  believed  ;  nay,  be  found  to  contain  in 
it  a  manful,  great  and  valiant  meaning,— in  tone  and  manner  very 
resolute,  yet  very  conciliatory  ;  intrinsically  not  ignoble  but  noble. 
For  the  rest,  it  is,  as  usual,  sufficiently  incondite  in  phrase  and  con- 
ception ;  the  hasty  outpouring  of  a  mind  which  is  full  of  such  mean- 
ings. Somewhat  difficult  to  read.  Practical  Heroes,  unfortunately, 
as  we  once  said,  do  not  speak  in  blank-verse  ;  their  trade  does  not 
altogether  admit  of  that !  Useless  to  look  here  for  a  Greek  Temple 
with  its  porticoes  and  entablatures,  and  styles.  But  the  Alp  Moun- 
tain, with  its  chasms  and  cataracts  and  shaggy  pine-forests,  and  huge 
granite  masses  rooted  in  the  Heart  of  the  World  :  this  too  is  worth 
looking  at,  to  some.  J  can  give  the  reader  little  help  ;  but  will  advise 
him  to  try. 

Gentlemen, 

I  perceive  you  are  here  as  the  House  of  Parliament,  by  your 
Speaker  whom  I  see  here,  and  by  your  faces  which  are  in  a  great 
measure  known  to  me.     [Doubtless  we  are  hete,  your  Highness  ./] 

When  I  first  met  you  in  this  room,  it  was  to  my  apprehension  the 
hopefullest  day  that  ever  mine  eyes  saw,  as  to  the  considerations  of 
this  world.  For  I  did  look  at,  as  wrapt  up  in  you  together  with  my- 
self, the  hopes  and  the  happiness  of,— though  not  of  the  greatest,— 
yet  a  very  great  '  People  ;'  and  the  best  People  in  the  world.  And 
truly  and  unfeignedly  I  thought  'it'  so  :  as  a  People  that  have  the 
*  See  Burton's  Diary. 


SPEECH  IV.  37 


highest  and  clearest  profession  amongst  them  of  the  greatest  glory, 
namely  Religion  :  as  a  People  that  have  been,  like  other  Nations, 
sometimes  up  and  sometimes  down  in  our  honour  in  the  world,  but 
yet  never  so  low  but  we  might  measure  with  other  Nations  : — and  a 
People  that  have  had  a  stamp  upon  them  from  God  \Hah  /] ;  God 
having,  as  it  were,  summed  up  all  our  former  honour  and  glory  in  the 
things  that  are  of  glory  to  Nations,  in  an  Epitome,  within  these  Ten 
or  Twelve  years  last  past !  So  that  we  knew  one  another  at  home, 
and  are  well  known  abroad. 

And  if  1  be  not  very  much  mistaken,  we  were  arrived, — as  I,  and  truly 
I  believe  as  many  others,  did  think, — at  a  very  safe  port ;  where  we  might 
sit  down  and  contemplate  the  Dispensations  of  God,  and  our  Mercies  ; 
and  might  know  our  Mercies  not  to  have  been  like  to  those  of  the 
Ancients, — who  did  make  out  their  peace  and  prosperity,  as  they 
thought,  by  their  own  endeavours  ;  who  could  not  say,  as  we,  That 
all  ours  were  let  down  to  us  from  God  Himself  !  Whose  appearances 
and  providences  amongst  us  are  not  to  be  outmatched  by  any  Story. 
\^Deep  silence ;  from  the  oldPaliainent^  atidjrom  us^  Truly  this  was  our 
condition.  And  I  know  nothing  else  we  had  to  do,  save  as  Israel  was 
commanded  in  that  most  excellerft  Psalm  of  David  :  "  The  things 
"  which  we  have  heard  and  known,  and  our  fathers  have  told  us,  we 
"  will  not  hide  them  from  their  children  ;  shewing  to  the  generation  to 
"come  the  praises  of  the  Lord,  and  His  strength,  and  His  wonderful 
"  works  that  He  hath  done.  For  He  established  a  Testimony  in 
"Jacob,  and  appointed  a  Law  in  Israel;  which  He  commanded  our 
"fathers  that  they  should  make  known  to  their  children;  that  the 
"generation  to  come  might  know  them,  even  the  children  which 
"  should  be  born,  who  should  arise  and  declare  them  to  ^/z^/r  children : 
"  that  they  might  set  their  hope  in  God,  and  not  forget  the  works  oi 
"  God,  but  keep  His  commandments."''^ 

This  I  thought  had  been  a  song  and  a  work  worthy  of  Englana, 
whereunto  you  might  happily  have  invited  them, — had  you  had  hearts 
unto  it.  \^Alas  .']  You  had  this  opportunity  fairly  delivered  unto  you. 
And  if  a  history  shall  be  written  of  these  Times  and  Transactions,  it 
will  be  said,  it  will  not  be  denied,  that  these  things  that  I  have  spoken 
are  true  !  [A^^  response  from  the  Moderns:  mere  silence, stupor^  not  with- 
out sadness. 1  This  talent  was  put  into  your  hands.  And  I  shall  recur 
to  that  which  I  said  at  the  first  :  I  came  with  very  great  joy  and 
contentment  and  comfort,  the  first  time  I  met  you  in  this  place.  But 
we  and  these  Nations  are,  for  the  present,  under  some  disappomt- 
ment  !-  If  I  had  proposed  to  have  played  the  Orator, — which  I  never 
did  affect,  nor  do,  nor  I  hope  s\\2L\\[^Hear /\ — I  doubt  not  but  upon 
easy  suppositions,  which  I  am  persuaded  every  one  among  you  will 
grant,  we  did  meet  upon  such  hopes  as  these. 

I  met  you  a  second  time  here  :  and  I  confess,  at  that  meeting  I  had 
much  abatement  of  my  hopes  ;  though  not  a  total  frustration.  I  con- 
fess that  that  which  damped  my  hopes  so  soon  was  somewhat  that  did 
If'ok  like  a  parricide.  It  is  obvious  enough  unto  you  that  the  'then  ' 
management  of  affairs  did  savour  of  a  Not  owning  of  the  Authority 
that  called  you  hither.  But  God  left  us  not  without  an  expedient  that 
*  Psalm  Ixxviii.  3-7. 


33  FIRST  PROTKCIOKATE  PARLIAMENT 

gave  a  second  possibility,— shall  I  say  possibility?  It  seemed  to  me  a 
probability  of  recovering  out  of  that  dissatisfied  condition  we  were  all 
then  in,  towards  some  mutuality  of  salislaction.  And  therefore  by  that 
Recognition  [J /le  Parchment  we  had  to  sij(n  :  Huin-m!\  suiting  with 
the  Indenture  that  returned  you  hither  ;  to  which  aitei wards  was  also 
added  your  own  Declaration,"^  conformable  to,  and  in  acceptance  of, 
that  expedient  : — thereby,  '  1  say,'  you  had,  though  with  a  little  check, 
another  opportunity  renewed  unto  you  to  have  made  this  Nation  as 
happy  as  it  could  have  been  if  every  thing  had  smoothly  run  on  from 
that  rirst  hour  of  your  meeting.  And  indeed,  — you  will  give  me  liberty 
of  my  thoughts  and  hopes,-  1  did  think,  as  1  have  formerly  found  in 
that  way  that  1  have  been  engaged  m  as  a  soldier,  I'hat  some  alfronts 
put  upon  us,  some  disasters  at  the  first,  have  made  way  for  very  great 
and  happy  successes  :t  and  1  did  not  at  all  despond  but  the  stop  put 
upon  you,  in  like  manner,  would  have  made  way  for  a  blessing  from 
God.  That  Interruption  being,  as  1  thought,  necessary  to  divert  you 
from  violent  and  destructive  proceedings  ;  to  give  time  for  better 
deliberations  ; — whereby  leaving  the  Government  as  you  found  it,  you 
might  have  proceeded  to  have  made  those  good  and  wholesome  Laws 
which  the  People  expected  from  you,  and  might  have  answered  the 
Grievances,  and  settled  those  other  things  proper  to  you  as  a  Parlia- 
ment :  for  which  you  would  have  had  thanks  from  all  that  entrusted 
you.     {Doubtful  "  Hum-7n-m  f  from  the  old  Parliainetit.^ 

What  hath  happened  since  that  time  I  have  not  taken  public  notice 
of;  as  declining  to  intrench  on  Parliament  privileges.  For  sure  I  am 
you  will  all  bear  me  witness,  That  from  your  entering  into  the  House 
upon  the  Recognition,  to  this  day,  you  have  had  no  manner  of  interrup- 
tion or  hindrance  of  mine  in  proceeding  to  what  blessed  issue  the 
heart  of  a  good  man  could  propose  to  himself,— to  this  very  day 
'  none.'  You  see  you  have  me  very  much  locked  up,  as  to  what  you 
have  transacted  among  yourselves,' from  that  time  to  this.  \^'-J\one  dare 
report  us,  or  whisper  what  we  do.'"]  But  some  things  I  shall  take 
liberty  to  speak  of  to  you. 

As  I  may  not  take  notice  what  you  have  been  doing  ;  so  I  think  I 
have  a  very  great  liberty  to  tell  you  That  I  do  not  know  what  you  have 
been  doing  !  [With  a  certain  to?te ;  as  one  may  hear  I]  I  do  not  know 
whether  you  have  been  alive  or  dead.  I  have  not  once  heard  from 
you  all  this  time  ;  I  have  not  :  and  that  you  all  know.  If  that  be  a 
lault  that  I  have  not,  surely  it  hath  not  been  mine  !— If  I  have  had  any 
melancholy  thoughts,  and  have  sat  down  by  them,— why  might  it  not 
lave  been  very  lawful  for  me  to  think  that  I  was  a  Person  judged 
anconccrned  in  all  these  businesses  ?  I  can  assure  you  I  have  not 
so  reckoned  myself!  Nor  did  I  reckon  myself  unconcerned  in  you. 
And  so  long  as  any  just  patience  could  support  my  expectation,  I 
«vould  have  waited  to  the  uttermost  to  have  received  from  you  the 
issue  of  your  consultations  and  resolutions,— I  have  been  careful  of 
your  safety,  and  the  safety  of  those  that  you  represented,  to  whom  I 
reckon  myself  a  servant. — 

But  what  messages  have  I  disturbed  you  withal  ?     What  injury  or 
*  Commons  Journals  (vii.  368),  14  Sept.  1654. 
\  Characterisiic  senience,  and  sentiment ;  not  to  be  meddled  with. 


SPEECH  IV.  39 


indignity  hath  been  done,  or  offered,  either  to  your  persons  or  to  any 
privileges  of  Parliament,  since  you  sat  ?  I  looked  at  myself  as  strictly 
obliged  by  my  Oath,  since  your  recognising  the  Government  in  the 
authority  of  which  you  were  called  hither  and  sat.  To  give  you  all 
possible  security,  and  to  keep  you  from  any  unparliamentary  interrup- 
tion. Think  you  I  could  not  say  more  upon  this  subject,  if  I  listed  to 
expatiate  thereupon  ?  But  because  my  actions  plead  for  me,  I  shall 
say  no  more 'of  this.  [^Old  Parliament  dubiously  roils  its  eyes.} — I 
say,  I  have  been  caring  for  you,  for  your  quiet  sitting  ;  caring  for  your 
privileges,  as  I  said  before,  that  they  might  not  be  interrupted  ;  have 
been  seeking  of  God,  from  the  great  God  a  blessing  upon  you,  and  a 
blessing  upon  these  Nations.  I  have  been  consulting  if  possibly  I 
might,  in  any  thing,  promote,  in  any  place,  the  real  good  of  this  Parlia- 
ment, of  the  hopefulness  of  which  I  have  said  so  much  unto  you.  And 
I  did  think  it  to  be  my  business  rather  to  see  the  utmost  issue,  and  what 
God  would  produce  by  you,  than  unseasonably  to  intermeddle  with  you. 

But,  as  I  said  before,  I  have  been  caring  for  you,  and  for  the  peace 
and  quiet  of  the  Nations  :  indeed  I  have  ;  and  that  I  shall  a  little 
presently  manifest  unto  you.  And  it  leadeth  me  to  let  you  know 
somewhat, — which,  I  fear,  1  fear,  will  be,  through  some  interpretation,  a 
little  too  justly  put  uponyouy  whilst  you  have  been  employed  as  you 
have  been,  and,— in  all  that  time  expressed  in  the  Government,  in 
that  Government,  I  say  in  that  Government,  —  have  brought  forth 
nothing  that  you  yourselves  say  eau  be  taken  notice  of  without  in- 
fringement of  your  privileges  !"^  I  will  tell  you  somewhat,  which,  if  it 
be  not  news  to  you,  I  wish  you  had  taken  very  serious  consideration 
of.  If  it  be  news,  I  wish  1  had  acqu  ainted  you  with  it  sooner. 
And  yet  if  any  man  will  ask  me  why  I  did  it  not,  the  reason  is 
given  already  :  Because  I  did  make  it  my  business  to  give  you  no 
interruption. 

There  be  some  trees  that  will  not  grow  under  the  shadow  of  other 
trees  :  There  be  some  that  choose,— a  man  may  say  so  by  way  of 
allusion, — to  thrive  under  the  s  hadow  of  other  trees.  I  will  tell  you. 
what  hath  thriven, — I  will  not  say  what  you  have  cherished,  under 
your  shadow  ;  that  were  too  hard.  Instead  of  Peace  and  Settlement, 
— instead  of  mercy  and  truth  being  brought  together,  and  righteous- 
ness and  peace  kissing  each  other,  by  '  your  '  reconciling  the  Honest 
People  of  these  Nations,  and  settling  the  woful  distempers  that  are 
amongst  us;  which  had  been  glorious  things  and  worthy  of  Christians 
to  have  proposed, — weeds  and  nettles,  briars  and  thorns  have  thrivei?. 
Under  your  shadow  !  Dissettlement  and  division,  discontent  and  dis- 
satisfaction ;  together  with  real  dangers  to  the  whole, — have  been 
more  multiplied  within  these  five  months  of  your  sitting,  than  in  some 
yea  rs  before  !     Foundations  have  also  been  laid  for  the  futiire  renew-. 

*  An  embarrassed  sentence  ;  characteristic  of  his  Highness.  "You  have  done 
"nothing  noticeable  upon  this  'Somewhat'  that  I  am  about  to  speak  of, — nor, 
"indeed,  it  seems,  upon  a?iy  Somewhat  ;  -  and  this  was  one  >ou  may,  without, 
"much  'interpretation,'  be  blamed  for  doing  nothing  upon."  'Government- 
means /y/j/A-.'^/w^?/// ^  Gcz't'r/i'OTi''//.-  '  the  time  expressed  therein  \s  Five  Months, 
—  now,  by  my  way  of  calculating  it,  expired  !  Which  may  account  for  the  embar- 
rassed iteration  of  the  phrase,  oa  his  Hi^huess's  part. 


40  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

ing  of  the  Troubles  of  these  Nations  by  all  the  enemies  of  ihem 
abroad  and  at  home.  Let  not  these  words  seem  too  sharp  :  for  they 
are  true  as  any  mathematical  demonstrations  are,  or  can  be.  I  say 
the  enemies  of  the  peace  of  these  Nations  abroad  and  at  home,  the 
discontented  humours  throughout  these  Nations,— which  '  products'  1 
think  no  man  will  grudge  to  call  by  that  name,  of  briars  and  thorns, 
— they  have  nourished  themselves  under  your  shadow  !  \Old  Parlia- 
ment looks  still  more  uneasy?^ 

And  that  1  may  be  clearly  understood  :  They  have  taken  their 
opportunities  from  your  sitting,  and  from  the  hopes  they  had,  which 
with  easy  conjecture  they  might  take  up  and  conclude  that  there 
would  be  no  Settlement  ;  and  they  have  framed  their  designs,  pre- 
paring for  the  execution  of  them  accordingly.  Now  whether, — which 
appertains  not  to  me  to  judge  of,  on  their  behalf, — they  had  any  occa- 
sion ministered  for  this,  and  from  whence  they  had  it,  I  list  not  to 
make  any  scrutiny  or  search.  But  I  will  say  this  :  I  think  they  had 
it  not  from  me.  I  am  sure  they  had  not  '  from  me.'  From  whence 
they  had,  is  not  my  business  now  to  discourse  :  but  that  they  had,  is 
obvious  to  every  man's  sense.  What  preparations  they  have  maae, 
to  be  executed  in  such  a  season  as  they  thought  fit  to  take  their 
opportunity  from  :  that  I  know,  not  as  men  know  things  by  conjec- 
ture, but  by  certain  demonstrable  knowledge.  That  they  have  been 
for  some  time  past  furnishing  themselves  with  arms  ;  nothing  doubt- 
ing but  they  should  have  a  day  for  it ;  and  verily  believing  that, 
whatsoever  their  former  disappointments  were,  they  should  have  more 
done  for  them  by  and  from  our  own  divibions,  than  they  were  able  to 
do  for  themselves.  I  desire  to  be  understood  That,  in  all  I  have  to 
say  of  this  subject,  you  will  take  it  that  I  have  no  reservation  in  my 
mind, — as  I  have  not, — to  mingle  things  of  guess  and  suspicion  with 
things  of  fact  :  but '  that '  the  things  I  am  telling  of  are  fact ;  things 
of  evident  demonstration. 

These  weeds,  briars  and  thorns, — they  have  been  preparing,  and 
have  brought  their  designs  to  some  maturity,  by  the  advantages 
given  to  them,  as  aforesaid,  from  your  sitting  and  proceedings. 
S^'Hjun-m-iri  /  "]  But  by  the  Waking  Eye  that  watched  over  that  Cause 
that  God  will  bless,  they  have  been,  and  yet  are,  disappointed.  {Yea  /] 
And  having  mentioned  that  Cause,  I  say,  that  slighted  Cause, — let 
me  speak  a  few  words  in  behalf  thereof  ;  though  it  may  seem  too 
long  a  digression.  Whosoever  despiseth  it,  and  will  say,  It  is  ^wn 
Causa  pro  Caiisa,  *  a  Cause  without  Cause,'— the  All-searching  Eye 
before  mentioned  will  find  out  that  man  ;  and  will  judge  him,  as  one 
ihat  regardeth  not  the  works  of  God  nor  the  operations  of  His  hands  ! 
[Moderns  look  asto?iished.'\  For  which  God  hath  threatened  that  He 
will  cast  men  down,  and  not  build  them  up.  That  '  man  who,'  be- 
cause he  can  dispute,  will  tell  us  he  knew  not  when  the  Cause  began, 
nor  where  it  is  ;  but  modelleth  it  according  to  his  own  intellect  ;  and 
submits  not  to  the  Appearances  of  God  in  the  World  ;  and  therefore 
lifts  up  his  heel  against  God,  and  mocketh  at  all  His  providences  ; 
laughing  at  the  observations,  made  up  not  without  reason  and  the 
Scriptures,  and  by  the  quickening  and  teaching  Spirit  which  gives 
life  to  these  other  ; — calling  such  observations  "  enthusia^sms  : "  such 


SPEECH  IV.  4t 


men,  I  say,  no  wonder  if  they  "  stumble,  and  fall  backwards,  and  be 
broken,  and  snared  and  taken,''*  by  the  things  of  which  «.hey  are  so 
wilfully  and  maliciously  ignorant  !  The  Scriptures  say,  *'  The  Rod 
has  a  voice,  and  He  will  make  Himself  known  by  the  iudgments 
which  He  executeth."  And  do  we  not  think  He  will,  and  does,  by 
the  providences  of  mercy  and  kindness  which  He  hath  for  His 
People  and  their  just  liberties  ;  ''  whom  He  loves  as  the  apple  of  His 
eye?"  Doth  He  not  by  them  manifest  Himself?  And  is  He  not 
thereby  also  seen  giving  kingdoms  for  them,  "  giving  men  for  them, 
and  people  for  their  lives '' — As  it  is  in  Isaiah  P'orty-third  ?t  Is  not 
this  as  fair  a  lecture  and  as  clear  speaking,  as  any  thing  our  dark 
reason,  left  to  the  letter  of  the  Scriptures,  can  collect  from  them  ?  By 
this  voice  has  God  spoken  very  loud  on  behalf  of  His  People,  by 
judging  their  enemies  in  the  late  War,  and  restoring  them  a  liberty  to 
worship  with  the  freedom  of  their  estates  and  persons  when  they  do 
so.  And  thus  we  have  found  the  Cause  of  God  by  the  works  of  God  ; 
which  are  the  testimony  of  God.  Upon  which  rock  whosoever  splits 
shall  suffer  shipwreck.  But  it  is  your  glory,— and  it  is  mine,  if  I  have 
any  in  the  world  concerning  the  Interest  of  those  that  have  an  in- 
terest in  a  better  world, — it  is  my  glory  that  I  know  a  Cause  which 
yet  we  have  7iot  lost ;  but  do  hope  we  shall  take  a  little  pleasure 
rather  to  lose  our  lives  than  lose  !  \Hah  /] — But  you  will  excuse  this 
long  digression.  —   — 

I  say  unto  you.  Whilst  you  have  been  In  the  midst  of  these  Trans- 
actions, that  Party,  that  Cavalier  Party  have  been  designing  and 
preparing  to  put  this  Nation  in  Blood  again,  with  a  witness.  But 
because  I  am  confident  there  are  none  of  that  sort  here,  therefore  I 
shall  say  the  less  to  that.  Only  this  I  must  tell  you  :  They  have  been 
making  great  preparations  of  arms  ;  and  I  do  believe  it  will  be  made 
evident  to  you  that  they  have  raked  out  many  thousands  of  arms, 
even  all  that  this  City  could  afford,  for  divers  months  last  past.  But 
it  will  be  said,  ''  May  we  not  arm  ourselves  for  the  defence  of  our 
"houses?  Will  anybody  find  fault  for  that?"  Not  for  that.  But 
the  reason  for  their  doing  so  hath  been  as  explicit,  and  under  as  clear 
proof,  as  the  fact  of  doing  so.  For  which  I  hope,  by  the  justice  of  the 
land,  some  will,  in  the  face  of  the  Nation,  answer  it  with  their  lives  ; 
and  then  the  business  will  be  pretty  well  out  of  doubt. — Banks  of 
money  have  been  framing,  for  these  and  other  such  like  uses.  Letters 
have  been  issued  with  Privy-seals,  to  as  great  Persons  as  most  are  in 
the  Nation,  for  the  advance  of  money,— which  'Letters'  have  been 
discovered  to  us  by  the  Persons  themselves.  Commissions  for  regi- 
ments of  horse  and  foot,  and  command  of  castles,  have  been  likewise 
given  from  Charles  Stuart,  since  your  sitting.  And  what  the  general 
insolences  of  that  Party  have  been,  the  Honest  People  have  been 
sensible  of,  and  can  very  well  testify. 

It  hath  not  only  been  thus.  But  as  in  a  quinsy  or  pleurisy,  where 
the  humour  fixeth  in  one  part,  give  it  scope,  all  '  disease '  will  gather 

*  Isaiah,  xxviii.  13:  A  text  that  had  made  a  great  impression  upon  Oliver  :  see 
Letter  to  the  General  Assen)b]y,  an  tea,  vol.  ii.  p.  09. 

t  Isaiah,  xliii.  3,  4;  Another  prophecy  of  awful  moment  to  his  Highness:  see 
Speech  1.  vol.  ii.  p.  222. 


4^  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


to  that  place,  to  the  hazarding  of  the  whole  :  and  it  is  natural  to  do 
so  till  it  destroy  life  in  that  person  on  whomsoever  this  befals.  So 
likewise  will  these  diseases  take  accidental  causes  of  aggravation  of 
their  distemper.  And  this  was  that  which  I  did  assert,  That  they 
have  taken  accidental  causes  for  the  growing  and  increasing  of  those 
distempers,— as  much  as  would  have  been  in  the  natural  body  if 
timely  remedy  were  not  applied.  And  indeed  things  were  come  to 
that  pass,— in  respect  of  which  I  shall  give  you  a  particular  account, 
—that  no  mortal  physician,  if  the  Great  Physician  had  not  stepped 
in,  could  have  cured  the  distemper.  Shall  I  lay  this  upon  your 
account,  or  my  own  ?  I  am  sure  I  can  lay  it  upon  God's  account  : 
That  if  He  had  not  stepped  in,  the  disease  had  been  mortal  and 
destructive ! 

And  what  is  all  this  ?  '  What  are  these  new  diseases  that  have 
gathered  to  this  point  ?  '  Truly  I  must  needs  still  say  :  "  A  company 
of  men  hke  briars  and  thorns  ; "  and  worse,  if  worse  can  be.  Of 
another  sort  than  those  before  mentioned  to  you.  These  also  have 
been  and  yet  are  endeavouring  to  put  us  into  blood  and  into  con- 
fusion ;  more  desperate  and  dangerous  confusion  than  England  ever 
yet  saw.  [Anabaptist  Levellej's  !'\  And  I  must  say,  as  when  (jideon 
commanded  his  son  to  fall  upon  Zeba  and  Zalmunna,  and  slay  them, 
they  thought  it  more  noble  to  die  by  the  hand  of  a  man  than  of  a 
stripling,— which  shows  there  is  some  contentment  in  the  hand  by 
which  a  man  falls  :  so  it  is  some  satisfaction  if  a  Commonwealth  must 
perish,  that  it  perish  by  men,  and  not  by  the  hands  of  persons  differ- 
ing little  from  beasts  !  That  if  it  must  needs  suffer,  it  should  rather 
suffer  from  rich  men  than  from  poor  men,  who,  as  Solomon  says, 
"  when  they  oppress,  leave  nothing  behind  them,  but  are  as  a  sweep- 
ing rain."  Now  such  as  these  also  are  grown  up  under  your  shadow. 
But  it  will  be  asked,  What  have  they  done .?  I  hope,  though  they 
pretend  "Commonwealth's  Interest,"  they  have  had  no  encourage- 
ment from  you  ;  but  have,  as  in  the  former  case,  rather  taken  it  than 
that  you  have  administered  any  cause  unto  them  for  so  doing  '  Any 
cause  '  from  delays,  from  hopes  that  this  Parliament  would  not  settle, 
from  Pamphlets  mentioning  strange  Votes  and  Resolves  of  yours  ; 
which  I  hope  did  abuse  you  !  But  thus  you  see  that,  whatever  the 
grounds  were,  these  have  been  the  effects.  And  thus  I  have  laid 
these  things  before  you  ;  and  you  and  others  will  be  easily  able  to 
judge  how  far  you  are  concerned. 

"  What  these  men  have  done  ? "  They  also  have  laboured  to 
pervert,  where  they  could,  and  as  they  could,  the  Honest-meaning 
People  of  the  Nation.  They  have  laboured  to  engage  some  in  the 
Army  : — and  I  doubt  that  not  only  they,  but  some  others  also,  very 
well  known  to  you,  have  helped  to  this  work  of  debauching  and 
dividing  the  Army.  They  have,  they  have  !  [Overton,  Allen  and 
Compa?tyy  your  Highness  ?^  I  would  be  loath  to  say  Who,  Where, 
and  How  ;  much  more  loath  to  say  they  were  any  of  your  own  number. 
But  I  can  say  :  Endeavours  have  been  'made'  to  put  the  Army  into 
a  distemper,  and  to  feed  that  which  is  the  worst  humour  in  the  Army. 
Which  though  it  was  not  a  mastering  humour,  yet  these  took  advan- 
tage from  delay  of  the  Settlement,  and  the  practices  before  mentioned. 


SPEECH  JV.  45 


and  the  stopping  of  the  pay  of  the  Army,  to  run  us  into  Free-quarter, 
and  to  bring  us  into  the  inconveniences  most  to  be  feared  and  avoided. 
What  if  I  am  able  to  make  it  appear  in  fact,  That  some  amongst  you 
have  run  into  the  City  of  London,  to  persuade  to  Petitions  and 
Addresses  to  you  for  reversing  your  own  votes  that  you  have  passed  ? 
Whether  these  practices  were  in  favour  of  your  Liberties,  or  tended 
to  beget  hopes  of  Peace  and  Settlement  from  you  :  and  whether 
debauching  the  Army  in  England,  as  is  before  expressed,  and 
starving  it,  and  putting  it  upon  Free-quarter,  and  occasioning  and 
necessitating  the  greatest  part  thereof  in  Scotland  to  march  into 
England,  leaving  the  remainder  thereof  to  have  their  throats  cut 
there ;  and  kindling  by  the  rest  a  fire  in  our  own  bosoms,  were  for 
the  advantage  of  affairs  here,  let  the  world  judge  ! 

This  I  tell  you  also  :  That  the  correspondence  held  with  the  Interest 
of  the  Cavaliers,  by  that  Party  of  men  called  Levellers,  who  call 
themselves  Commonwealth's-men,  '  is  in  our  hands.'  Whose 
Declarations  were  framed  to  that  purpose,  and  ready  to  be  published 
at  the  time  of  their  '  projected '  common  Rising  ;  whereof,  *  I  say,' 
we  are  possessed  ;  and  for  which  we  have  the  confession  of  themselves 
now  in  custody  ;  who  confess  also  they  built  their  hopes  upon  the 
assurance  they  had  of  the  Parliament's  not  agreeing  to  a  settlement : 
— whether  these  humours  have  not  nourished  themselves  under  your 
boughs,  is  the  subject  of  my  present  discourse  ;  and  I  think  I  shall 
say  not  amiss,  if  I  affirm  it  to  be  so.  [His  Highness  looks miiiuaied I^ 
And  I  must  say  it  again,  Thnt  that  which  hat'i  been  their  adva  Uage, 
thus  to  raise  disturbance,  hath  been  by  the  loss  of  those  golden 
opportunities  which  God  had  put  into  your  hands  for'  Settlement. 
Judge  you  whether  these  things  were  thus,  or  not,  when  you  first  sat 
down.  I  am  sure  things  were  not  thus  !  There  was  a  very  great 
peace  and  sedateness  throughout  these  Nations  ;  and  great  expecta- 
tions of  a  happy  Settlement.  Which  I  remembered  to  you  at  the 
beginning  in  my  Speech  ;  and  hoped  that  you  would  have  entered  on 
your  business  as  you  found  it.  S^*-  Hiim-vi !  We  had  a  Constitu- 
lion  to  make  I "  ] 

There  was  a  Government  '  already '  in  the  possession  of  the  People, 
— I  say  a  Government  in  the  possession  of  the  People,  for  many 
months.  It  hath  now  been  exercised  near  Fifteen  Months  ;  and  if 
it  were  needful  that  I  should  tell  you  how  it  came  into  their  posses- 
sion, and  how  willingly  they  received  it  ;  how  all  Law  and  Justice 
were  distributed  from  it,  in  every  respect,  as  to  life,  liberty  and  estate; 
how  it  was  owned  by  God,  as  being  the  dispensation  of  His  provi- 
dence after  Twelve  years  War  ;  and  sealed  and  witnessed  unto  by 
the  People,— I  should  but  repeat  what  I  said  in  my  last  Speech  unto 
you  in  this  place  :  and  therefore  I  forbear.  When  you  were  entered 
upon  this  Government ;  ravelling  into  it — You  know  I  took  no  notice 
what  you  were  doing — \Nor  will  now,  your  Highiiess\  let  the  Senttitce 
d?'op /]  —  ]{  you  had  gone  upon  that  foot  of  account.  To  have  made 
such  good  and  wholesome  provisions  for  the  Good  of  the  People  of 
these  Nations  'as  were  wanted  ; '  for  the  settling  of  such  matters  in 
things  of  Religion  as  would  have  upheld  and  given  countenance  to  a 
Godly  Ministry,  and  yet '  as '  would  have  given  a  just  liberty  to  godly 


44  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

men  of  different  judgments,—'  to  '  men  of  the  same  faith  with  them 
that  you  call  the  Orthodox  Ministry  in  England,  as  it  is  well  known 
the  Independents  are,  and  many  under  the  form  of  Baptism,  who  are 
sound  in  the  faith,  and  though  they  may  perhaps  be  different  in  judg- 
ment in  some  lesser  matters,  yet  as  true  Christians  both  looking  for 
salvation  only  by  faith  in  the  blood  of  Christ,  men  professing  the  fear 
of  God,  and  having  recourse  to  the  name  of  God  as  to  a  strong  tower 
— I  say  you  might  have  had  opportunity  to  have  settled  peace  and 
quietness  amongst  all  professing  Godliness  ;  and  might  have  been 
instrumental,  if  not  to  have  healed  the  breaches,  yet  to  have  kept  the 
(lodly  of  all  judgments  from  running  one  upon  another;  and  by  keep- 
ing them  from  being  overrun  by  a  Common  Enemy,  'have  '  rendered 
them  and  these  Nations  both  secure,  happy  and  well  satisfied.  [^And 
the  Co7istitHtion  ?    Hiim-m-m  /] 

Are  these  things  done  ;  or  any  things  towards  them  ?  Is  there  not 
yet  upon  the  spirits  of  men  a  strange  itch  ?  Nothing  will  satisfy  them 
unless  they  can  press  their  finger  upon  their  brethrens'  consciences, 
to  pinch  them  there.  To  do  this  was  no  part  of  the  Contest  we  had 
with  the  Common  Adversary.  For  'indeed'  Religion  was  not  the 
thing  at  first  contested  for  '  at  all  :'*  but  God  brought  it  to  that  issue 
at  last ;  and  gave  it  unto  us  by  way  of  redundancy  ;  and  at  last  it 
proved  to  be  that  which  was  most  dear  to  us.  And  wherein  consisted 
this  more  than  In  obtaining  that  liberty  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
Bishops  to  all  species  of  Protestants  to  worship  God  according  to 
their  own  light  and  consciences .?  For  want  of  which  many  of  our 
brethren  forsook  their  native  countries  to  seek  their  bread  from 
strangers,  and  to  live  in  howling  wildernesses  [("^z/r/^^d?;- <^r<?//zr<?;z  ^y 
New  England  I  ^^ ;  and  for  which  also  many  that  ;cmained  here  were 
imprisoned,  and  otherwise  abused  and  made  the  scorn  of  the  Nation. 
Those  that  were  sound  in  the  faith,  how  proper  was  it  for  them  to 
labour  for  liberty,  that  men  might  not  be  trampled  upon  for  their  con- 
sciences !  Had  not  they  '  themselves  '  laboured,  but  lately,  under  the 
weight  of  persecution  ?  And  was  it  fit  for  them  to  sit  heavy  upon 
others.?  Is  it  ingenuous  to  ask  liberty,  and  not  to  give  it?  What 
greater  hypocracy  than  for  those  who  were  oppressed  by  the  Bishops 
to  become  the  greatest  oppressors  themselves,  so  soon  as  their 
yoke  was  removed  ?  I  could  wish  that  they  who  call  for  liberty 
now  also  had  not  too  much  of  that  spirit,  if  the  power  were  in 
their  hands  ! — As  for  profane  persons,  blasphemers,  such  ais  preach 
sechtion  ;  the  contentious  railers,  evil-speakers,  who  seek  by  evil 
words  to  corrupt  good  manners  ;  persons  of  loose  conversation,— 
punishment  from  the  Civil  Magistrate  ought  to  meet  with  these. 
Because,  if  they  pretend  conscience  ;  yet  walking  disorderly  and 
not  according  but  contrary  to  the  Gospel,  and  even  to  natural  lights, 
-  they  are  judged  of  all.  And  their  sins  being  open,  make  them 
subjects  of  the  Magistrate's  sword,  who  ought  not  to  bear  it  in  vain. 
—The  discipline  ot  the  Army  was  such,  that  a  man  would  not  be 
suffered  to  remain  there,  of  whom  we  could  take  notice  he  was  guiltv 
of  such  practices  as  these. — 

*  Power  of  the  Militia  was  the  point  upon  which  the  actual  War  began.  A 
Statement  not  false ;  yet  truer  in  form  than  it  is  in  essence. 


SPEECH  IV.  45 


And  therefore  how  happ/  would  England  have  been,  and  you  and  I, 
if  the  Lord  had  led  you  on  to  have  settled  upon  such  good  accounts 
as  these  are,  and  to  have  discountenanced  such  practices  as  the 
other,  and  left  men  in  disputable  things  free  to  their  own  consciences  ! 
Which  was  well  provided  for  by  the  '  Instrument  of  Government  ; 
and  liberty  left  to  provide  against  what  was  apparently  evil.  Judge 
you,  Whether  the  contesting  for  things  that  were  provided  for  by 
this  Government  hath  been  profitable  expense  of  time,  for  the  good 
of  these  Nations  !  By  means  whereof  you  may  see  you  have  wholly 
elapsed  your  time,  and  done  just  nothing  ! — I  will  say  this  to  you,  in 
behalf  of  the  Long  Parliament  :  That,  liad  such  an  expedient  as  this 
Government  been  proposed  to  them  ;  and  could  they  have  seen  flie 
Cause  of  (jod  thus  provided  for ;  and  been,  by  debates,  enlightened 
in  the  grounds  '  of  it,'  whereby  the  difficulties  might  have  been  cleared 
*  to  them,'  and  the  reason  of  the  whole  enforced,  and  the  circum- 
stances of  time  and  persons,  with  the  temper  and  disposition  of  the 
People,  and  affairs  both  abroad  and  at  home  when  it  was  undertaken 
might  have  been  well  weighed  '  by  them  : '  1  think  in  my  conscience, 
— well  as  they  were  thought  to  love  their  seats, — they  would  have 
proceeded  in  another  manner  than  you  have  done  !  And  not  have 
exposed  things  to  these  difficulties  and  hazards  they  now  are  at;  nor 
given  occasion  to  leave  the  People  so  dissettled  as  they  now  are. 
Who,  I  dare  say,  in  the  soberest  and  most  judicious  part  of  them, 
did  expect,  not  a  questioning,  but  a  doing  of  things  in  pursuance  of 
the  '  Instrument  of  Government.  And  if  I  be  not  misinformed,  very 
many  of  you  came  up  with  this  satisfaction  ;  having  had  time  enough 
to  weigh  and  consider  the  same. 

And  when  I  say  "  such  an  expedient  as  this  Government," — wherein 
I  dare  assert  there  is  a  just  Liberty  to  the  People  of  God,  and  the 
just  Rights  of  the  People  in  these  Nations  provided  for,—  I  can  put 
the  issue  thereof  upon  the  clearest  reason  ;  whatsoever  any  go  about 
to  suggest  to  the  contrary.  But  this  not  being  the  time  and  place  of 
such  an  averment,  '  I  forbear  at  present.'  For  satisfaction's  sake 
herein,  enough  is  said  in  a  Book  entituled  '  A  State  of  the  Case  of 
the  Coniinowwealth^  published  in  January  1653.*  And  for  myself,  I 
desire  not  to  keep  my  place  in  this  Government  an  hour  longer  than 
I  may  preserve  England  in  its  just  rights,  and  may  protect  the 
People  of  God  in  such  a  just  Liberty  of  their  Consciences  as  I  have 
already  mentioned.  And  therefore  if  this  Parliament  have  judged 
things  to  be  otherwise  than  as  I  have  stated  them, — it  had  been  huge 
friendliness  between  persons  who  had  such  a  reciprocation  in  so 
great  concernments  to  the  public,  for  them  to  have  convinced  me  in 
what  particulars  therein  my  error  lay  !  Of  which  I  never  yet  had  a 
word  from  you  !  But  if,  instead  thereof,  your  time  has  been  spent 
in  setting  up  somewhat  else,  upon  another  bottom  than  this  stands 
'  upon,' — it  looks  as  if  the  laying  grounds  for  a  quarrel  had  rather 
been  designed  than  to  give  the  People  settlement.     If  it  be  thus,  it's 

*  Read  it  he  who  wants  satisfaction  :  '  Printed  by  Thomas  Newcomb,  Loudon, 
1653-4'; — 'wrote  with  great  spirit  of  language  and  subtility  of  argument/ says 
the  Parliamentary  History  (xx.  419). 


46  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

well  your  labours  have  not  arrived  to  any  maturity  at  all  !     {Old  Par- 
liament looks  agitated ;— agitated,  yet  co7istant !  ] 

This  Government  called  you  hither  ;  the  constitution  thereof  being 
limited  so,— a  Single  Person  and  a  Parliament.  And  this  was  thought 
most  agreeable  to  the  general  sense  of  the  Nation  ; — having  had  ex- 
perience enough,  by  trial,  of  other  conclusions  ;  judging  this  most 
likely  to  avoid  the  extremes  of  Monarchy  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
Democracy  on  the  other  ; — and  yet  not  to  found  Doniiniiun  in  Gratia 
'  either.'  [  Your  Highness  does  not  claim  to  be  here  as  Kings  do.  By 
Grace,  then?  No  !\  And  if  so,  then  certainly  to  make  the  Authority 
more  than  a  mere  notion,  it  was  requisite  that  it  should  be  as  it  is  in 
this  '  Frame  of  Government;  which  puts  it  upon  a  true  and  equal 
balance.  It  has  bean  already  submitted  to  the  judicious,  true  and 
honest  People  of  this  Nation,  Whether  the  balance  be  not  equal ,? 
And  what  their  judgment  is,  is  visible, — by  submission  to  it  ;  by  act- 
ing upon  it ;  by  restraining  their  Trustees  from  meddling  with  it. 
And  it  neither  asks  nor  needs  any  better  ratification  !  {Hear  /]  But 
when  Trustees  in  Parliament  shall,  by  experience,  find  any  evil  in  any 
parts  of  this  'Frame  of  Government,  'a  question  '  referred  by  the 
Government  itself  to  the  consideration  of  the  Protector  and  Parlia- 
ment,— of  which  evil  or  evils  Time  itself  will  be  the  best  discoverer  : — ■ 
how  can  it  be  reasonably  imagined  that  a  Person  or  Persons,  coming 
in  by  election,  and  standing  under  such  obligations,  and  so  limited, 
and  so  necessitated  by  oath  to  govern  for  the  People's  good,  and  to 
make  their  love,  under  God,  the  best  underpropping  and  only  safe 
footing  : — how  can  it,  I  say,  be  imagined  that  the  present  or  succeed- 
ing Protectors  will  refuse  to  agree  to  alter  any  such  thing  in  the 
Government  as  may  be  found  to  be  for  the  good  of  the  People  ?  Or 
to  recede  from  any  thing  which  he  might  be  convinced  casts  the 
balance  too  much  to  the  Single  Person  t  And  although,  for  the  pre- 
sent, the  keeping  up  and  having  in  his  power  the  Militia  seems  the 
hardest '  condition,'  yet  if  the  power  of  the  Mihtia  should  be  yielded 
up  at  such  a  time  as  this,  when  there  is  as  much  need  of  it  to  keep 
this  Cause  (now  most  -evidently  impugned  by  all  Enemies),  as  there 
was  to  get  it  'for  the  sake  of  this  Cause  :'— what  would  become 
of  us  all  !  Or  if  it  should  not  be  equally  placed  in  him  and  the 
Parliament,  but  yielded  up  at  any  time, — it  determines  his  power 
either  for  doing  the  good  he  ought,  or  hindering  Parliaments 
from  perpetuating  themselves  ;  from  imposing  what  Religion  they 
please  on  the  conscience  of  men,  or  what  Government  they  please 
upon  the  Nation.  Thereby  subjecting  us  to  dissettlement  in  every 
Parliament,  and  to  the  desperate  consequences  thereof.  And  if  the 
Nation  j//rt// happen  to  fall  into  a  blessed  Peace,  how  easily  and  cer. 
tainly  will  their  charge  be  taken  off,  and  their  forces  be  disbanded  ! 
And  then  where  will  the  dangei  be  to  have  the  Militia  thus  stated  .? 

What  if  I  should  say  :  If  there  be  a  disproportion,  or  disequality  as 
to  the  power,  it  is  on  the  other  hand  !  And  if  this  be  so.  Wherein 
have  you  had  cause  tc  quarrel?  What  demonstrations  have  you  held 
forth  to  settle  me  to  your  opinion  ?  I  would  you  had  made  me  so 
happy  as  to  have  let  me  known  your  grounds  !  I  have  made  a  free 
and  mgenuous  confession  of   my  faith  to  you.    And  I   could  have 


SPEECH  IV.  47 


wished  it  had  been  in  your  hearts  to  have  agreed  that  some  friendly 
and  cordial  debates  might  have  been  towards  mutual  conviction.  Was 
there  none  amongst  you  to  move  such  a  thing  ?  No  fitness  to  listen 
to  it  ?  No  desire  of  a  right  understanding  ?  If  it  be  not  folly  in  me 
to  listen  to  Town-talk,  such  things  have  been  proposed  ;  and  rejected, 
with  stiffness  and  severity,  once  and  again.  Was  it  not  likely  to  have 
been  more  advantageous  to  the  good  of  this  Nation  ?  I  will  say  this 
to  you  for  myself ;  and  to  that  I  have  my  conscience  as  a  thousand  wit- 
nesses, and  1  have  my  comfort  and  contentment  in  it  ;  and  I  have  the 
witness  '  too  '  of  divers  here,  who  I  think  truly  ^  would'  scorn  to  own 
me  in  a  lie  :  That  I  would  not  have  been  averse  to  any  alteration,  of 
the  good  of  which  I  might  have  been  convinced.  Although  I  could 
not  have  agreed  to  the  taking  it  off  the  foundation  on  which  it  stands ; 
namely,  the  acceptance  and  consent  of  the  People.  [''  Our  sanction 
not  needed,  then ./"] 

I  will  not  presage  what  you  have  been  about,  or  doing,  in  all  this 
time.  Nor  do  I  love  to  make  conjectures.  But  I  must  tell  you  this  : 
That  as  I  undertook  this  Government  in  the  simplicity  of  my  heart 
and  as  before  God,  and  to  do  the  part  of  an  honest  man,  and  to  be 
true  to  the  Interest, — which  in  my  conscience  'I  think'  is  dear  to 
many  of  you;  though  it  is  not  always  understood  what  God  in  His 
wisdom  may  hide  from  us,  as  to  Peace  and  Settlement  : — so  I  can 
say  that  no  particular  interest,  either  of  myself,  estate,  honour  or 
family,  are,  or  have  been,  prevalent  with  me  to  this  undertaking.  For 
if  you  had,  upon  the  old  Government,*  offered  me  this  one,  this  one 
thing — I  speak  as  thus  advised,  and  before  God  ;  as  having  been  to 
this  day  of  this  opinion  ;  and  this  hath  been  my  constant  judgment, 
well  known  to  many  who  hear  me  speak  : — if,  '  I  say,'  this  one  thing 
had  been  inserted,  this  one  thing,  That  the  Government  should  have 
been  placed  in  my  Family  hereditarily,  I  would  have  rejected  it  !t  And 
I  could  have  done  no  other  according  to  my  present  conscience  and 
light.  I  will  tell  you  my  reason  ;—  though  I  cannot  tell  what  God 
will  do  with  me,  nor  with  you,  nor  with  the  Nation  for  throwing  away 
precious  opportunities  committed  to  us. 

This  hath  been  my  principle  ;  and  I  liked  it,  when  this  Govern- 
ment came  first  to  be  proposed  to  me,  That  it  puts  us  off  that  heredi- 
tary way.  Well  looking  that  God  hath  declared  what  Government 
He  delivered  to  the  Jews  ;  and  '  that  He '  placed  it  upon  such  Per- 
sons as  had  been  instrumental  for  the  Conduct  and  Deliverance  of 
His  People.  And  considering  that  Promise  in  Isaiah,  "  That  God 
"  would  give  Rulers  as  at  the  first,  and  Judges  as  at  the  beginning," 
I  did  not  know  but  that  God  might  'now'  begin,— and  though,  at 
present,  with  a  most  unworthy  person  ;  yet,  as  to  the  future,  it  might 
be  after  this  manner  ;  and  I  thought  this  might  usher  it  in  !  \A  noble 
thought^ your  Highness  f\      I  am  speaking  as  to  my  judgment  against 

*  Means  '  the  existing  Instrument  of  Government '  without  modification  of 
yours. 

+  The  matter  in  debate,  running  very  high  at  this  juncture,  in  the  Parliam  ent.  was 
with  regard  to  the  Single  Person's  being  hereditary.     Hence  partly  the  Protector's 

f:^jjDJKi?:ishere. 


48  .  FJRST  rKOTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

making  Government  hereditary.  To  have  men  chosen,  for  their  love 
lo  God,  and  to  Truth  and  Justice  ;  and  not  to  have  it  hereditary.  For 
as  it  is  in  the  Ecclcsiastes :  "  W  ho  knoweth  whether  he  may  beget  a 
fool  or  a  wise  man  ?"  Honest  or  not  honest,  whatever  they  be,  they 
must  come  in,  on  that  plan  ;  because  the  Government  is  made  a 
patrimony  1— And  this  I  perhaps  do  declare  with  too  much  earnest- 
ness ;  as  being  my  own  concernment  ; — and  know  not  what  place  it 
may  have  in  your  hearts,  and  in  those  of  the  Good  People  in  the  IS^a- 
tion.  liut  however  it  be,  1  have  comfort  in  this  my  truth  and  plain- 
ness. 

1  have  thus  told  you  my  thoughts  ;  which  truly  I  have  declared  to 
you  in  the  fear  of  God,  as  knowing  He  will  not  be  mocked  ;  and  in  the 
strength  of  God,  as  knowing  and  rejoicing  that  1  am  supported  in  my 
speaking  ;— especially  when  I  do  not  form  or  frame  things  without 
the  compass  of  integrity  and  honesty  ;  '  so '  that  my  own  conscience 
gives  me  not  the  lie  to  what  I  say.  And  then  in  what  I  say,  I  can 
rejoice. 

Now  to  speak  a  word  or  two  to  you.  Of  that,  I  must  profess  in 
the  name  of  the  same  Lord,  and  wish  there  had  been  no  cause  that 
1  should  have  thus  spoken  to  you  !  I  told  you  that  I  came  with  joy 
the  first  time  ;  with  some  regret  the  second  ;  yet  now  I  speak  with 
most  regret  of  all  !  I  look  upon  you  as  having  among  you  many  per- 
sons that  1  could  lay  down  my  life  individually  for.  I  could,  through 
the  grace  of  God,  desire  to  lay  down  my  life  for  you.  So  far  am  I 
from  having  an  unkind  or  unchristian  heart  towards  you  in  your  parti- 
cular capacities  !  I  have  this  indeed  as  a  work  most  incumbent  upon 
me  ;  '  this  of  speaking  these  things  to  you.'  I  consulted  what  might 
be  my  duty  in  such  a  day  as  this  ;  casting  up  all  considerations.  I 
must  confess,  as  I  told  you,  that  I  did  think  occasionally.  This  Nation 
had  suffered  extremely  in  the  respects  mentioned  ;  as  also  in  the  dis- 
appointment of  their  expectations  of  that  justice  which  was  due  to 
them  by  your  sitting  thus  long'.  '  Sitting  thus  long  ;'  and  what  have 
you  brought  forth  ?  I  did  not  nor  cannot  comprehend  what  it  is. 
1  would  be  loath  to  call  it  a  Fate  ;  that  were  too  paganish  a  word. 
Ijut  there  has  been  Something  in  it  that  we  had  not  in  our  expecta- 
tions. 

1  did  think  also,  for  myself.  That  I  am  like  to  meet  with  difficulties  ; 
and  that  this  Nation  will  not,  as  it  is  fit  it  should  not,  be  deluded 
^n\\\\  pretexts  of  Necessity  in  that  great  business  of  raising  of  Money. 
And  were  it  not  that  1  can  make  some  dilemmas  upon  which  to  resolve 
some  things  of  my  conscience,  judgment  and  actions,  I  should  sink 
at  the  very  prospect  of  my  encounters.  Some  of  them  are  general, 
some  are  more  special.  {^Hea}"  the  "  dilemmas:'^  Supposing  this 
Cause  or  this  business  must  be  carried  on,  it  is  either  of  God  or  of 
man.  If  it  be  of  man,  I  would  I  had  never  touched  it  with  a  finger. 
lllear/]  If  I  had  not  had  a  hope  fixed  in  me  that  this  Cause  and 
ihis  Business  was  of  God,  I  would  many  years  ago  have  run  from  it. 
If  it  be  of  God,  He  will  bear  it  up.  [Yea/]  If  it  be  of  man,  H  will 
Uimbie  ;  as  every  thing  that  hath  been  of  man  since  the  world  began 
hath  done.  And  what  are  all  our  Histories,  and  other  Traditions  of 
Actions  in  /former  times,  but  God  manifesting  himself,  that  He  hath 

( 


SPEECH  IV.  49 


shaken,  and  tumbled  down,  and  trampled  upon,  every  thing  that  He 
had  not  planted.  \Yes^  your  Highness  j  such  is,  was  and  forever  will 
be,  the  History  of  Afdn,  deeply  as  we  poor  Moderns  have  now  for- 
gotten it :  and  the  Bible  of  every  Nation  is  its  Own  History  j  if  it 
have,  or  had,  any  real  Bible  /]  And  as  this  is,  so  '  let '  the  All-wise 
God  deal  with  it.  If  this  be  of  human  structure  and  invention,  and  if 
it  be  an  old  Plotting  and  Contriving  to  bring  things  to  this  Issue,  and 
that  they  are  not  the  Births  of  Providence, — then  they  will  tumbl  -. 
But  if  the  Lord  take  pleasure  in  England,  and  if  He  will  do  us  good, 
— He  is  very  able  to  bear  us  up  !  Let  the  diHiculiies  be  whatsoever 
they  will,  we  shall  in  His  strength  be  able  to  encounter  with  them.  And 
I  bless  God  I  have  been  inured  to  difficulties  ;  and  I  never  found  God 
failing  when  I  trusted  in  Him.  I  can  laugh  and  sing,  in  my  heart, 
when  I  speak  of  these  things  to  you  or  elsewhere.  And  though  some 
may  think  it  is  an  hard  thing  To  raise  Money  without  Parliamentary 
Authority  upon  this  Nation  ;  yet  I  have  another  argument  to  the  Good 
People  of  this  Nation,  if  they  would  be  safe,  and  yet  have  no  better 
principle  :  Whether  they  prefer  the  having  of  their  will  though  it 
be  their  destruction,  rather  than  comply  with  things  of  Necessity  ? 
That  will  excuse  me.  But  I  should  wrong  my  native  country  to  sup- 
pose this. 

For  I  look  at  the  People  of  these  Nations  as  the  blessing  of  the 
Lord  :  and  they  are  a  People  blessed  by  God.  They  have  been  so  ; 
and  they  will  be  so,  by  reason  of  that  immortal  seed  which  hath  been, 
and  is,  among  them  :  those  Regenerated  Ones  in  the  land,  of  several 
judgments  :  who  are  all  the  Flock  of  Christ,  and  lambs  of  Christ. 
*  His,'  though  perhaps  under  many  unruly  passions,  and  troubles  of 
spirit  ;  whereby  they  give  disquiet  to  themselves  and  others  :  yet  they 
are  not  so  to  God  ;  since  to  us  He  is  a  God  of  other  patience  ;  and 
He  will  own  the  least  of  Truth  in  the  hearts  of  His  People.  And  the 
People  being  the  blessing  of  God,  they  will  not  be  so  angry  but  they 
will  prefer  their  safety  to  their  passions,  and  their  real  security  to 
forms,  when  Necessity  calls  for  Supplies.  Had  they  not  well  been 
acquainted  with  this  principle,  they  had  never  seen  this  day  of  Gospel 
Liberty. 

But  if  any  man  Shall  object,  "  It  is  an  easy  thing  to  talk  of  Necessi- 
ties when  men  create  Necessities  :  would  not  the  Lord  Protector 
make  himself  great  and  his  family  great.?  Doth  not  he  make  these 
Necessities.?  And  then  he  will  come,  upon  the  People  with  his 
argument  of  Necessity  !  " — This  were  something  hard  indeed.  But  I 
have  not  yet  known  what  it  is  to  "  make  Necessities,"  whatsoever  the 
thoughts  or  judgments  of  men  are.  And  I  say  this,  not  only  to  this 
Assembly,  but  to  the  world,  That  the  man  liveth  not  who  can  come  to 
me  and  charge  me  with  having,  in  these  great  Revolutions,  "  made 
Necessities."  I  challenge  even  all  that  fear  God.  And  as  God  hath 
said,  "  My  glory  I  will  not  give  unto  another,"  let  men  take  heed  and 
be  twice  advised  how  they  call  His  Revolutions,  the  things  of  God,  and 
His  working  of  things  from  one  period  to  another, — how,  I  say,  they 
call  them  Necessities  ot  men's  creation  !  For  by  so  doing,  they  do 
vilify  and  lessen  the  works  of  God,  and  rob  him  of  His  glory  ;  which 
He  hath  said  He  will  not  .give  unto  another,  nor  suffer  to  be  taken 


50  FIRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

from  Him!  We  know  what  God  did  to  Herod,  when  he  was 
applauded  and  did  not  acknowledge  God.  And  God  knoweth  what 
He  will  do  with  men,  when  they  call  His  Revolutions  human  designs, 
and  so  detract  from  His  glory.  These  issues  and  events  have  not 
been  forecast ;  but  '  were '  sudden  Providences  in  things  :  whereby 
carnal  and  worldly  men  are  enraged  ;  and  under  and  at  which,  many, 
and  I  fear  some  good  men,  have  murmured  and  repined,  because, 
disappointed  of  their  mistaken  fancies.  But  still  all  these  things  have 
been  the  wise  disposings  of  the  Almighty  ;  though  instruments  have 
had  their  passions  and  frailties.  And  I  think  it  is  an  honour  to  God 
to  acknowledge  the  Necessities  to  have  been  of  God's  imposing,  when 
truly  they  have  been  so,  as  indeed  they  have.  Let  us  take  our  sin  in 
our  actions  to  ourselves  ;  it's  much  more  safe  than  to  judge  things  so 
contingent,  as  if  there  were  not  a  God  that  ruled  the  Earth  ! 

We  know  the  Lord  hath  poured  this  Nation  from  vessel  to  vessel, 
till  He  poured  it  into  your  lap,  when  you  came  first  together.  I  am 
confident  that  it  came  so-into  your  hands  ;  and  was  not  judged  by  you 
to  be  from  counterfeited  or  feigned  Necessity,  but  by  Divine  Provi- 
dence and  Dispensation.  And  this  I  speak  with  more  earnestness, 
because  I  speak  for  God  and  not  for  men.  I  would  have  any  man  to 
come  and  tell  of  the  Transactions  that  have  been,  and  of  those  periods 
of  time  wherein  God  hath  made  these  Revolutions  ;  and  find  where 
he  can  fix  a  feigned  Necessity  !  I  could  recite  particulars,  if  either 
my  strength  would  serve  one  to  speak,  or  yours  to  hear.  If  you  would 
consider*  the  great  Hand  of  God  in  His  great  Dispensations,  you 
would  find  that  there  is  scarce  a  man  who  fell  off,  at  any  period  of  time 
when  God  had  any  work  to  do,  who  can  give  God  or  His  work  at  this 
day  a  good  word. 

"  It  was,"  say  some,  "  the  cunning  of  the  Lord  Protector," — I  take 
it  to  myself, — "  it  was  the  craft  of  such  a  man,  and  his  plot,  that  hath 
brought  it  about !  "  And,  as  they  say  in  other  countries,  "  There  are 
five  or  six  cunning  men  in  England  that  have  skill ;  they  do  all  these 
things."  Oh,  what  blasphemy  is  this  !  Because  men  that  are  without 
God  in  the  world,  and  walk  not  with  Him,  know  not  what  it  is  to  pray 
or  believe,  and  to  receive  returns  from  God,  and  to  be  spoken  unto  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  who  speaks  without  a  Written  Word  sometimes,  yet 
according  to  it  !  God  hath  spoken  heretofore  in  divers  manners.  Let 
Him  speak  as  He  pleaseth.  Hath  He  not  given  us  liberty,  nay  is  it 
not  our  duty.  To  go  to  the  Law  and  the  Teslimony  ?  And  there  we 
shall  find  that  there  have  been  impressions,  in  extraordinary  cases,  as 
well  without  the  Written  Word  as  with  it.  And  therefore  there  is  no 
difference  in  the  thing  thus  asserted  from  truths  generally  received, — 
except  we  will  exclude  the  Spirit  ;  without  whose  concurrence  all 
other  teachings  are  ineffectual.  [  Yea, your  Highness;  the  true  God's- 
Voice,  Voice  of  the  Etcrfial,  is  i7t  the  heart  of  every  AT  an  : — there, 
wherever  else  it  de.]  He  doth  speak  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of 
men  ;  and  leadeth  them  to  His  Law  and  Testimony,  and  there  'also' 
He  speaks  to  them  ;  and  so  gives  them  double  teachings.  According 
to  that  of  Job  :  "  God  speaketh  once,  yea  twice  ; "  and  to  that  of 
David  ;  "  God  hath  spoken  once,  yea  twice  have  I  heard  this."  These 
*  if  that  you  would  revolve '  in  ori^. 


:SPEECH  IV.  a 


men  that  live  upon  their  murnpsitnus  and  siimpsinms  {^Btdstrode  looks 
asto7iished\  their  Masses  and  Service-  Books,  their  dead  and  carnal 
worship, — no  marvel  if  they  be  strangers  to  God,  and  to  the  works 
of  God,  and  to  spiritual  dispensations.  And  because  they  say  and 
believe  thus,  must  wc  do  so  too  ?  We,  in  this  land,  have  been  other- 
wise instructed  ;  even  by  the  Word,  and  Works,  and  Spirit  of  God. 

To  say  that  men  bring  forth  these  things  when  God  doth  them,— 
judge  you  if  God  will  bear  this .?  I  wish  that  every  sober  heart, 
th  )ugh  he  hath  had  temptations  upon  him  of  deserting  this  Cause  of 
God,  yet  may  take  heed  how  he  provokes  and  falls  into  the  hands  of 
the  Living  God  by  such  blasphemies  as  these  !  According  to  the 
Tenth  of  the  Hebrews :  "  If  we  sin  wilfully  after  that  we  have  re- 
"  ceived  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there  remains  no  more  sacrifice 
"for  sin."  '  A  terrible  word.'  It  was  spoken  to  the  Jews  who,  having 
professed  Christ,  apostatised  from  Him.  What  then  ?  Nothing  but 
a  fearful  "falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Living  God  !" — They  that  shall 
attribute  to  this  or  that  person  the  contrivances  and  production  of 
those  mighty  things  God  hath  wrought  in  the  midst  of  us  ;  and 
'  fancy '  that  they  have  not  been  the  Revolutions  of  Christ  Himself, 
"upon  whose  shoulders  the  government  is  laid,"-  they  speak  against 
God,  and  they  fall  under  His  hand  without  a  Mediator.  That  is.  if 
we  deny  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  the  glory  of  all  His  works  in  the 
world  ;  by  which  He  rules  kingdoms,  and  doth  administer,  and  is  the 
rod  of  His  strength,— we  provoke  the  Mediator  :  and  He  may  say  : 
I  will  leave  you  to  God,  I  will  not  intercede  for  you  ;  let  Him  tear 
you  to  pieces  !  I  will  leave  thee  to  fall  into  God's  hands  ;  thou 
deniest  me  my  sovereignty  and  power  committed  to  me  ;  I  will 
not  intercede  nor  mediate  for  thee  ;  thou  fallest  into  the  hands  of  the 
Living  God  ! — Therefore  whatsoever  you  may  judge  men  for,  howso- 
ever you  may  say,  "  This  is  cunning,  and  politic,  and  subtle," — take 
heed  again,  I  say,  how  you  judge  of  His  Revolutions  as  the  product 
of  men's  inventions  ! — I  may  be  thought  to  press  too  much  upon  this 
theme.  But  I  pray  God  it  may  stick  upon  your  hearts  and  mine.  The 
worldly-minded  man  knows  nothing  of  this,  but  is  a  stranger  to  it  ; 
and  thence  his  atheisms  and  murmurings  at  instruments,  yea  repining 
at  God  Himself.  And  no  wonder  ;  considering  the  Lord  hath  done 
such  things  amongst  us  as  have  not  been  known  in  the  world  these 
thousand  years,  and  yet  notwithstanding  is  not  owned  by  us ! — 

There  is  another  Necessity,  which  you  have  put  upon  us,  and  we 
have  not  sought.  I  appeal  to  God,  Angels  and  Men, — if  I  shall '  now ' 
raise  money  according  to  the  ArUclj  in  the  Government  '  whether  I 
am  not  compelled  to  do  it!'  Which  'Government'  had  power  to 
call  you  hither  :  and  did  ; — and  instead  of  seasonably  providing  for 
the  Army,  you  have  laboured  to  overthrow  the  Government,  and  the 
Army  is  now  upon  Free-quarter  !  And  you  would  never  so  much  as 
let  me  hear  a  tittle  from  you  concerning  it.  Where  is  the  fault?  Has 
it  not  been  as  if  you  had  a  purpose  to  put  this  extremity  upon  us  and 
the  Nation  ?  I  hope,  this  was  not  in  your  minds.  I  am  not  willing 
to  judge  so  : — but  such  is  the  state  into  which  we  are  reduced.  By 
the  designs  of  some  in  the  Army  who  are  now  in  custody,  it  was  de- 
signed to  get  as  many  of  them  as  possible, — through  discontent  for 


52  FJRST  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

want  of  money,  the  Army  being  in  a  barren  country,  near  thirty  weeks 
behind  in  pay,  and  upon  other  specious  pretences, — to  march  for 
England  out  of  Scotland  ;  and,  in  discontent  to  seize  their  General 
there  [General  Monk\  a  faithful  and  honest  man,  that  so  another 
\Colonel  Overto}{\  might  head  the  Army.  And  all  .this  opportunity 
taken  from  your  delays.  Whether  will  this  be  a  thing  of  feigned 
Necessity  ?  What  could  it  signify,  but  "  The  Army  are  in  discontent 
"  already ;  and  we  will  make  them  live  upon  stones  ;  we  will  make 
"  them  cast  off  their  governors  and  discipline  ?  "  What  am  be  said 
to  this.-*  I  list  not  to  unsaddle  myself,  and  put  the  faulty  upon  your 
backs.  Whether  it  hath  been  for  the  good  of  England,  whilst  men 
have  been  talking  of  this  thing  or  the  other  [Building  Constitutiofis\ 
and  pretending  liberty  and  many  good  words, — whether  it  has  been  as 
it  should  have  been  ?  I  am  confident  you  cannot  think  it  has.  The 
Nation  will  not  think  so  And  if  the  worst  should  be  made  of  things, 
I  know  not  what  the  Cornish  men  nor  the  Lincolnshire  men  may 
think,  or  other  Counties  ;  but  I  believe  they  will  all  think  they  arc 
not  safe.  A  temporary  suspension  of  "  caring  for  the  greatest  liberties 
and  privileges  "  (if  it  were  so,  which  is  denied)  would  not  have  been 
of  such  damage  as  the  not  providing  against  Free-quarter  hath  run 
the  Nation  upon.  And  if  it  be  my  '^  liberty  "  to  walk  abroad  in  the 
fields,  or  to  take  a  journey,  yet  it  is  not  my  wisdom  to  do  so  when  my 
house  is  on  fire  ! — 

I  have  troubled  you  with  a  long  Speech  ;  and  I  believe  it  may  not 
have  the  same  resentment*  with  all  that  it  hath  with  some.  But  be- 
cause that  is  unknown  to  me,  I  shall  leave  it  to  God  ; — and  conclude 
with  this  :  That  I  think  myself  bound,  as  in  my  duty  to  God,  and  to 
the  People  of  these  Nations  for  their  safety  and  good  in  every  respect, 
—  I  think  it  my  duty  to  tell  you  that  it  is  not  for  the  profit  of  these 
Nations,  nor  for  common  and  public  good,  for  you  to  continue  here 
any  longer.  And  therefore  I  do  declare  unto  you.  That  I  do  dissolve 
this  Parliament.f 

So  ends  the  First  Protectorate  Parliament ;  suddenly,  very  un- 
successfully,  A  most  poor  hidebound  Pedant  Parhament ;  which 
reckoned  itself  careful  of  the  Liberties  of  England  ;  and  was  careful 
only  of  the  Sheepskin  Formulas  of  these  ;  very  blind  to  the  Realities 
of  these  !  Regardless  of  the  facts  and  clamorous  necessities  of  the 
Present,  this  Parliament  considered  that  its  one  duty  was  to  tie  up  the 
hands  of  the  Lord  Protector  well ;  to  give  him  no  supplies,  no  power  ; 
to  make  him  and  keep  him  the  bound  vassal  and  errand-man  of  this 
and  succeeding  Parliaments.  This  once  well  done,  they  thought  all 
was  done  :— Oliver  thought  far  otherwise.  Their  painful  new-model- 
ling and  rebuilding  of  the  Instrument  of  Government,  with  an  eye  to 
this  sublime  object,  was  pointing  towards  completion,  little  now  but 
the  keystones  to  be  let  in  :— when  Oliver  suddenly  withdrew  the 
centres  !  Constitutional  arch  and  ashlar-stones,  scaffolding,  work- 
men, mortar-troughs  and  scaffold-poles  sink  in  swift  confusion ;  and 

*  Means  '  sense  excited  by  it.' 

t  QW  Pamphlet ;  reprinted  in  Parliamentary  Ilistoiy,  xx,  404-4^?. 


SPEECH  IV.  53 


disappear,  regretted  or  remembered  by  no  person, — not  by  this  Editor 
for  one. 

By  the  arithmetical  account  of  heads  in  England,  the  Lord  Pro- 
tector may  surmise  that  he  has  lost  his  Enterprise.  But  by  the  real 
divine  and  human  worth  of  thinking-souls  in  England,  he  still  believes 
that  he  has  it ;  by  this,  and  by  a  higher  mission  too  ; — and  "  will  take 
a  little  pleasure  to  lose  his  life"  before  he  loses  it  !  He  is  not  here 
altogether  to  count  heads,  or  to  count  costs,  this  Lord  Protector  ;  he 
is  in  the  breach  of  battle  ;  placed  there,  as  he  understands,  by  his 
Great  Commander  :  whatsoever  his  difficulties  be,  he  must  fight  them, 
cannot  quit  them  ;  must  fight  there  till  he  die.  That  is  the  law  of  his 
position,  in  the  eye  of  God,  and  also  of  men.  There  is  no  return  for 
him  out  of  this  Protectorship  he  has  got  into  !  Called  to  this  post  as 
I  have  been,  placed  in  it  as  I  am,  "To  quit  it,  is  what  I  will  be  willing 
"  to  be  rolled  into  my  grave,  and  buried  with  infamy,  before  I  will 
"  consent  unto  ! " — 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART  IX. 

THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

1 65  5-1 656. 


V 


57 


CHRONOLOGICAL. 

The  Plots  and  perils  to  the  Commonwealth,  which  my  Lord  Pro- 
tector spoke  of  to  his  honourable  Members,  were  not  an  imagination, 
but  a  very  tragic  reality.  Under  the  shadow  of  this  Constitutioning. 
Parliament,  strange  things  had  been  ripening  :  without  some  other 
eye  than  the  Parliament's,  Constitution  and  Commonwealth  in  general 
had  been  by  this  time  in  a  bad  way  !  A  universal  rising  of  Royalists 
combined  with  Anabaptists  is  in  a  real  state  of  progress.  Dim  meet- 
ings there  have  been  of  Royalist  Gentlemen,  on  nocturnal  moors,  in 
this  quarter  and  in  that,  '  with  cart-loads  of  arms,' — terrified  at  their 
own  jingle,  and  rapidly  dispersing  again  till  the  grand  hour  come. 
Anabaptist  Levellers  have  had  dim  meetings,  dim  communications  ; 
will  prefer  Charles  Stuart  himself  to  the  traitor  Oliver,  who  has  dared 
to  attempt  actual  'governing'  of  men.  Charles  Stuart  has  come  down 
to  Middleburg,  on  the  Dutch  coast,  to  be  in  readiness  ;  '  Hyde  is 
cock-sure.'*  From  the  dreary  old  Thurloes,  and  rubbish-continents, 
of  Spy  Letters,  Intercepted  Letters,  Letters  of  Intelligence ;  where, 
scattered  ai  huge  intervals,  the  History  of  England  for  those  years 
still  lies  entombed,  it  is  manifest  enough  what  a  winter  and  spring  this 
was  in  England.  A  Protector  left  without  supplies,  obliged  to  cut  his 
Parliament  adrift,  and  front  the  matter  alone  ;  England,  from  end  to 
end  of  it  ripe  for  an  explosion  ;  for  a  universal  blazing-up  of  all  the 
heterogeneous  combustibilities  it  had ;  the  Sacred  Majesty  waiting  at 
Middleburg,  and  Hyde  cock-sure  ! 

Nevertheless  it  came  all  to  nothing  ; — there  being  a  Protector  in  it. 
The  Protector,  in  defect  of  Parliaments,  issued  his  own  Ordinance,  the 
best  he  could,  for  payment  of  old  rates  and  taxes  ;  which,  as  the 
necessity  was  evident,  and  the  sum  fixed  upon  was  low,  rather  lower 
than  had  been  expected,  the  country  quietly  complied  with.  Indis- 
pensable supply  was  obtained  :  and  as  for  the  Plots,  the  Protector  had 
long  had  his  eye  on  them,  had  long  had  his  nooses  round  them  ; — 
the  Protector  strangled  them  everywhere  at  the  moment  suitablest  for 
him,  and  lodged  the  ringleaders  of  them  in  the  Tower.  Let  us,  as 
usual,  try  to  extricate  a  few  small  elucidative  facts  from  the  hideous 
old  Phamphletary  Imbroglio,  where  farts  and  figments,  ten  thousand 
facts  of  no  importance  to  one  fact  of  some,  lie  mingled,  like  the  living 
with  the  dead,  in  noisome  darkness  all  of  them  :  once  extricated,  they 
may  assist  the  reader's  fancy  a  little.  Of  Oliver's  own  in  reference 
to  this  period,  too  characteristic  a  period  to  be  omitted,  there  is  little 
or  nothing  left  us  :  a  few  detached  Letters,  hardly  two  of  them  very 

*  Manning's  Letter  in  Thurloe,  iii.  384. 


58  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS, 


sio-nificant  of  Oliver  ;   which  cannot   avail  us   much,  but   shall  be 
inserted  at  their  due  places. 

February  12th,  1654-5.  News  came  this  afternoon  that  Major  John 
Wildman,  chief  of  the  frantic  Anabaptist  Party,  upon  whom  the 
Authorities  have  had  their  eye  of  late,  has  been  seized  at  Exton  near 
Marlborough,  in  Wilts  ;  '  by  a  party  of  Major  Butler's  horse.'  In  his 
furnished  lodging  ;  '  in  a  room  up  stairs  ; '  his  door  stood  open  :  step- 
ping softly  up,  the  troopers  found  him  leaning  on  his  elbow,  dictating 
to  his  clerk  'A  Declaration  of  the  free  and  well -affected  People  of 
England  now  in  Arms  '  (or  shortly  to  be  in  Arms)  '  against  the  Tyrant 
OUver  Cromwell :  '^  a  forcible  piece,  which  can  still  be  read,  but  only 
as  a  fragment,  the  zealous  Major  never  having  had  occasion  to  finish 
it.  They  carried  him  to  Chepstow  Castle  ;  locked  him  up  there  :  and 
the  free  and  well-affected  People  of  England  never  got  to  Aims 
against  the  Tyrant,  but  were  only  in  hopes  of  getting.  Wildman  was 
in  the  last  Parliament ;  but  could  not  sign  the  Recognition  ;  went 
away  in  virtuous  indignation,  to  act  against  the  Tyrant  by  stratagem 
henceforth.  He  has  been  the  centre  of  an  extensive  world  of  Plots 
this  winter,  as  his  wont  from  of  old  was  :  the  mainspring  of  Royalist 
Anabaptistry,  what  we  call  the  frantic  form  of  Republicanism,  which 
hopes  to  attain  its  object  by  assisting  even  Charles  Stuart  against  the 
Tyrant  Oliver.  A  stirring  man  ;  very  flamy  and  very  fuliginous  : 
perhaps,  since  Freeborn  John  was  sealed  up  in  Jersey,  the  noisiest 
man  in  England.  The  turning  of  the  key  on  him  in  Chepstow  will  be 
a  deliverance  to  us  henceforth. 

We  take  his  capture  as  the  termination  of  the  Anabaptist-Royalist 
department  of  the  Insurrection.  Thurloe  has  now  got  all  the  threads 
of  this  Wildman  business  in  his  hand  :  the  ringleaders  are  laid  in 
prison,  Harrison,  Lord  Grey  of  Groby  and  various  others  ;  kept  there 
out  of  harm's  way  ;  dealt  with  in  a  rigorous,  yet  gentle,  and  what  we 
must  call  great  and  manful  manner.  It  is  remarked  of  Oliver  that 
none  of  this  Party  was  ever  brought  to  trial :  his  hope  and  wish  was 
always  that  they  m.ight  yet  be  reconciled  to  him.  Colonel  Sexby,  one 
of  Wildman's  people,  has  escaped  on  this  occasion  :  better  for  himself 
had  he  been  captured  now,  and  saved  from  still  madder  courses  he 
got  into. 

Sunday,  March  nth,  1654-5,  in  the  City  of  Salisbury,  about  mid- 
night, there  occurs  a  thing  worth  noting.  What  may  be  called  the 
general  outcome  of  the  Royalist  department  of  the  Insurrection.  This 
too  over  England  generally  has,  in  all  quarters  where  it  showed  itself, 
found  some  *  Major  Butler'  with  due  'troops  of  horse'  to  seize  it,  to 
trample  it  out,  and  lay  the  ringleaders  under  lock  and  key.  Hardly 
anywhere  could  it  get  the  length  of  fighting  :  too  happy  if  it  could  but 
gallop  and  hide.  In  Yorkshire,  there  was  some  appearance,  and  a 
few  shots  fired  ;  but  to  no  effect  :  poor  Sir  Henry  Slingsby,  and  a 
Lord  Malevrer,  and  others  were  laid  hold  of  here  ;  of  whom  the  Lord 
escaped  by  stratagem  ;  and  poor  Sir  Henry  lies  prisoner  in  Hull, — 
where  it  will  well  behove  him  to  keep  quiet  if  he  can  !  But  on  the 
Sunday  night  above  mentioned,  peaceful  Salisbury  is  awakened  from 
*  Whitlocke,  p.  599 ;  CromwelUaua,  p.  151, 


CHRONOLOGICAL.  5^ 


its  slumbers  by  a  real  advent  of  Cavaliers.  Sir  Joseph  Wagstafif,  '  a 
jolly  knight '  of  those  parts,  once  a  Royalist  Colonel ;  he  with  Squire 
or  Colonel  Penruddock,  '  a  gentleman  of  fair  fortune,'  Squire  or  Major 
Grove,  also  of  some  fortune,  and  about  Two-hundred  others,  actually 
rendezvoused  in  arms  about  the  big  Steeple,  that  Sunday  night,  and 
rang  a  loud  alarm  in  those  parts. 

It  was  Assize-time  ;  the  Judges  had  arrived  the  day  before.  Wag- 
staff  seizes  the  Judges  in  their  beds,  seizes  the  High  Sheriff,  and 
otherwise  makes  night  hideous  ; — proposes  on  the  morrow  to  hang 
the  Judges,  as  a  useful  warning,  which  Mr,  Hyde  thinks  it  would  have 
been  ;  but  is  overruled  by  Penruddock  and  the  rest.  He  orders  the 
High  Sheriff  to  proclaim  King  Charles  ;  High  Sheriff  will  not,  not 
though  you  hang  him  ;  Town-crier  will  not,  not  even  he  though  you 
hang  him.  The  Insurrection  does  not  speed  in  Salisbury,  it  would 
seem.  The  Insurrection  quits  Salisbury  on  Monday  night,  hearing 
that  troopers  are  on  foot ;  marches  with  all  speed  towards  Cornwall, 
hoping  for  better  luck  there.  Marches  ; — but  Captain  Unton  Crook, 
whom  we  once  saw  before,  marches  also  in  the  rear  of  it ;  marches 
swiftly,  fiercely,  overtakes  it  at  South  Molton  in  Devonshire  '  on  Wed- 
nesday about  ten  at  night,'  and  there  in  few  minutes  puts  an  end  to  it. 

*  They  fired  out  of  windows  on  us,'  but  could  make  nothing  of  it.  We 
took  Penruddock,  (irove,  and  long  lists  of  others  ;  Wagstafif  unluckily 
escaped.*  The  unfortunate  men  were  tried,  at  Exeter,  by  a  regular 
assize  and  jury;  were  found  guilty,  some  of  High  Treason,  some  of 

*  Horse-stealing  :'  Penruddock  and  Grove,  stanch  Royalists  both  and 
gallant  men,  were  beheaded  ;  several  were  hanged  ;  a  great  many 

*  sent  to  Barbadoes  ; ' — and  this  Royalist  conflagration  too,  which 
should  have  blazed  all  over  England,  is  entirely  damped  out,  having 
amounted  to  smoke  merely,  whereby  many  eyes  are  bleared  !  Indeed 
so  prompt  and  complete  is  the  extinction,  thankless  people  begin  to 
say  there  had  never  been  anything  considerable  to  extinguish.  Had 
they  stood  in  the  middle  of  it, — had  they  seen  the  nocturnal  rendezvous 
at  Marston  Moor,  seen  what  Shrewsbury,  what  Rufford  Abbey,  what 
North  Wales  in  general,  would  have  grown  to  on  the  morrow, — in 
that  case,  thinks  the  Lord  Protector  not  without  some  indignation, 
they  had  known  !  f  Wagstaff  has  escaped,  and  Wilmot  Earl  of 
Rochester  so-called  ;  right  glad  to  be  beyond  seas  again  ;  and  will 
look  twice  at  an  Insurrection  before  they  embark  in  it  in  time 
coming. 

A  terrible  Protector  this  :  no  getting  of  him  overset !  He  has  the 
ringleaders  all  in  his  hand,  in  prison  or  still  at  large  ; — as  they  love 
their  estates  and  their  life,  let  them  be  quiet.  He  can  take  your 
estate  : — is  there  not  proof  enough  to  take  your  head,  if  he  pleases  ? 
He  dislikes  shedding  blood  ;  but  is  very  apt  '  to  barbadoes '  an  unruly 
man, — has  sent  and  sends  us  by  hundreds  to  Barbadoes,  so  that  we 
have  made  an  active  verb  of  it :  '  Barbadoes  you.'  |    Safest  to  let  this 

*  Crook's  Letter,  'South  Molton,  15  March,  1654,  two  or  three  in  the  morning' 
(King's  Pamphlets,  small  4to,  no.  637,  §  15).  Stale  Trials,  v.  767  et  seqq.  ;  Whit- 
locke,  p.  601;  Thurloe,  iii.  365,  384,  391,  445;  Cromwelliana,  pp.  152,3. 

t  Postea,  speech  V. 

;^  Intercepted  Letters,  Thurloe,  iiU,^--^ — 


^  THk  MAJOR-GENEkALS.  ^ 

Protector  alone  !  Charles  Stuart  withdraws  from  Middleburg  into  the 
interior  obscurities  ;  and  Mr.  Hyde  will  not  be  so  cock-sure  another 
time  Mr.  Hyde,  much  pondering  how  his  secret  could  have  been  let 
out  finds  that  it  is  an  underling  of  his,  one  Mr.  Manning,  a  gentle- 
man by  birth, '  fond  of  fine  clothes,'  and  in  very  straitened  circum- 
stances at  present,  who  has  been  playing  the  traitor.  Indisputably  a 
traitor :  wherefore  the  King  in  Council  has  him  doomed  to  death  ; 
has  him  shot,  in  winter  following,  '  in  the  Duke  of  Newburgh's  terri- 
tory.'*    Diligent  Thurloe  finds  others  to  take  his  place. 

May  28///,  1655.  Desborow,  who  commands  the  Regular  Troops 
in  that  insurrectionary  Southwest  region,  is,  by  Commission  bearing 
date  this  day,  appointed  Alajor-General  oi  t\i&  Militia-forces  likewise, 
and  of  all  manner  of  civic  and  military  forces  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Commonwealth  in  those  parts.  Major- General  over  six  counties 
specified  in  this  Document ;  with  power  somewhat  enlarged,  and  not 
easy  to  specify, — power  in  fact  to  look  after  the  peace  of  the  Com- 
monwealth there,  and  do  what  the  Council  of  State  shall  order  him.f 
He  coerces  Royalists ;  questions,  commits  to  custody  suspected 
persons  ;  keep  down  disturbance  by  such  methods  as.  on  the  spot, 
he  finds  wisest.  A  scheme  found  to  answer  well.  The  beginning  of 
a  universal  Scheme  of  Major-Generals,  which  developes  itself  into 
full  maturity  in  the  autumn  of  this  year  ;  the  Lord  Protector  and  his 
Council  of  State  having  well  considered  it  in  the  interim,  and  found 
it  the  feasiblest ;  '  if  not  good,  yet  best.' 

By  this  Scheme,  which  we  may  as  well  describe  here  as  afterwards, 
All  England  is  divided  into  Districts  ;  Ten  Districts,  a  Major-General 
for  each  :  let  him  be  a  man  most  carefully  chosen,  a  man  of  real 
wisdom,  valour  and  veracity,  a  man  fearing  God  and  hating  covetous- 
ness  ;  for  his  powers  are  great.  He  looks  after  the  Good  of  the 
Commonwealth,  spiritual  and  temporal,  as  he  finds  wisest.  Ejects,  or 
aids  in  ejecting,  scandalous  ministers  ;  summons  disaffected,  suspected 
persons  before  him  ;  demands  an  account  of  them  ;  sends  them  to 
prison,  failing  an  account  that  satisfies  him  ; — and  there  is  no  appeal 
except  to  the  Protector  in  Council.  His  force  is  the  MiHtia  of  his 
Counties  ;  horse  and  foot,  levied  and  kept  in  readiness  for  the 
occasion ;  especially  troops  of  horse.  Involving,  of  course,  new 
expense  ; — which  we  decide  that  the  Plotting  Royalists,  who  occasion 
it,  shall  pay.  On  all  Royalist  disaffected  Persons  the  Major-General 
therefore,  as  his  first  duty,  is  to  lay  an  Inco?ne-tax  of  Ten  per  cent ; 
let  them  pay  it  quietly,  or  it  may  be  worse  for  them.  They  pay  it  very 
quietly.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  Country  submits  very  quietly  to 
this  arrangement ; — the  Major-Generals  being  men  carefully  chosen. 
It  is  an  arbitrary  government  !  murmur  many.  Yes  ;  arbitrary,  but 
beneficial.  These  are  powers  unknown  to  the  English  Constitution, 
I  believe  ;  but  they  are  very  necessary  for  the  Puritan  English  Nation 
at  this  time.  With  men  of  real  wisdom,  who  do  fear  God  and  hate 
covetousness,  when  you  can  find  such  men,  you  may  to  some  purpose 
entrust  considerable  powers  ! 

It  is  in  this  way  that  Oliver  Protector  coerces  the  unruly  elements 

*  Clarendon,  iii.  752 ;  Whitlocke,  p.  618  (Dec.  1655)  ;  Ludlow,  ii.  608. 
f  Thurloe,  iii.  486, 


CHRONOLOGICAL.  6i 


of  England  ;  says  to  them  :  "  Peace,  ye  !  With  the  aid  of  ParHament 
and  venerable  Parchment,  if  so  may  be  ;  without  it,  if  so  may  not  be, 
—  I,  called  hither  by  a  very  good  Authority,  will  hold  you  down. 
Quiet  shall  you,  for  your  part,  keep  yourselves  ;  or  be  '  barbadoesed,' 
and  worse.  Mark  it  ;  not  while  I  live  shall  you  have  dominion,  you 
nor  the  Master  of  you  ! " — Cock-matches.  Horse-races  and  other 
loose  Assemblages  are,  for  limited  times,  forbidden  ;  over  England 
generally,  or  in  Districts  where  it  may  be  thought  somewhat  is 
a-brewing.  Without  cock-fighting  we  can  do  ;  but  not  without  Peace, 
and  the  absence  of  Charles  Stuart  and  his  Copartneries.  It  is  a 
Government  of  some  arbitrariness. 

And  yet  singular,  observes  my  learned  friend,  how  popular  it  seems 
to  grow.  These  considerable  infringements  of  the  constitutional 
fabric,  prohibition  of  cockfights,  amercings  of  Royalists,  taxing 
without  consent  in  Parliament,  seem  not  to  awaken  the  indignation  of 
England  ;  rather  almost  the  gratitude  and  confidence  of  England. 
Next  year,  we  have  '  Letters  of  great  appearances  of  the  Country  at 
'  the  Assizes  ;  and  how  the  Gentlemen  of  the  greatest  quality  served 
'  on  Grand  Juries  ;  which  is  fit  to  be  observed.'* 

We  mention,  but  cannot  dwell  upon  it,  another  trait  belonging  to 
those  Spring  Months  of  1665  :  the  quarrel  my  Lord  Protector  had 
in  regard  to  his  Ordinance  for  the  Reform  of  Chancery.  Ordinance 
passed  merely  by  the  Protector  in  Council ;  never  confirmed  by  any 
Parliament;  which  nevertheless  he  insists  upon  having  obeyed.  How 
our  learned  Bulstrode,  learned  Widdrington,  two  of  the  Keepers  of 
the  Great  Seal,  durst  not  obey  ;  and  Lisle  the  other  Keeper  durst ; 
— and  Old-Speaker  Lenthall,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  "  would  be  hanged 
at  the  Rolls  Gate  before  he  would  obey."  What  j:)rofound  consults 
there  were  among  us  ;  buzz  in  the  Profession,  in  the  Public  generally. 
And  then  how  Oliver  Protector,  with  delicate  patient  bridle-hand 
and  yet  with  resolute  spur,  made  us  all  obey,  or  else  go  out  of  that, 
— which  latter  step  Bulstrode  and  Widdrington,  with  a  sublime  con- 
scientious feeling,  preferred  to  take,  the  big  heart  saying  to  itself,  "  I 
have  lost  a  thousand  pounds  a-year  ! "  And  Lenthall,  for  all  his 
bragging,  was  not  hanged  at  the  Rolls  Gate  ;  but  kept  his  skin  whole, 
and  his  salary  whole,  and  did  as  he  was  bidden.  The  buzz  in  the 
Profession,  notwithstanding  much  abatement  of  fees,  had  to  compose 
itself  again. t — Bulstrode  adds,  some  two  months  hence,  'The  Pro- 
'  tector  being  good-natured,  and  sensible  of  his  harsh  proceeding 
*  against  Wliitlocke  and  Widdrington,'  made  them  Commissioners  of 
the  Treasury,  which  was  a  kind  of  compensation.  There,  with  Mon- 
tague and  Sydenham,  they  had  a  moderately  good  time  of  it  ;  but 
saw,  not  without  a  sigh,  the  Great  Seal  remain  with  Lisle  who  durst 
obey,  and  for  colleague  to  him  a  certain  well-known  Nathaniel 
Fiennes,  a  shrewd  man.  Lord  Say  and  Sele's  son, — who  knew  nothing 
of  that  business,  says  Bulstrode,  nay  Lisle  himself  knew  nothing  of 
it  till  he  learned  it  from  us.X  Console  thyself,  big  heart.  How  seldom 
is  sublime  virtue  rewarded  in  this  world  ! 

June  2,rd,  1655.     This  day  come  sad  news  out  of  Piedmont ;  con- 

*  Whitlocke,  p.  624  (April  1656).  f  Ibid.  pp.  602-8, 

%  Ibid.  p.  6q8 


62  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


firmation  of  bad  rumours  there  had  been,  which  deeply  affects  all 
pious  English  hearts,  and  the  Protector's  most  of  all.  It  appears  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  had,  not  long  since,  decided  on  having  certain  poor 
Protestant  subjects  of  his  converted  at  last  to  the  Catholic  Religion. 
Poor  Protestant  people,  who  dwell  in  the  obscure  Valleys  of  '  Lucerna, 
of  '  Perosa  and  St.  Martin,'  among  the  feeders  of  the  Po,  in  the  Savoy 
Alps  :  they  are  thought  to  be  descendants  of  the  old  Waldenses  ;  a 
pious  inoffensive  people  ;  dear  to  the  hearts  and  imaginations  of  all 
Protestant  men.  These,  it  would  appear,  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  in  the 
past  year,  undertook  to  himself  to  get  converted  ;  for  which  object 
he  sent  friars  to  preach  among  them.  The  friars  could  convert 
nobody  ;  one  of  the  friars,  on  the  contrary,  was  found  assassinated, — 
signal  to  the  rest  that  they  had  better  take  themselves  away.  The 
Duke  thereupon  sent  other  missionaries  :  six  regiments  of  Catholic 
soldiers  ;  and  an  order  to  the  People  of  the  Valleys  either  to  be  con- 
verted straightway,  pr  quit  the  country  at  once.  They  could  not  be 
converted  all  at  once  :  neither  could  they  quit  the  country  well ;  the 
month  was  December ;  among  the  Alps  ;  and  it  was  their  home  for 
immemorial  years  !  Six  regiments,  however,  say  they  must  ;  six 
Catholic  regiments  ; — and  three  of  them  are  Irish,  made  of  the 
banished  Kurisees  we  knew  long  since  ;  whose  humour,  on  such  an 
occasion,  we  can  guess  at  !  It  is  admitted  they  behaved  'with  little 
ceremony  ;'  it  is  not  to  be  denied  they  behaved  with  much  bluster  and 
violence  :  ferocities,  atrocities,  to  the  conceivable  amount,  still  stand 
in  authentic  black- on-white  against  them.  The  Protestants  of  the 
Valleys  were  violently  driven  out  of  house  and  home,  not  without 
slaughters  and  tortures  by  the  road  ;  had  to  seek  shelter  in  French 
Dauphine  or  where  they  could  ;  and,  in  mute  or  spoken  supplication, 
appeal  to  all  generous  hearts  of  men.  The  saddest  confirmation  of 
the  actual  banishment,  the  actual  violences  done,  arrives  at  Whitehall 
this  day  3rd  June,  1655.* 

Pity  is  perennial :  ''  Ye  have  compassion  on  one  another," — is  it 
not  notable,  beautiful  ?  In  our  days  too,  there  are  Polish  Balls  and 
such  like  :  but  the  pity  of  the  Lord  Protector  and  Puritan  England 
for  these  poor  Protestants  among  the  Alps  is  not  to  be  measured 
by  ours.  The  Lord  Protector  is  melted  into  tears,  and  roused  into 
sacred  fire.  This  day  the  French  Treaty,  not  unimportant  to  him, 
was  to  be  signed  :  this  day  he  refuses  to  sign  it  till  the  King  and 
Cardinal  undertake  to  assist  him  in  getting  right  done  in  those  poor 
Valleys.t  He  sends  the  poor  exiles  ^2,000  from  his  own  purse  ; 
appoints  a  Day  of  Humiliation  and  a  general  Collection  over  England 
for  that  object  ;-has,  in  short,  decided  that  he  will  bring  help  to  these 
poor  men  ;  that  England  and  he  will  see  them  helped  and  righted. 
How  Envoys  were  sent ;  how  blind  Milton  wrote  Letters  to  all  Pro- 
testant States,  calling  on  them  for  cooperation  ;  how  the  French 
Cardinal  was  shy  to  meddle,  and  yet  had  to  meddle,  and  compel  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  much  astonished  at  the  business,  to  do  justice  and  7tot 
what  he  liked  with  his  own  :  all  this,  recorded  in  the  unreadablest 

*  Letter  of  the  French  Ambassador  (in  Thurloe,  iii.  470). 
I  Thurloe,  ubi  suprci, 


WHITEHALL.  63 


stagnant  deluges  of  old  Official  Correspondence,*  is  very  certain,  and 
ought  to  be  fished  therefrom  and  made  more  apparent. 

In  all  which,  as  we  can  well  believe,  it  was  felt  that  the  Lord  Pro- 
tector had  been  the  Captain  of  England,  and  had  truly  expressed  the 
heart  and  done  the  will  of  England  ; — in  this,  as  in  some  other  things. 
Milton's  Sonnet,  and  Six  Latin  Letters  are  still  readable  ;  the  Pro- 
tector's Act  otherwise  remains  mute  hitherto.  Small  damage  to  the 
Protector,  if  no  other  suffer  thereby  !  Let  it  stand  here  as  a  symbol 
to  us  of  his  Foreign  Policy  in  general  ;  which  had  this  one  object, 
testified  in  all  manner  of  negotiations  and  endeavours,  noticed  by  us 
and  not  noticed,  To  make  England  Queen  of  the  Protestant  world  ; 
she,  if  there  were  no  worthier  Queen.  To  unite  the  Protestant  world 
of  struggling  Light  against  the  Papist  world  of  potent  Darkness.  To 
stand  upon  God's  Gospel,  as  the  actual  intrinsic  Fact  of  this  Practical 
Earth  ;  and  defy  all  potency  of  Devil's  Gospels  on  the  strength  of  that. 
Wherein,  again,  Puritan  England  felt  gradually  that  this  Oliver  was 
her  Captain  ;  and  in  heart  could  not  but  say,  Long  life  to  him  ;  as  we 
now  do. 

Let  us  note  one  other  small  private  trait  of  Oliver  in  these  months  ; 
and  then  hasten  to  the  few  Letters  we  have.  Dull  Bulstrode  has 
jotted  down  :  '  The  Protector  feasted  the  Commissioners  for  Appro- 
bation of  Ministers.'t  Means  the  Commission  of  Triers  ;J  whom  he 
has  to  dinner  with  him  in  Whitehall.  Old  Sir  Francis,  Dr.  Owen  and 
the  rest.  '  He  sat  at  table  with  them  ;  and  was  cheerful  and  familiar 
in  their  company  : '  Hope  you  are  getting  on,  my  friends  :  how  this  is, 
and  how  that  is  ?  '  By  such  kind  of  little  caresses,'  adds  Bulstrode, 
*  he  gained  much  upon  many  persons.'  Me,  as  a  piece  of  nearly 
matchless  law-learning  and  general  wisdom,  I  doubt  he  never  suffi- 
ciently respected  ;  though  he  knew  my  fat  qualities  too,  and  was 
willing  to  use  and  recognise  them  ! — 


LETTERS    CXXXVL—CXL. 

Five  Letters  of  somewhat  miscellaneous  character ;  which  we 
must  take  in  mass,  and  with'  no  word  of  Commentary  that  can  be 
spared.  Struggling  accidental  lightbeams,  accidentally  preserved  to 
us,  and  still  transiently  illuminating  this  feature  or  that  of  the  Pro- 
tector and  his  business, — let  them  be  welcome  in  the  darkness  for 
what  they  are. 


LETTER   CXXXVL 


-Kbijutb  me  great  Sea-Armament  that  sailed  from  Portsmouth  last 


December,  and  went  Westward,  with  sealed  orders,  which  men  be^ 

*  Thurloe  (much  of  vol.  iii  ) ;   Vaughan's  Protectorate,  &c. 

t  Whitlocke,  April,  1655.  +  Antca.  vol.  ii-  p.  243, 


m 


64  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

to  guess  were  for  the  Spanish  West  Indies, — the  Protector  had 
another  Fleet  fitted  out  under  Blake,  already  famous  as  a  Sea- 
General ;  which  has  been  in  the  Mediterranean,  during  these  late 
months  ;  exacting  reparation  for  damages,  old  or  recent,  done  to  the 
English  Nation  or  to  individuals  of.it,  by  the  Duke  of  Horence  or  by 
others  ;  keeping  an  eye  on  Spain  too,  and  its  Plate  Fleets,  apparently 
with  still  ulterior  objects. 

The  Duke  of  Florence  has  handsomely  done  justice  ;  the  Dey  of 
Tunis  was  not  so  well  advised,  and  has  repented  of  it.  There  are 
Letters,  dated  March  last,  though  they  do  not  come  till  June  :  '  Letters 
'  that  General  Blake  demanding  at  Tunis  reparation  for  the  losses  of 
'  the  English  from  Turkish  Pirates,  the  Dey  answered  him  with  scorn, 
'  and  bade  him  behold  his  Castles.'  Blake  did  behold  them  ;  'sailed 
'  into  the  Harbour  within  musket-shot  of  them  ;  and  though  the  shore 
'  was  planted  with  great  guns,  he  set  upon  the  Turkish  ships,  fired 
'  nine  of  them,'  and  brought  the  Dey  to  reason,  we  apprehend."^ 

To  General  Blake  ^  at  Sea.^ 

Whitehall,  13th  June,  1655. 

Sir, 

I  have  received  yours  of  the  25th  of  March,  which  gives  account 
of  the  late  Transactions  between  yourself  and  the  Governors  of  Tunis, 
concerning  the  losses  which  the  English  have  sustained  by  the 
piracies  of  that  place  ;  and  '  of  the  success  it  pleased  God  to  give  in 
the  attempt  you  made  upon  their  shipping,  alter  their  positive  refusal 
to  give  you  satisfaction  upon  your  just  demands.  And  as  we  have 
great  cause  to  acknowledge  the  good  hand  of  God  towards  us  in  this 
Action, — who,  in  all  the  circumstances  thereof,  as  they  have  been  re- 
presented by  you,  was  pleased  to  appear  very  signally  with  you  ;  so  I 
think  myself  obliged  to  take  notice  of  your  courage  and  good  conduct 
therein  ;  and  do  esteem  that  you  have  done  therein  a  very  con- 
siderable service  to  this  Commonwealth. 

I  hope  you  have  received  the  former  Despatches  which  were  sent 
unto  you  by  the  way  of  Legorne,  for  your  coming  into  Cadiz  Bay  with 
the  Fleet ;  as  also  those  which  were  sent  by  a  Ketch  immediately 
from  hence  ;  whereby  you  had  also  notice  of  three-months  provisions 
then  preparing  to  be  sent, — \^hich  have  since  been  sent  away,  under 
convoy  of  the  Frigates  the  CcjiHirio7i  <m^ Dragon  ;  and  '  I'  hope  they 
are  safely  arrived  with  you,  they  saihng  from  hence  about  the  28th  of 
April. 

With  this  come  farther  Instructions  concerning  your  disposmg  of 
the  Fleet  for  the  future  ;  whereunto  we  do  refer  you.  Besides  which, 
we,  having  taken  into  consideration  the  present  Design  we  have  in 
the  West  Indies,  have  judged  it  necessary.  That  not  only  the  King  of 
Spain's  Fleets  coming  from  thence  be  intercepted  (which  as  well  youf 
former  instructions  as  those  now  sent  unto  you  require  and  authorise 
you  to  doj,  but  that  we  endeavour  also,  as  much  as  in  us  lies,  to 
hmder  him  from  sending  any  relief  or  assistance  thither.  You  are 
therefore,  during  y<)ur  abode  with  the  Fleet  in  those  seas,  to  inform 
*  WhillQcke,  p.  608  (8  June,  1655). 


WHITEHALL.  65 


yourself,  by  the  best  means  you  can,  concerning  the  going  of  the 
King  of  Spain's  Fleet  for  the  West  Indies  ;  and  shall,  according  to 
such  information  as  you  can  gain,  use  your  best  endeavours  to  inter- 
cept at  sea,  and  fight  with  and  take  them,  or  otherwise  to  fire  and 
sink  them  ;  as  also  any  other  of  his  ships  which  you  shall  understand 
to  be  bound  for  the  West  Indies  with  provisions  of  War,  for  the  aid 
and  assistance  of  his  subjects  there  ;  carrying  yourself  towards  other 
of  his  ships  and  people  as  you  are  directed  by  your  general 
Instructions. 

*  I  rest, 

*  Your  loving  friend,  | 

'  Oliver  P.'* 

The  Sea- Armament  was  for  the  West  Indies,  then  :  good  news  of 
it  were  welcome  ! 

Here  is  a  short  Letter  of  Blake's  to  the  Protector,  dated  just  the 
day  before  ;  in  cipher  ; — which  the  reader,  having  never  perhaps  seen 
another  Letter  of  Blake's,  will  not  be  displeased  with.  Unimportant ; 
but  bringing  the  old  Seas,  with  their  Puritan  Sea-kings,  with  their 

*  Plate  Fleets,'  and  vanished  populations  and  traffics,  bodily  before  us 
for  moments. 

"George,  12th  June,  1655. 

"  May  it  please  your  Highness, — The  secret  Instructions  sent 
"  by  your  Highness,  referring  me  to  a  former  Instruction,  touching 
"  the  Silver  Fleet  of  Spain  coming  from  America,  I  have  received  ; 
"  and  shall  carefully  observe  the  same.  We  had  information  at  Cadiz 
"  that  the  Fleet  was  expected  about  a  month  or  five  weeks  hence. 
"  We  are  now  off  Cape  Mary's  ;  intending  to  spread  with  our  Fleet 
"  what  we  can,  and  to  range  this  sea,  according  to  the  wind  and  the 
"  information  we  can  get ;  plying  likewise  over  towards  Cape  Sprat,  it 
"  being  their  most  likely  and  usual  course.  They  of  Cadiz  are  very 
"  distrustful  of  us  ;  and  there  being  four  Galeons  designed  lor  the 
"  Mediterranean,  and  six  for  New  Spain,  it  is  doubtful  how  they  may 
"  be  employed, 

"  We  shall  use  our  best  endeavours  to  put  the  Instructions  in  exe- 
"  cution,  as  <  .od  shall  afford  an  opportunity  ;  desiring  your  Highness 
"  to  rest  assured  of  our  diligence,  and  of  the  integrity  of,— your  most 
"  humble  and  faithful  servant, 

"Robert  BLAKE."t 

June  1 3th  is  Wednesday.  On  the  morrow  is  universal  Fast-Day, 
Humiliation  and  Prayer,  and  pubhc  Collection  of  Money  for  the 
Protestants  of  Piedmont.  A  day  of  much  pious  emotion  in  England  ; 
and  of  hberal   contribution,  which   continued  on  the  following  days. 

*  Clerks   come    to    every  man's    house,'  says    a  disaffected  witness  ; 

*  come  with  their  papers,  and  you  are  forced  to  contribute.'  The 
exact  amount  realised  I  never  could  very  authentically  learn.  The 
Dutch  Ambassador   say  ^100,000.      The   disaffected   witness   says, 

*  Thurloe,  ill.  547.  f  Ibid.  Hi.  541. 

VOL.   III.  D 


56  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

*  London  City  itself  gave  half-a-million,'— or  seemed  as  it  would  give. 
'The  Ministers  played  their  part  to  the  full,'— the  Ministers  and  the 
People  and  their  Ruler.  No  French  Treaty  signed  or  signable  till 
this  thing  be  managed.  At  length  the  French  were  obliged  to 
manage  it ;  9th  September  of  this  same  year  the  thing  was  got 
managed  ;*— and  by  and  by  was  got  improved  and  still  better 
managed,  the  Protector  continuing  all  his  days  to  watch  over  it,  and 
over  other  similar  things  as  they  occurred,  and  to  insist  on  seeing 
justice  done  respecting  them. 


LETTER  CXXXVIL 


The  scheme  of  Major-GeneraJs  fjr  England  is  not  yet  come  to 
maturity  ;  but  it  is  coming  :  new  occasional  arrests  and  barbadoes- 
ings  continue,  as  the  threads  of  old  Plots  are  traced  farther  and 
farther.  Monk  keeps  Scotland  quiet ;  the  hydra  is  for  the  present 
well  under  foot. 

Meanwhile  Henry  Cromwell  is  despatched  for  Ireland,  to  see  with 
his  own  eyes  how  matters  stand  there.  A  reverend  godly  Mr. 
Brewster,  hardly  known  to  us  otherwise,  is  also  proceeding  thither  ; 
with  whom  the  Lord  Protector  thinks  good  to  salute  his  Son-in-law, 
Fleetwood,  the  Lord  Deputy,  Ireton's  successor  in  Ireland.  Henry 
Cromwell  was  there  once  before,  on  a  somewhat  similar  mission,  and 
acquitted  himself  well.f  His  title,  this  second  time,  is  Major-General 
of  the  Army  in  Ireland.  He  is  to  command  the  forces  in  Ireland; 
one  easily  believes  farther,  he  is  to  observe  well  and  report  faithfully 
how  affairs  are  ;  and  do  his  best  to  assist  in  rectifying  them.  Lord 
Deputy  Fleetwood  is  by  some  thought  to  be  of  too  lax  teriiper  for  his 
place  :  he,  with  his  Ludlows,  Axtels  and  discontented  Republicans, 
not  to  speak  of  other  businesses,  would  need  energy,  if  he  have  it  not. 
Rumour  has  even  risen  that  Henry  Cromwell  is  now  sent  to  supersede 
him  ;  which,  however,  the  Protector  expressly  contradicts. 

The  rumour  nevertheless  proved,  if  not  true,  yet  prophetic  of  the 
truth.  Henry  Cromwell  acquitted  himself  well  this  second  time  also  ; 
being,  as  we  judge,  a  man  of  real  insight,  veracity  and  resolution  ; 
very  fit  for  such  a  service.  Many  of  his  Letters,  all  creditable  to 
him,  are  in  Thiirloe :  *  Petitions '  from  certain  Irish  parties  come  like- 
wise to  view  there.  That  /le  might  be  appointed  Deputy;  which 
Petitions  are,  for  the  present,  carefully  '  suppressed,' yet  have  in  the 
end  to  be  complied  with  ;— they  and  the  nature  of  the  case,  we  sup- 
pose, require  comphance.  Some  fifteen  months  hence,  Henry  is 
apfjointed  Lord  Deputy  ;l  Fleetwood,  in  some  handsome  way,  re- 
called. In  which  situation  Henry  continues  till  the  end  of  the  Pro- 
tectorate, making  really  an  honourable  figure  ;  and  then,  the  scene 
having  altogether  changed,  retires  from  it  into  total  obscurity,  still  in 
a  very  manful,  simple  and  noble  vvay.§ 

*  See  Thurloe,  iii.  549,  623,  745,  &c. 
+  March,  1653-4  (Thurloe,  ii.  149). 
X  21  November,  1657  (  Ihurloe,  vi.  632). 
§  His  Letter  to  Clarendon,  vaThurloes. 

\ 


WHITEHALL.  67 


*  My  dear  Biddy,'  in  this  Letter,  is  Bridget  Fleetwood,  whom  we 
once  saw-  as  Bridget  Ireton  ;*  who,  for  her  religions  and  other  worth, 
is  '  a  joy  to  my  heart.'  Of  '  Mr.  Brewster,'  and  the  other  reverend 
persons,  Spiritual  Fathers,  held  in  such  regard  by  the  Lord  Protector 
as  is  due  to  Spiritual  P^atherhood,  and  pious  nobleness  of  Intellect 
under  whatever  guise,  I  can  say  nothing  :  they  are  Spiritual  Great- 
grand(2it\\QYS  of  ours,  and  we  have  had  to  forget  them  !  Some  slight 
notices  of  Brewster,  who  I  think  was  a  Norfolk  man,  and  more  of 
Cradock,  who  was  Welsh, — zealous  Preachers  both, — are  in  the  Milton 
State-Papers  :\  they  prove  the  fervent  zeal,  faith  and  fearlessness  of 
these  worthies; — not  necessary  to  extract  in  this  place.  Cradock 
writes  to  Cromwell  in  1652  that  his  heart  overflows  with  prayers  and 
praise  to  God  for  sending  such  a  man  ;  that  he  has  often  stept  aside 
to  pray  for  him,  in  some  thicket  or  ditch  by  the  wayside,  while  travel- 
ling along,  and  thinking  of  him  ;— which  Dryasdust  Nicols,  the 
Editor  of  these  Milton  State-Papers^  considers  a  very  ludicrous  pro- 
ceeding. Godly  '  Mr.  Tillinghurst,'  so  noble  a  phenomenon  to  Oliver 
and  Fleetwood,  is  to  us  fallen  altogether  silent  : — seemingly  some 
godly  Preacher,  of  very  modest  nature  ;  who,  in  his  old  days,  being 
brought  once  before  the  Lord  Protector,  cried  it  was  a  '  shame '  to 
trouble  any  Lord  Protector,  or  Sovereign  Person,  with  the  like  of 
him  !  The  venerable  hoary  man.  And  godly  Mr.  Troughton  or 
*  Throughton,'  too,  was  there.  O  Tillinghurst,  O  TrouglUon,  how 
much  lies  buried  ! 

'  To  the  Lord  Fleetwood^  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland! 

'  Whitehall, '  22d  June,  1655. 

Dear  Charles, 

I  write  not  often  :  at  once  I  desire  thee  to  know  I  most  dearly 
love  thee  ;  and  indeed  my  heart  is  plain  to  thee  as  thy  heart  can  well 
desire  :  let  nothing  shake  thee  in  this.  The  wretched  jealousies  that 
are  amongst  us,  and  the  spirit  of  calumny  turn  all  into  gall  and  worm- 
wood. My  heart  is  for  the  People  of  God  :  that  the  Lord  knows,  and 
will  in  due  time  manifest ;  yet  thence  are  my  wounds  ; — which, 
though  it  grieves  me,  yet  through  the  grace  of  God  doth  not  dis- 
courage me  totally.  Many  good  men  are  repining  at  everything; 
though  indeed  very  many  good  'are' well  satisfied,  and  satisfying 
daily.     The  will  of  the  Lord  will  bring  forth  good  in  due  time. 

It's  reported  that  you  are  to  be  sent  for,  and  Harry  to  be  Deputy  ; 
which  truly  never  entered  into  my  heart.  The  Lord  knows,  my  de- 
sire was  for  him  and  his  Brother  to  have  lived  private  lives  in  the 
country  :  and  Harry  knows  this  very  well,  and  how  difficultly  I  was 
persuaded  to  give  him  his  commission  for  his  present  place.  This  I 
say  as  from  a  simple  and  sincere  heart.  The  noise  of  my  being- 
crowned  &c.  are  similar    malicious  figments. 

Use  this  Bearer,  Mr.  Brewster,  kindly.  Let  him  be  near  you  : 
indeed  he  is  a  very  able  holy  man  ;  trust  me  you  will  find  him  so. 
He  was  a  bosom-friend  of  Mr  Tillinghurst  ;  ask  him  of  him  ;  you 
will  thereby  know  Mr.  Tillinghurst's  spirit.     This  Gentleman  brought; 

*  Antea,  vol.  1.  p.  152.  f  Pp.  85,  158,  &c.  X  'like'  in  orig. 


68  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


him  to  me  a  little  before  he  died,  and  Mr.  Cradock  ; — Mr.  Through- 
ton,  a  godly  minister  being  by,  with  'Mr.  Tillinghurst '  himself,  who 
cried  "  Shame  !  " 

Dear  Charles,  my  dear  love  to  thee  ;  '  and '  to  my  dear  Biddy,  who 
is  a  joy  to  my  heart,  for  what  I  hear  of  the  Lord  in  her.  Bid  her  be 
cheerful,  and  rejoice  in  the  Lord  once  and  again  :  if  she  knows  the 
Covenant,*  she  cannot  but  do  '  so.'  For  that  Transaction  is  without 
her;\  sure  and  stedfast,  between  the  Father  and  the  Mediator  in 
His  blood  :  therefore,  leaning  upon  the  Son,  or  looking  to  Him, 
thirsting  after  Him,  and  embracing  Him,  we  are  His  Seed  ; — and  the 
Covenant  is  sure  to  all  the  Seed.  The  Compact  is  for  the  Seed.  God 
is  bound  in  faithfulness  to  Christ,  and  in  Him  to  us  :  the  Covenant  is 
without  us ;  a  Transaction  between  God  and  Christ.ll:  Look  up  to  //. 
God  engageth  in  it  to  pardon  us  ;  to  write  His  Law  in  our  heart  ;  to 
plant  His  fear  '  so  '  that  we  shall  never  depart  from  Him.  We,  under 
all  our  sins  and  infirmities,  can  daily  offer  a  perfect  Christ  ;  and  thus 
we  have  peace  and  safety,  and  apprehension  of  love,  from  a  Father 
in  Covenant,— who  cannot  deny  Himself.  And  truly  in  this  is  all  my 
salvation  ;  and  this  helps  me  to  bear  my  great  burdens. 

If  you  have  a  mind  to  come  over  with  your  dear  Wife,  &c.,  take 
the  best  opportunity  for  the  good  of  the  Public  and  your  own  con- 
venience. The  Lord  bless  you  all.  Pray  for  me,  that  the  Lord  would 
direct,  and  keep  me  His  servant.  I  bless  the  Lord  I  am  not  my 
own ;— but  my  condition  to  flesh  and  blood  is  very  hard.  Pray  for 
me  ;  I  do  for  you  all.     Commend  me  to  all  friends. 

I  rest, 

Your  loving  father, 

Oliver  P,§ 

Courage,  my  brave  Oliver  !  Thou  hast  but  some  three  years  more 
of  It,  and  then  the  coils  and  puddles  of  this  Earth,  and  of  its  poor 
unthankful  doggery  of  a  population,  are  all  behind  thee  ;  and  Carrion 
Heath,  and  Chancellor  Hyde,  and  Charles  Stuart  the  Christian  King, 
can  work  their  will ;  for  thou  hast  done  with  it,  thou  art  above  it  in 
the  serene  azure  forevermore  ! — 

^  Fleetwood,  I  observe,  did  come  over  :  in  January  next  we  find  the 
Lord  Deputy'  busy  here  in  London  with  Bulstrode,  and  others  of 
the  Treasury,  on  high  matters  of  State. ||  He  did  not  return  to 
Ireland  ;  got  into  Major-Generulings,  into  matters  of  State,  on  this 
side  the  Channel  ;  and  so  ended  his  Deputyship  ;— dropping  without 
violence,  like  fruit  fully  ripe  ;  the  management  of  Ireland  having 
gradually  all  shifted  into  Henry  Cromwell's  hand  in  the  interim. 

*  Covenant  of  Grace  ;  much  expounded,  and  insisted  on,  by  Dr.  Owen,  among 
others;  and  ever  a  most  fundamental  point  of  God's  Arrangement,  according  to 
the  theory  of  Oliver. 

+  independent  of  her. 

X  Ihe  reader  who  discerns  no  spiritual  meaning  in  all  this,  shall  try  it  again,  if 
I  may  fidvise  him. 

§  Thurloe,  iii.  572. 

II  Whitlocke,  p.  618  (/Jan.  1655-6). 


WHITEHALL  V)9 


LETTER  CXXXVIII. 

We  fear  there  is  little  chance  of  the  Plate  Fleet  this  yefar  ;  bad 
rumours  come  from  the  West  Indies  too,  of  our  grand  Armament  and 
Expedition  thither.  The  Puritan  Sea-king  meanwhile  keeps  the 
waters  ;  watches  the  coasts  of  Spain  ; — which,  however,  are  growing- 
formidable  at  present. 

The  '  Person  bound  for  Lisbon  '  is  Mr.  Meadows,  one  of  Secretary 
Thurloe's  Under-secretaries  ;  concernmg  whom  and  whose  business 
there  will  be  farther  speech  by  and  by.  Of  the  *  Commissioners  of 
the  Admiralty '  we  name  only  Colonel  Montague  of  Hinchinbrook, 
v»ho  is  gettmg  very  deep  in  these  matters,  and  may  himself  be 
Admiral  one  day. 

To  the  General  of  the  Fleet^ '  General  Blake,  at  Sea.^ 

Whitehall,  30th  July,  165^. 

Sir, 

We  have  received  yours  of  the  4th,  as  also  that  of  the  6tb 
instant,  both  at  once  ;  the  latter  signifying  the  great  preparations 
which  are  making  against  you. 

Some  intelligence  of  that  nature  is  also  come  to  us  from  another 
hand.  Which  hath  occasioned  us  to  send  away  this  Despatch  unto 
you,  immediately  upon  the  receipt  of  yours,  to  let  you  know  That  we 
do  not  judge  it  safe  for  you,  whilst  things  are  in  this  condition,  to 
send  away  any  part  of  the  Fleet,  as  you  were  directed  by  our  Instruc- 
tions of  the  13th  of  June;*  and  therefore,  notwithstanding  those 
Orders,  you  are  to  keep  the  whole  Fleet  with  you,  until  you  have 
executed  the  Secret  Instructions,t  or  find  the  opportunity  is  over  for 
the  doing  thereof 

We  think  it  likewise  requisite  that  you  keep  with  you  the  two 
Frigates  which  conveyed  the  victuals  to  you,  as  also  the  Na?ttwicJi, 
which  was  sent  to  you  with  a  Person  bound  for  Lisbon  with  our  in- 
structions to  that  King.  And  for  the  defects  of  the  Fleet,  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  Admiralty  will  take  care  thereof;  and  be  you  con- 
hdent  that  nothing  shall  be  omitted  which  can  be  done  here  for 
your  supply  and  encouragement. 

1  beseech  the  Lord  to  be  present  with  you.     I  rest, 

Your  very  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.J 

Copied  *  in  Secretary  Thurloe's  hand  ; '  who  has  added  the  follow- 
ing Note  :  'With  this  Letter  was  sent  the  intelligence  of  the  twenty 
'  ships  coming  across  the  Straits,  and  of  the  thirty-one  ships  and 
'  eight  fire-ships — \7t>ord  lost] — in  Cadiz  ;' — dangerous  ships  and  fire- 
ships,  which  belong  all  now  to  the  vanished  generations  ;  and  have- 
sailed,  one  knows  not  whence,  one  knows  not  whither  ! 

*  Aniea,  Letter  CXXXVI.,  p.  63. 

t  Ibid,  in  Blake's  Letter  ;— they  concern  the  'Silver  Fleet '  most  likely. 

±  Thurloe,  iii.  688. 


^o  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


COMPLIMENT. 

Precisely  in  those  same  summer  days  there  has  come  a  brilliart 
Swedish  gentleman,  as  Extraordinary  Ambassador  to  this  Country 
from  the  King  of  Swedeland.  A  hot,  high-tempered,  clear-shining 
man  ;  something  fierce,  metallic,  in  the  lustre  of  him.  Whose 
negotiations,  festivities,  impatiences,  and  sudden  heats  of  temper, 
occupy  our  friend  Bulstrode  almost  exclusively  for  a  twelvemonth. 
We  will  say  only,  He  has  come  hither  to  negotiate  a  still  stricter 
league  of  amity  between  the  two  Countries  ;  in  which  welcome  enter- 
prise the  Lord  Protector  seems  rather  to  complicate  him  by  endea- 
vouring to  include  the  Dutch  in  it,  the  Prussians  and  Danes  in  it, — 
to  make  it  in  fact  a  general  League,  or  basis  for  a  League,  of  Protest- 
ants against  the  Power  of  Rome,  and  Antichristian  Babylon  at  large; 
which  in  these  days,  under  certain  Austrian  Kaisers,  Spanish  Kings, 
Italian  Popes,  whose  names  it  may  be  interesting  not  to  remember,  is 
waxing  very  formidable.  It  was  an  object  the  Protector  never  ceased 
endeavouring  after  ;  though  in  this,  as  in  other  instances,  with  only 
partial,  never  w4th  entire  success. 

Observe  however,  as  all  Old  London  observes,  on  the  night  of 
Saturday,  July  28th,  1655,  the  far-shining  procession  by  torchlight. 
Procession  '  from  Tower-wharf  to  the  late  Sir  Abraham  Williams's  in 
Westminster  ;'  this  brilliant  Swedish  Gentleman  with  numerous  gilt 
coaches  and  innumerable  outriders  and  onlookers,  making  his  advent 
then  and  thus  ;  Whitlocke,  Montague,  Strickland  (for  we  love  to  be 
particular)  officially  escorting  him.  Observe  next  how  he  was  nobly 
entertained  three  days  in  that  Williams  House,  at  the  Protector's 
charges  ;  and  on  the  third  day  had  his  audience  of  the  Protector  ;  in 
a  style  of  dignity  worth  noting  by  Bulstrode.     Sir  Oliver  Flemming  ; 

*  galleries  full  of  ladies,'  '  Lifeguards  in  their  grey  frock-coats  with 
velvet  welts  ;'  lanes  of  gentlemen,  seas  of  general  public  :  conceive  it 
all  ;  truly  dignified,  decorous  ;  scene  '  the  Banqueting  House  of 
Whitehall,  hung  with  arras  :'  and  how  at  the  upper  end  of  the  room 
the  Lord  Protector  was  seen  standing  '  on  a  footpace  and  carpet,  with 
a  chair  of  state  behind  him  ;'  and  how  the  Ambassador  saluted  thrice 
as  he  advanced,  thrice  lifting  his  noble  hat  and  feathers,  as  the  Pro- 
tector thrice  lifted  his  ;  and  then— Bulstrode  shall  give  the  rest : 

'After  a  little  pause,  the  Ambassador  put  off  his  hat,  and  began  to 

*  speak,  and  then  put  it  on  again  :  and  whensoever,  in  his  speech,  he 
'  named  the  King  his  master,  or  Sweden,  or  the  Protector,  or  England, 

*  he  moved  his  hat  :  especially  if  he   mentioned  anything  of  Gob, 

*  or  the  good  of  Christendom,  he  put  off  his  hat  very  low  ;  and  the 
I  Protector  still  answered  him  in  the  like  postures  ofcivitlity.    The 

*  Ambassador  spake  in  the  Swedish  language  ;  and  after  he  had  done 
'being  but  short,  his  Secretary  Berkman  did  interpret  it  in  Latin  to. 

'this  effect' Conceivable,  without  repetition,  to  ingenious  readers 

A  stately,  far-shining  speech,  done  into  Latin  ;  'being  dut  short'. 

And  now  'After  his  Interpreter  had  done,  the  Protector  stood  still 
*a  pretty  while  ;  and,  putting  off  his  hat  to  the  Aimbassador,  with  a 


WHITEHALL  71 


*  carriage  full  of  gravity  and  state,  he  answered  him  in  English  to  this 
'  effect  :' 

My  Lord  Ambassador,  I  have  great  reason  to  acknowledge  with 
thankfulness,  the  respects  and  good  affection  of  the  King  your  master 
towards  this  Commonwealth,  and  towards  myself  in  particular. 
Whereof  I  shall  always  retain  a  very  grateful  memory  ;  and  shall  be 
ready  upon  all  occasions  to  manifest  the  high  sense  and  value  I  have 
of  his  Majesty's  friendship  and  alliance. 

My  Lord,  you  are  welcome  into  England  ;  and  during  your  abode 
here,  you  shall  find  all  due  regard  to  and  respect  be  given  to  your  person, 
and  to  the  business  about  which  you  come.  I  am  very  willing  to 
enter  into  a  "  nearer  and  more  strict  alliance  and  friendship  with  the 
"  King  of  Swedeland,"  as  that  which,  in  my  judgment,  will  tend  much 
to  the  honour  and  commodity  of  both  Nations,  and  to  the  general 
advantage  of  the  Protestant  Interest.  I  shall  nominate  some  Persons 
to  meet  and  treat  with  your  Lordship,  upon  such  particulars  as  you 
shall  communicate  to  them. 

After  which.  Letters  were  presented,  etceteras  were  transacted,  and 
then  with  a  carriage  full  of  gravity  and  state,  they  all  withdrew  to 
their  ulterior  employments,  and  the  scene  vanishes.* 


LETTER  CXXXIX. 


It  is  too  sad  a  truth,  the  Expedition  tot  he  West  Indies  has  failed  ! 
Sea- General  Penn,  Land-General  Venables  have  themselves  come 
home,  one  after  the  other,  with  the  disgraceful  news  ;  and  are  lodged 
in  the  Tower,  a  fortnight  ago,  for  quitting  their  post  without  orders. 
Of  all  which  we  shall  have  some  word  to  say  anon.  But  take  first  these 
gUmpses  into  other  matters,  foreign  and  domestic,  on  sea  and  land, — as 
the  oblivions  have  chanced  to  leave  them  visible  for  us.  '  Cascais 
Bay '  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus  :  General  Blake  seems  still  king 
of  the  waters  in  those  parts. 

*  To  General  Blake  at  Sea! 

Whitehall,  13th  September,  1655. 

Sir, 

We  have  received  yours  from  Cascais  Bay,  of  the  30th  of 
August  ;  and  were  vrey  sensible  of  the  wants  of  the  Fleet  as  they  were 
represented  by  your  last  before  ;  and  had  given  directions  for  three- 
months  provisions, — which  were  all  prepared  and  sent  from  Ports- 
mouth, some  time  since,  under  the  convoy  of  the  Bristol  Frigate.  But 
the  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  have  had  Letters  yesterday  that 
they  were  forced  back,  by  contrary  winds,  into  Plymouth,  and  are 
there  now  attending  for  the  first  slack  of  wind,  to  go  to  sea  again. 

*  Whitlocke,  pp.  6og,  10. 


72  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

And  the  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  are  instructed"'^  to  quicken 
them  by  an  express  :  ahhough  it  is  become  very  doubtful  whether 
those  provisions  can  '  now '  come  in  time  for  supplying  of  your 
wants. 

And  for  what  concerns  the  fighting  of  the  Fleet  of  Spain,  whereof 
your  said  Letter  makes  mention,  we  judge  it  of  great  consequence  and 
much  for  the  service  of  the  Commonwealth  that  this  Fleet  were 
fought ;  as  well  in  order  to  the  executing  your  former  Instrmctions,  as 
for  the  preservation  of  our  ships  and  interest  in  the  West  Indies:  and  our 
meaning  was,by  our  former  Order,  and  still  is,  That  the  Fleet  which  shall 
come  for  the  guarding  of  the  Plate  Fleet,  as  we  conceive  this  doth, 
should  be  attempted.  But  in  respect  we  have  not  certain  knowledge 
of  the  strength  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  nor  of  the  condition  of  your 
Fleet,  which  may  alter  every  day,— we  think  it  reasonable,  at  this  dis- 
tance, not  to  oblige  you  by  any  positive  order  to  engage  ;  but  must, 
as  we  do  hereby,  leave  it  to  you,  who  are  upon  the  place,  and  know 
the  state  of  things,  to  handle  the  rein  as  you  shall  find  your  oppor- 
tunity and  the  abihty  of  the  Fleet  to  be  :— as  we  also  do  for  your 
coming  home,  either  for  want  of  provisions  or  in  respect  of  the  season 
of  the  year,  at  such  time  as  you  shall  judge  it  to  be  for  the  safety  of 
the  Fleet.  And  we  trust  the  Lord  will  guide  and  be  with  you  in  the 
management  of  this  thing. 

Your  very  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P. 

*P.S.'  In  case  your  return  should  be  so  soon  as  that  you  should 
not  make  use  of  the  provisions  now  sent  you,  or  but  little  thereof,  we 
desire  you  to  cause  them  to  be  preserved  ;  they  may  be  appl  ied  to 
other  uses.t 


LETTER  CXL. 

To  the  Commissioners  of  Maryland. ' 

j^  Whitehall,  26th  September,  1655. 

It  seems  to  us  by  yours  of  the  29th  of  June,  and  by  the  relation 
we  received  by  Colonel  Benr>et,  that  some  mistake  or  scruple  hath 
arisen  concerning  the  sense  of  our  Letters  of  the  12th  of  Jan-uary  last, 
—as  if,  by  our  Letters,  we  had  intimated  that  we  would  have  a  stop 
put  to  the  proceedings  of  those  Commissioners  who  were  authorised  to 
settle  the  Civil  Government  of  Maryland.  Which  was  not  at  all  in- 
^^AA^^  by  us  ;  nor  so  much  as  proposed  to  us  by  those  who  made 
addresses  to  us  to  obtain  our  said  Letter  :  but  our  intention  (as  our 
said  Letter  doth  plainly  import)  was  only.  To  prevent  and  forbid  any 
torce  or  violence  to  be  offered  by  either  of  the  Plantations  of  Virginia 
or  Maryland,  from  one  to  the  other,  upon  the  differences  concerning 
their  bounds  ;  the  said  differences  being  then  under  the  consideration 

*  'commands  of  the  Admiralty  are  required'  in  ori<r 

\  Thurloe,  i.  724, ^in  cipher;  and  seemingly  of  Thurloe's  composition. 


WHITEHALL  1% 


of  Ourself  and  Council  here.     Which,  for  your  more  full  satisfaction, 
we  have  thought  fit  to  signify  to  you  ;  and  rest, 

Your  loving  friend, 

'  Oliver  P.'* 

A  very  obscure  American  Transaction  ; — sufficiently  lucid  for  our 
Cisalantic  purposes  ;  nay  shedding  a  kind  of  light  or  twilight  into 
extensive  dim  regions  of  Oblivion  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ocean. 
Bancroft,  and  the  other  American  authorities,  who  have  or  have  not 
noticed  this  Letter,  will  with  great  copiousness  explain  the  business 
to  the  curious. 


The  Major-Generals  are  now  all  on  foot,  openly  since  the  middle 
of  August  last  ;t  and  an  Official  Declaration  published  on  the  subject. 
Ten  military  Major-Generals,  Ten  or  finally  Twelve,  with  militia- 
forces,  horse  and  foot,  at  their  beck  ;  coercing  Royalist  Revolt,  and 
other  Anarchy ;  *  decimating'  it,  that  is,  levying  Ten  per-cent  upon 
the  Income  of  it;  summoning  it,  cross-questioning  it,  —  peremptorily 
signifying  to  it  that  it  will  not  be  allowed  here,  that  it  had  better 
cease  in  this  Country.  They  have  to  deal  with  Quakers  also,  with 
Anabaptists,  Scandalous  Ministers,  and  other  forms  of  Anarchy. 
The  powers  of  these  men  are  great :  much  need  that  they  be  just 
men  and  wise,  men  fearing  Cod  and  hating  covetousness  ; — all  turns 
on  that  !  They  will  be  supportable,  nay  welcome  and  beneficial,  if 
so.  Insupportable  enough,  if  not  so  : — as  indeed  what  official  person, 
or  man  under  any  form,  except  the  form  of  a  slave  well- collared  and 
driven  by  whips,  is  or  ought  to  be  supportable  '  if  not  so  ? '  We  sub- 
join a  list  of  their  names,  as  historically  worthy,  knov/n  or  unknown 
to  the  reader,  here.j; 

Soon  after  this  Letter,  'in  the  month  of  October,  1655,'  there  was 

*  Thurloe,  iv.  55. 

f  Order- Book  of  the  Council  of  State;  cited  in  Godwin  (iv.  228). 

X  General  Desbormv  has  the  Counties  :  Gloucester,   V/ilts,  Dorset,   Somerset, 

Devon,  Cornwall. 
Colonel  Kelsey  :  Kent  and  Surrey. 
Colonel  Go§e:  Sussex,  Hants,  Berks. 
Major-General  Skippon  :  London. 

Colonel  Barkstead  (Governor  of  the  Tower) :  Middlesex  and  Westminster. 
Lord-Deputy  Fleetwood  (who  never  returns  to  Ireland)  :  Oxford,  Bucks,  Herts; 

Cambridge,  Essex.  Norfolk,  Suffolk, — for  these  four  last  he  can  appoint  a 

substitute  {Colonel  Haynes). 
General  IVhalley :  Lincoln,  Notts,  Derby,  Warwick,  Leicester. 
Maj  r  Boteler :  Northampton,  Bedford,  Rutland,  Huntingdon. 
Colonel  berry  tRichard   Baxter's   friend,   once  a  Clerk  in  the  Iron-works) 

Hereford,  Salop,  North  Wales. 
General  (Sea-General)  Dawkhis :  Monmouth  and  South  Wales. 
Colonel  Worseley :  Cheshire,  Lancashire,  Staffordshire. 
The  Lord  Lambert :  York,    Durham,  Cumberland,  Westmoreland,   Northum 

berland, — can  appoint  substitutes  [Colonel  Robert  Lilburn,  Colonel  Charles 

Howard). 


^4  '       THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

seen  a  strange  sight  at  Bristol  in  the  West.  A  Procession  of  Eight 
Persons  ;  one,  a  man  on  horseback,  riding  single  ;  the  others,  men 
and  women,  partly  riding  double,  partly  on  foot,  in  the  muddiest 
highway,  in  the  wettest  weather  ;  singing,  all  but  the  single-rider,  at 
whose  bridle  splash  and  walk  two  women  :  "  Hosannah  !  Holy, 
holy  !  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth  !  "  and  other  things, '  in  a  buzzing  tone,' 
which  the  impartial  hearer  could  not  make  out.  The  single-rider  is 
a  rawboned  male  figure,  'with  lank  hair  reaching  below  his  cheeks  ; ' 
hat  drawn  close  over  his  brows  ;  '  nose  rising  slightly  in  the  middle  ;  ' 
of  abstruse  '  down  look,'  and  large  dangerous  jaws  strictly  closed  :  he 
sings  not  ;  sits  there  covered,  and  is  sung  to  by  the  others  bare. 
Amid  pouring  deluges,  and  mud  knee-deep  :  *so  that  the  rain  ran  in  at 
their  necks,  and  they  vented  it  at  their  hose  and  breeches  : '  a  spec- 
tacle to  the  West  of  England  and  Posterity  !  Singing  as  above  ; 
answering  no  question  except  in  song.  From  Bedminster  to  Ratcliff 
Gate,  along  the  streets,  to  the  High  Cross  of  Bristol  :  at  the  High 
Cross  they  are  laid  hold  of  by  the  Authorities  ; — turn  out  to  be 
James  Nayler  and  Company.  James  Nayler,  'from  Andersloe'  or 
Ardsley  *  in  Yorkshire,'  heretofore  a  Trooper  under  Lambert ;  now  a 
Quaker  and  something  more.  Infatuated  Nayler  and  Company ; 
given  up  to  Enthusiasm, — to  Animal-Magnetism,  to  Chaos  and  Bedlam 
in  one  shape  or  other  !  Who  will  need  to  be  coerced  by  the  Major- 
Generals,  I  think  ; — to  be  forwarded  to  London,  and  there  sifted  and 
cross-questioned."^  Is  not  the  Spiritualism  of  England  developing 
itself  in  strange  forms?  The  Hydra,  royaHst  and  sansculottic,  has 
many  heads. 

George  Fox,  some  time  before  this,  had  made  his  way  to  the  Pro- 
tector himself;  to  represent  to  him  the  undeserved  sufferings  of 
Friends,— and  what  a  faithful  people  they  were,  though  sansculottic, 
or  wearing  suits  sometimes  merely  of  perennial  leather.  George's 
hvigQ  Journal,  to  our  regret,  has  no  dates  ;  but  his  Interview  with  the 
Protector,  once  in  these  late  months,  is  authentic,  still  visible  to  the 
mind.  George,  being  seized  in  Leicestershire,  '  carried  up  to  the 
Mews,'  and  otherwise  tribulated  by  subaltern  authorities,  contrived  to 
make  the  Protector  hear  some  direct  voice  of  him,  appoint  some  hour 
to  see  him.  '  It  was  on  a  morning  : '  George  went  ;  was  admitted  to 
the  Protector's  bedchamber,  'where  one  Harvey,  who  had  been  a 
little  among  Friends,'  but  had  not  proved  entirely  obedient,  was  dress- 
ing him.  "  Peace  be  in  this  House  ! "  George  P^ox  '  was  moved  to 
r.ay.'  Peace,  O  George.  '  I  exhorted  him,'  writes  George,  to  keep  in 
'  the  Fear  of  God,  whereby  he  might  receive  wisdom  from  God,' 
which  would  be  a  useful  guidance  for  any  Sovereign  Person.  In 
fact,  I  had  'much  discourse' with  him  ;  explaining  what  I  and  Friends 
had  been  led  to  think  '  concerning  Christ  and  His  Apostles'  of  old 
time,  and  His  Priests  and  Ministers  of  new  ;  concerning  Life  and 
concerning  Death  ;— concerning  this  unfathomable  Universe  in 
general,  and  the  Light  in  it  that  is  from  Above,  and  the  Darkness  in 
It  that  is  from  Below:  to  all  which  the  Protector  'carried  himself 
with  much  moderation  '  Yes,  George  ;  this  Protectoi  has  a  sympathy 
With  the  Perennial  ;  and  feels  it  across  the  Temporary  :  no  hulls, 
*  Examination  of  them  (in  Harlcian  Miscellany,  vi.  424-39). 


JAMAICA.  7$ 


leathern  or  other,  can  entirely  hide  it  from  the  sense  of  him.  'As  I 
spake,  he  several  times  said,  "  That  is  very  good,"  and,  "  That  is 
true." ' — Other  persons  coming  in,  persons  of  quality  so-called,  I  drew 
back  ;  lingered  ;  and  then  was  for  retiring  :  '  he  caught  me  by  the 
hand,'  and  with  moist-beaming  eyes,   '  said  :   "  Come   again  to  my 

*  house  !     If  thou  and   I  were  but  an  hour  of  the  day  together,  we 

*  should  be  nearer  one  to  the  other.     I  wish  no  more  harm  to  thee 

*  than  I  do  to  my  own  soul." '— "  Hearken  to  God's  voice  ! "  said 
George  in  conclusion  :  "  Whosoever  hearkens  to  zV,  his  heart  is  not 
hardened  ; "  his  heart  remains  true,  open  to  the  Wisdoms,  to  the 
Noblenesses;  with  him  it  shall  be  well !—' Captain  Drury '  wished 
nje  to  stay  among  the  Lifeguard  gentlemen,  and  dine  with  them ;  but 
I  decHned,  not  being  free  thereto.* 


LETTERS   CXLI.-CXLIII. 

JAMAICA. 

We  said  already  the  grand  Sea-Armament,  which  sailed  from 
Portsmouth  at  Christmas  1654,  had  proved  unsuccessful.  It  went 
westward  ;  opened  its  Sealed  Instructions  at  a  certain  latitude  ;  found 
that  they  were  instructions  to  attack  Hispaniola,  to  attack  the  Spanish 
Power  in  the  West  Indies  :  it  did  attack  Hispaniola,  and  lamentably 
failed  ;  attacked  the  Spanish  Power  in  the  West  Indies,  and  has 
hitherto  realised  almost  nothing, — a  mere  waste  Island  of  Jamaica, 
to  all  appearance  little  worth  the  keeping  at  such  cost.  It  is  hitherto 
the  unsuccessfuUest  enterprise  Oliver  Cromwell  ever  had  concern 
with.  Desborow  fitted  it  out  at  Portsmouth,  while  the  Lord  Protector 
was  busy  with  his  First  refractory  Pedant  Parliament ;  there  are 
faults  imputed  to  Desborow  :  but  the  grand  fault  the  Lord  Protector 
imputes  to  himself.  That  he  chose  or  sanctioned  the  choice  of 
Generals  improper  to  command  it.  Sea-General  Penn,  Land-General 
Venables,  they  were  unfortunate,  they  were  incompetent ;  fell  into 
disagreements,  into  distempers  of  the  bowels  ;  had  critical  Civil  Com- 
missioners with  them,  too,  who  did  not  mend  the  matter.  Venables 
lay  'six  weeks  in  bed,'  very  ill  of  sad  West-India  maladies  ;  for  the 
rest,  a  covetous  lazy  dog,  who  cared  nothing  for  the  business,  but 
wanted  to  be  home  at  his  Irish  Government  again.  Penn  is  Father  of 
Penn  the  Pennsylvanian  Quaker  ;  a  man  somewhat  quick  of  temper, 
'  like  to  break  his  heart'  when  affairs  went  wrong  ;  unfit  to  right  them 
again.  As  we  said,  the  two  Generals  came  voluntarily  home,  in  the 
end  of  List  August,  leaving  the  wreck  of  their  forces  in  Jamaica  ;  and 
were  straightway  lodged  in  the  Tower  for  quitting  their  post. 

A  great  Armament  of  Thirty,  nay  of  Sixty  ships  ;  of  Four-thou- 

*  Fox's  Journal  (J^^eeds,  1836),  i.  26=5. 


76  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS, 

sand  soldiers,  two  regiments  of  whom  were  veterans,  the  rest  a  some- 
what sad  miscellany  of  broken  Royalists,  unruly  Levellers,  and  the 
like,  who  would  volunteer, — whom  Venables  augmented  at  Barbadoes 
with  a  still  more  unruly  set,  to  Nine-thousand  :  this  great  Armament 
the  Lord  Protector  has  strenuously  hurled,  as  a  sudden  fiery  bolt,  into 
the  dark  Domdaniel  of  Spanish  Iniquity  in  the  far  West  ;  and  it  has 
exploded  there,  almost  without  effect.  The  Armament  saw  Hispaniola, 
and  Hispaniola  with  fear  and  wonder  saw  it,  on  the  14th  of  April 
1655  :  but  the  Armament,  a  sad  miscellany  of  distempered  unruly 
persons,  durst  not  land  'where  Drake  had  landed,'  and  at  once  take 
the  Town  and  Island  :  the  Armament  hovered  hither  and  thither  ; 
and  at  last  agreed  to  land  some  sixty  miles  off;  marched  therefrom 
through  thick-tangled  woods,  under  tropical  heats,  till  it  was  nearly 
dead  with  mere  marching  ;  was  then  set  upon  by  ambuscadoes  ;  fought 
miserably  ill,  the  unruly  persons  of  it,  or  would  not  fight  at  all ;  fled 
back  to  its  ships  a  mass  of  miserable  disorganic  ruin  ;  and  '  dying 
there  at  the  rate  of  two-hundred  a  day,'  made  for  Jamaica."* 

Jamaica,  a  poor  unpopulous  Island,  was  quickly  taken,  as  rich 
Hispaniola  might  have  been,  and  the  Spaniards  were  driven  away  : 
but  to  men  in  biliary  humour  it  seemed  hardly  worth  the  taking  or 
the  keeping.  '  Immense  droves  of  wild  cattle,  cows  and  horses,  run 
about  Jamaica  ; '  dusky  Spainiards  dwell  in  hatos,  unswept  shealings  ; 
'80,000  hogs  are  killed  every  ye  w  for  the  sake  of  their  lard,  which  is 
'  sold  under  the  name  of  hog's-butter  at  Carthagena  : '  but  what  can 
we  do  with  all  that  !  The  poor  Armament  continuing  to  die  as  if  by 
murrain,  and  all  things  looking  worse  and  worse  to  poor  biliary 
Generals,  Sea-General  Penn  set  sail  for  home,  whom  Land-General 
Venables  swiftly  followed  ;  leaving  '  Vice- Admiral  Goodson,'  '  Major- 
General  Fortescue,'  or  almost  whosoever  liked,  to  manage  in  their 
absence,  and  their  ruined  moribund  forces  to  die  as  they  could  ; — and 
are  now  lodged  in  the  Tower,  as  they  deserved  to  be.  The  Lord  Pro- 
tector, and  virtually  England  with  him,  had  hoped  to  see  the  dark 
empire  of  bloody  Antichristian  Spain  a  little  shaken  in  the  West  ; 
some  reparation  got  for  its  inhuman  massacrings  and  long-continued 
tyrannies, — massacrings,  exterminations  of  us,  '  at  St.  Kitts  in  1629, 
at  Tortuga  in  1637,  at  Santa  Cruz  in  1650  : '  so,  in  the  name  of  Eng- 
land, had  this  Lord  Protector  hoped;  and  he  has  now  to  take  his 
disappointment. 

The  ulterior  history  of  these  Western  Affairs,  of  this  new  Jamaica 
under  Cromwell,  lies  far  dislocated,  drowned  deep,  in  the  Slumber- 
Lakes  of  Thurloe  and  Company ;  in  a  most  dark,  stupefied,  and 
altogether  dismal  condition.  A  history,  indeed,  which,  as  you  pain- 
fully fish  it  up  and  by  degrees  reawaken  it  to  life,  is  in  itself  sufficiently 
dismal.  Not  much  to  be  intermeddled  with  here.  The  English  left 
in  Jamaica,  the  English  successively  sent  thither,  prosper  as  ill  as 
need  be  ;  still  die,  soldiers  and  settlers  of  them,  at  a  frightful  rate  per 
day  ;  languish,  for  most  part,  astonished  in  their  strange  new  sultry 
element  ;  and  cannot  be  brought  to  front  with  right  manhood  the 
deadly  inextricable  jungle  of  tropical  confusions,  outer  and  inner,  in 

*  Journal  of  tlie  English  Army  in  the  West  Indies  :  by  an  Eye-wjtness  (in^ar/. 
Miscell.  vi.  372-390).     A  lucid  and  reasonable  Narrative." 


JAMAICA.  yy 


which  they  find  themselves.  Brave  Governors,  Fortescue,  Sedgwick, 
Brayne,  one  after  the  other,  die  rapidly,  of  the  climate,  and  of  broken 
heart ;  their  life-fire  all  spent  there,  in  that  dark  chaos,  and  as  yet  no 
result  visible.  It  is  painful  to  read  what  misbehaviour  there  is,  what 
difficulties  there  are.* 

Almost  the  one  steady  light-point  in  the  business  is  the  Protector's 
own  spirit  of  determination.  If  England  have  now  a  '  West-India 
Interest,'  and  Jamaica  be  an  Island  worth  something,  it  is  to  this 
Protector  mainly  that  we  owe  it.     Here  too,  as  in  former  darknesses, 

*  Hope  shines  in  him,  like  a  pillar  of  fire,  when  it  has  gone  out  in  all 
'  the  others.'  Having  put  his  hand  to  this  work,  he  will  not  for  any 
discouragement  turn  back.  Jamaica  shall  yet  be  a  colony  ;  Spain  and 
its  dark  Domdaniel  shall  yet  be  smitten  to  the  heart, — the  enemies  of 
God  and  His  Gospel,  by  the  soldiers  and  servants  of  God.  It  must, 
and  it  shall.  We  have  failed  in  the  West,  but  not  wholly  ;  in  the 
West  and  in  the  East,  by  sea  and  by  land,  as  occasion  shall  be  minis- 
tered, we  will  try  it  again  and  again. 

'  On  the  28th  of  November  1655  the  Treaty  with  France  is  pro- 

*  claimed  by  heralds  and  trumpets,' say  the  old  Newspapers.!  Alliance 
with  France,  and  Declaration  against  Spain, — within  the  tropics 
where  there  is  never  Peace,  and  without  the  tropics  where  Peace 
yet  is,  there  shall  now  be  War  with  Spain.  Penn  and  Venables, 
cross-questioned  till  no  light  farther  could  be  had  from  them,  are  dis- 
missed ;  in  Penn's  stead.  Montague  is  made  Admiral. J  Wc  will 
maintain  Jamaica,  send  reinforcement  after  reinforcement  to  it  ;  we 
will  try  yet  for  the  Spanish  Plate  P^leets  ;  we  will  hurl  yet  bolt  after 
bolt  into  the  dark  Domdaniel,  and  have  no  Peace  with  Spain.  In  all 
which,  as  I  understand,  the  spirit  of  England,  mindful  of  Armadas, 
and  wedded  once  for  all  to  blessed  Gospel  Light  and  Progress,  and 
not  to  accursed  Papal  Jesuitry  and  Stagnancy,  cooperates  well  with 
this  Protector  of  the  Commonwealth  of  England.  Landfighting  too 
we  shall  by  and  by  come  upon  ;  in  all  ways,  a  resolute  prosecution  of 
hostilkies  against  Spain.  Concerning  the  '  policy  '  of  which,  and  real 
wisdom  and  unwisdom  of  which,  no  reader  need  consult  the  current 
Sceptical  Red-tape  Histories  of  that  Period,  for  they  are  much  misin- 
formed on  the  matter. — 

Here  are  Three  Official  Letters,  or  Draughts  of  Letters,  concerning 
the  business  of  Jamaica  ;  which  have  come  to  us  in  a  very  obscure, 
unedited  condition,  Thomas  Birch  having  been  a  little  idle.  Very 
obscure  ;  and  now  likely  to  remain  so,  they  and  the  others,— unless 
indeed  Jamaica  should  produce  a  Poet  of  its  own,  pious  towards  the 
Hero- Founder  of  Jamaica,  and  courageous  to  venture  into  the  Stygian 
Quagmires  of  Thurloe  and  the  others,  and  vanquish  them  on  his  and 
its  behalf ! 

Apparently  these  Official  Letters  are  First-draughts,  in  the  hand  of 

*  Thurloe,  iii.,  iv., — in  very  many  places,  all  in  a  most  unedited,  confused  con- 
dition. Luminous  Notices  100  \n  Cpii'te's  Ormond  Papeis,  ii.  Long's  History  of 
Jamaica  (London,  1774^  i.  221  ei  seqq-.  gives  in  a  vague  but  tolerably  correct  way 
some  of  the  re:;ults  of  I'hurloe  ;  which  Bryan  Edwards  has  abridged.  Godwin  ^iv, 
]  92-200)  is  exact,  so  far  as  he  goes. 

t  In  Cromwelliana,  p.  134.  %  Jan.  1655-6  (Thurloe,  iv.  338). 


78  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

Thurloe  or  some  underling  of  his  ;  dictated  to  him,  as  is  like,  by  the 
Protector :  they  would  afterwards  be  copied-fair,  dated,  and  duly 
despatched  ;  and  only  the  rough  originals,  unhappily  without  date, 
are  now  left  us.  Birch  has  put  them  down  without  much  criticism  ; 
the  arrangement  of  some  is  palpably  wrong.  By  the  spelling  and 
punctuation  we  judge  them  to  be  of  Thurloe's  handwriting  ;  but  the 
sense  is  clearly  Ohver's,  and  probably,  with  some  superficial  polish- 
ings,  the  composition.  They  cannot,  after  much  inquiry,  be  dated 
except  approximately  ;  the  originals  are  gone  with  Birch,  who  has  not 
even  told  us  in  whose  handwriting  they  were,much  less  has  tried  to  make 
any  sense  of  them  for  himself,  the  idle  ineffectual  Editor  !  In  fact, 
Thurloe  in  regard  to  these  Jamaica  businessess  has  had  to  go  without 
editing  ;  lies  wide-spread,  dislocated,  dark  ;  and,  in  this  passage,  read 
by  Birch's  light,  is  mere  darkness  visible.  One  of  the  Letters,  we  at 
lengJth  find,  is  even  misaddressed, — seemingly  by  idle  Kirch,  at  ran- 
dom. Happily  it  is  with  the  sense  alone  that  we  are  much  concerned  ; 
and  that  is  in  good  part  legible.  Fancy  Penn  and  Venables  dis- 
missed, after  some  light  got  out  of  them  by  cross-questioning  ;  fancy 
'  Vice- Admiral  Goodson,  Major-General  Fortescue,  Daniel  Serle 
'  Governor  of  Barbadoes,  and  Major-General  Sedgwick '  new  from 
England,  made  Commissioners,  with  Instructions,*  with  full  power 
over  Jamaica  ;— and  then  read 


LETTER   CXLL 

Vice-Admiral  Goodson,  as  his  title  indicates,  went  out  as  second 
under  Penn  ;  whose  place  he  now  fills  as  chief.  Letters  of  his  in 
Thurloe  indicate  a  thick  blunt  stout-hearted  sailor  character,  not 
nearly  so  stupid  as  he  looks  ;  whose  rough  piety,  sense,  stoicism,  and 
general  manfulness  grow  luminous  to  us  at  last.     The  Protector  hopes 

*  the  Lord  may  have  blessed  Goodson  to  have  lighted  upon  some  of 

*  the  Enem.y's  vessels,  and  burnt  them  ;  '—which  is  a  hope  fulfilled  ?  for 
Goodson  has  already  been  at  St.  Martha  on  the  Spanish  Main,  and 
burnt  it  ;  but  got  {q.\k  '  ships,'  nor  any  right  load  of  plunder  either  ; 
the  people  having  had  him  in  sight  for  six  hours  before  landing,  and 
run  away  with  everything  to  the  woods.  He  got  'thirty  brass  guns 
'and  two  bases'  whatever  these  are.  The  rest  of  the  plunder,  being 
\  accurately  sold  at  the  mast  of  each  ship '  by  public  auction,  yielded 
jyst^47 1  sterling,  which  was  a  very  poor  return.  At  the  Rio  de  Hacha 
C  Rio  de  hatch,'  as  we  here  write  it)  '  the  bay  was  so  shoal '  no  great 
ships  could  get  near ;  and  our  '  hoys '  and  small  craft,  on  trying  it, 
saw  nothing  feasible  ;  wherefore  we  had  drawn  back  again.  Santa 
Marta,  and  plunder  sold  by  auction  to  the  amount  above  stated,  was 
all  we  could  get.f 

To  Vice- Admiral  Goodson  at  Jamaica. 

Whitehall,  '  October  1655.' 

Sir, 

I  have  written  to  Major-General  Fortescue  divers  advertise- 
*  Thurloe.  iv.  634.  -+  Goodson's  Letter,  in  Thurloe,  iv.  159  et  seqq. 


JAMAICA.  79 


ments  of  our  purpose  and  resolution,  the  Lord  willing,  to  prosecute 
this  Business  ;  and  you  shall  not  want  bodies  of  men  nor  yet  anything 
in  our  power  for  the  carrying  on  of  the  work,  I  have  also  given 
divers  hints  unto  him  of  things  which  may  probably  be  attempted, 
and  should*  be  very  diligently  looked  after  by  you  both  ;  but  are  left 
to  your  better  judgments  upon  the  place.  Wherein  I  desire  you  would 
consult  together  how  to  prosecute  your  affairs  with  that  brotherly 
kindness  that  upon  no  colour  whatsoever  any  divisions  or  distractions 
should  be  amongst  you,  but  that  you  may  have  one  shoulder  to  the 
work  ;  which  will  be  very  pleasing  to  the  Lord  ;  and  not  unnecessary, 
considering  what  an  enemy  you  are  like  to  have  to  deal  withal. 

We  hope  that  you  have  with  '  you  '  some  of  those  ships  which  came 
last,  near  Twenty  men-of-war  ;  which  I  desire  you  to  keep  equipt,  and 
make  yourselves  as  strong  as  you  can  to  beat  the  Spaniard,  who  will 
doubtless  send  a  good  force  into  the  Indies,  I  hope,  by  this  time  the 
Lord  may  have  blessed  you  to  have  light  upon  some  of  their  vessels, 
— whether  by  burning  them  in  their  harbours  or  otherwise.  And  it 
will  be  worthy  of  you  to  improve  your  strength,  what  you  ca*n,  both  to 
weaken  them  by  parcels,  and  to  engage  them  as  you  have  opportunity, 
— which,  at  such  a  distance  I  may  probably  guess,  would  be  best 
*  managed '  by  not  suffering,  if  you  can  help  it,  the  new  Fleet,  which 
comes  from  Spain,  to  go  unfought,  before  they  join  with  the  ships 
that  are  to  the  Leeward  of  you. 

We  are  sending  to  you,  with  all  possible  speed,  Seven  more  stout 
men-of-war,  some  of  them  forty  guns,  and  the  rest  not  under  thirty, 
for  your  assistance.  This  Ship  goes  before,  with  instructions,  to 
encourage  you  to  go  on  in  the  work  ;  and  also  with  instructions  to 
Mevis,  and  the  other  Windward  Islands,  to  bring  so  many  of  the 
Plantations  as  are  free  to  come,  *  that  they  they  may  settle  with  you 
at  Jamaica.'  And  I  desire  you,  with  your  lesser  merchant-ships  or 
such  others  as  you  can  spare,  to  give  all  possible  assistance  for  their 
removal  and  transplantation,  from  time  to  time,  as  also  all  due  encour- 
agement to  remove  them. 

You  will  see  by  the  Enclosed  what  I  have  writ  to  Major-General 
Fortescue.  And  I  hope  your  counsels  will  enter  into  that  which  may 
be  for  the  glory  of  God  and  good  of  this  Nation.  It  is  not  to  be 
denied  but  the  Lord  hath  greatly  humbled  us  in  that  sad  loss  sus- 
tained at  Hispaniola;  and  we  doubt  we  have  provoked  the  Lord  ; 
and  it  is  good  for  us  to  know  and  .to  be  abased  for  the  same.  But  yet 
certainly  His  name  is  concerned  in  the  work:  and  therefore  though 
we  should,  and  I  hope  do,  lay  our  mouths  in  the  dust,  yet  He  would 
not  have  us  despond,  but  I  trust  give  us  leave  to  make  mention  of 
His  name  and  of  His  righteousness,  when  we  cannot  make  mention 
of  our  own.  You  are  left  there  ;  and  I  pray  you  set  up  your  banners 
in  the  name  of  Christ  ;  for  undoubtedly  it  is  His  cause.  And  let  the 
reproach  and  shame  that  hath  been  for  our  sins,  and  through  (also 
we  may  say)  the  misguidance  of  some,  work  up  your  hearts  to  con- 
fidence in  the  Lord,  and  for  the  redemption  of  His  honour  from  the 
hands  of  men  w.ho  attribute  their  success  to  their  Idols,  the  work  of 
their  own  hands.  And  though  He  hath  torn  us,  yet  He  will  heal  us  ; 
*  '  would '  in  orig. 


8o  '        THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


though  He  hath  smitten  us,  yet  He  will  bind  us  up  ;  after  two 
days  He  will  revive  us,  in  the  third  day  He  will  raise  us  up,  and  we 
shall  live  in  His  sight.*  The  Lord  Himself  hath  a  controversy  with 
your  Enemies  ;  even  with  that  Roman  Babylon,  of  which  the  Spaniard 
is  the  great  underpropper.  In  that  respect,  we  fight  the  Lord's  battles  ; 
— and  in  this  the  Scriptures  are  most  plain.  The  Lord  therefore 
strengthen  you  with  faith,  and  cleanse  you  from  all  evil  :  and  doubt 
not  but  He  is  able,  and  I  trust  as  willing,  to  give  you  as  signal  success 
as  He  gave  your  enemies  against  you.  Only  the  Covenant-fear  of  the 
Lord  be  upon  you.t 

If  we  send  you  not  by  this,  I  trust  we  shall  by  the  next,  our  Declara- 
tion setting  forth  the  justness  of  this  War. 

I  remain, 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.J 

The  Declaration  here  alluded  to,  of  War  with  Spain,  came  out  on 
Tuesday,  23rd  October,  1655  ;§  which  with  sufficient  approximation 
dates  this  Letter  for  us.  By  obscure  intimations,  allusions  to  events, 
and  even  by  recurrence  of  phrases,  the  following  Letter  seems  to  have 
the  same  or  a  closely  subsequent  date  ;  but  no  sense  could  be  made 
of  it  till  the  Address,  'Major-General  Fortescue  at  Jamaica'  (which, 
being  nonsense,  we  have  to  impute  to  Birch),  was  erased, — was  altered, 
by  dim  lights ||  and  guessings  still  a  little  uncertain,  as  below. 


LETTER   CXLIL 

*  To  Daniel  Serle,  Esquire^  Governor  of  BarbadoesJ 

'  Whitehall,  October  1655.* 
Sir,  -^^ 

These  are  first  to  let  you  know  that  myself  and  this  Govern- 
ment reckon  ourselves  beholdenlT  to  you  for  the  ready  expressions  of 
your  love  in  giving  assistance  to  our  late  Design.**  Which  indeed, 
though  it  hath  miscarried  in  what  we  hoped  for,  through  the  disposing 
hand  of  God,  for  reasons  best  known  to  Himself,  and  as  we  may  justly 
conceive  for  our  sins,— yet  is  not  this  Cause  the  less  His,  but  will  be 
owned  by  Him,  as  I  verily  believe  :  and  therefore  we  dare  not  relin- 
quish It  ;!t  but  shall,  the  Lord  assisting,  prosecute  it  with  what 
strength  we  can,  hoping  for  'a'  blessing  for  His  name's  sake. 
You  will  receive  some  Instructions,^  with  encouragements  to  remove 

*  Hosea,  vi.  i,  2, 

t  J!°  °^^^^^  ^^^^  '<  "o^  's  there  need  of  any  other  hope  or  strength  ! 

X  Thurloe,  IV.  130.  §  ibid.  iv.  117;    Godwin,  iv.  217. 

II  Thurloe,  iv.  633,  &c.  &c.  y  •  / 

**  '-J^'iol"^'"? '  ^^  (^^'^- '  f^s  the  old  phrase  usually  is. 

Hispaniola  :  to  which  Serle.  at  Barbadoes,  had  given  due  furtherance,  as  the 
Expedition  passed. 

tf  No! 

XX  Thurloe,  iv.  633-7  \  worth  reading,  though  in  great  want  of  editing. 


JAMAICA.  Sr 


your  people  thither.  Whereto  I  refer  you  :  only  let  me  tell  you  that 
if  you  shall  think  to  desire  some  other  things  which  are  not  mentioned 
in  those  Instructions.  '  you  may'  rest  upon  my  word  that  we  shall  be 
most  ready  to  supply  what  they  may  be  defective  in  or  you  may  rea- 
sonably demand,  when  once  you  are  upon  the  place, — where  certainly 
you  may  be  better  able  to  judge  what  may  tend  most  to  your  accom- 
modation than  at  a  distance.  Surely  the  sooner  you  remove  thither,"^ 
you  will  have  the  more  time  to  strengthen  yourself,  in  such  place  and 
upon  such  part  as  you  shall  like  of.  And  for  your  own  part,  I  hav  ^ 
named  you  one  of  the  Commissioners  there  for  managing  of  the  whole 
affair  ;  whereby  you  will  have  your  vote  and  interest  in  that  Govern- 
ment. 

Having  said  this,  I  think  fit  to  let  you  know  that  we  have  Twenty 
men-of-war  already  there,  and  are  sending  Eight  more,  many  whereof 
have  forty  guns  and  upwards,  and  the  rest  above  thirty. t  We  hope 
the  Plantation  is  not  wanting  in  anything  ;  having  at  the  least  Seven - 
thousand  fighting  men  upon  the  place  :  and  we  are  providing  \o 
supply  them  constantly  with  fresh  men  :  and  we  trust  they  are  fur- 
nished with  a  twelvemonth's  victuals  ; — and  I  think,  if  we  have  it  in 
England,  they  shall  not  want. 

We  have  also  sent  to  the  Colonies  of  New  England  Hke  offers  with 
yours,;J;  To  remove  thither  ;  our  resolution  being  to  people  and  plant 
that  Island.  And  indeed  we  have  very  good  reason  to  expect  con- 
siderable numbers  from  thence,  forasmuch  as  the  last  winter  was  very 
destructive,  and  the  summer  hath  proved  so  very  sickly. 

I  pray  God  direct  you  ;  and  rest, 
Your  loving  friend, 

*  Oliver  P.'§ 

Undoubtedly  to  *  Daniel  Serle,'  or  else  to  '  Major-General  Sedg 
wick'  the  other  of  the  Four  new  Commissioners,  this  Letter  must 
have  been  addressed.     With  either  of  which  Addresses  it  remains 
historically  somewhat  obscure  ;  but  is  legible  enough  for  owr  purposes 
with  it  here.     The  next  seems  to  be  of  slightly  later  date. 


LETTER  CXLIIL 
To  Major-General  Fortescue  at  Jamaica. 

Whitehall,  November  \6^k' 

Sir, 

You  will  herewith  receive  Instructions  for  the  better  carry ing- 

*  Will  mean,  if  our  Addressing  of  this  Letter  is  correct,  that  it  had  at  one  time 
been  intended  and  decided  to  send  Serle  of  Barbadoes,  an  experienced  man,  the 
ablest  and  principal  EngUsh  Governor  in  the  West  Indies,  to  take  charge  of 
Jamaica  himself.  Which  however,  in  the  quick  succession  of  new  lights  and 
occurrences,  never  came  to  pass. 

t  Same  phrase  in  the  preceding  Letter. 

±  Encouragements  to  them,  as  to  'your'  Colony,  to  emigrate  thither, 

J  Thuiloe,  Ti.  13Q, 


f82  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

on  of  your  business  ;  which  is  not  of  small  account  here,  though  our 
discouragements  have  been  many  ;  for  which  we  desire  to  humble 
ourselves  before  the  Lord,  who  hath  very  sorely  chastened  us.  I  do 
commend,  in  the  midst  of  others'  miscarriages,  your  constancy  and 
faithfulness  to  your  trust  in  every  'situation'*  where  you  are,  and 
'  your '  taking  care  of  a  "  company  of  poor  sheep  left  by  their  shep- 
herd :"t  and  be  assured  that,  as  that  which  you  have  done  hath  been 
good  in  itself,  and  becoming  an  honesc  man,  so  it  hath  a  very  good 
savour  here  with  all  good  Christians  and  all  true  Englishmen,  and  will 
not  be  forgotten  by  me  as  opportunity  shall  serve. 

I  hope  you  have  long  before  this  time  received  that  good  supply 
which  went  from  hence  in  July  last, J  whereby  you  will  perceive  that 
you  have  not  been  forgotten  here.  I  hope  also  the  ships  sent  for  New 
England  are,  before  this  time,  with  you  ;§  —and  let  me  tell  you,  as  an 
encouragement  to  you  and  those  with  you  to  improve  the  utmost 
diligence,  and  to  excite  your  courage  in  this  business,  though  not  to 
occasion  any  negligence  in  prosecuting  that  affair,  nor  to  give  occa- 
sion to  slacken  any  improvement  of  what  the  place  may  afford,  That 
you  will  be  followed  with  what  necessary  supplies,  as  well  for  comfort- 
able subsistence  as  for  your  security  against  the  Spaniard,  this  place 
may  afford,  or  you  want. 

And  therefore  study  first  your  security  by  fortifying  :  and  although 
you  have  not  monies,  for  the  present,  to  do  it  in  such  quantities  as 
were  to  be  wished  ;  yet,  your  case  being  as  that  of  a  marching  army, 
wherein  every  soldier,  out  of  principles  of  nature,  and  according  to 
the  practice  of  all  discipline,  ought  to  be  at  pains  to  secure  the  common 
quarter, — we  hope  no  man  amongst  you  will  be  so  wanting  to  himself, 
considering  food  is  provided  for  you,  as  not  to  be  willing  to  help  to 
the  uttermost  therein.  And  therefore  I  require  you  and  all  with  you, 
for  the  safety  of  the  whole,  that  this  be  made  your  most  principal  in- 
tention. The  doing  of  this  will  require  that  you  be  very  careful  not 
to  scatter,  till  you  h^ve  begun  a  security  in  some  one  place.—  Next  I 
desire  you  that  you  would  consider  how  to  form  such  a  body  of  good 
Horse  as  m^y,  if  the  Spaniard  should  attempt  upon  you  at  his  next 
coming  into  the  Indies  with  his  Galeons,  be  in  a  readiness  to  march 
to  hinder  his  landing  ;  who  will  hardly  land  upon  a  body  of  horse  ; 
and  if  he  shall  land,  '  you  will'  be  in  a  posture  to  keep  the  provisions 
of  the  country  from  him,  or  him  from  the  provisions,  if  he  shall  en- 
deavour to  march  towards  you. 

We  have  sent  Commissioners  and  Instructions  into  New  England, 
to  try  what  people  may  be  drawn  thence.|l  We  have  done  the  like 
to  the  Windward  English  Islands  ;  and  both  in  England  and  Scot- 
land and  Ireland,  you  will  have  what  men  and  women  we  caw  well 
transport. 

*  Word  torn. 

t  Fortescue's  own  expression  :    in  a  Letter  of  21  July,    1655   (Thurloe,    iii. 

X  Vaughan,  i.  303  ;  Thurloe,  iv.  4. 

§  Thurloe,  iv.  157  ;  one,  the  first  of  them,  did  arrive,  Nov.  ist :  '  sent  from 
Jamaica  to  New  England  for  provisions.' 

II  Long  Correspondences  about  it,  and  details,  from  assiduous  Mr.  Gookin,  chief 
of  those  Commissioners,  in  Ihurloe,  iv. 


JAMAICA.  83 


We  think,  and  it  is  much  designed  amongst  us,  to  strive  with  the 
Spaniard  for  the  mastery  of  all  those  seas  :  and  therefore  we  could 
heartily  wish  that  the  Island  of  Providence  were  in  our  hands  again ; 
believing  that  it  lies  so  advantageously  in  reference  to  the  Main,  and 
especially  for  the  hindrance  of  the  Peru  trade  and  Carthagena,  that 
you  would  not  only  have  great  advantage  thereby  of  intelligence  and 
surprisal,  but 'might' even  block  up  Carthagena.*  It  is  discoursed 
here  that,  if  the  Spaniard  do  attempt  upon  you,  it  is  most  likely  it 
will  be  upon  the  East  end  of  the  Island,  towards  Cuba  ;  as  also  '  that 
Cuba,  is  its  chief  Town,  is  a  place+  easily  attempted,  and  hath  in 
it  a  very  rich  copper-mine.  It  would  be  good,  for  the  first,  as  you 
have  opportunity,  to  inform  yourself;  and  if  there  be  need,  to  make 
a  good  work  upon  the  East  end  of  your  Island,  to  prevent  them. 
And  for  the  othei,  and  all  things  of  that  kind,  we  must  leave  them 
to  your  judgment  upon  the  place,  to  do  therein  as  you  shall  see  cause. 

To  conclude  :  As  we  have  cause  to  be  humbled  for  the  reproof  God 
gave  us  at  St.  Domingo,  upon  the  account  of  our  own  sins  as  well  as 
others',  so,  truly  upon  the  reports  brought  hither  to  us  of  the  extreme 
avarice,  pride  and  confidence,  disorders  and  debauchedness,  profane- 
ness  and  wickedness,  commonly  practised  amongst  the  Army,  we  can 
not  only  bewail  the  same,  but  desire  that  all  with  you  may  do  so  ;  and 
that  a  very  special  regard  may  be  had  so  to  govern,  for  time  to  come, 
as  that  all  manner  of  vice  may  be  thoroughly  discountenanced,  and 
severely  punished  ;  and  that  such  a  frame  of  government  may  be 
exercised  that  virtue  and  godhness  may  receive  due  encouragement. 

I  rest, 

*  Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.J 

The  brave  Fortescue  never  received  this  Letter  :  he  already  lay  in 
his  grave  when  it  was  written  ;  had  died  in  October  last,§  a  speedy 
victim  of  the  bad  climate  and  desperate  situation.  Brave  Sedgwick, 
his  Partner  and  Successor,  soon  died  also  :||  a  very  brave,  zealous  and 
pious  man,  whose  letters  in  Thiirloe  are  of  all  others  the  best  worth 
reading  on  this  subject.  Other  brave  men  followed,  and  soon  died  ; 
spending  heroically  their  remnant  of  life  fire  there, — as  heroes  do, 
*  making  paths  through  the  impassable.'  But  we  must  leave  the  hero- 
isms of  OHver  Protector  and  his  Puritans,  in  this  Jamaica  business,  to 
the  reader's  fancy  henceforth, — till  perhaps  some  Jamaica  Poei  rise 
to  resuscitate  and  extricate  them.  Reinforcement  went  on  the  back 
of  reinforcement,  during  this  Protector's  lifetime  :  '  a  Thousand  Irish 
Girls'  went  ;^l  not  to  speak  of  the  rogue-and- vagabond  species  from 
Scotland, — '  we  can  help  you  '  at  any  time  '  to  two  or  three  hundred  of 
these.'**  And  so  at  length  a  West-India  Interest  did  take  root ;  and 
bears  spices  and  poisons,  and  other  produce,  to  this  day. 

*  '  the  same '  in  orig. 

t  'Cuba  upon  Cuba  is  a  place,'  as  the  original  has  it.     The  first  '  Cuba'  here 
must,  of  course,  mean  Cuba  Town,  now  Havanna. 
;|:  Thurloe,  iv.  633.  §  Ibid.,  iv.  153. 

II  24  ^une,  1656  (Long's  History  of  Jarnaica.  i.  257). 
^  Long,  i.  244,  **  Thurloe,  iv.  692,  ^, 


84  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


LETTERS    CXLIV.— CXLVIIL 

Take  the  following  Letters  in  mass  ;  and  make  some  dim  History 
of  Eleven  Months  from  them,  as  best  may  be. 


LETTER  CXLIV. 

Henry  Cromwell  has  no  Major-Generals  in  Ireland,  but  has  his 
anarchies  there  also  to  deal  with.  Let  him  listen  to  this  good  advice 
on  the  subject. 

For  my  Son^  Henry  Cromwell,  at  Dublin,  Ireland. 

'Whitehall,' 2ist  November,  1655. 

Son, 

I  have  seen  your  Letter  writ  unto  Mr.  Secretary  Thurloe ; 
and  do  find  thereby  that  you  are  very  apprehensive  of  the  carriage  of 
some  persons  with  you,  towards  yourself  and  the  public  affairs. 

I  do  believe  there  may  be  some  particular  persons  who  are  not  very 
well  pleased  with  the  present  condition  of  things,  and  may  be  apt  to 
shew  their  discontent  as  they  have  opportunity  :  but  this  should  not 
make  too  great  impressions  in  you.  Time  and  patience  may  work 
them  to  a  better  frame  of  spirit,  and  bring  them  to  see  that  which,  for 
the  present,  seems  to  be  hid  from  them  ;  especially  if  they  shall  see 
your  moderation  and  love  towards  them,  if  they  are  found  in  other 
ways  towards  you.  Which  I  earnestly  desire  you  to  study  and  en- 
deavour, all  that  lies  in  you.  Whereof  both  you  and  I  too  shall  have 
the  comfort,  whatsoever  the  issue  and  event  thereof  be. 

For  what  you  write  of  more  help,  I  have  long  endeavoured  it  ;  and 
shall  not  be  wanting  to  send  you  some  farther  addition  to  the  Council, 
so  soon  as  men  can  be  found  out  who  are  fit  for  the  trust.  I  am  also 
thinking  of  sending  over  to  you  a  fit  person  who  may  command  the 
North  of  Ireland  ;  which  I  believe  stands  in  great  need  of  one ; 
and  '  I '  am  of  your  opinion  that  Trevor  and  Colonel  Mervin  are 
very  dangerous  persons,  and  may  be  made  the  heads  of  a  new  rebel- 
lion. And  therefore  I  would  have  you  move  the  Council  that  they  be 
secured  in  some  very  safe  place,  and  the  farther  out  of  their  own 
countries  the  better. 

I  commend  you  to  the  Lord  ;  and  rest. 

Your  affectionate  father, 

Oliver  P.* 

*  The  Letter  writ  unto  Mr.  Secretary  Thurloe '  which  is  responded 
to  in  this  wise  and  magnanimous  manner,  does  not  appear  in  Thurloe 

*  Thurloe,  i.  726, 


CLEVELAND:  JEWS.  §^ 

or  elsewhere.  November  14,  the  day  before  the  date  of  this,  Henry 
writing  to  Thurloe  excuses  his  present  brevity,  his  last  Letter  having 
been  so  very  copious  :  that  copious  Letter,  now  lost,  is  probably  the 
one  in  questian  here. 

*  November  22d,^  the  day  after  this  Letter,  '  came  several  accounts 

*  from  the  Major-Generals  out  of  divers  Counties.     Out  of  Norfolk  it 

*  was  certified  that  Cleveland  the  Poet  and  one  Sherland  a  wild 
'  Parson  were  apprehended'  at  Norwich  'by  Colonel  Haynes,'^  the 
Lord  Pleetwood's  Substitute  in  those  regions.  This  is  John  Cleve- 
land the  famed  Cantab  Scholar,  Royalist  Judge- Advocate,  and  thrice- 
illustrious  Satirist  and  son  of  the  Muses  ;  who  '  had  gone  through 
eleven  editions' in  those  times,  far  transcending  all  Miltons  and  all 
mortals,—  and  does  not  now  need  any  twelfth  edition,  that  we  hear  of 
Still  recognisable  for  a  man  of  lively  parts  and  brilliant  petulant  cha- 
racter ;  directed,  alas,  almost  wholly  to  the  worship  of  clothes, — 
which  is  by  nature  a  transient  one  !  His  good  fortune  quitted  him,  I 
think,  nine  years  ago,  when  David  Lesley  took  him  prisoner  in 
Newark.  A  stinging  satire  against  the  Scots  had  led  Cleveland  to 
expect  at  least  martyrdom  on  this  occasion  ;  but  Lesley  merely  said, 
"  Let  the  poor  knave  go  and  sell  his  ballads  ;  "  f  and  dismissed  him, 
— towards  thin  diet,  and  a  darkness  which  has  been  deepening  ever 
since.  Very  low,  now  at  Norwich,  where  he  is  picked  up  by  Colonel 
Haynes  :  'Thirty  pounds  a  year  ;'  'lives  with  a  gentleman  to  whom 
he  is  giving  some  instruction  ; ' — unfortunate  son  of  the  Muses.  He 
indites  a  highflown  magnanimous  epistle  to  Cromwell,  on  this  new 
misfortune  ;  who  likewise  magnanimously  dismisses  him,J  to  '  sell  his 
ballads'  at  what  little  they  will  bring. 

Wednesday,  December  \2th,  1655.  This  day  'in  a  withdrawing- 
room  at  Whitehall,'  presided  over  by  his  Highness,  who  is  much  in- 
terested in  the  matter,  was  held  'a  Conference  concerning  the  Jews  ;'§ 
— of  which  the  modern  reader  too  may  have  heard  something.  Con- 
ference, one  of  Four  Conferences,  publicly  held,  which  filled  all  Eng- 
land with  rumour  in  those  old  December  days  ;  but  must  now  con- 
tract themselves  into  a  point  for  us.  Highest  official  Persons,  with 
Lord  Chief  Barons,  Lord  Chief  Justices,  and  chosen  Clergy  have  met 
here  to  advise,  by  reason.  Law-learning,  Scripture-prophecy,  and 
every  source  of  light  for  the  human  mind,  concerning  the  proposal  of 
admitting  Jews,  with  certain  privileges  as  of  alien-citizens,  to  reside 
in  England.  They  were  banished  near  Four-hundred  years  ago  : 
shall  they  now  be  allowed  to  reside  and  trade  again  ?  The  Proposer 
is  '  Manasseh  Ben  Israel,'  a  learned  Portuguese  Jew  of  Amsterdam  ; 
who,  being  stirred  up  of  late  years  by  the  great  things  doing  in  Eng- 
land, has  petitioned  one  and  the  other,  Long  Parliament  and  Little 
jParliament,  for  this  object  ;  but  could  never,  till  his  Highness  came 
into  power,  get  the  matter  brought  to  a  hearing.  And  so  they  debate 
and   solemnly   consider  ;  and   his  Highness  spake  ; — and  says  one 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  154) ;  Thurloe,  iv.  185. 
t  Biog.  Britan.  {2d  edit.),  iii.  531  :— very  ignorantly  told  there, 
i  Life  of  Cleveland,  prefixed  to  his  Poems. 
§  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  154). 


^6  THk  MAjdk-GP:NERALS. 


witness,  "  I  never  heard  a  man  speak  so  well."*  His  Highness  was 
eager  for  the  scheme,  if  so  might  be.  But  the  Scripture-prophecies, 
Law-learnings,  and  lights  of  the  human  mind  seemed  to  point  another 
way  :  zealous  Manasseh  went  home  again  ;  the  Jews  could  not  settle 
here  except  by  private  sufferance  of  his  Highness  ;— and  the  matter 
contracts  itself  into  a  point  for  us.f 

This  same  Jew- Wednesday,  Wednesday  the  12th,  as  a  laborious 
unimportant  computation  shews,  was  the  'evening'  when  Republican 
Ludlow  had  the  first  interview  with  his  Highness  and  certain  of  his 
Council  '  in  the  Protector's  bedchamber.'  %  Solid  Ludlow  has  been 
in  Ireland  ;  dreadfully  sulky  ever  since  his  Protectorate  began.  Solid 
Ludlow  never  would  acknowledge  any  Single  Person,  never  he  ;  not 
though  the  Single  Person  "  were  his  own  father."  He  has  neverthe- 
less, by  certain  written  '  engagements,'  contrived  to  get  across  from 
Ireland,  with  much  trouble  by  the  road  ;  but  will  not  now  give  any 
promise  satisfactory  to  his  Highness,  "  He  will  be  peaceable  ;  yes, 
"  so  long  as  he  sees  no  chance  otherwise  :  but  if  he  see  a  chance —  ! 
"  — Should  like,  notwithstanding,  to  breathe  a  little  air  in  his  own 
"  country  ;  that  is  all  he  is  wanting  for  the  present  ! "  In  fact,  our 
solid  friend  is  firm  as  brass,  or  oak- timber  ;  altogether  obstinate  in- 
deed, not  to  say  dogged  and  mulish.  The  Protector,  who  has  a  re- 
spect for  the  solid  man,  and  whose  course  is  conciliation  in  such 
cases,  permits  him  to  reside  in  Essex  ;  keeping  his  eye  upon  him. 

We  might  speak  also  of  the  famed  '  Committee  of  Trade,'  which 
has  now  begun  its  sessions  'in  the  old  House  of  Lords,'  An  As- 
semblage of  Dignitaries,  Chief  Merchants,  Political  Economists,  con- 
vened by  summons  of  his  Highness  ;  §  consulting  zealously  how  the 
Trade  of  this  country  may  be  improved.  A  great  concerment  of  the 
Commonwealth,  '  which  his  Highness  is  eagerly  set  upon.'  They  con- 
sulted of  '  Swedish  Copperas,'  and  such  like  ;  doing  faithfully  what 
they  could. 

Of  these  things  we  might  speak  ;  but  prefer  to  end  the  year  by 
this  small  interesting  fraction  of  Domestic  Gossip,  coming  to  us  in 
a  small  flute-voice  across  the  loud  Disturbances,  which  are  all 
fallen  silent  now,  more  silent  now  than  even  it  !  Sorry  only 
that  nobody  can  inform  us  who  this  blameworthy  'person'  in  the 
Lord  Henry  Cromwell's  house  is,  or  what  her  misdoings  are  :  but 
the  reader,  skilled  in  perennial  human  nature,  can  sufficiently 
supply  these,  and  listen  to  the  ancient  small  flute-voice  with  in- 
telligence : 

The  Lady  Mary  Cromwell  to  Henry  Cromwell,  Major-General  of  the 
Army  in  Ireland. 

"  '  Hampton  Court,'  7th  December,  1655. 

"  Dear  Brother,— I  cannot  be  any  longer  without  begging  an 
"  excuse  for  my  so  long  silence.     You  cannot  but  hear  of  my  Sister's 

Sir  Paul  Ryoaiit   (in  Spence's  Anecdotes,   p.  77;— as  cited  by  Godwin,  iv. 
299). 

t  Godwin,  iv.  243-9.  X  Ludlow,  ii.  551  e^  seciq. 

&  Whillocke,  .p.  618  ^2  November,  1655.) 


lADY  MARV.  tf 


"  illness  ;  which  indeed  has  been  the  only  cause  of  it.  You  might 
"  justly  take  it  ill  otherwise,  and  think  there  were  want  of  that  affection 
"  I  owe  unto  you. 

"  Indeed,  dear  Brother,  it  was  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  me  to  think 
"  I  should  give  you  any  occasion  to  think  amiss  of  me  :  for  I  can 
"  truly  say  it,  you  are  very  dear  to  me  ;  and  it  is  a  great  trouble  to 
"  me  to  think  of  the  distance  we  are  from  one  another  ;  and  would  be 
"  more,  if  I  did  not  think  you  are  doing  the  Lord's  service  ; — and 
"  truly  that  ought  to  satisfy  us,  for  while  we  are  here,  we  cannot  ex- 
"  pect  but  that  we  must  be  separated.  Dear  Brother,  the  Lord  direct 
"  you  in  His  ways,  and  keep  your  heart  close  unto  Himself.  And  I 
"  am  sure,  therein  you  will  have  true  comfort ;  and  that  will  last  when 
"  all  this  world  shall  pass  away. 

"  I  cannot  but  give  you  some  item  of  One  that  is  with  you,  who, 
"  '  it '  is  so  much  feared  by  your  friends  that  love  you,  is  some  dis- 
"  honour  to  you  and  my  dear  Sister,  if  you  have  not  a  great  care.  For 
"  it  is  reported  here,  that  she  rules  much  in  your  Family  ;  and  truly  it 
"  is  feared  that  she  is  a  discountenancer  of  the  Godly  People.  There- 
"  fore,  dear  Brother,  take  it  not  ill,  that  I  give  you  an  item  of  her  : 
"  for,  truly,  if  I  did  not  love  both  you  and  your  honour,  I  would  not 
"  give  you  notice  of  her.  Therefore  I  hope  you  will  not  take  it  ill, 
"  that  I  have  dealt  thus  plainly  with  you,  I  suppose  you  know  who 
"  it  is  I  mean,  therefore  I  desire  to  be  excused  for  not  naming  her.  I 
"  desire  not  to  be  seen  in  it  ;  and  therefore  desire  you  that  you  would 
"  not  take  the  least  notice  of  my  writing  to  you  about  it :  because  I 
"  was  desired  not  to  speak  of  it ; — nor  should  I,  but  that  I  know  you 
"will  not  take  it  amiss  from  your  poor  Sister  who  loves  you. 

"  Dear  Brother,  I  take  leave  to  rest — your  sister  and  servant, 

"Mary  Cromwell. 

"  Her  Highness  'our  Mother'  desires  to  have  her  love  to  you  and 
"my  Sister  ;  and  my  Sister  Franke  her  respects  to  you  both."* 

*  My  Sister  Franke '  and  the  Lady  Mary,  these  are  my  '  two  little 
wenches,'  grown  now  to  be  women  ;  with  dress-caps,  fresh-blossoming 
hearts,  musical  glib  tongues, — not  uninteresting  to  men  !  Anthony 
Ashley  Cooper,  I  am  told,  is  looking  towards  this  Lady  Mary  ;  now 
turned  of  Eighteen,t  and  a  desirable  match  for  any  youth  of  ambition, 
— but  not  attainable  I  doubt  by  Ashley. 


LETTER   CXLV. 

New  Sea-Armaments,  and  ever  new,  are  fitted  out  against  the 
Spaniards  and  their  Papist  Domdaniel.  Penn  being  dismissed, 
Councillor  Colonel  Montague,  already  in  the  Admiralty,  was  made 
Sea-General  last  January  in  his  stead ;  and  now  Blake  and  he  have 
their  flags  flying,  somewhat  off  Cadiz  Bay,  it  would  appear. 

*  Thurloe  iv.  293.  f  Antea  vol.  i.  p.  56, 


THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


To  Generals  Blake  and  Montague,  at  Sea. 

Whitehall,  28th  April,  1656. 

My  loving  Friends, 

You  have,  as  I  verily  believe  and  am  persuaded,  a  plentiful 
stock  of  prayers  going  '  on '  for  you  daily,  sent  up  by  the  soberest 
and  most  approved  Ministers  and  Christians  in  this  Nation  ;  and, 
notwithstanding  some  discouragements,  very  much  wrestling  of  faith 
for  you  :  which  is  to  us,  and  1  trust  will  be  to  you,  matter  of  great 
encouragement.  But  notwithstanding  all  this,  it  will  be  good  for  you 
and  us  to  deliver  up  ourselves  and  all  our  affairs  to  the  disposition  of 
our  All-Wise  Father  ;  who,  not  only  out  of  prerogative,  but  because 
of  His  wisdom,  goodness  and  truth,  ought  to  be  resigned  unto  by  His 
creatures,  and  most  especially  by  those  who  are  children  of  His  be- 
getting through  the  Spirit.  We  have  been  lately  taught*  that  it  is 
not  in  man  to  direct  his  way.  Indeed  all  the  dispensations  of  God, 
whether  adverse  or  prosperous,  do  fully  read  that  lesson.  We  can 
no  more  turn  away  the  Evil,  as  we  call  it,  than  attain  the  Good  : 
And  therefore  Solomon's  counsel,  of  doing  what  we  have  to  do  with 
all  our  might,  '  and  '  getting  our  hearts  wholly  submitted,  if  not  to  re- 
joicing, at  least  to  contentation  with  whatsoever  shall  be  dispensed 
by  Him  to  whom  alone  the  issues  of  all  things  do  belong,  is  worthy 
to  be  received  by  us.f 

Wherefore  we  have  thought  fit  to  send  this  honest  man.  Captain 
Lloyd,  who  is  known  to  us  to  be  a  person  of  integrity,  to  convey  to 
you  some  thoughts, — wherein  we  do  only  offer  to  you  such  things  as 
do  arise  to  us,  partly  upon  intelligence,  and  partly  upon  such  a 
measure  as  we  at  such  a  distance  take  of  that  great  affair  wherein 
you  are  engaged  ;  desiring  to  give  no  rule  to  you  ;  but  building,  under 
God,  much  more  upon  your  judgments  on  the  place  than  'upon'  our 
own ;  forasmuch  as  our  inteUigences,  coming  much  upon  the  exam- 
ination of  Merchants'  ships  and  such  ways,  may  not  be  true  often- 
times in  matter  of  fact.  And  therefore  we  do  offer  what  we  have  to 
say  rather  as  queries  than  '  as'  resolutions. 

We  are  informed  that  not  many  of  the  Plate  Fleet  are  come  home  ; 
viz.  two  Galeons  and  two  Pataches;!]:  and  we  hear  they  are  not  so 
rich  as  they  gave  out.  We  are  informed  also  that  the  Spaniards' 
Fleet  in  Cadiz  is  in  no  preparation  to  come  out ;  and  some  think  they 
will  not  come  forth,  but  delay  you  upon  the  coast,  until  your  victuals 
are  spent,  and  you  forced  to  come  home.  We  apprehend  that,  when 
General  Blake  was  there  last  year,  they  could  not  have  told  how  to 
have  manned  out  a  Fleet,  if  the  Merchants  there  and  gentlemen  in- 
terested had  not  (principally  for  their  own  interest  in  the  return  of  the 
*  Plate'  Fleet)  done  it. 

We  are  informed  that  they  sent  what  men  they  could  well  spare, 

*  In  the  affair  of  Hispaniola,  &c. 

t  Yes,  I  should  say  so  ;— as  indeed  the  whole  Universe,  since  it  first  had  any 
ghmmerings  cf  intelligence  in  it,  has  said  ! 

X  Galeofie,  in  the  Spanish  Dictionary,  is  defined  as  an  'Armed  ship  of  burden 
used  for  trade  in  time  of  war  ;'  Patache  as  a  Tender,  or  smaller  ship  to  wait  upon 
the  Galeone.  ^  ^ 


Whitehall  ^ 


by  those  Six  or  Seven  ships  which  they  sent  to  the  West  Indies  in 
March  last.  We  know  also  that  it  hath  ever  been  accounted  that  the 
Spaniards'  great  want  is  men,— as  well  as  money  at  this  time.  What 
numbers  are  in  and  about  Cadiz  you  best  know.  We  only  discourse 
probabilities  :  Whether  now  it  might  not  be  worthy  to  be  weighed  by 
you  and  your  council  of  war,  whether  this  Fleet  of  theirs  now  in  Cadiz 
might  not  be  burnt  or  otherwise  destroyed.?  Whether  Puntal  and 
the  Forts  are  so  considerably  stronger  as  to  discourage  from  such  an 
attempt?  Whether  Cadiz  itself  is  unattemptable  ;  or  the  Island  on 
which  it  stands  be  noways  to  be  separated  from  relieving  the  Town 
bv  the  Bridge,"'"  the  Island  being  so  narrow  in  some  parts  of  it.'' 
Whether  any  other  place  be  attemptable  ;  especially  that  of  the 
Town  and  Castle  of  Gibraltar, — which  if  possessed  and  made  tenable 
by  us,t  would  It  not  be  both  an  advantage  to  our  trade  and  an 
annoyance  to  the  Spaniard  ;  and  enable  us,  without  keeping  so  great 
a  fleet  on  that  coast,  with  six  nimble  frigates  lodged  there  to  do  the 
Spaniard  more  harm  than  by  a  fleet,  and  ease  our  own  charge. 

You  may  discourse  freely  with  the  Bearer  concerning  anything 
contained  in  this  Letter,  to  whom  the  whole  was  communicated,  that 
so  he  might  be  able  to  bring  back  to  us  a  more  particular  account  of 
things.  The  Lord  guide  you  to  do  that  which  may  be  pleasing 
in  His  sight. 

I  remain, 

Your  very  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.J 

LETTER  CXLVI. 

Cadiz  could'not  be  attempted.  Here,  eight  days  later,  is  another 
message  to  the  same  parties,  concerning  another  business.  'The 
Portugal,'  it  appears,  has  been  behaving  in  a  very  paltry  fashion  ;  and 
now  '  Mr.  Meadows,'  one  of  Thurloe's  Under-Secretaries,  is  gone  out 
to  him  ;  whose  remonstrances,  the  Fleet  lending  them  its  emphasis, 
will  probably  be  effectual  \ 

To  Generals  Blake  and  Montague^  at  Sea. 
_  Whitehall,  6th  May,  16=56. 

Gentlemen, 

You  will  perceive,  by  the  Instructions§  herewith  sent  you,  what 
is  expected  by  the  Council  and  myself  at  your  hands.  And  although 
we  are  satisfied  that  you  will  believe  we  have  sufficient  grounds  to  give 
you  these  Directions,  yet  we  have  thought  fit,  for  the  farther 
strengthening  you  unto  this  Action,  to  give  you  a  short  knowledge  of 
the  true  state  of  the  Difference  between  us  and  the  King  of  Portugal. 

^  *  Means  '  noways  to  be  separated  from  the  Mainland,  by  ruining  its  Bridge  :' 
Cadiz  were  thus  in  reality  isolated. 

+  Hear,  hear !  %  Thurloe,  iv.  744. 

§  Thurloe,  iv.  769:  brief  'instructions,  To  seize  the  Portugal's  ships,  fleets, 
almost  the  Portugal's  self,  if  he  will  not  do  justice. 


^  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS, 


You  very  well  know  that  it  is  very  near  two  years  since  we  and  the 
Ambassador  of  Portugal  did  agree  a  Treaty  ;  they  having  wronged  us 
and  our  Merchants,  and  taken  part  with  the  late  King  against  us. 
When  the  Articles  were  fully  agreed  by  the  Ambassador,  who  had  full 
power  and  authority  to  conclude  with  us,  we  on  our  part  ratified  and 
confirmed  the  same,  and  sent  it  to  the  King  of  Portugal  to  be  ratified 
and  executed  by  him  also.  He,  delaying  to  do  it  according  to  the  first 
Agreement,  in  which  there  were  some  preliminaries  to  be  performed 
by  him  before  we  could  enter  upon  the  whole  body  of  a  Treaty, — not 
only  refused  to  give  us  satisfaction  therein,  but  instead  thereof  sent  us 
a  pretended  Ratification  of  a  Treaty,  so  different  from  what  was 
agreed  by  his  Ambassador  that  it  was  quite  another  thing.  In  '  regard 
to '  some  essential  Articles,  it  was  proposed  that  if  we  would  con- 
descend to  some  amendments,  the  Kijig  of  Portugal  would  '  then ' 
agree  to  confirm  the  whole. 

Whereupon  we  sent  Mr.  Maynard  to  have  the  Treaty  consummated  : 
but  finding  by  the  answer  he  gave  us,"*^  that  there  was  little  reality,  and 
nothing  but  delays  intended,  we  could  not  satisfy  ourselves  without 
sending  another  Person,  fully  instructed,  and  authorised  by  us  to  take 
away  all  scruples  by  yielding  to  their  own  amendments  ;  thereby  to 
discern  whether  they  were  sinceref  or  not.  But,  contrary  to  all 
expectation,  we  find,  by  the  account  the  said  Person  hath  given  us, 
that  we  are  put  upon  it  to  recede  from  all  those  things  that  were 
provisional,  either  for  the  good  of  the  State  or  of  our  Merchants,  or 
else  we  must  have  no  Peace  with  them.J 

In  one  of  the  Articles  agreed  with  the  Ambassador,  it  was  expressed. 
That  the  Merchants  should  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience,  in  the  worship 
of  God  in  their  own  houses  and  aboard  their  ships  ;  enjoying  also  the 
use  of  English  Bibles,  and  other  good  books  ;  taking  care  that  they  did 
not  exceed  this  liberty.  Now,  upon  the  sending  of  Mr.  Meadows, — 
unless  we  will  agree  to  submit  this  Article  to  the  determination  of  the 
Pope,  we  cannot  have  it :  whereby  he  would  bring  us  to  an. owning  of 
the  Pope  ;  which,  we  hope,  whatever  befal  us,  we  shall  not,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  be  brought  unto.§  And  upon  the  same  issue  is  that  Article 
put  whereby  it  is  provided  and  agreed  by  his  Ambassador,  That  any 
ships  coming  to  that  harbour,  any  of  their  company  that  shall  run 
away  from  the  said  ships  shall  be  brought  back  again  by  the  Magis- 
trate :  and  the  Commanders  of  the  said  ships  '  shall '  not  '  be '  required 
to  pay  the  said  runaways  their  wages,  upon  pretence  *  that '  they  are 
turned  Catholics, — which  may  be  a  colour  for  any  knave  to  leave  his 
duty,  or  for  the  Roman  Catholics  to  seduce  our  men.  This  we  thought 
necessary  to  be  provided  against.  Yet  to  this  also,  as  I  said  before, 
they  would  not  consent  without  the  approbation  of  the  Pope,  although 
it  was  agreed  by  their  Ambassador  too. 

Upon  the  whole  matter,  we  find  them  very  false  to  us,  who  intended 
nothing  but  what  was  simply  honest.  And  truly  we  cannot  believe  that 
Article  that  was  for  our  good,  was  *  ever '  really  intended  by  them. 
And  we  may  now  plainly  see  what  the  effect  is  like  to  be  of  any  Treaty 
had  or  made  with  people  or  states  guided  by  such  principles,  who, 

*  '  by  his  return  '  in  orig.  f  '  real '  in  orig. 

X  Let  them  have  a  care !  §  Hear,  hear  1  ^, 


WHITEHALt,  91 


when  they  have  agreed,  have  such  an  evasion  as  these  people  have 
manifestly  held  forth  in  their  dealing  with  us.  Wherefore  we  pray  you 
to  be  very  exact  in  your  prosecution  of  your  Instructions  ;  which  truly 
1  hope  do  not  arise  from  the  hope  of  gain,  but  from  a  sense  of  duty. 
For,  seeing  we  cannot  secure  our  People  in  their  lives,  liberties,  and 
estates,  by  a  Pretence  of  a  Treaty  ;  nor  yet  answer  the  just  demands 
this  Nation  hath  for  wrongs  done  them  ;  but  must  in  some  sort 
be  guilty  of  bringing  our  People  as  it  were  into  a  net,  by  such  specious 
shews  which  have  nothing  but  falseness  and  rottenness  in  them  ; — we 
are  necessitated,  having  amongst  ourselves  found  out  no  possible 
expedient,  though  we  have  industriously  sought  it,  to  salve  these 
things  ;  we,  out  of  necessity  '  I  say,'  and  not  out  of  choice,  have 
concluded  to  go  in  this  way. 

You  will  receive  herewith  the  Copy  of  an  Instruction  given  and  sent 
to  Mr.  Meadows,  wherein  is  a  time  limited  for  the  King's  answer  :  and 
■we  desire  that  this  may  not  be  made  use  of  by  the  King  to  delay  or 
deceive  us  :  nor  that  you,  upon  the  first  sight  hereof,  delay  to  take  the 
best  course  you  can  to  effect  your  Instructions, — or  that  the  Portugal 
should  get  his  Fleet  home  before  you  get  between  him  and  home,  and 
so  the  birds  be  flown. 

We  know  not  what  your  affairs  are  at  the  present ;  but  are  confident 
that  nothing  will  be  wanting  on  your  part  for  the  effectual  accomplish- 
ment of  this  Service.  But  knowing  that  all  ways,  and  works,  and 
ourselves,  are  ever  at  the  perfect  disposition  of  the  Lord  and  His 
providence,  and  that  our  times  are  in  His  hands, — we  therefore 
recommend  you  to  the  grace  and  guidance  of  our  good  God,  who,  we 
hope,  hath  thoughts  of  mercy  towards  us  :  and  that  He  would  guide 
and  bless  you  is  the  prayer  of, 

Your  very  loving  friend, 

'Oliver  P.* 

In  Thurlo^'s  handwriting ;  but  very  evidently  Oliver's  composition 
every  sentence  of  it.  There  will  clearly  be  no  living  for  the  Portugal, 
unless  he  decide  to  throw  away  his  jockeyings  and  Jesuitries,  and  do 
what  is  fair  and  square  ! 


LETTER   CXLVII. 


A  «iMALL  Note  still  extant ;  relating  to  very  different,  altogether 
domestic  matters. 

For  my  loving  Son,  Richard^ Cromwell^  Esquire,  at  Hursley : 
These^ 

'  Whitehall,'  29th  May,  1656. 

Son, 

You  know  there  hath  often  been  a  desire  to  sell  Newhall,  be- 
cause in  these  four  years  last  past  it  hath  yielded  very  httle  or  no 
profit  at  all,  nor  did  I  ever  hear  you  ever  liked  it  for  a  seat. 

It  seems  there  may  be  a  chapman  had,  who  will  give  ^18,000.     It 
shall  either  be  laid  out  where  you  shall  desire  ;  at  Mr.  Wallop's,  or  else- 

*  Tburloe,  iv.  768. 


^2  THE  MAJOR-GENERAL^ 

wto^  and  the  money  put  into  feoffees'  hands  in  trust  to  be  so  disposed: 
or  I  shall  settle  Burleigh;  which  yields  w^7,x  £1  ^ooo^  per  annuin, 
besides  the  woods.    Waterhouse  will  give  you  farther  information. 

I  rest, 

Your  loving  father, 

Oliver  P. 

*  P.S.'    My  love  to  your  Father  and  Mother,t  and  your  dear  Wife.  J 

Newhall  is  the  House  and  Estate  in  Essex  which  had  once  belonged 
to  the  great  Duke  of  Buckingham.  Burleigh  I  guess  to  be  Burleigh 
House^'near  Stamford,  which  Oliver  in  the  beginning  of  his  military 
services  had  known  well ;  he  took  it  by  assault  in  1643.  Of  Oliver's 
Lands,  or  even  of  his  Public  Lands  granted  by  the  Parliament,  much 
more  of  the  successive  phases  his  Estate  assumed  by  new  purchase 
and  exchange,  there  is,  as  we  once  observed  already,  no  exact  know- 
ledge now  anywhere  to  be  had.  Obscure  incidental  notices  flit 
through  the  Commons  Journals  and  other  Records;  but  the  sum  of 
the  matter  alike  with  the  details  of  it  are  sunk  in  antique  Law- Parch- 
ments, in  obliterated  Committee-Papers,  far  beyond  human  sounding. 
Of  the  Lands  he  rt'/V^  possessed  of,  there  is  a  List  extant,  more  or  less 
accurate;  which  is  worth  looking  at  here.  On  quitting  the  Protector- 
ship in  1659,  Richard  Cromwell,  with  the  hope  of  having  his  debts 
paid  and  same  fixed  Revenue  allowed  him,  gave  in  a  Schedule  of  his 
Liabilities  and  of  his  Properties,  the  latter  all  in  Land  ;  which 
Schedule  poor  Noble  has  found  somewhere ;\  and  copied,  probably 
with  blunders.  Subjoined  is  his  List  of  the  Properties,  some  of  them 
misspelt,  most  likely  ;  the  exact  localities  of  which,  no  indication 
being  given  or  sought  by  Noble,  may  be  a  problem  for  persons  learned 
in  such  matters. jl  To  us,  only  Burleigh  and  Newhall  are  known  or  of 
importance  here. 

*  Written  above  is  ^'1,260.  \  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mayor  of  Hursley. 

t  Original  in  the  possession  of  Henry  V.'illiam  Field,  Esq.  of  the  Royal  Mint. 
§  Not  where  he  says  he  did,  '  in  Commons  Journals,  14th   May  1659 '  *!\^oble, 
i.  333,  4). 

II  Real  Estate  in  1659. 

B^dSghton    j  ^^"le'i  ^"  ™y  Brother    Henry  Cromwell   f  ^^9  9  1 

Gower       .    J              ^^P°"  "^'-^rnage  :  worth  a-year              |  479  o  o 
Newhall  with  woods,  settled  for  security  of  ;^i5,ooo  for  a 

Portion  for  my  Sister  Frances 1200  o  o 

Chepstall      ..........       594    7    3 

Magore         ........,,      448    o    o 

Tydenham    ..........     3121     9    6 

Woolaston 664  16    6 

Chaulton,  with  woods 500    o    o 

Burleigh 1236  12     8 

Okham         ......,,,,       326  14  11 

Egleton .        .        79  II     6 

These  are  all  the  Lands  at  this  date  in  the  possession  of  the  Oliver  Family.  As 
to  poor  Richard's  finance-budget,  encumbered  with  ^^2,000  yearly  to  my  Mother,' 
•  with  /"a, 000  of  debt  contracted  in  my  Father'sl  ifetime,"  and  plentifully  Otherwise,—* 
it  shall  not  concern  us  farther. 


LADY  MARY.  93 


Newhall,  we  can  observe,  was  not  sold  on  the  occasion  of  this 
Letter,  nor  at  all  sold  ;  for  it  still  stands  in  the  List  of  1659  ;  and  with 
some  indication,  too,  as  to  what  the  cause  of  now  trying  to  sell  it  may 
have  been.  '  For  a  Portion  to  my  Sister  Frances,'  namely.  Noble's 
citations  from  Morant's  History  of  Essex;  his  and  Morant's  blunder- 
ings  and  somnambulancies,  in  regard  to  this  matter  of  Newhall,  seem 
almost  to  approach  the  sublime.* 

Leaving  these,  let  us  attend  a  little  to  the  '  Portion  for  my  Sister 
Frances  ;'  concerning  which  and  whom  a  few  lines  of  musical  domes- 
tic gossip,  interesting  to  the  mind,  are  once  more  audible,  from  the 
same  flute-voice  above  listened  to.  '  Mr.  Rich,'  we  should  premise, 
is  the  Lord  Rich's  son,  the  Earl  of  Warwick's  Grandson  ;  heir-appa- 
rent, though  he  did  not  live  to  be  heir  : — pious  old  Earl  of  Warwick, 
whom  we  have  seen  heretofore  as  Admiral  in  the  Long- Parliament 
time  ;  the  poor  Earl  of  Holland's  Brother.  Here  are  affairs  of  the 
heart,  romances  of  reality,  such  as  have  to  go  on  in  all  times,  under 
all  dialects  and  fashions  of  dress-caps,  Puritan-Protectoral  and  other. 

The  Lady  Mary  Cromwell  to  Henry  Cromwell,  Major-General  of  the 
Force  sin  Ireland. 

'  Hampton  Court,'  23d  June  1656. 

"  Dear  Brother, — Your  kind  Letters  do  so  much  engage  my 
"  heart  towards  you,  that  I  can  never  tell  how  to  express  in  writing 
"  the  true  affection  and  value  I  have  for  you,  —who,  truly  I  think, 
"  none  that  knows  you  but  you  may  justly  claim  it  from.t 

"  I  must  confess  myself  in  a  great  fault  in  omitting  to  write  to  you 
"  and  your  dear  Wife  so  long  a  time.  But  I  suppose  you  cannot  be 
"  ignorant  of  the  reason,  which  truly  has  been  the  only  cause  ;  which 
"  is  this  business  of  my  Sister  Frances  and  Mr.  Rich,  Truly  I  can 
"  truly  say  it,  for  these  three  months  I  think  our  Family,  and  myself 
"  in  particular,  have  been  in  the  greatest  confusion  and  trouble  as 
"  ever  poor  Family  can  be  in.  The  Lord  tell  us  His  'mind 'J  in  it  ; 
"  and  settle  us,  and  make  us  what  He  would  have  us  to  be  !  I  sup- 
"  pose  you  heard  of  the  breaking-off  of  the  business  ;  and,  according 
"  to  your  desire  in  your  last  Letter,  as  well  as  I  can,  I  shall  give  you 
"  a  full  account  of  it.     Which  is  this  : 

"  After  a  quarter  of  a  year's  admittance,  my  Father  and  my  Lord 
"  Warwick  began  to  treat  about  the  Estate  ;  and  it  seems  my  Lord 
"  did  not  offer  that  which  my  Father  expected.  I  need  not  name 
"  particulars  ;  for  I  suppose  you  have  had  them  from  better  hands  : 
"  but  if  I  may  say  the  truth,  I  think  it  was  not  so  much  estate,  as 
"  from  private  reasons  which  my  Father  discovered  to  none  but  to 
"  my  Sister  Frances  and  his  own  Family  ; — which  was  a  dislike  to 
"  the  young  person.  Which  he  had  from  some  reports  of  his  being  a 
"  vicious  man,  given  to  play  and  such-like  things  ;  which  office  was 
"  done  by  some  who  had  a  mind  to  break-off  the  match.  My  Sister 
"  hearing  these  things  was  resolved  to  know  the  truth  of  it  ;§  and 
"  truly  did  find  all  the  reports  to  be  false  that  were  recited  of  him. 

*  Noble,  pp.  334,  335.  t  Young-Ladys  Grammar  I 

X  Word  torn  out.  §  Poor  little  Frances ! 


94  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS, 

"  And  to  tell  you  the  truth,  they  were  so  much  engaged  in  affection 
"  before  this,  that  she  could  not  think  of  breaking  it  off.  So  that  my 
"  Sister  engaged  me  and  all  the  friends  she  had,  who  truly  were  very 
"  few,  to  speak  in  her  behalf  to  my  Father.  Which  we  did;  but  could 
"  not  be  heard  to  any  purpose  :  only  this  my  Father  promised,  That 
"  if  he  were  satisfied  as  to  the  report,  the  estate  should  not  break  it 
"  off.     With  which  she  was  satisfied. 

"  And  so  after  this,  there  was  a  second  Treaty  ;  and  my  Lord 
"  Warwick  desired  my  Father,  To  name  what  it  was  he  demanded 
"  more;  and  to  his  utmost  he  would  satisfy  him.  So  my  Father  upon 
"  this  made  new  propositions;  which  my  Lord  Warv-ick  has  answered 
"  as  much  as  he  can.  But  it  seems  there  are  Five-hundred  pounds  a 
"  year  in  my  Lord  Rich's  hands  ;  which  he  has  power  to  sell  :  and 
"  there  are  some  people,  who  persuade  his  Highness,  that  it  would  be 
"  dishonourable  for  him  to  conclude  it  unless  these  ^500  a  year  be 
"  settled  upon  Mr.  Rich,  after  his  father's  death.  And  my  Lord  Rich 
"  having  no  esteem  at  all  of  his  son,  because  he  is  not  so  bad  as  him- 
"  self,  will  not  agree  to  it ;  and  these  people  upon  this  persuade  my 
"  Father,  That  it  would  be  a  dishonour  to  him  to  yield  upon  these 
"  terms ;  it  would  shew,  that  he  was  made  a  fool  of  by  my  Lord  Rich. 
"  So  the  truth  is,  how  it  shall  be,  I  cannot  understand,  nor  very  few 
"  else  ;*  and  truly  I  must  tell  you  privately,  they  are  so  far  engaged, 
"  that  the  match  cannot  be  broke  off  !  She  acquainted  none  of  her 
"  friends  with  her  resolution,  when  she  did  it. 

"  Dear  Brother,  this  is,  as  far  as  I  can  tell,  the  state  of  the  business. 
"  The  Lord  direct  them  what  to  do.  And  all,  I  think,  ought  to  beg 
"  of  God  to  pardon  her  in  her  doing  of  this  thing  ; — which  I  must 
"  say  truly  she  was  put  upon  by  the  '  course'f  of  things.  Dear,  let 
"  me  beg  my  excuses  to  my  Sister  for  not  writing.  My  best  respects 
"  to  her.  Pardon  this  trouble;  and  beheve  me  that  I  shall  ever 
"  strive  to  approve  myself,— dear  Brother,  your  affectionate  sister  and 
"  servant, 

"  Mary  Cromwell."  % 

Poor  Httle  Fanny  Cromwell  was  not  yet  much  turned  of  Seventeen, 
when  she  had  these  complex  things  to  do,  with  her  friends,  '  who 
truly  were  very  few.'  What  '  people '  they  were  that  put,  or  strove  to 
put,  such  notions  into  his  Highness's  head,  with  intent  to  frustrate  the 
decidedly  eligible  Mr.  Rich,  none  knows.  I  could  suspect  Ashley 
Cooper,  or  some  such  hand,  if  his  date  of  favour  still  lasted.  But  it  is 
gone,  long  months  ago.  Ashley  is  himself  frustrated  ;  cannot  obtain 
this  musical  glib-tongued   Lady  Mary,  says  Ludlow;§— goes  over  to 

*  Good  little  Mary !  f  Torn  out.  +  Thurloe,  v.  146. 

§  Here  is  the  passage,  not  hitherto  printed  ;  one  of  several  '  suppressed-pas- 
sages  from  Ludlow's  Memoirs;  uhich  still  exist  in  the  handwriting  of  John  Locke 
(now  in  the  possession  of  Lord  Lovelace),  having  been  duly  copied  out  by  Locke 
for  his  own  poor  Life  of  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  to  whom  they  all  relate  : 

'  Sir  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  who  was  first  for  the  King,  then  for  the  Parlia- 

^  ment;  then  in  Cromwell's  first  Assembly,'  the  Little  parliament,  was  'for  the 

^  reformation ;  and  afterwards  for  Cromwell  against  the  reformation.     Now'  again, 

•      ir^  denied  Cromwell's  Daughter  M;iry  in  marriage,  he  appears  against  Crom- 

WeUs  design  in  the  last  Assembly,'  the  congtitutioning  P^rhament,  where  bis 


WHITEHALL.  95 


opposition  in  consequence  ;  is  dismissed  from  his  Highness's  Council 
of  State  :  and  has  to  climb  in  this  world  by  another  ladder. — Poor 
Fanny's  marriage  did  nevertheless  take  effect.  Both  Mary  and  she 
were  duly  wedded,  Fanny  to  Rich,  Mary  to  Lord  Fauconberg,  in 
November  next  year,  within  about  a  week  of  each  other  :*  our  friends, 
'  who  truly  were  very  few,'  and  our  destinies,  and  our  own  lively  wits, 
brought  all  right  in  the  end. 


LETTER  CXLVIIL 


It  was  last  Spring  Assizes,  as  we  saw,  that  the  *  great  appearances 
of  country  gentlemen  and  persons  of  the  highest  quality'  took  place; 
leading  to  the  inference  generally  that  this  Protectorate  Government 
is  found  worth  acknowledging  by  England.  Certainly  a  somewhat 
successful  Government  hitherto  ;  in  spite  of  difficulties  great  and 
many.  It  carries  eternal  Gospel  in  the  one  hand,  temporal  drawn 
Sword  in  the  other.  Actually  it  has  compressed  the  turbulent 
humours  of  this  Country,  and  encouraged  the  better  tendencies 
thereof,  hitherto  ;  it  has  set  its  foot  resolutely  on  the  neck  of  English 
Anarchy,  and  points  with  its  armed  hand  to  noble  onward  and  up- 
ward paths.  All  which,  England,  thankful  at  lowest  for  peace  and 
order,  by  degrees  recognises  ;  with  acquiescence,  not  without  some 
slow  satisfactory  feeling.  England  is  in  peace  at  home  ;  stands  as 
the  Queen  of  Protestantism  abroad  ;  defies  Spain  and  Antichrist,  pro- 
tects^poor  Piedmont  Piotestants  and  servants  of  Christ; — has  taken, 
all  men  admit,  a  nobler  attitude  than  it  ever  had  before. 

Nor  has  the  task  been  easy  hitherto  ;  nor  is  it  like  to  be.  No  holy- 
day  work,  governing  such  an  England  as  this  of  Oliver  Protector's  ; 
with  strong  Papistry  abroad,  and  a  Hydra  of  Anarchies  at  home  ! 
The  domestic  Hydra  is  not  slain  ;  cannot,  by  the  nature  of  it,  be 
slain  ;  can  only  be  scotched  and  mowed  down,  head  after  head,  as  it 
successively  protrudes  itself ;  till,  by  the  aid  of  time  it  slowly  die.  As 
yet  on  any  hint  of  foreign  encouragement,  it  revives  again,  requires  to 
be  scotched  and  mowed  down  again.  His  exiled  Majesty  Charles 
Stuart  has  got  a  new  lever  in  hand  by  means  of  this  War  with  Spain. 

Seven  years  ago  his  exiled  Majesty's  'Embassy  to  Spain,'  embassy 
managed  by  Chancellor  Hyde  and  another,  proved  rather  a  hungry 
affair  ;  and  ended,  I  think,  in  little, — except  the  murder  of  poor 
Ascham,  the  then  Parliament's  Envoy  at  Madrid  ;  whom,  like  Dutch 

behaviour  was  none  of  the  best ;  '  and  is  therefore  dismissed  the  Council,  Crom- 
'  well  being  resolved  to  act  there  as  the  chief  juggler  himself ;  and  one  Colonel 
'  Mackworth,  a  Lawyer  about  Shrewsbury,  a  person  fit  for  his  purpose,  is  chosen 
'  in  his  room.'— Mackworth  was  a  Soldier  as  well  as  Lawver;  the  same  who,  as 
Governor  of  Shrewsbury,  gave  negative  response  to  Charles  Second,  when  he 
summoned  him  on  the  road  to  Worcester,  once  upon  a  time.  Mackworth  was  in 
the  Council,  and  had  even  died,  and  entirely  left  the  Council,  before  Anthony 
Ashley  left  it  (Thurloe,  iii.  581;  and  Godwin,  iv.  288).  My  soHd  friend,  absent 
in  Ireland,  sulkily  breathing  the  air  in  Essex,  falls  into  some  errors  !  Court- 
rumour,  this  of  his  ;  truth  in  the  heart  of  it,  details  rather  vague  ;  not  much  wortl^ 
verifying  or  rectifying  here. 
*  AnUa,  vol,  i.  ^6, 


^6  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

Dorislaus,  as  'an  accursed  regicide  or  abetter  of  regicides,' certain 
cut-throat  servants  of  the  said  hungry  Embassy  broke  in  upon,  one 
afternoon,  and  slew.  For  which  violent  deed  no  full  satisfaction  could 
be  got  from  Spain, — the  murderers  having  taken  *  sanctuary,'  as  was 
pleaded.*  With  that  rather  sorry  result,  and  no  other  noticeable, 
Chancellor  Hyde's  Embassy  took  itself  away  again;  Spain  ordering 
it  to  go.  But  now,  this  fierce  Protestant  Protector  breathing  nothing 
but  war,  Spain  finds  that  the  English  domestic  Hydra,  if  well  operated 
upon  by  Charles  Stuart,  might  be  a  useful  thing  ;  and  grants  Charles 
Stuart  some  encouragements  for  that.  His  poor  Majesty  is  coming  to 
the  sea-shore  again  ;  is  to  have '  Seven  thousand  Spaniards  '  to  invade 
England,-'  if  the  domestic  Hydra  will  stir  with  effect.  The  domestic 
Hydra,  I  think,  had  better  lie  quiet  for  a  while  !  This  Letter  to  Henry 
Cromwell  is  to  bid  him  too,  for  his  part,  be  awake  in  Ireland  to  these 
things. 

For  the  Hydra  is  not  dead  ;  and  its  heads  are  legion.  Major 
Wildman,  for  example,  sits  safe  in  Chepstow  :  but  Sexby,  the  Ana- 
baptist Colonel,  whom  we  could  not  take  on  that  occasion,  is  still 
busy;  has  been  *  trying  to  seduce  the  Fleet,'  trying  to  do  this  and 
that ;  is  now  fairly  gone  to  Spain,  to  treat  with  Antichrist  himself  for 
the  purpose  of  bringing-in  a  Reign  of  Christ, — the  truly  desperate 
Anabaptist  Colonel  If  It  is  a  Hydra  like  few.  Spiritual  and  Practi- 
cal :  Muggletonians,  mad  Quakers  riding  into  Bristol,  Fifth-Monar- 
chists, Hungry  Flunkeys  :  ever  scheming,  plotting  with  or  without 
hope,  to  '  seduce  the  Protector's  Guard,'  '  to  blow  up  the  Protector  in 
his  bed-room,' and  do  "  other  little  fiddling  things,"  as  the  Protector 
calls  them, — which  one  cannot  waste  time  in  specifying  !  Only  the 
slow  course  of  Nature  can  kill  that  Hydra  :  till  a  Colonel  Sexby  die, 
how  can  you  keep  him  quiet  ? — 

But  what  doubtless  gives  new  vitality  to  plotting,  in  these  weeks,  is 
the  fact  that  a  General  Election  to  Parliament  is  going  on.  There  is 
to  be  a  new  Parliament ;  in  which  may  lie  who  knows  what  conten- 
tions. The  Protector  lost  it  last  time,  by  the  arithmetical  account  of 
heads  ;  will  he  gain  it  this  time?  Accoun  of  heads  is  not  exactly  the 
Protector's  basis;  but  he  hopes  he  may  now  gain  it  even  so.  At  all 
events,  this  wide  foreign  and  domestic  Spanish  War  cannot  be  carried 
on  without  supplies  ;  he  will  first  try  it  so, — then  otherwise  if  not  so. 

'To  Henry  Cromwell^  Major-General  of  the  Army  in  Ireland! 

'Whitehall,'  26th  August,  165^. 

Son  Harry, 

We  are  informed,  from  several  hands,  that  the  old  Enemy  are 
forming  designs  to  invade  Ireland,  as  well  as  other  parts  of  the 
Commonwealth ;  and  that  he  and  Spain  have  very  great  correspon- 
dence with  some  chief  men  in  that  Nation,  for  raising  a  sudden 
rebellion  there. 

Therefore  we  judge  it  very  necessary  that  you  take  all  possible  care 

*  Clarendon,  iii.  498-509;  Process  and  Ple.idings  in  the  Court  of  Spain  upo«i 
the  Death  of  Anthony  Ascham  (in  Harl.  Misceil.  vi.  2  6-47), 
f  Ibid.  iii.  852;   thurloe,  iv.  6^8,  &c, 


WHITEHALL.  97 

to  put  the  Forces  into  such  a  condition  as  may  answer  anything  that 
may  fall  out  in  this  kind.  And  to  that  end,  that  you  contract  the 
Garrisons  in  Ireland,  as  many  as  may  be  ;  and  get  a  considerable 
marching  Army  into  the  field,  in  two  or  three  bodies,  to  be  left  in  the 
most  proper  and  advantageous  places  for  service,  as  occasion  shall 
require.  Taking  also,  in  all  other  things,  your  best  care  you  can  to 
break  and  prevent  the  designs  and  combinations  of  the  Enemy  ; — and 
a  very  particular  regard  is  to  be  had  to  the  North,  where,  without 
question,  busy  and  discontented  persons  are  working  towards  new 
disturbances.  I  do  not  doubt  but  you  will  communicate  this  thing  to 
Colonel  Cowper,  to  the  end  he  may  be  more  watchful  and  diligent  in 
looking  to  this  danger.     I  rest, 

Your  loving  father, 

Oliver  Cromwell.* 

.  *  Colonel  Cowper'  corAmands  the  Forces  in  Ulster.  Plenty  of 
details  about  him  in  Thurloe's  Fourth  Volume  : — our  readers  can 
sufficiently  conceive  him  without  details.  We  are  more  interested 
to  state,  from  a  Letter  of  Thurloe's  which  goes  along  with  this,  that 
there  are  *  Fourteen  Spanish  ships  plying  about  the  Isle  of  I  slay,' 
doubtless  with  an  eye  to  Carrickfergus  ;  that  we  hope,  and  indeed 
believe,  my  Lord  Henry  will  be  on  the  alert.  For  the  rest,  the  Elec- 
tions are  going  well  ;  all '  for  peace  and  settlement,'  as  we  hear,  '  and 
great  friends  to  the  Government.'  Ashley  Cooper,  indeed,  has  been 
chosen  for  Wilts  :  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Bradshaw  has  missed  in 
Cheshire;  Sir  Henry  Vane  has  tried  in  three  places  and  missed  in 
all.f  This  is  of  date  26th  August,  1656  ;  poor  England  universally 
sifting  itself  ;  trying  what  the  arithmetical  account  of  heads  will  do  for 
it,  once  more. 

About  a  fortnight  ago,  August  13th,  learned  Bulstrode  went  with 
the  Swedish  Ambassador  to  dine  with  a  famed  Sea-General  Sir  George 
Ayscough;  who  lives  for  the  present,  retired  from  service,  'at  his 
House  in  Surrey  :'  House  not  known  to  me  ;  which  by  the  aid  of 
*  ponds,  moats,' and  hydraulic  contrivances,  he  has  made  to  '  stand 
environed  in  water  like  a  ship  at  sea,' — very  charming  indeed  ;  and 
says  he  has  '  cast  anchor '  here.  Our  entertainment  was  superb.  The 
brilliant  Swedish  Ambassador  and  Sir  George  spake  much  about 
frigates,  their  rates  of  sailing,  their  capabilities  of  fighting,  and  other 
technical  topics  ;  which  a  learned  man  might  without  much  tedium 
listen  to.  '  After  dinner,  the  Ambassador  came  round  by  Hampton 
'  Court,  to  take  his  leave  of  the  Lady  Claypole  and  her  Sisters  -^X— 
which  latter  small  fact,  in  the  ancient  Autumn  afternoon,  one  rather 
loves  to  remember  !  As  for  this  Swedish  Ambassador,  he  is  just  about 
quitting  England,  the  high-tempered,  clear-glancing  man ;  having 
settled  '  copperas,'  '  contrabanda,'  and  many  other  things,  to  mutual 
satisfaction  ; — nay  it  is  surmised  he  has  thoughts  of  inviting  Ayscough 
into  Sweden  to  teach  them  seamanship  there ;  which,  however,  shall 
not  concern  us  on  this  occasion.§ 

*  Sloane  MSS.  4157,  f.  209 ;   and  (with  insis^nificant  variations)  Thurloe,  v.  348. 
t  Thurloe  to  Henry  Cromwell,  date  26  Aug.  ''v.  349). 
:|:  Whitlo.ke,  pp,  638,  9.  §  Eiug.  Biitan.  §  Ayscough. 

YOI-  III-.        '  '^ 


gg  '   THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


SPEECH  V. 

T^TTT  the  new  Parliament  is  now  about  assembling ;  wherein  we 
<;hall  see  what  conclusions  will  be  tried  !  A  momentous  question  for 
his  Higlmess  and  the  Council  of  State  ;  who  have  been,  with  interest 
enough  perusing  and  pondering  the  List  of  Names  returned.  On  the 
whole  a  hopeful  Parliament,  as  Thurloe  had  expected  :  Official  per- 
sons these  and  others  known  as  friends  to  this  Government,  are 
copiously  elected  :  the  great  body  of  the  Parliament  seems  to  consist 
of  men  well-affected  to  his  Highness,  and  even  loyal  to  him  ;  who, 
witnessing  the  course  he  follows,  wish  him  heartily  God-speed  thereon. 
Certain  others  there  are,  and  in  considerable  number,  of  stiff  Repub- 
lican ways  or  given  to  turbulence  in  general,  a  Haselng,  a  Thomas 
Scott  an  Ashley  Cooper  :  these,  as  a  mass  of  leaven  which  might 
leaven  the  whole  lump,  and  produce  one  knows  not  what  in  the  way 
of  fermentation,  are  clearly  very  dangerous.  But  for  these  also  his 
Highness  and  the  Council  of  State,  in  the  present  anomalous  con- 
dition of  the  Nation,  have  silently  provided  an  expedient.  Which  we 
hope  may  be  of  service.  On  the  whole,  we  hope  this  Parliament  may 
prove  a  better  than  the  last. 

At  all  events,  on  Wednesday,  17th  September,  1656,  Parliament, 
Protector,  all  in  due  state,  do  assemble  at  the  Abbey  Church  ;  and, 
with  reverence  and  credence,  hear  Doctor  Owen,  Vice-Chancellor  of 
Oxford,  very  pertinently  preach  to  them  from  these  old  words  of 
Isaiah,— old  and  yet  always  new  and  true  :  What  shall  one  then 
answer  to  the  Messengers  of  the  Nation  1  That  the  Lord  hath  founded 
Zion,  and  the  Poor  of  His  People  shall  trust  in  it.'''  After  which,  all 
having  removed,  still  in  due  state,  to  the  Painted  Chamber,  and  there 
adjusted  themselves,  the  Protector,  rising  in  his  elevated  place  and 
taking  off  his  hat,  now  speaks.  The  Speech,  reported  by  one  knows 
not  whom,  lies  in  old  Manuscript  in  the  British  Museum  ;  and  printed 
in  late  years  in  the  Book  called  Burton^s  Diary  ;  here  and  there  in  a 
very  dreary,  besmeared,  unintelligible  condition  ;  from  which,  as  here- 
tofore, a  pious  Editor  strives  to  rescue  it.  Sufficiently  studied,  it 
becomes  intelligible,  nay  luminous.  Let  the  reader  too  read  with 
piety,  with  a  real  endeavour  to  understand. 

Gentlemen, 

When  I  came  hither,  I  did  think  that  a  duty  was  incumbent 
upon  me  a  little  to  pity  myself;  because,  this  being  a  very  extraor- 
dinary occasion,  I  thought  I  had  very  many  things  to  say  unto  you, 
and  was  somewhat  burdened  and  straitened  thereby.'  But  truly 
now,  seeing  jjw/  in  such  a  condition  as  you  are,!^  I  think  I  must  turn 
off  *  my  pity  in  this,  as  I  hope  I  shall  in  everything  else  ;— and  con- 
sider  jj'<7«  as  certainly  not  being  able  long  to  bear  that  condition  and 
heat  that  you  are  now  in. '  So  far  as  possible,  on  this  large  subject, 

*  Isaiah  xv.  32^  f  Place  crowded,  weather  hot. 


SPEECH  V.       .  99 

wh  "^  ^\  ^^  '  ^°^  studying  the  Art  of  Rhetoricians.'  Rhetoricians, 
?^  do  not  pretend  to  '  much  concern  with  ; '  neither  with  them, 
with  what  they  use  to  deal  in  :  Words  ! 

,  rruly  our  business  is  to  speak  Things  !     The  Dispensations  of  God 

at  are  upon^s  do  require  it  ;  and  that  subject  upon  which  we  shall 
/ake  our  discourse  is  somewhat  of  very  great  interest  and  concern- 
lent,  '/oth  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  with  reference  to  His  Interest  in 
:he  wc>rld.  I  mean  His  peculiar,  His  most  peculiar  Interest,  '  His 
Churcn,  the  Communion  of  the  faithful  Followers  of  Christ  ; ' — and 
that  will  not  leave  any  of  us  to  exclude  His  general  Interest,  which  is 
the  concernment  of  the  Living  People,  '  not  as  Christians  but  as 
human  creatures,'  within  these  thrfee  Nations,  and  all  the  Depen- 
dencies thereupon.  I  have  told  you  I  should  speak  to  things  ;  things 
that  concern  these  Interests  :  The  Glory  of  God,  and  His  Peculiar 
Interest  in  the  world, — which  Matter'  is  more  extensive,  I  say  more 
extensive,  than  the  People  of  all  these  three  Nations  with  the  appur- 
tenances, or  the  countries  and  places,  belonging  unto  them.* 

The  tirst  thing,  therefore,  that  I  shall  speak  to  is  That  that  is  the 
first  lesson  of  Nature  :  Being  and  Preservation.  {Begin  at  the  basis  : 
How  are  we  to  get  continued  at  all  as  a  Nation,  not  trampled  under 
foot  by  Invaders,  Anarchies,  a7id  reduced  to  wreck?]  As  to  that  of 
Being,  I  do  think  I  do  not  ill  style  it  the  Jirst  consideration  which 
Nature  teachexh  the  Sons  of  Adam  : — and  then  I  think  we  shall  enter 
into  a  field  large  enough  when  we  come  to  consider  that  of  Well- 
being.  But  if  Being  itself  be  not  first  well  laid,  I  think  the  other  will 
hardly  follow  ! 

Now  in  order  to  this,  to  the  Being  and  Subsistence  of  these  Nations 
with  all  their  Dependencies  :  The  conservation  of  that,  '  namely  of  our 
National  Being,'  is  first  to  be  viewed  with  respect  to  those  who  seek 
to  undo  it,  and  so  make  it  not  to  be  j  and  then  very  naturally  we  shall 
come  to  the  consideration  of  what  will  make  it  be,  of  what  will  keep 
its  being  and  subsistence.     {His  Highnesses  heads  of  method.^ 

'Now'  that  which  plainly  seeks  the  destruction  of  the  Being  of 
these  Nations  is,  out  of  doubt :  The  endeavour  and  design  of  all  the 
common  Enemies  of  them.  I  think,  truly,  it  will  not  be  hard  to  find 
out  who  those  Enemies  are  ;  nor  what  hath  made  them  so  !  I  think. 
They  are  all  the  wicked  men  in  the  world,  whether  abroad  or  at 
home,  that  are  the  Enemies  to  the  very  Being  of  these  Nations  ; — 
and  this  upon  a  common  account,  from  the  very  enmity  that  is  in 
them  '  to  all  such  things.'  Whatsoever  could  serve  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  interest  of  His  People, — which  they  see  to  be  more  eminently, 
yea  more  eminently  patronised  and  professed  in  this  Nation  (we  will 
not  speak  it  with  vanity)  than  in  all.  the  Nations  in  the  world  :  this  is 
the  common  ground  of  the  common  enmity  entertained  against  the 
prosperity  of  our  Nation,  against  the  very  Being  of  it. — But  we  will 
not,  I  think,  take  up  our  time,  contemplating  who  these  Enemies  are, 
and  what  they  are,  in  the  general  notion  :  we  will  labour  to  specificate 

*"inore  extensive  :"  more  important  would  have  better  suited  what  went  be- 
fore; yet  "extensive"  is  in  all  likelihood  the  word,  for  his  Highness  is  here 
branching  out  into  a  second  idea,  which  he  goes  on  to  blend  with  the  primary  one, 
of  "  the  concernment  of  the  general  mass  of  the  People." 

E  2 


loo  THE  MAJOR-GENhiT^. 


our  Enemies  ;  to  know  what  persons  and  bodies  oersons  tl;ey 
practically  are  that  seek  the  very  destruction  and  *  Bex.oJ  thes'^ 
Three  Nations.  ^        ,     .       ,  ,      •, 

And  truly  I  would  not  have  laid  such  a  foundation  but  to  the  "^ 
I  might  very  particularly  communicate  with  you  '  about  that  s^ 
matter,'     For  which  *  above  others/  I  think,  you   are  called  hither 
this  time  :— That  I  might  particularly  communicate  with  you  abo 
the  many  dangers  these  Nations  stand  in,  from  enemies  abroad  an 
at  home  ;  and  advise  with  you  about  the  remedies,  and  means  tt 
obviate  these  dangers.     '  Dangers'  which,— say  I,  and  I  shall  leave  it 
to  you  whether  you  will  join  with  me  or  no,— strike  at  the  very  Being 
and  '  vital '  interest  of  these  NatioBS.  And  therefore,  coming  to  particu- 
lars, I  will  shortly  represent  to  you  the  estate  of  your  affairs  in  that 
respect  :  in  respect  '  namely '  of  the  Enemies  you  are  engaged  with  ; 
and  how  you  come  to  be  engaged  with  those  Enemies,  and  how  they 
come  to  be,  as  heartily,  I  believe,  engaged  against  you.     [//?>  High- 
ness's  niterance  is  terribly  rusty  hitherto;  creaky,  7i?tcertain,  difficult/ 
He  will  gather  strength  by  going.     Wait  till  the  axles  get  warm  a 
little!] 

Why,  truly,  your  great  enemy  is  the  Spaniard.  Pie  is  a  natural 
enemy.  He  is  naturally  so  ;  he  is  naturally  so  throughout, — by  reason 
of  that  enmity  that  is  in  him  against  whatsoever  is  of  God.  '  What- 
soever is  of  God'  which  is  m.you,  or  which  may  be  in  you  ;  contrary 
to  that  which  his  blindness  and  darkness,  led  on  by  superstition,  and 
the  implicitness  of  his  faith  in  submitting  to  the  See  of  Rome,.actuatet 
him  unto  ! — With  his  King  and  State,  I  say,  you  are  at  present  in 
hostility.  We  put  you  into  this  hostility.  You  will  give  us  leave  to 
tell  you  how.  \^By  sending  out  your  Hispaniola  Fleet,  Christmas 
gone  a  year, — which  has  issued  rather  sorrily,  your  Highness  !^ 
For  we  are  ready  to  excuse  'this  and'  most  of  your  actions, — and  to 
justify  them  too,  as  well  as  to  excuse  them, — upon  the  ground  of 
Necessity.  'And'  the  ground  of  Necessity,  for  justifying  of  men's 
actions,  is  above  all  considerations  of  instituted  Law  ;  and  if  this  or 
any  other  State  should  go  about, — as  I  know  they  never  will,— to 
make  Laws  against  Events,  against  what  may  happen,  'then'  I  think 
it  is  obvious  to  any  man,  they  will  be  making  Laws  against  Provi- 
dence ;  events,  and  issues  of  things,  being  from  God  alone,  to  whom 
all  issues  belong. 

The  Spaniard  is  your  enemy  ;  and  your  enemy,  as  I  tell  you, 
naturally,  by  that  antipathy  which  is  in  him, — 'and  also' providen- 
tially,J  and  this  in  divers  respects.  You  could  not  get  an  honest 
or  honourable  'Peace  from  him  :  it  was  sought  by  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment ;  it  was  not  attained.  It  could  not  be  attained  with  honour  and 
honesty.  I  say,  it  could  not  be  attained  with  honour  and  honesty 
And  truly  when  I  say  that,  '  I  do  but  say,'  He  is  naturally  throughout 
an  enemy ;  an  enmity  is  put  into  him  by  God.     "  I  will  put  an  enmity 

*  "of  the"  would  be  more  grammatical;   but  much  less  Oliverian. 

f  'acts'  ill  ."/•';;.,  i>o,v  -IS  always. 

X  Mean>,  i  oi  ■  ;  .  ]  :ly  '  as  now,  liut  simply  'by  special  ordering  of  Providence.' 


SPEECH  V.  161 


between  thy  seed  and  her  seed  ;  "* — which  goes  but  for  Httle  among 
statesmen,  but  is  more  considerable  than  all  things!  [Yea,  yoicr 
Highness  ;  it  is  ! — Listcti  to  what  his  Highness  himself  says  of  his 
reasons  for  going  to  war  with  Spain.  "  statesmen  "  too,  ij  they  can 
separate  therein  what  is  transitory  from  what  is  perentiial  and 
eternal,  may  find  it  still  very  worthy  of  attention.  He  who  has  in 
him,  who  manifests  in  the  ways  of  him,  an  ^'enmity  to  God^'  and  goes 
about  patronising  unveracities,  rotten  delusions,  brazen  falsities, 
pestilent  injustices, — with  him,  whatever  his  see7ning  extent  of  money- 
capital  and  worldly  prosperity  may  be,  I  would  advise  no  nation  nor 
statesman  nor  man  to  be  prompt  in  clapping  tip  an  allia^ice.  He  will 
not  come  to  good,  I  think ;  not  he,  for  one.  Bad  security  in  his  firm  ; 
hiOue  no  trade  with  him.  IVit/c  him  your  only  fit  trade  is.  Duel  to 
the  death,  7uhcn  the  time  coines  for  that  /]  And  he  that  considers  not 
such  natural  enmity,  the  providential  enmity,  as  well  as  the  accidejital, 
I  think  he  is  not  well  acquainted  with  Scripture  and  the  things  of 
God.  And  the  Spaniard  is  not  only  our  enemy  accidentally,  but  he 
is  providentially  so  ;  God  having  in  His  wisdom  disposed  it  so  to  be, 
when  we  made  a  breach  with  the  Spanish  Nation  '  long  ago,' 

No  sooner  did  this  Nation  form  what  is  called  (unworthily)  the 
Reformed  Religion  [//  was  not  half  reformed  /]  after  the  death  of 
Queen  Mary,  by  the  Queen  Elizabeth  of  famous  memory, — we  need 
not  be  ashamed  to  call  her  so  !  \fJo,  your  Highness;  the  royal  court- 
phrase  expresses  in  this  case  an  exact  truth.  She  was  and  is  "  of 
famous  memory.^'''] — but  the  Spaniard's  design  became,  By  all  un- 
worthy, unnatural  means,  to  destroy  that  Person,  and  to  seek  the  ruin 
and  destruction  of  these  Kingdoms.  For  me  to  instance  in  particulars 
upon  that  account,  were  to  trouble  you  at  a  very  unseasonable  time  : 
there  is  a  Declaration  extant  \The  Council's •'■  Declaration,''  in  October 
last],  which  very  fully  hath  in  it  the  origin  of  the  Spaniard  venting 
himself  upon  this  Nation  ;  and  a  series  of  it  f  from  those  very  begin- 
nings to  this  present  day.  But  his  enmity  was  partly  upon  that 
general  account  which  all  are  agreed  '  about.'  The  French,  all  the 
Protestants  in  Germany,  all  have  agreed.  That  his  design  was  the 
empire  of  the  whole  Christian  World  if  not  more  ; — and  upon  that 
ground  he  looks  '  and  hath  looked'  at  this  Nation  as  his  greatest  ob- 
stacle. And  as  to  what  his  attempts  have  been  for  that  end, —  I  refer 
you  to  that  Declaration,  and  to  the  observations  of  men  who  read 
History.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  call  to  mind  the  several  Assassi- 
nations designed  upon  that  Lady,  that  great  Queen  :  the  attempts 
upon  Ireland,  the  Spaniards'  invading  of  it  ;  their  designs  of  the  same 
nature  upon  /his  Nation, — pubhc  designs,  private  designs  al'  m;mer  of 
designs,  to  accomplish  this  great  and  general  end.  1  ruly  King  James 
made  a  Peace  ;  but  whether  this  Nation,  and  the  interest  of  all  Pro- 
testant Christians,  suffered  not  more  by  that  Peace,  than  ever  by 
Spain's  hostility,  J  refer  to  your  consideration  ! 

Thus  a    State  which  you  can  neither  have  peace  with  nor  reason 

from,- — that  is  the  State  with  which  you  have  enmity  at  this  time, 

and  against  which  you  are  engaged.     And  give  me  leave  to  say  this 

unto  you,  because  it  is  truth,  and  most  men  know  it,  That  the  Long 

*  Genesis  ill.  15.  f  Of  '  his  ventings,"  namely. 


to2  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

Parliament  did  endeavour,  but  could  not  obtain  satisfaction  ^  from  the 
Spaniard'  all  the  time  they  sat  :  for  their  Messenger  {^Poor  Ascha7nf\ 
was  murdered  ;  and  when  they  asked  satisfaction  for  the  blood  of  your 
poor  people  unjustly  shed  in  the  West  Indies  [  Yes,  at  Tortuga,  at 
St.  Kitts  ;  in  many  a  place  and  time  /].  and  for  the  wrong  done,  els^ 
where  j  when  they  asked  liberty  of  conscience  for  your  people  who 
traded  thither,— satisfaction  in  none  of  these  things  would  be  given, 
but  was  denied.  I  say,  they  denied  satisfaction  either  for  your  Mes- 
senger that  was  murdered,  or  for  the  blood  that  was  shed,  or  the 
damages  that  were  done  in  the  West  Indies.  No  satisfaction 
at  all  ;  nor  any  reason  offered  why  there  should  not  be  liberty  '  of 
conscience '  given  to  your  people  that  traded  thither.  Whose  trade 
was  very  considerable  there,  and  drew  many  of  your  people  thither  : 
and  begot  an  apprehension  in  us  '  as  to  their  treatment  there,' — whether 
\xvyou  or  no,  let  God  judge  between  you  and  Himself.  I  judge  not  : 
but  all  of  us  know  that  the  people  who  went  thither  to  manage  the 
trade  there,  were  imprisoned.  We  desired  '  but '  such  a  liberty  as 
'  that '  they  might  keep  their  Bibles  in  their  pockets,  to  exercise  their 
liberty  of  religion  for  themselves,  and  not  be  under  restraint.  But 
there  is  not  liberty  of  conscience  to  be  had  '  from  the  Spaniard  ;' 
neither  is  there  satisfaction  for  injuries,  nor  for  blood.  When  these 
two  things  were  desired,  the  Ambassador  told  us,  "  It  was  to  ask  his 
Master's  two  eyes  ;"  *  to  ask  both  his  eyes,  asking  these  things  of 
him ! — 

Now  if  this  be  so,  why,  truly  then  here  is  some  little  foundation  laid 
to  justify  the  War  that  has  been  entered  upon  +  with  the  Spaniard  ! 
And  not  only  so  :  but  the  plain  truth  of  it  is,  Make  any  peace  with 
any  State  that  is  Popish  and  subjected  to  the  determination  of  Rome 
and  '  of  the  Pope  himself, — you  are  bound,  and  they  are  loose.  It  is 
the  pleasure  of  the  Pope  at  any  time  to  tell  you.  That  though  the 
man  is  murdered  \Poor  Aschani,  for  example  !\  yet  his  murderer  has 
got  into  the  sanctuary  !  And  equally  true  is  it,  and  hath  been  found 
by  common  and  constant  experience.  That  Peace  is  but  to  be  kept  so 
long  as  the  Pope  saith  Amen  to  it.  [What  is  to  be  done  with  such  a 
set  of  people  fX — We  have  not  'now'  to  do  with  any  Popish  State 
except  France  :  and  it  js  certain  that  they  do  not  thmk  themselves 
under  such  a  tie  to  the  Pope  ;  but  think  themselves  at  liberty  to  per- 
form honesties  with  nations  in  agreement  with  them,  and  protest 
against  the  obligation  of  such  a  thing  as  that,  — '  of  breaking  your 
word  at  the  Pope's  bidding.'  They  are  able  to  give  us  an  explicit 
answer  to  anything  reasonable  demanded  of  them  :  and  there  is  no 
other  Popish  State  we  can  speak  of,  save  this  only,  but  will  break 
their  promise  or  keep  it  as  they  please  upon  these  grounds, — being 
under  the  lash  of  the  Pope,  to  be  by  him  determined,  '  and  made  to 
decide.' 

In  the  time  when  Philip  Second  was  married  to  Queen  Mary,  and 
since  that  time,  through   Spanish  power   and   instigation,  Twenty- 

*  '  these  two  things  :'  Exemption  to  our  traders  from  injury  in  the  West  Indies. 
and  Liberty  to  have  Bibles  and  worship  ;— See  Thurloe  (i.  760,  i)  :  Bryan  J^:dwards 
(i.  141-3)  ;  &c.  \    /     .    >»  .       > 

t  *  That  was  had  '  in  oris. 


SPEECH  V.  103 


thousand  Protestants  were  murdered  in  Ireland.  We  thought,  being 
denied  just  things, — we  thought  it  our  duty  to  get  that  by  the  sword 
which  was  not  to  be  had  otherwise  !  And  this  hath  been  the  spirit  of 
EngHshmen  ;  and  if  so,  certainly  it  is,  and  ought  to  be,  the  spirit  of 
men  that  have  higher  spirits  !  [  Yes^  your  Highness  :  "  Men  that  are 
Englishmen  a?id  more, — Believers  in  Gocfs  Gospel,  namely  /  " —  Very 
clu7nsily  said  j  but  not  at  all  clumsily  jneant,  and  the  very  helpless- 
ness of  the  expression  adding  something  of  English  and  Oliverian 
character  to  it.'\ — With  that  State  you  are  engaged.  And  it  is  a  great 
and  powerful  State  : — though  I  may  say  also,  that  with  all  other 
Christian  States  you  are  at  peace.  All  these  'your  other '  engage- 
ments were  upon  you  before  this  Government  was  undertaken  :  War 
with  France,  Denmark, — nay,  upon  the  matter.  War,  'or  as  good  as 
War,'  with  Spain  '  itself.'  I  could  instance  how  it  was  said  '  in  the  Long 
Parliament  time,'  "  We  will  have  a  war  in  the  Indies,  though  we  fight 
them  not  at  home."  I  say,  we  are  at  peace  with  all  other  Nations, 
and  have  only  a  war  with  Spain.  I  shall  say  somewhat  '  farther '  to 
you,  which  will  let  you  see  our  clearness  '  as '  to  that,  by  and  by. 

Having  thus  '  said,  we  are '  engaged  with  Spain, — '  that  is  the  root 
of  the  matter  ; '  that  is  the  party  that  brings  all  your  enemies  before 
you.  [Coming  now  to  the  Home  Malignants.']  It  doth  :  for  so  it  is 
now  that  Spain  hath  espoused  that  Interest  which  you  have  all  along 
hitherto  been  conflicting  with, — Charles  Stuart's  Interest.  And  I 
would  but  meet  the  gentleman  upon  a  fair  discourse  who  is  wilUng 
that  that  Person  should  come  back  again  ! — but  I  dare  not  be- 
lieve any  in  this  room  is.  [Heavens,  no;  not  one  of  us  f\  And  I 
say  it  doth  not  detract  at  all  from  your  Cause,  nor  from  your  ability 
to  make  defence  of  it.  That  God  by  His  providence  hath  so  disposed 
that  the  King  of  Spain  should  espouse  that  Person.  And  I  say 
'  farther '  [His  Highness's  spirit  gets  somewhat  tumultuous  here,  and 
blazes  up  with  several  ideas  at  once, — producing  results  of  ''''some 
inextricableness,^'  as  he  himself  might  fhrase  it],  No  man  but  might 
be  very  well  satisfied  that  it  is  not  for  aversion  to  that  Person  [Not 
for  his  sake  that  we  have  gone  to  war  with  Spain  :  the  Cavaliers  talk 
loudly  so,  and  it  is  not  so\ —  !  And  the  "  choosing  out "  (as  was  said 
today ■^)  "a  Captain  to  lead  us  back  into  Eoypt,'^  '  what  honest  man 
has  not  an  aversion  to  that  ? ' — if  there  be  such  a  place  ?  I  mean 
metaphorically  and  allegorically  such  a  place  ;  '  if  there  be,'  that  is  to 
say,  A  returning  'on  the  part  of  some'  to  all  those  things  we  have 
been  fighting  against,  and  a  destroying  of  all  that  good  (as  we  had 
some  hints  today)  which  we  have  attained  unto —  .''—  I  am  sure  my 
Speech  'and  defence  of  the  Spanish  war'  will  signify  very  little,  if 
such  grounds  [Grounds  indicated,  ift  this  composite  "  blaze  of  ideas ^^ 
which  is  luminous  enough,  your  Highness  ;  but  too  simultaneoiis  for 
being  very  distinct  to  strangers  I]  go  not  for  good  !  Nay  I  will  say 
this'to  you.  Not  a  man  in  England,  that  is  disposed  to  comply  with 
Papists  and  Cavaliers,  but  to  him  my  Speech  here  is  the  greatest 
parable,  the  absurdest  discourse  !  And  in  a  word,  we  could  wish 
they  were  all  where  Charles  Stuart  is,  all  who  declare  ["  By  their 
cavilling  at  Spanish  Wars  and  so  on:^^  his  Highness  looks  am- 
*  In  Owen's  Sermon. 


I04  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 

mated f^  that  they  are  of  that  spirit.  I  do,  with  all  my  heart  ;— and 
I  would  help  them  with  a  boat  to  carry  them  over,  who  are  of  that 
mind  !  Yea,  and  if  you  shall  think  it  a  duty  to  drive  them  over  by 
arms,  I  will  help  in  that  also  ! 

You  are  engaged  with  such  an  Enemy  ;  a  foreign  enemy,  who  hath 
such  allies  among  ourselves  :— this  last  said  hath  a  little  vehemency 
in  it  [His  Highness  repents  him  of  blazing  up  into  unseemly  heat]  : 
but  it  is  well  worth  your  consideration. 

Though  I  seem  to  be,  all  this  while,  upon  the  justice  of  the  busi- 
ness, yet  my  desire  is  to  let  you  see  the  dangers  '  and  grand  crisis ' 
this  Nation  stands  in  *  thereby.'  All  the  honest  interests  ;  yea  all 
interests  of  the  Protestants,  in  Germany,  Denmark,  Helvetia  and  the 
Cantons,  and  all  the  interests  in  Christendom,  are  the  same  as  yours. 
If  you  succeed,  if  you  succeed  well  and  act  well,  and  be  convinced 
what  is  God's  Interest,  and  prosecute  it,  you  will  find  that  you  act  for 
a  very  great  many  who  are  God's  own.  Therefore  I  say  that  your 
danger  is  from  the  Common  Enemy  abroad  ;  who  is  the  head  of  the 
Papal  Interest,  the  head  of  the  Antichristian  Interest, — who  is  so 
described  in  Scripture,  so  forespoken  of,  and  so  fully,  under  that 
characteral  name  '  of  Antichrist '  given  him  by  the  Apostle  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Thessalonia7is,  and  likewise  so  expressed  in  the  Revela- 
//<??^j- /  which  are  sure  and  plain  things!  Except  you  will  deny  the 
truth  of  the  Scriptures,  you  must  needs  see  that  that  State  is  so  de- 
scribed in  Scripture  to  be  Papal  and  Antichristian.  [  Who  would  not 
go  to  war  with  it  /^  I  say,  with  this  Enemy,  and  upon  this  account, 
you  have  the  quarrel, — with  the  Spaniard. 

And  truly  he  hath  an  Interest  in  your  bowels  ;*  he  hath  so.  The 
Papists  in  England, — they  have  been  accounted,  ever  since  I  was 
born,  Spaniolised.  There  is  not  a  man  among  us  can  hold  up  his  face 
against  that.  {The  justifying  of  the  Spanish  War  is  a  great  point 
with  his  Highness  I'\  They  never  regarded  France  ;  they  never  re- 
garded any  other  Papist  State  where  a  '  hostile '  Interest  was,  '  but 
Spain  only.'  Spain  was  their  patron.  Their  patron  all  along,  in 
England,  in  Ireland  and  Scotland  :  no  man  can  doubt  of  it.  There- 
fore I  must  needs  say,  this  'Spanish'  Interest  is  also,  in  regard  to 
your  home-affairs,  a  great  source  of  your  danger.  It  is,  and  it  evi- 
dently is  ;  and  will  be  more  so, — upon  that  account  that  I  told  you 
of :  He  hath  espoused  Charles  Stuart  !  With  whom  he  is  fully  in 
agreement  ;  for  whom  he  hath  raised  Seven  or  Eight  Thousand  men, 
and  has  them  now  quartered  at  Bruges  ;  to  which  number  Don  John 
of  Austria  has  promised  that,  so  soon  as  the  campaign  is  ended, 
which  it  is  conceived  will  be  in  about  five  or  six  weeks,  he  shall  have 
Four  or  Five  Thousand  added.  And  the  Duke  of  Newburgh,  who  is 
a  Popish  Prince,  hath  promised  good  assistance  according  to  his 
power;  and  other  Popish  States  the  like.  In  this  condition  you  are 
with  that  State  '  of  Spain  : '  and  in  this  condition  through  unavoid- 
able necessity  ;  because  your  Enemy  was  naturally  an  enemy,  and 
is  providentially  too  become  so.  [Always,  by  the  law  of  his  beiftg, 
as  Antichristian  to  Christian,  a  VIRTUAL  enemy ;  and  now  Provi- 
dence, with  beneficent  wisdom,  has  developed  him  into  an  actual  one, 
♦  Old  phrase  for  '  the  interior  of  your  own  country.' 


SPEECH  V.  105 


— "  That  was  his  Highness' s  fundamental  reason  for  rushing  at  him 
in  the  West  Indies  ?  Because  he  was  Antichrist  f'  asksoine  modcr?is. 
— Why  yes,  it  might  help,  my  red-tape  Erie  fids  !  I  know  well,  if  I 
could  fall  in  with  Anti-christ  anywhere,  with  Supreme  Quack  and 
Damfiabiiity  anywhere,  I  shotild  be  ri^Jit  happy  to  have  a  stroke  at 
him  if  there  seemed  any  chance  /] 

And  now  farther, — as  there  is  a  comphcation  of  these  Interests 
abroad,  so  there  is  a  comphcation  of  them  here.  Can  we  think  that 
Papists  and  Cavahers  shake  not  hands  in  England  ?  It  is  unworthy, 
Unchristian,  Un-Enghshhke,* '  say  you.'  Yes  ;  but  it  doth  serve  to 
let  you  see,  and  for  that  end  I  tell  it  you  that  you  may  see,  your 
danger,  and  the  source  thereof.  Nay  it  is  not  only  thus,  in  this  con- 
dition of  hostility,  that  we  stand  towards  Spain  ;  and  towards  all  the 
Interest  which  would  make  void  and  frustrate  everything  that  has 
been  doing  for  you  ;  namely,  towards  the  Popish  Interest,  Papists  and 

Cavaliers  ; — but  it  is  also \Iiis  Highness  finds  this  sentence  will 

not  do,  and  so  tries  it  another  way'\ — That  is  to  say,  your  danger  is  so 
great,  if  you  will  be  sensible  of  it,  by  reason  of  Persons  who  pretend 
other  things  !  \Coming  ?tow  to  the  great  Miscellany  of  Anabaptists, 
Republicans,  Levellers  ;  your  Alletts,  Sexbys,  Overtoils.']  '  Pretend,  I 
say  ; '  yea  who,  though  perhaps  they  do  not  all  suit  in  their  hearts 
with  the  said  'Popish'  Interest — [Sejitence  left  ruinous;  sense 
graaually  becomes  visible]  -  Yet  every  man  knows,  and  must  know, 
that  discontened  spirits  are  among  us  somewhere.  They  must  expect 
backing  and  support  somewhere.  They  must  end  in  the  Interest  of 
the  Cavalier  at  the  long-run.  That  must  be  their  support  ! — I  could 
have  reckoned  this  in  another  'head'  [Half  soliloquising,  his 
Highness ;  giving  us  a  glimpse  i?ito  the  stranQ;e  seething,  simmering 
inner  man  of  him.] — But  I  give  you  an  account  of  things  as  they 
arise  to  me.  Because  I  desire  to  clear  them  to  you  !  Not  discour- 
sively,  in  the  oratoric  way  ;  but  to  let  you  see  the  matter  of  fact, — to 
let  you  see  how  the  state  of  your  affairs  stands.  [  Well,  your  Hi^h- 
fiess  ;  that  certainly  is  the  grand  object  of  speaking  to  us.  To  shew 
ME  W/^/THOU  seest,  what  is  tn  thee  :  why  else  should  one  human 
being  dare  to  wag  his  tongue  to  another  ?  It  is  frightful  otherwise. 
One  almost  loves  this  incondite  half  articulation  of  his  Highness,  in 
comparison^ 

Certain  it  is,  there  was,  not  long  since,  an  endeavour  to  make  an 
Insurrection  in  England,  \Penruddock  at  Salisbury , — we  heard  of 
Wagstaff  and  him  !]  It  was  going  on  for  some  time  before  it  broke 
out.  It  was  so  before  the  last  Parliament  sat.  '  Nay,'  it  was  so  not 
only  from  the  time  of  the  undertaking  of  this  Government  ;  but  the 
spirit  and  principle  of  it  did  work  in  the  Long-Parliament  '  time.' 
From  that  time  to  this  hath  there  been  nothing  but  enterprising  and 
designing  against  you.  And  this  is  no  strange  or  new  thing  to  tell 
you  :  Because  it  is  true  and  certain  that  the  Papists,  the  Priests  and 
Jesuits  have  a  great  influence  upon  the  Cavalier  Party  ;  they  and  the 
Cavaliers  prevail  upon  the  discontented  spirits  of  the  Nation, — who 
are  not  all  so  apt  to  see  where  the  dangers  lie,  nor  to  what  the 
management  of  affairs  tends.  Those  '  Papists  and  Cavaliers '  do 
*  To  combine  with  Papists,  even  for  Royalists  to  do  so. 


,^6  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


foment  all  things  that  tend  to  ^z>service ;  to  propagate  discontent- 
ments upon  the  minds  of  men.  And  if  we  would  instance,  in 
particulars,  those  that  have  manifested  this,— we  could  tell  you  how 
Priests  and  Jesuits  have  insinuated  themselves  into  men's  society ; 
pretending  the  same  things  that  they  pretended  ;— whose  ends,  '  these 
Jesuits'  ends,'  have,  out  of  doubt,  been  what  I  have  told  you.  \^Dark 
spectres  of  Jesuits  j  knitting  lip  Charles  Stuart,  the  Spaniard,  and  all 
manner  of  Levellers  and  discontented  persons,  into  one  Antichristian 
mass,  to  overwhelm  us  therewith  !^ 

We  had  that  Insurrection.  It  was  intended  first  to  the  assassina- 
tion of  my  person  ; — which  I  would  not  remember  as  anything  at  all 
considerable,  to  myself  or  to  you  {Very  well, your  Highness  !'\  :  for 
they  would  have  had  to  cut  throats  beyond  human  calculation  before 


you 


know  it 


they  could  have  been  able  to  effect  their  design.  But 
very  well,  '  this  of  the  assassination  ; ' — it  is  no  fable.  Persons  were 
arraigned  for  it  before  the  Parliament  sat ;  and  tried,  and  upon  proof 
condemned,  [Gerard  and  Vowel;  we  remember  them  I'\ — for  their 
designs  to  cut  the  throat  of  myself,  and  three  or  four  more  ;  whom 
they  had  singled  out  as  being,  a  little  beyond  ordinary,  industrious 
to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  Nation.  And  did  think  to  make  a  very 
good  issue  '  in  that  way/  to  the  accomplishment  of  their  designs  !  I 
say,  this  was  made  good  upon  the  Trial.  Before  the  Parliament  sat, 
all  the  time  the  Parliament  sat,  they  were  about  it.  We  did  hint 
these  things  to  the  Parliament  people  by  several  persons,  who  ac- 
quainted them  therewith.  But  what  fame  we  lay  under  I  know  not  ! 
[Suspicious  of  us  in  that  Parliament  I^  It  was  conceived,  it  seems, 
we  had  things*  which  rather  intended  to  persuade  agreement  and 
consent,  and  bring  money  out  of  the  people's  purses,  or  I  know  not 
what  : — in  short  nothing  was  believed  [  Very  beautifully  rebutted,  your 
Highness ;  without  even  anger  at  it;  as  the  Lion  walks  quietly  on 
through  cobwebs.  We  had  '*  things  "  which  rather  intended  to  &^c. 
&^c.  What  most  articulate  rhetoric  could  match  this  half -articulate, 
— articulate  enough  for  the  occasion  I^  ;  though  there  was  a  series  of 
things  distinctly  and  plainly  communicated  to  many  Members. 

The  Parliament  rose  about  the  middle  of  January.  By  the  12th  of 
March  after,  the  people  were  in  arms.  But  "  they  were  a  company  of 
"  mean  fellows," — alas  ! — "  not  a  lord,  nor  a  gentleman,  nor  a  man  of 
"  fortune,  nor  a  this  nor  that,  among  them  :  but  it  was  a  poor  head- 
"  strong  people,  a  company  of  rash  fellows  who  were  at  the  under- 
"  taking  of  this," — and  that  was  all  !  And  by  such  things  [His  High- 
ness's  face  indicates  that  he  means  "  no-things^''  "  babblements  "]  have 
men  '  once  well-affected '  lost  their  consciences  and  honours,  comply- 
ing, '  coming  to  agreement  with  Malignants,'  upon  such  notions  as 
as  these  ! — Give  me  leave  to  tell  you,  We  know  it  ;  we  are  able  to 
prove  it.  And  I  refer  you  to  that  Declarationf  which  was  for  guard- 
ing against  Cavaliers  (as  I  did  before  to  that  other  '  Declaration ' 
which  set  down  the  grounds  of  our  war  with  Spain),  Whether  these 
things  were  true  or  no  .?  If  men  will  not  believe, — we  are  satisfied, 
we  do  our    duty.      [A  suspicious  people,  your  Highness:  nay  not 

*  Means  'we  mide  statements;  '  very  Oliverian  expression. 
\  Can  be  read  in  Parliamentary  History,  xx.  434  et  seqq. 


^SPEECH  V.  i&f 


suspicions^  so  ?mich  as  incredulous^  obstinate,  dreadfully  thick  of  skin 
and  sense, — and  unused  to  such  phenomena  as  your  Highness!'\  If  we 
let  you  know  things  and  the  ground  of  them,  it  is  satisfaction  enough 
to  us :  But  to  see  how  men  can  reason  themselves  out  of  their 
honours  and  consciences  in  their  compHance  with  those  sort  of 
people  —  !  —  Which,  truly  I  must  needs  say,  some  men  had  com- 
pliance with,  who  I  thought  never  would  for  all  the  world  :  1  must 
tell  you  so. — 

These  men  rise  in  March.  And  that  it  was  a  general  Design,  I 
think  all  the  world  must  know  and  acknowledge.  For  it  is  as 
evident  as  the  day  that  the  King  \\Ve  may  call  him  '''' King''''^  sent 
Sir  Joseph  Wagstaff  and  another,  the  Earl  of  Rochester,  to  the  North. 
And  that  it  was  general,  we  had  not  by  suspicion  or  imagination  ; 
but  we  know  individuals  !  We  are  able  to  make  appear,  That 
persons  who  carried  themselves  the  most  demurely  and  fairly  of  any 
men  in  England  were  engaged  in  this  business.  And  he  that  gave 
us  our  intelligence  lost  his  life  for  it  in  Newburgh  Country  \Yes, 
Manning  was  shot  there;  he  had  told  us  Hyde  was  cock-sure']  ; — I 
think  I  may  now  speak  of  that,  because  he  is  dead  :— but  he  did  dis- 
cover, from  time  to  time,  a  full  intelligence  of  these  things.  There- 
fore, How  men  of  wicked  spirits  may  traduce  us  in  that  matter  ;  or, 
notwithstanding  all  that  hath  been  done,  may  still  continue  their 
compliances  'with  the  Malignants;' — I  leave  it.  {Ves,  let  them 
look  to  that.']  I  think  England  cannot  be  safe  unless  Malignants  be 
carried  far  away  ! — 

There  was  never  any  design  on  foot  but  we  could  hear  it  out  of  the 
Tower.  He  who  commanded  there*  would  give  us  account,  That 
within  a  fortnight  or  such  a  thingf  there  would  be  some  stirrings  ; 
for  a  great  concourse  of  people  were  coming  to  them,  and  they  had 
very  great  elevations  of  spirit.  {Vigilant  Barks  lead  I]  And  not  only 
there  ;  but  in  all  the  Counties  of  England.  We  have  had  informa- 
tions that  they  were  upon  designs  all  over  England  (besides  some 
particular  places  which  came  to  our  particular  assurance),  by  know- 
ledge we  had  from  persons  in  the  several  Counties  of  England. 

And  if  this  be  so,  then,  as  long  as  commotions  can  be  held  on  foot, 
you  are  in  danger  by  your  War  with  Spain  ;  with  whom  all  the  Papal 
Interest  i^  joined.  This  PopeiJ;  is  a  person  all  the  world  knows  to  be 
a  person  of  zeal  for  his  Religion,— wherein  perhaps  he  may  shame  us, 
— and  a  man  of  contrivance,  and  wisdom,  and  policy  ;  and  his  De- 
signs are  known  to  be,  all  over,  nothing  but  an  Endeavour  to  unite 
all  the  Popish  Interests  in  all  the  Christian  world,  against  this  Nation 
above  any,  and  against  all  the  Protestant  Interest  in  the  world. — If 
this  be  so,  and  if  you  will  take  a  measure  of  these  things  ;  if  we  must 
still  hold  the  esteem  that  we  have  had  'for  Spaniards,'  and  be  ready 
to  shake  hands  with  them  and  the  Cavaliers, — what  doth  this  differ 

*  Barkstead,  a  Goldsmith  once,  a  severe  vigilant  Colonel  now ;  who  has  seen 

much  service. 
t  "  time  "  might  be  the  word ;  bnt  I  am  getting  to  love  this  '•  thing." 
X  One   Chigi  by  natural  name,   called  Alexander  VII.  as   Pope;   an    "  Anti- 

jansenist  Pope,"  says  the  Books.     With  whom,  beyond  the  indispensable,  let  us 

crave  not  to  be  acquainted. 


ro$  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


from  the  Bishop  of  Canterbury  \Poor  old  Laud,  and  his  Surplices  /] 
'  striving'  to  reconcile  matters  of  Religion  ;  if  this  temper  be  upon  us 
to  unite  with  these  '  Popish '  men  in  Civil  Things  ?  Give  me  leave  to 
say,  and  speak  what  I  know  !  If  this  be  men's  mind,  I  tell  you 
plainly,— I  hope  I  need  not ;  but  I  wish  all  the  Cavaliers  in  England, 
and  all  the  Papists,  heard  me  declare  it,  and  many  besides  yourselves 
have  '  heard  me  : '  There  are  a  company  of  poor  men  that  are 
ready  to  spend  their  blood  against  such  compliance  !  \^Right  so ^  your 
Hiohncssj  that  is  the  grand  cardijial  certainty !  An  irrevocable 
Act  of  Legislature  passed  in  one^s  own  heart,  hi  spite  of  all 
clamours  and  Jargons,  and  constitutional  debatijtgs  in  Parliament 
and  out  of  it,  there  is  a  man  or  two  will  have  himself  cut  in  pieces 
before  that  "  shaking  of  hands  "  take  place.  In  fact  I  ihink  Christ 
and  Antichrist  had  better  not  try  shaking  of  hands ;  no  good  will 
come  of  it  I — Does  not  his  Highness  look  tmcomrnonly  attiinated  ?\  ; — 
and  I  am  p  rsuaded  of  the  same  in  you  ! 

If  this  be  our  condition, — with  respect  had  to  this,  truly  let  us  go  a 
little  farther.  For  I  would  lay  open  the  danger,  wherein  I  think  in 
my  conscience  we  stand  ;  and  if  God  give  not  your  hearts  to  see  and 
discern  what  is  obvious,  we  shall  sink,  and  the  house  will  fall  about 
our  ears,- -upon  even  '  what  are  called'  "such  sordid  attempts"  as 
these  same  I  Truly  there  are  a  great  many  people  in  this  Nation, 
who  "  would  not  reckon  up  every  pitiful  thing," — perhaps  like  the 
nibbling  of  a  mouse  at  one's  heel  ;  but  only  "considerable  dangers  !  " 
I  will  tell  you  plainly  '  what  to  me  seems  dangerous  ; '  it  is  not  a  time 
for  compliments  nor  rhetorical  speeches.  1  have  none,  truly  ; — but 
to  tell  you  how  we  find  things.* 

There  is  a  generation  of  men  in  this  Nation  who  cry  up  nothing  but 
righteousness  and  justice  and  liberty  ;  [^Coming  now  to  the  Levellers 
atid  '''"QotywionweallJis-metiP^  and  these  are  diversified  into  several 
sects,  and  sorts  of  men  ;  and  though  they  may  be  contemptible,  in 
respect  they  are  many,  and  so  not  like  to  make  a  solid  vow  to  do  you 
mischief,— yet  they  are  apt  to  agree  /;/  aliquo  tertio.  They  are 
known  (yea,  well  enough)  to  shake  hand  i  with,—  I  should  be  loath  to  say 
with  Cavaliers,— but  with  all  the  scum  and  dirt  of  this  Nation,  {Not 
loath  to  say  that,  your  highness  f\  to  put  you  to  trouble.  And  when 
I  come  to  speak  of  the  Remedies,  I  shall  tell  you  what  are  the  most 
apt  and  proper  remedies  in  these  respects.  I  speak  now  of  the  very 
time  when  there  was  an  Insurrection  at  Salisbury,  '  your   Wagstafifs 

and  Penruddocks  openly  in  arms' {Sudden prick  of  anger  stings 

his  highness  at  the  thojtght  of  that  great  Peril,  and  how  it  was  treated 
and  scouted  by  the  incredulous  Thickskijined ;  and  he  plunges  in  this 

majDier'] 1  doubt  whether  it  be  believed  there  ever  was  any  rising 

in  North  Wales  '  at  the  same  time ;'  at  Shrewsbury  ;  at  Rufford 
Abbey,  where  were  about  Five  hundred  horse  ;  or  at  Marston  Moor  ; 
or  in  Northumberland,  and  the  other  places, — where  all  these  Insurrec- 
tions were  at  that  very  time  !  {Truly  it  ts  difficult  to  keep  one's 
temper  :  sluggish  mortals  saved  from  destruction  j  and  won't  so  much 

*  Paragraph  irretrievably  misreported :  or  undecipherable  for  want  of  the  tones 
and  looks  accompanying  it  ;  -in  a  dim  uncertain  manner,  displays  the  above  as  a 
land  of  meaning. 


SPEECH  V.  109 


as  admit  it  /] There  was  a  Party  which  was  very  proper  to  come 

between  the  Papists  and  Cavahers  ;  and  that  Levelling  Party  hath 
some  accession  lately,  which  goes  under  a  finer  name  or  notion  !  I 
think  they  would  now  be  called  "  Commonwealth's-men," — who  per- 
haps have  right  to  it  little  enough.  And  it  is  strange  that  men  of 
fortune  and  great  estates  [Lord  Grey  ofGroby ;  he  is  in  the  Toiver ;  he 
and  others.']  should  join  with  such  a  people.  But  if  the  fact  be  so, 
there  will  need  no  stretch  of  wit  to  make  it  evident,  it  being  so  by 
demonstration.  [His  Highness  still  harps  on  the  ijtcredidity  of  a 
thickskinned public^  naturally  very  provoking  to  himiii  these  perilous, 
abstruse,  and  necessarily  SECRET  operatio7is  of  his.] 

I  say,  this  people  at  that  very  time,  they  were  pretty  numerous, — 
and  do  not  despise  them  ! — at  the  time  when  the  Cavaliers  were  risen, 
this  very  Party  had  prepared  a  Declaration  against  all  the  things  that 
had  been  transacted  '  by  us  ;'  and  called  them  by  I  know  not  what 
'  names"  "  tyranny,"  "  oppression,"  things  "  against  the  liberty  of  the 
subject;"  and  cried  out  for  "justice,"  and  "righteousness,"  and 
"liberty  :" — and  what  was  all  this  business  for,  but  to  join  the 
Cavaliers  to  carry  on  that  Design .''  And  these  are  things, — not 
words  !  That  Declaration  we  got ;  and  the  Penner  of  it  we  got 
\^Locked  him  fa'^t  in  Chepstow  ;  the  unruly  Wild?nan  /]  :  and 
we  have  got  intelligence  also  how  the  business  was  laid  and  contrived  ; 
—which  was  hatched  in  the  time  of  the  Sitting  of  that  Parhament.  I 
do  not  accuse  anybody  ;  ])ut  that  was  the  time  of  it ; — an  unhappy 
time  !  And  a  plausible  Petition  had  b^^en  penned,  which  must  come 
to  me,  forsooth  [Through  that  obtuse  Co?istitutionijtg  Parliajuent,  I 
fancy/],  "To  consider  of  these  things,  and  to  give  redress  and 
remedies."     And  this  was  so.-r- 

Now  indeed  I  must  tell  you  plainly,  we  suspected  a  great  deal  of 
violence  then  ;  and  we  did  hunt  it  out.  I  will  not  tell  you  these  are 
high  things  [Call  them  "  /<?7f  "  if  you  like;  mice  nibbling  at  one's 
heel .']  :  but  at  that  time  when  the  Cavaliers  were  to  rise,  a  Party  was 
to  seize  upon  General  Monk  in  Scotland,  and  to  commit  him  to  Edin- 
burgh Castle,  upon  this  pretence  of  "liberty  :"  and  when  they  had 
seized  him,  and  clapped  him  by  the  heels,  '  him '  and  some  other  true 
and  faithful  Officers,  they  had  resolved  a  number  at  the  same  time 
should  march  away  for  London  ;  leaving  a  party  behind  them, — to 
have  their  throats  cut  by  the  Scots  !  Though  I  will  not  say  they 
would  have  '  purposely  '  brought  it  to  this  pass  ;  yet  it  cannot  be 
thought   but   that   a   considerable  'part  of  the'   Army   would  have 

followed  them  'hither'  at  the  heels. And  not  only  thus  :  but  this 

same  spirit  and  principle  designed  some  little  fiddling  things  upon 
some  of  your  Officers,  to  an  assassination  •*  and  an  Officer  was 
engaged,  who  was  upon  the  Guard,  to  seize  me  in  my  bed.  This  was 
true.  And  other  foolish  designs  there  were, — as  to  get  into  a  room,  to 
get  gunpowder  laid  in  it,  and  to  blow  up  the  room  where  I  lay.  And 
this,  we  can  tell  \  ou,  is  tr7/e.  These  are  Person  not  worthy  naming  ; 
but  the  things  are  tr7ie.  And  such  is  the  state  we  have  stood  in,  and 
had    to  conflict  with,    since    the   last    Parliament.      And    upon    this 

*  Means  :  'they  attempted  to  persuade  some  of  your  Officers  to  that  "little 
fiddling  thing." 


no  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


account,  and  in  this  combination  *  it  is  that  I  say  to  you,  That  the 
ringleaders  to  all  this  are  none  but  your  old  enemies  the  Papists  and 
Cavaliers.     We  have  some  '  of  fhem '  in  prison  for  these  things. 

Now  we  would  be  loath  to  tell  you  of  notions  mere  seraphical ! 
\His  Highness  elevating  his  brows  ;  face  assuming  a  look  of  i?^ony,  of 
rough  banter.]  These  are  poor  and  low  conceits.  We  have  had  very  sera- 
phical notions!  We  have  had  endeavours  to  deal  between  two  Interests; 
—one  some  section  of  that  Commonwealth  Interest  ;  and  another 
which  was  a  notion  of  a  Fifth-Monarchy  Interest  !  \A  "  NOTION  ;  " 
not  even  worth  calling  a  "section  "  or  ''vART:Y'''such7noonshine  was 

it] Which '  strange  operation '  I  do  not  recite,  nor  what  condition  it  is 

in  as  thinking  it  not  worthy  our  trouble.  But  de  facto  it 
hath  been  so,  That  there  have  been  endeavours  ;  as  there  were 
endeavours  to  make  a  reconciliation  between  Herod  and  Pilate 
that  Christ  might  be  put  to  death,  so  there  have  been  en- 
deavours of  recoiicilitaion  between  the  Fifth-Monarchy  men  and  the 
Commonwealth  men  that  there  might  be  union  in  order  to  an  end,-— 
no  end  can  be  so  bad  as  that  of  Herod's  was,— but  in  order  to  end  in 
blood  and  confusion  !  And,  that  you  may  know, '  to  tell  you  candidly, 
I  profess  I  do  not  believe  of  these  two  last,  of  Commonwealth  men 
and  Fifth-  Monarchy  men,  but  that  they  have  stood  at  a  distance, 
'  aloof  from  Charles  Stuart '  [The  Overtons,  the  Harrisons  are  far 
above  such  a  thing.]  I  think  they  did  not  participate.  I  would  be 
so  charitable,  I  would  be,  That  they  did  not.  But  this  I  will  tell  you, 
That  as  for  the  others,  they  did  not  only  set  these  things  on  work  ; 
but  they  sent  a  fellow,  [Sexby,  the  miserable  outcast!]  a  wretched 
creature,  an  apostate  from  religion  and  all  honesty,— they  sent  him  to 
Madrid  to  advise  with  the  King  of  Spain  to  land  forces  to  invade  this 
Nation.  Promising  satisfaction  that  they  would  comply  and  concur 
with  him  to  have  both  men  and  monies  ;  undertaking  both  to  engage 
the  Fleet  to  mutiny,  and  also  your  Army  to  gain  a  garrison  '  on  the 
coast  ; '  to  raise  a  party,  '  so  '  that,  if  the  Spaniard  would  say  where 
he  would  land,  they  would  be  ready  to  assist  him  ! — This  person  was 
sometimesf  a  Colonel  in  the  Army.  He  went  with  Letters  to  the 
Archduke  Leopoldus  and  Don  John.  That  was  an  "  Ambassador  ;  " 
— and  gave  promise  of  much  monies  :  and  hath  been  soliciting,  and 
did  obtain  monies  ;  which  he  sent  hither  by  Bills  of  Exchange  : — and 
God,  by  His  Providence,  we  being  exceeding  poor,  directed  that  we 
lighted  on  some  of  them,  and  some  of  the  monies  !  \^Keep  hold  of 
them,  your  Highness  I]  Now  if  they  be  payable,  let  them  be  called 
for  !  \_He  won't  call,  I  believe?^ — If  the  House  shall  think  fit  to  order 
any  inspection  into  these  things,  they  may  have  it. 

We  think  it  our  duty  to  tell  you  of  these  things  ;  and  we  can 
make  them  good.  Here  is  your  danger  ;  that  is  it !  Here  is  a  poor 
Nation  that  hath  wallowed  in  its  blood  ;  though,  thanks  be  to  God, 
we  have  had  Peace  these  four  or  five  years  :  yet  here  is  the  condition 
we  stand  in.  And  I  think  I  should  be  false  to  you,  if  I  did  not  give 
you  this  true  representation  of  it. 

I  am  to  tell  you,  by  the  way,  a  word  to  justify  a  Thing  {fronting  to 
*  Identity  of  time  and  attempt.        +  Means  '  at  one  time ; '  as  almost  all  know. 


SPEECH  V.  Ill 


the  Major- Generals^  which,  I  hear,  is  much  spoken  of.  When  we 
knew  all  these  Designs  before  mentioned  ;  when  we  found  that  the 

Cavaliers  would  not  be  quiet No  quiet ;  "  there  is  no  peace  to 

the  wicked,"  saith  the  Scripture  {Isaiah,  Fifty-seventh)  :  "  They  are 
"  like  the  troubled  sea,  which  cannot  rest ;  whose  waters  throw  up 
mire  and  dirt."*  They  cannot  rest, — they  have  no  Peace  with  God 
in  Jesus  Christ  to  the  remission  of  sins  !  They  do  not  know  what 
belongs  to  that  \^My  brave  one  /]  ;  therefore  they  know  not  how  to  be 
at  rest ;  therefore  they  can  no  more  cease  from  their  actions  than 

they  can  cease  to  live, — nor  so  easily  neither  ! Truly  when  that 

Insurrection  was,  and  we  saw  it  in  all  the  roots  and  grounds  of  it,  \/e 
did  find  out  a  little  poor  Invention,  which  I  hear  has  been  much  re- 
gretted. I  say,  there  was  a  little  thing  invented  ;  which  was  the 
erecting  of  your  Major- Generals  [K^j.^]  :  To  have  a  Httle  inspection 
upon  the  People  thus  divided,  thus  discontented,  thus  dissatisfied, 
*  split '  into  divers  interests, — and  the  workings  of  the  Popish  Party  ! 
'  Workings  '  of  the  Lord  Taffe  and  others  ;  f  the  most  consisting  of 
Natural-Irish  rebels,  and  all  those  men  you  have  fought  against  in 
Ireland,  and  have  expulsed  from  thence,  as  having  had  a  hand  in  that 
bloody  Massacre  ; — of  him  and  of  those  that  were  under  his  power  ; 
who  were  now  to  have  joined  in  this  excellent  business  of  Insurrec- 
tion ! — 

And  upon  such  a  Rising  as  that  was, — truly  I  think  if  ever  anything 
were  justifiable  as  to  Necessity,  and  honest  in  every  respect,  this  was. 
And  1  could  as  soon  venture  my  life  with  it  as  with  anything  I  ever 
undertook  !  \^His  Highness  looks  animated^  We  did  find, — I  mean 
myself  and  the  Council  did, — That,  if  there  were  need  to  have  greater 
forces  to  carry  on  this  work,  it  was  a  most  righteous  thing  to  put  the 
charge  upon  that  Party  which  was  the  cause  of  it.  [Vea /]  And  if 
there  be  any  man  that  hath  a  face  averse  to  this,  I  dare  pronounce 
him  to  be  a  man  against  the  Interest  of  England  — Upon  this  account, 
upon  this  ground  of  necessity  ;  when  we  saw  what  game  they  were 
upon  ;  and  knew  individual  persons,  and  of  the  greatest  rank,  not  a 
few,  engaged  in  this  business  (I  knew  one  man  that  laid  down  his  life 
for  it)  [''Name?"  He  must  go  unnamed,  this  one /^  ;  and  had  it  by 
intercepted  Letters  made  as  clear  as  the  day  ; — we  did  think  it  our 
duty  To  make  that  class  of  persons  who,  as  evidently  as  anything  in 
the  world,  were  in  the  combination  '  of  the  insurrectionists,'  bear  their 
share  of  the  charge.  '  Bear  their  share,'  one  with  another,  for  the 
raising  of  the  Forces  which  were  so  necessary  to  defend  us  against 
those  Designs  !  And  truly  if  any  man  be  angry  at  all, —  I  am  plain, 
and  shall  an  homely  expression:  Let  him  turn  the  buckle  of  his  girdle 
behind  hi jn  /I     If  this  were  to  be  done  again,  I  would  do  it. 

*  Isaiah,  Ivii.  20,  21. 

f  His  Highness  suddenly  breaks  off  after  new  quarry  on  mention  of  this  Party. 
The  Lord  Taffe  is  even  now  very  busy,  at  Antwerp  (Thurloe,  v.),  with  Chancellor 
Hyde,  "throwing  up  mire  and  dirt"  of  the  insurrection  kind.  He  was  in 
trouble  long  ago  at  the  beginning  of  the  Long  Parliament,  on  the  score 
of  the  Irish  Massacre;  sat  some  time  in  the  Tower  (Clarendon,  ii.  216)  with  Lord 
Dillon  and  others ;  a  generation  "who  can  no  more  cease  from  their  practices 
than  they  can  cease  to  live,  nor  so  easily  neither  ! " 

X  The  Prpvert)  is  in  Ray  ;  but  without  commentary.     I  suppose  it  means,  '  Let 


,12  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


How  the  Major- Generals  have  behaved  themselves  in  that  work? 
I  hope  they  are  men,  as  to  their  persons,  of  known  integrity  and  fide- 
lity ;  and  men  who  have  freely  adventured  their  blood  and  lives  for 
that' good  cause,— if  it '  still'  be  thought  such,  and  it  was  well  stated, 
*  this  morning,'  against  all  the  '  new '  humours  and  fancies  of  men  ! 
And  truly  England  doth  yet  receive  one  day  more  of  Lengthen- 
ing out  its  tranquillity,  by  that  same  service  of  theirs* 

Well  ;  your  danger  is  as  you  have  seen.  And  truly  I  am  sorry  it 
is  so  great.  But  I  wish  it  to  cause  no  despondency  ;— as  truly,  I 
think,  it  will  not :  for  we  are  Englishmen  ;  that  is  one  good  fact.  And 
if  God  give  a  Nation  the  property  of  valour  and  courage,  it  is  honour 
and  a  mercy  '  from  Him.'  [  Yes,  it  is  a  great  thing,  your  Highness  !\ 
And  much  more  '  than  English  ! '  Because  you  all,  I  hope,  are  Chris- 
tian Men,  who  know  Jesus  Christ  [  F^^  .^],  and  know  that  Cause  which 
hath  been  mentioned  to  you  this  day. 

Having  declared  to  you  my  sense  and  knowledge, — pardon  me  if  I 
say  so,  my  knowledge, — of  the  condition  of  these  poor  Nations,  for  it 
hath  an  influence  upon  them  all,  it  concerneth  them  all  very  palpably: 
I  should  be  to  blame  if  I  did  not  a  little  offer  to  you  the  Remedies. 
{^Second  head  of  method :  the  Remedies^  I  would  comprehend  them 
under  two  considerations.  They  are  both  somewhat  general.  The 
one  is.  The  Considering  all  things  that  may  be  done,  and  ought  to  be 
done,  in  order  to  Security  ;  that  is  one.  And  truly  the  other  is  a 
common  head,  'a  general,  nay  a  universal  consideration,' — the  other 
is,  Doing  all  things  that  ought  to  be  done  in  order  to  Reformation  : 
and  with  that  I  will  close  my  Discourse.  All  that  hath  hitherto  been 
hinted  at  was  but  to  give  you  a  sense  of  the  danger  ;  which  'truly'  is 
most  material  and  significant  ;  for  which  principally  you  are  called 
hither  to  advise  of  the  remedies. — I  do  put  them,  '  the  remedies,'  into 
this  twofold  method,  not  but  that  I  think  they  are  scarcely  distinct.  I 
do  believe,  truly,  upon  serious  and  deliberate  consideration  :  That  a 
true  Reformation,  as  it  may,  and  will  through  God's  acceptance,  and 
by  the  endeavours  of  14  is  poor  servants,  be, — That  that,  '  I  say,'  will 
be  pleasing  in  His  sight ;  and  will  prove  not  only  what  shall  avert 
the  present  danger,  but  be  a  worthy  return  for  all  the  blessings  and 
mercies  which  you  have  received.  So,  in  my  conscience,  if  I  were 
put  to  shew  it,  this  hour,  Where  the  security  of  these  Nations  will 
lie  ? — forces,  arms,  watchings,  posts,  strength  ;  your  being  and  free- 
dom ;  be  as  politic  and  diligent,  and  as  vigilant  as  you  can  be, — I 
would  say  in  my  conscience,  and  as  before  Almighty  God  I  speak 
it  :  I  think  your  Reformation,  if  it  be  honest  and  thorough  and  just, 
//  will  be  your  best  security  !     {^Hear  him  :  Hear,  hear  !'\ 

First, 'however,'  with  regard  to  Security  'outwardly  considered. 
We  will  speak  a  little  distinctly  to  that.  ["  Be  ye  wise  as  serpents 
withal  .^"]  You  see  where  your  War  is.  It  is  with  the  Spaniard. 
You  have  Peace  with  all  '  other  '  Nations,  or  the  most  of  them  ;  Swede, 

him  seek  what  is  uneasy  in  himself,  and  try  to  alter  that ;  the  thing  he  is  angry  at 
'  is  not  wrong,  and  cannot  be  altered.     Perhaps  his  girdle  will  sit  easier  the  re- 
'  verse  way?" 
*  '  that  occasion  '  in  orig. 


SPEECH  V.  /13 


Dane,  Dutch.  At  present,  I  say,  it  is  well ;  it  is  at  present  so.  And 
so  likewise  with  the  Portugal,  with  France, — the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
Both  these  States  ;  both  Christian  and  Profane  ;  the  Mahometan  ; — 
you  have  Peace  with  them  all.  Only  with  Spain,  you  have  a  differ- 
ence, you  have  a  War.  I  pray  consider  it.  Do  I  come  to  tell  you 
that  I  would  tie  you  to  this  War  ?  No.  '  According '  as  you  shall 
find  your  spirits  and  reasons  grounded  in  what  hath  been  said,  so  let 
you  and  me  join  in  the  prosecution  of  that  War, — '  according  '  as  we 
are  satisfied,  and  as  the  cause  shall  appear  to  our  consLciences  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord.  But  if  you  can  come  to  prosecute  it,  prosecute  it 
vigorously  or  don't  do  it  at  all! — 

Truly  I  shall  speak  a  very  great  word, — one  may  ask  a  very  great 
question  :  "  Unde,  Whence  shall  the  means  of  it  come  .'' "  Our  Nation 
is  overwhelmed  in  debts  !  Nevertheless  I  think  it  my  duty  to  deal 
plainly  ;  I  shall  speak  what  even  Nature  teacheth  us.  If  we  engage 
in  a  business, — a  recoiling  man  may  haply  recover  of  his  enemy  :  but 
the  wisdom  of  a  man  surely  will  be  in  the  keeping  of  his  ground  ! 
Therefore  that  is  what  I  advise  you.  That  we  join  together  to  prosecute 
it  vigorously.  In  the  second  place  I  would  advise  you  to  deal  effec- 
tually,— even  because  there  is  such  a  "  complication  of  interests,"  '  as 
some  keep  objecting.'  If  you  believe  that  there  is  such  a  complication 
of  interests, — why,  then,  in  the  name  of  God,  that  excites  you  the 
more  to  do  it  !  Give  me  leave  to  tell  you,  Ido  not  believe  that  in  any 
war  that  ever  was  in  former  times,  nor  in  any  engagements  that  you 
have  had  with  other  '  enemies,'  this  Nation  had  more  obligation  upon 
it  to  look  to  itself, — to  forbear  waste  of  time,  precious  time  !  Need- 
lessly to  mind  things  that  are  not  essential  ;  to  be  quibbling  about 
words,  and  comparatively  about  things  of  no  moment;  and-in  the  mean 
time, — being  in  such  a  case  as  I  suppose  you  know  we  are, — to  suffer 
ourselves  to  be  wanting  to  a  just  defence  against  the  common  Ene- 
mies abroad,  or  not  to  iDe  thoroughly  sensible  of  the  Distempers  that 
are  at  home* —  ! — I  know,  perhaps  there  are  many  considerations 
which  may  teach  you,  which  may  incline  you,  to  keep  your  own  hands 
tender  from  men  of  one  Rehgion  '  withourselves,'t  and  of  an  Interest 
that  is  so  spread  in  the  Nation.  Hpwever,  if  they  seek  the  eradica- 
tion of  the  Nation  ;  if  they  be  active  as  you  have  seen,  and  'as'  it 
hath  been  made  manifest  so  as  not  to  be  denied,  to  the  carrying  on  of 
their  Designs  ;  if  England  must  be  eradicated  by  persons  complicated 
with  the  Spaniard  ;  if  this  must  be  brought  upon  us  through  distem- 
pers and  falseness  of  men  among  themselves,— then  the  question  is 
no  more  than  this  :  Whether  any  consideration  whatsoever  shall  lead 
us,  for  fear  of  eradicating  distempers,  to  suffer  all  the  honest  Interests 
of  this  Nation  to  be  eradicated  1  Therefore,  speaking  generally  of 
any  of  their  distempers,  '  which  are '  of  all  sorts, — where  a  member 
cannot  be  cured,  the  rule  is  plain,  Eiise  rescindendiwi  est  immedicabile 
vulnus.  And  I  think  it  is  of  such  an  advantage  that  nothing  ever  could 
more  properly  be  put  in  practice^  since  this  or  any  Nation  'first  was. 

*  Original  sentence  incomplete  ;  or  tacked  with  radical  incoherency  to  the  fore- 
going :  the  sense,  on  either  hypothesis,  is  very  visible. 
f  Royalists,  and  other  Discoriterited  ;  Protestants,  though  Plotters, 
1  '  used '  in  ori§. 


114  I^HE  MAJOR-GEN IlRALS. 


As  to  those  lesser  Distempers  of  people  that  pretend  Religion,  yet 
which  from  the  whole  consideration  of  Religion,  would  fall  under  one 
of  the  heads  of  Reformation, — I  had  rather  put  these  under  this  head;* 
and  I  shall  the  less  speak  to  it,  because  you  have  been  so  well  spoken 
to  already  today  'elsewhere.'  I  will  tell  you  the  truth  :  Our  practice 
since  the  last  Parliament  hath  been,  To  let  all  this  Nation  see  that 
whatever  pretensions  to  Religion  would  continue  quiet,  peaceable,  they 
should  enjoy  conscience  and  liberty  to  themselves  ; — and  ^^/tomake 
Religion  a  pretence  for  arms  and  blood.  Truly  we  have  suffered 
them,  and  that  cheerfully,  so  to  enjoy  their  own  liberties.  Whatsoever 
is  contrary,  *  and  not  peaceable,'  let  the  pretence  be  never  so  specious, 
— if  it  tend  to  combination,  to  interests  and  factions,  we  shall  not 
care,  by  the  grace  of  God,  whom  we  meet  withal,  though  never  so 
specious,  '  if  they  be  not  quiet  ! '  And  truly  I  am  against  all  "  liberty 
of  conscience"  repugnant  to  this.  If  men  will  profess, — be  they  those 
under  Baptism,  be  they  those  of  the  Independent  judgment  simply, 
or  of  the  Presbyterian  judgment, — in  the  name  of  God,  encourage 
them,  countenance  them  ;  so  long  as  they  do  plainly  continue  to  be 
thankful  to  God,  and  to  make  use  of  the  liberty  given  them  to  enjoy 
their  own  consciences  !  For,  as  it  was  said  today,  undoubtedly 
"  this  is  the  pecuhar  Interest  all  this  while  contended  for."  \^An  excel- 
lent''^ Interest  •'^  very  indispensable  in  a  state  of  genuine  Protestantisnt, 
which  latter  has  itself  for  some  time  been  indispensable  enough^ 

Men  who  believe  in  Jesus  Christ — that  is  the  Form  that  gives  being 
to  true  religion,  *  namely,'  to  Faith  in  Christ  and  walking  in  a  profession 
answerable  to  that  Faith  ; — men  who  believe  the  remission  of  sins 
through  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  free  justification  by  the  blood  of 
Christ ;  who  live  upon  the  grace  of  God  :  those  men  who  are  certain 
they  are  so  \Faith  of  assurance\ — '  they '  are  members  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  are  to  Him  the  apple  of  His  eye.  Whoever  hath  this  Faith,  let 
his  Form  be  what  it  will ;  he  walking  peaceably,  without  prejudice  to 
others  under  other  Forms  : — it  is  a  debt  due  to  God  and  Christ  ;  and 
He  will  require  it,  if  that  Christian  may  not  enjoy  his  liberty.  {True 
Tolerance  J  a  noble  thing:  patience^  indifference  as  to  the  Unessential; 
liveliest  impatience,  inexorable  INTOLERANCE  for  the  Want  of  the 
Essential  !^^ 

If  a  man  of  one  form  will  be  trampling  upon  the  heels  of  another 
form  ;  if  an  Independent,  for  example,  will  despise  him  '  who  is  '  under 
Baptism,  and  will  revile  him,  and  reproach  and  provoke  him, — I  will 
not  suffer  it  in  him.  If,  on  the  other  side,  those  of  the  Anabaptist 
'judgment'  shall  be  censuring  the  Godly  Ministers  of  the  Nation  who 
profess  under  that  of  Independency  ;  or  if  those  that  profess  under 
Presbytery  shall  be  reproaching  or  speaking  evil  of  them,  traducing 
and  censuring  of  them,— as  I  would  not  be  willing  to  see  the  day 
when  England  shall  be  in  the  power  of  the  Presbytery  to  impose 
upon  the  consciences  of  others  that  profess  faith  in  Christ,— so  I  will 
not  endure  any  reproach  to  them.  But  God  give  us  hearts  and  spirits 
to  keep  things  equal.     Which,  truly  I  must  profess  to  you,  hath  been 

*  Of  '  doing  all  we  can  for  Security;  they  will  stand  better  under  this,  thinks  his 
Highness.  His  Highness  half-soliloquising,  suddenly  bethinking  himself,  again 
shews  us  a  glimpse  of  his  Speech  in  a  state  of  genesis. 


SPEECH  V.  115 


my  temper.  I  have  had  some  boxes  '  on  the  ear/  and  rebukes, — on 
the  one  hand  and  on  the  other  ;  some  censuring  me  for  Presbytery  ; 
others  as  an  inletter  to  all  the  Sects  and  Heresies  of  the  Nation.  I 
have  borne  my  reproach  :  but  I  have,  through  God's  mercy,  not  been 
unhappy  in  hindering  any  one  Religion  to  impose  upon  another.  And 
truly  I  must  needs  say  (I  speak  it  experimentally)  :  I  have  found  it, 
I  have,  that  those  of  the  Presbyterian  judgment — ["  Do  theniselves 
partly  approve  tny  plan^''  he  7neans  to  say  ;  but  starting  off  into  broken 
sentences,  as  he  is  liable  to  do,  never  says  it] — I  speak  it  knowingly,  as 
having  received  from  very  many  Counties — I  have  had  Petitions,  and 
acknowledgements  and  professions,  from  whole  Counties  ;  as  from 
Cornwall,  Devon,  Somerset,  and  other  Counties.  Acknowledgments 
that  they,  '  the  Presbyterians  there,'  do  but  desire  they  may  have 
liberty  and  protection  in  the  worshipping  of  God  according  to  their 
own  judgments  :  for  the  purging  of  their  congregations,  and  the 
labouring  to  attain  more  purity  of  faith  and  repentance; — and  that, 
in  their  outward  profession,  they  will  not  strain  themselves  beyond 
their  own  line.  I  have  had  those  Petitions  ;  I  have  them  to  shew. 
And  I  confess  I  look  at  that  as  the  blessedest  thing  which  hath  been 
since  the  adventuring  upon  this  Government,  '  or '  which  these  times 
produce.  And  I  hope  I  gave  them  fair  and  honest  answers.  And  if 
it  shall  be  found  to  be  the  Civil  Magistrate's  real  endeavour  to  keep 
all  professing  Christians  in  this  relation  to  one  another  ;  not  suffering 
any  to  say  or  do  what  will  justly  provoke  the  others  ; — I  think  he  that 
would  have  more  liberty  than  this,  is  not  worthy  of  any. 

This  therefore  I  think  verily,  if  it  may  be  under  consideration  for 
Reformation  : — I  say,  if  it  please  God  to  give  you  and  me  hearts  to 
keep  this  straight,  '  it  may  be  a  great  means '  in  giving  countenance 
to  just  Ministers, — [In  such  semi-articulate  uneasy  way  does  his 
Highness  hustle  himself  over  into  the  discussion  of  a  new  Topic\—\n 
countenancing  a  just  inaintetiance  to  them,  by  Tithes  or  otherwise. 
For  my  part  I  should  think  I  were  very  treacherous  if  I  took 
away  Tithes,  till  1  see  the  Legislative  Power  settle  Maintenance  to 
Ministers  another  way.  But  whoever  they  be  that  shall  contend  to 
destroy  Tithes,— it  doth  as  surely  cut  their  '  the  Minister's '  throats 
as  it  is  a  drift  to  take  Tithes  away  before  another  mode  of  mainten- 
ance, or  way  of  preparation  towards  such  be  had.  Truly  I  think  all 
such  practices  and  proceedings  should  be  discountenanced.  I  have 
heard  it  from  as  gracious  a  Minister  as  any  is  in  England  ;  I  have 
had  it  professed  :  That  it  would  be  a  far  greater  satisfaction  to  them 
to   have  maintenance  another  way, — if  the    State  will   provide   it. 

{Sensation   among  the    Voluntaries  / His  Highness  proceeds   no 

farther  in  that  direction  at  present.  The  next  sentence  suddenly 
drawing  itself  up  into  a  heap;  comprising  both  ideas,  "tithes" 
and^''  EQUALITY,"  and  in  free-ffozuing  half- articulate  mattner  uttering 
them  both  at  once,  must  be  given  precisely  as  it  stands, — Grammar 
yielding  place   to   sontething  still  needfuller,  to   transparency   of 

Speech  with  or  without  grammar]. Therefore    I    think,  for  the 

keeping  of  the  Church  and  people  of  God  and  professors  in  their 
several  forms  in  this  liberty, — 1  think  as  it,  '  this  of  tithes,  or  some 
gther  maintenance/  hath  been  a  thing  that  is  the  root  of  visible 


,,^  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


Vvoiession  l^No  public  maintenance  no  regular  priest\  the  upholding 
of  this  -I  think  you  will  find  a  blessing  in  it  : — if  God  keep  your 
hearts  to  keep  things  in  this  posture  and  balance  which  is  so  honest 
and  so  necessary.     {^Better  keep  up  Tithes,  till  we  see  /] 

Truly,  there  might  be  some  other  things  offered  to  you,  in  point  of 

Reformation  :  a  Reformation  of  Manners,  to  wit But  I  had  forgot 

one  thing  which  I  must  remember  !  It  is  the  Church's  work,  you 
know,  in  some  measure  :  yet  give  me  leave  to  ask,  and  I  appeal  unto 
your  consciences.  Whether  or  there  hath  not  been  an  honest  care 
taken  for  the  ejecting  of  Scandalous  Ministers,  and  for  the  bringing-in 
of  them  that  have  passed  an  Approbation  ?  \Our  two  ConimissioJis, 
of  Triers  and  Expurgators.]  I  dare  say  such  an  Approbation  as 
never  passed  in  England  before  !  And  give  me  leave  to  say,  It 
hath  been  with  this  difference  '  from  the  old  practice,'  that  neither 
Mr.  Parson  nor  Doctor  in  the  University  hath  been  reckoned  stamp 
enough  by  those  that  made  these  Approbations  :  though,  I  can  say 
too,  they  have  a  great  esteem  for  Learning ;  and  look  at  Grace  as 
most  useful  when  it  falls  unto  men  with  rather  than  without  '  that 
addition  ; '  and  wish,  with  all  their  hearts,  the  flourishing  of  all  those 
Institutions  of  Learning,  as  much  as  any.  I  think  there  hath  been  a 
conscience  exercised,  both  by  myself  andthe  Ministers,  towards  them 
that  have  been  Approved.  I  may  say,  such  an  one,  as  I  truly  believe 
was  never  known  in  England,  '  in  regard  to  this  matter.'  And  I  do 
verily  believe  that  God  hath,  for  the  Ministry,  a  very  great  seed  in  the 
youth  'now'  in  the  Universities;  who  instead  of  studying  Books, 
study  their  own  hearts.  I  do  believe,  as  God  hath  made  a  very  great 
and  flourishing  seed  to  that  purpose  ;  so  this  Ministry  of  England — I 
think  in  my  very  conscience  that  God  will  bless  and  favour  it  ;  and 
hath  blessed  it  to  the  gaining  of  very  many  souls.  It  was  never  so 
upon  the  thriving  hand  since  England  was  as  at  this  day.  Therefore 
I  say,  in  these  things,  '  in  these  arrangements  made  by  us,'  which 
tend  to  the  profession  of  the  Gospel  and  Public  Ministry,  '  I  think ' 
you  will  be  so  far  from  hindering,  that  you  will  farther  them.  And  I 
shall  be  willing  to  join  with  you, 

I  did  hint  to  you  my  thoughts  about  the  Reformation  of  Manners. 
And  these  abuses  that  are  in  this  Nation  through  disorder,  are  a  thing 
which  should  be  much  in  your  hearts.  It  is  that,  which,  I  am  confi- 
dent, is  a  description  and  character  of  the  Interest  you  have  been 
engaged  against,  '  the  Cavalier  Interest  :'  the  badge  and  character  of 
countenancing  Profaneness,  Disorder  and  Wickedness  in  all  places, — 
[^A  horribk  "  character ^^  your  Highness ;  not  undeserved  hitherto  : 
and  under  OUR  new  Defender  of  the  Faith  {if  you  could  see  into 
futurity)  what  a  height  of  evidence  will  it  rise  to  f\ — and  whatever  is 
most  of  kin  to  these,  and  most  agrees  with  what  is  Popery,  and  '  with ' 
the  profane  Nobility  and  Gentry  of  this  Nation  !  In  my  conscience, 
it  was  a  shame  to  be  a  Christian,  within  these  fifteen,  sixteen  or 
seventeen  years,  in  this  Nation  !  Whether  "  in  Caesar's  house,"  or 
elsewhere  !  It  was  a  shame,  it  was  a  reproach  to  a  man  ;  and  the 
badge  of  "  Puritan "  was  put  upon  it. — We  would  keep  up  [//> 
bethinks  him  of  the  above  word  "profane"]  Nobility  and  Gentry  :— 
and  the  way  to  keep  them  up  is,  Not  to  suffer  them  to  be  patronisers 


Speech  v.  wi 


or  countenancers  of  debauchery  and  disorders  !  And  you  will  hereby 
be  as  labourers  in  that  work  '  of  keeping  them  up.'  And  a  man  may 
tell  as  plainly  as  can  be  what  becomes  of  us,  if  we  grow  indifferent 
and  lukewarm  '  in  repressing  evil/  under  I  know  not  what  weak  pre- 
tensions. \_Yes^  your  Highness;  even  so, — were  you  and  1  in  a 
7ninority  of  Two  upon  it!  ''''Merry  Monarchs  of  the  Nell-Gwynn 
Defender  kind,  and  the  gallantest  Sir  Charles  Sedleys  in  their  tavern- 
balcony  in  Ihiiv  Street,  are  and  remain  a  most  mournful  pkenomenoji 
to  me ;  mournfuller  than  Death  ; — equal  to  Death  with  a  Grimaldi 
mask  clapt  on  it  f]^  If  it  lives  in  us,  there  ""ore  ;  I  say,  if  it  be  in  the 
general  '  heart  of  the  Nation,'  it  is  a  thing  I  am  confident  our  liberty 
and  prosperity  depend  upon, — Reformation.  Make  it  a  shame  to  see 
men  bold  in  sin  and  profaneness,  and  God  will  bless  you.  You  will 
be  a  blessing  to  the  Nation ;  and  by  this,  will  be  more  repairers  of 
breaches  than  by  anything  in  the  world.  Truly  these  things  do 
respect  the  souls  of  men,  and  the  spirits, — which  are  the  men.  The 
mind  is  the  man.  If  that  be  kept  pure,  a  man  signifies  somewhat ; 
if  not,  I  would  very  fain  see  what  difference  there  is  betwixt  him  and 
a  beast.  He  hath  only  some  activity  to  do  some  more  mischief. 
A  real "  Head  of  the  Church^''  this  "  Kitig . ''  rot  an  imagifiary  one  !'\ 
There  are  some  things  which  respect  the  Estates  of  men;  and  there 
is  one  general  Grievance  in  the  Nation.  It  is  the  Law.  ["  Hear, 
hear  I  ^"^  from  all  quarters  of  the  Nation.']  Not  that  the  Laws  are  a 
grievance  ;  but  there  are  Laws  that  are  :  and  the  great  grie-'ance  lies 
in  the  execution  and  administration.  I  think  I  may  say  it,  I  have  as 
eminent  Judges  in  this  land  as  have  been  had,  as  the  Nation  has  had, 
for  these  many  years.  \^Hale  and  others ;  yea  /] — Truly  I  could  be 
particular,  as  to  the  executive  part  '  of  it,'  as  to  the  administration  '  of 
the  Law  ; '  but  that  would  trouble  you.  The  truth  of  it  is.  There  are 
wicked  and  abominable  Laws,  which  '  it '  will  be  in  your  power  to 
alter.  To  hang  a  man  for  Six-and-eight-pence,  and  I  know  not  what; 
to  hang  for  a  trifle,  and  acquit  murder, — is  in  the  ministration  of  the 
Law,  through  the  ill-framing  of  it.  I  have  known  in  my  experience 
abominable  murders  acquitted.  And  to  see  men  lose  their  lives  for 
petty  matters  :  this  is  a  thing  God  will  reckon  for.  [  Four  Highness 
actually  says  so,  believes  so  f\  And  I  wish  it  may  not  lie  upon  this 
Nation  a  day  longer  than  you  have  an  opportunity  to  give  a  remedy  ; 
and  I  hope  I  shall  cheerfully  join  with  you  in  it.  This  hath  been  a 
great  grief  to  many  honest  hearts  and  conscientious  people  ;  and  I 
hope  it  is  in  all  your  hearts  to  rectify  it. 

I  have  little  more  to  say  to  you,  being  very  weary  ;  and  I  know  you 
are  so  '  too.'  Truly  I  did  begin  with  what  I  thought  was  '  the  means' 
to  carry  on  this  War  (if  you  will  carry  it  on),  That  we  might  join 
together  in  that  vigorously.  And  I  did  promise  an  answer  to  an  ob- 
jection :  "  But  what  will  you  prosecute  it  with  ? "     The  State  is  hugely 

in   aebt  ;  I   believe  it  comes  to S^Reporter  cannot  hear ;  on  his 

Paper  is  mere  Blank ; — nay  I  think  his  Highness  stutters,  does  tiot 
clea7'ly  articj/late  any  S7im.] — The  Treasure  of  the  State  is  run  out. 
We  shall  not  be  an  enemy  to  your  inspection  ;  but  desire  it,—  that  you 
should  inspect  the  Treasury,  and  how  monies  have  been  expended. 


nfi  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


And  we  are  not  afraid  to  look  the  Nation  in  the  face  upon  this  score. 
And  therefore  we  will  say  negatively, /ri-/,  No  man  can  say  we  have 
misemployed  the  Treasures  of  this  Nation,  and  embezzled  it  to  parti- 
cular and  private  uses. 

It  may  be  we  have  not  been, — as  the  world  terms  it, — so  fortunate 
in  all  our  successes,  'in  the  issues  of  ail  our  attiemps?'  \^Hispaniola 
was  a  terrible  affair,  your  Hio;hness  ;  and  Jamaica  is  yet~a  load  to 
crush  any  but  a  Man  of  Hope  /]  Truly  if  we  are  of  mind  that  God 
may  not  decide  for  us  in  these  things,  I  think  we  shall  be  quarrelling 
with  what  God  'Himself  will  answer  'for.'  And  we  hope  we  are 
able, — it  may  be  weakly,  I  doubt  not, — to  give  an  answer  to  God,  and 
t6  give  an  answer  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God,  of 
the  reason  of  things.  But  we  shall  tell  you,  it— ["//," ///^/r/;/aj!^rt/ 
^^  reason"  we  could  give,  was  the  Ploiiins^  of  the  Cavaliers  ;  whei'eac 
his  High?iess  bursts  into  sudden  spontaneous  combustion  again  .^] — was 
part  of  that  Arch-Fire,  which  hath  been  in  this  your  time ;  wherein 
there  were  flames  good  store,  fire  enough  ; — and  it  will  be  your  wisdom 
and  skill,  and  God's  blessing  upon  you,  to  quench  them  both  here  and 
elsewhere  !  I  say  it  again,  our  endeavours — by  those  that  have  been 
appointed,  by  those  that  have  been  Major-Generals  ;  J  can  repeat  it 
with  comfort, — they  have  been  effectual  for  the  Preservation  of  your 
Peace  !  [H^hat  worlds  of  old  terror,  ra^e,  atid  ejtdeavour,  all  dead 
now  ;  what  cojttinents  of  extinct  fire,  of  life-volcanoes  once  blazing, 
now  sunk  in  eternal  darkness,  do  we  discern,  with  emotion,  through 
this  chance  crevice  in  his  Highness  f\  It  hath  been  more  effectual 
towards  the  discountenancing  of  Vice  and  settling  Religion,  than  any- 
thing done  these  fifty  years  :  I  will  abide  by  it,  notwithstanding  the 
envy  and  slander  of  foolish  men  !  [Poor  Oliver,  noble  Oliver/]  But  I 
say  there  was  a  Design — I  confess  I  speak  that  to  you  with  a  little 
vehemency — But  you  had  not  peace  two  months  together,  '  nothing 
but  plot  after  plot ;'  I  profess  I  believe  it  as  much  as  ever  I  did  any- 
thing in  the  world :  and  how  instrumental  they,  '  these  Major- 
Generals,'  have  been  to  your  peace  and  for  your  preservation,  by  such 
means, — which,  we  say,  was   Necessity!     More  '  instrumental' than 

all  instituted  things  in  the  world  ! If  you  would  make  laws  against 

whatever  things  God  may  please  to  send, 'laws '  to  meet  everything 
that  may  happen,— yon  make  a  law  in  the  face  of  God  ;  you  tell  God 
you  will  meet  all  His  dispensations,  and  will  stay  things  whether  He 
will  or  no  !  *  But  if  you  make  good  laws  of  Government,  that  men 
may  know  how  to  obey  and  to  act  for  Government,  they  may  be  laws 
that  have  frailty  and  weakness  ;  ay,  and  '  yet '  good  laws  to  be  ob- 
served. But  if  nothing  should  '  ever'  be  done  but  what  is  "  according 
to  Law,"  the  throat  of  the  Nation  may  be  cut  while  we  send  for  some 
to  make  a  Law  !  [The  Tyrant's  plea? — Yes  ;  and  the  true  Govc7'not^Sy 
7ny  friend ;  for  extre?nes  meet.]  Therefore  certainly  it  is  a  pitiful 
beastly  notion  to  think,  though  it  be  for  ordinary  Government  to  live 

*  ''  Laws  against  events,"  insisted  on  before,  p.  loo.  The  "event"  there  could 
be  no  law  against  beforehand,  was  the  universal  rising  of  the  cutthroat  Cavaliers; 
a  thing  not  believed  in  by  the  thick-skinned,  but  too  well  known  to  his  Highness 
as  a  terrible  verity, — which  the  thickest  ski-n  would  have  got  acquainted  with, 
pioreover,  had  it  not  been.for  him  !    Evidently  a  most  provoking;  topic. 


SPEECH  V.  fi^ 


by  law  and  rule,  yet* — 'if  a  Government  in  extraordinary  circumstances 
'  go  beyond  the  law  even  for  self-preservation,  it  is '  to  be  clamoured 
at,  and  blottered  at.  {His  Highness  still  extremely  animated ;  wants 
as  if  more  tongues  than  one  to  speak  all  he  feels  /]  When  matters  of 
Necessity  come,  then  without  guilt  extraordinary  remedies  may  not  be 
applied  ?     Who  can  be  so  pitiful  a  person  ! — 

I  confess,  if  Necessity  be  pretended,  there  is  so  much  the  more  sin, 
A  laying  the  irregularity  of  men's  actions  upon  God  as  if  He  had  sent 
a  Necessity  ; — who  doth  indeed  send  Necessities  !  But  to  anticipate 
these — For  as  to  an  appeal  to  God,  I  own  it,  '  own  this  Necessity,' 
conscientiously  to  God  ;  and  the  principles  of  Nature  dictate  the 
thing  : — But  if  there  be  a  supposition,  I  say,  of  a  Necessity  which  is 
not^  every  act  so  done  hath  in  it  the  more  sin.  This  '  whether  in  a 
given  case,  there  is  a  Necessity  or  not,'  perhaps  is  rather  to  be  dis- 
puted than  otherwise  :  But  I  must  say  I  do  not  know  one  action  *  of 
this  Government,'  no  not  one,  but  it  hath  been  in  order  to  the  peace 
and  safety  of  the  Nation.  And  the  keeping  of  some  in  prison  \_Lilburn^ 
Wildman,  Overton,  Grey  of  Groby,  Willoughby  of  Parham,  occa- 
sionally Harrison  and  others  :  a  fair  stock  of  Prisoners  up  and  down  f\ 
hath  been  upon  such  clear  and  just  grounds  that  no  man  can  except 
against  it.  I  know  there  are  some  imprisoned  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
in  Cornwall  and  elsewhere  ;  and  the  cause  of  their  imprisonment  was. 
They  were  all  found  acting  things  which  tended  to  the  disturbance  of 
the  Peace  of  the  Nation.  Now  these  principles  made  us  say  to  them: 
"  Pray  live  quietly  in  your  own  countries  ;  you  shall  not  be  urged  with 
"  bonds  or  engagements,  or  to  subscribe  to  the  Government."  But 
they  would  not  so  much  as  say,  "  We  will  promise  to  live  peaceably." 
If  others  are  imprisoned,  it  is  because  they  have  done  such  things. 
And  if  other  particulars  strike,  t  we  know  what  to  say, — as  having 
endeavoured  to  walk  as  those  that  would  not  only  give  an  account  to 
God  of  their  actings  in  Authority,  but  had  '  withal '  to  give  an  account 
of  them  to  men.  [Anticlimax ; — better  than  some  climaxes ;  full  of 
simplicity  and  discretion?^ 

I  confess  I  have  digressed  much.  [  Yes,  your  highness;  it  has  been 
a  very  loose-flowing  Discourse ; — like  a  big  tide  on  shallow  shores^ 
with  few  ba7iks  or  barriers  !\ — I  would  not  have  you  be  discouraged 
if  you  think  the  State  is  exceeding  poor.  Give  me  leave  to  tell  you, 
we  have  managed  the  Treasury  not  unthriftily,  nor  to  private  uses; 
but  for  the  use  of  the  Nation  and  Government  ;  and  shall  give  you 
this  short  account.  When  the  Long  Parliament  sat,]}:  this  Nation 
owed  ^700,000.  We  examined  it  ;  it  was  brought  unto  that, — in  that 
^ihort  Meeting  '  of  the  Little  Parliament,'  within  half  a  year  after  the 
Ck)vernment  came  into  our  hands.  I  believe  there  was  more  rather 
than  less.  They,  *  the  Long- Parliament  people'  had  ^120,000 
a-month  ;  they  had  the  King's,  Queen's,  Prince's,  Bishops'  Lands ;  all 
Delinquents'  Estates,  and  the  Dean-and-Chapter  Lands  ; — which  was 
a  very  rich  Treasure.  As  soon  as  ever  we  came  to  the  Government, 
we  abated  ^30,000  the  first  half-year,  and  ^60,000  after.     We  had  no 

*  A  small  hiatus  in  the  Ms.   (Burton,  p.  clxxii.),  which  imagination  can  easily 

t  Means  '  give  offence. '  %  Polite  for  '  ceased  to  sit,' 


i^o  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


benefits  of  those  Estates,  at  all  considerable ;  {Only  the  merest  frac- 
tions of  them  remainina;  now  tmsold?^  I  do  not  think,  the  fiftieth  part 
of  what  they  had  :— and  give  me  leave  to  tell  you.  You  are  not  so 
much  in  debt  as  we  fou7id  you*  We  know  it  hath  been  maliciously 
dispersed,  as  if  we  had  set  the  Nation  into  ^2,500,000  of  debt  :  but  I 
tell  you,  you  are  not  so  much  in  debt,  by  some  thousands, — I  think  I 
may  say,  by  some  hundreds  of  thousands  !  This  is  true  that  I  tell 
you.  We  have  honestly, — it  may  be  not  so  wisely  as  some  others 
would  have  done, — but  with  honest  and  plain  hearts,  laboured  and 
endeavoured  the  disposal  of  Treasure  to  Public  Uses  ;  and  laboured 
to  pull  off  the  common  charge  ^60,000  a-month,  as  you  see.  And  if 
we  had  continued  that  charge  that  was  left  upon  the  Nation,  perhaps 
we  could  have  had  as  much  money  '  in  hand,'  as  now  we  are  in  debt. 
— These  things  being  thus,  I  did  think  it  my  duty  to  give  you  this 
account, — though  it  be  wearisome  even  to  yourselves  and  to  me. 

Now  if  I  had  the  tongue  of  an  Angel  ;  if  I  was  so  certainly  Inspired 
as  the  holy  Men  of  God  have  been,  I  could  rejoice,  for  your  sakes, 
and  for  these  Nations'  sakes,  and  for  the  sake  of  God,  and  of  His 
Cause  which  we  have  all  been  engaged  in.  If  I  could  move  affections 
in  you  to  that  which,  if  you  do  it,  will  save  this  Nation  !  If  not, — you 
plunge  it  (to  all  human  appearance),  '  it '  and  all  Interests,  yea  and 
all  Protestants  in  the  world,  into  irrecoverable  ruin  ! — 

Therefore  I  pray  and  beseech  you,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  Shew 
yourselves  to  be  men  ;  "  quit  yourselves  like  men  ! "  It  doth  not 
infer  any  reproach  if  you  do  shew  yourselves  men  :  Christian  men, — 
which  alone  will  make  you  "  quit  yourselves."  I  do  not  think  that, 
to  this  work  you  have  in  hand,  a  neutral  spirit  will  do.  That  is  a 
Laodicean  spirit ;  and  we  know  what  God  said  of  that  Church  :  it 
was  "lukewarm,"  and  therefore  He  would  "spew  it  out  of  His 
mouth  !  "  It  is  not  a  neutral  spirit  that  is  incumbent  upon  you.  And 
if  not  a  neutral  spirit,  it  is  much  less  a  stupefied  spirit,  inclining  you,  in 
the  least  disposition,  the  wrong  way  !  Men  are,  in  their  private  con- 
sciences, every  day  making  shipwreck  ;  and  it's  no  wonder  if  these 
can  shake  hands  with  persons  of  reprobate  Interests  : — such,  give  me 
leave  to  think,  are  the  Popish  Interests.  For  the  Apostle  brands 
them  so,  "  Having  seared  consciences."  Though  I  do  not  judge  every 
man  : — but  the  ringleaderst  are  such.  The  Scriptures  foretold  there 
should  be  such.  It  is  not  such  a  spirit  that  will  carry  this  work  on  ! 
It  is  men  in  a  Christian  state  ;  who  have  works  with  faith  j  who 
know  how  to  lay  hold  on  Christ  for  remission  '  of  sins,'  till  a  man  be 
brought  to  "glory  in  hope."  Such  an  hope  kindled  in  men's  spirits 
will  actuate  them  to  such  ends  as  you  are  tending  to  :  and  so  many 
as  are  partakers  of  that,  and  do  own  your  standings,;^:  wherein  the 
Providence  of  God  hath  set  and  called  you  to  this  work,  '  so  many ' 
will  carry  it  on. 

If  men,  through  scruple,  be  opposite,  you  cannot  take  them  by  the 

*  Antea,  pp.  117-118. 

t  Of  the  Insurrectionary  persons,  and  the  general  Miscellany  who  favour  the 
Popish  Interests  ;  it  is  on  these  more  than  on  Papists  proper  that  his  Highness  is 
nov  again  coming  to  glance. 

X  Present  official  positions. 


SPEECH  V.  \2t 


hand  to  carry  them  *  along  with  you,' — it  were  absurd  :  if  a  man  be 
scrupling  the  plain  truth  before  him,  it  is  in  vain  to  meddle  with  him. 
He  hath  placed  another  business  in  his  mind  ;  he  is  saying,  "  O,  if  we 
"  could  but  exercise  wisdom  to  gain  Civil  Liberty, — Religion  would 
"  follow  ! "  l^His  Highness  thinks  Religion  will  precede, — as  1  hope 
thou  also,  in  a  sense,  emphatically  thinkest.  His  Highness  does  not 
much  affect  Constitution-bui  ders,  Oceania  Harringtons,  and  Mendyers 
of  the  Rota  Club.  Here  however  he  has  his  eye  principally  upon  the 
late  Parliametit,  with  its  ConstitiitiDn-pedant?'ies  and  parchments^ 
Certainly  there  are  such  men,  who  are  not  maliciously  blind,  whom 
God,  for  some  cause,  exercises.  {Yes,  your  Highness;  we  poor 
Moderns  have  had  whole  shoals  of  them,  and  still  have, — in  the  later 
sections  of  that  same  '"'■  work'^  your  are  engaged  in.]  It  cannot  be 
expected  that  they  should  do  anything  !     [Profound  silence.]     These 

men, — they  must  demonstrate  that  they  are  in  bonds. Could  we 

have  carried  it  thus  far,  if  we  had  sat  disputing  in  that  manner  ?  I 
must  profess  I  reckon  that  difficulty  more  than  all  the  wrestling  with 
flesh  and  blood.  [What  could  so  try  one  as  that  Pedatit  Parlia- 
77ient  did ;  disputing,  doling  out  t^enny weights  of  distilled  consti- 
tution ;  and  Penruddock,  Charles  Stuart  atid  the  Spatiiards  waiting 
mome7itarily  to  come  in,  with  Ate  and  the  Scarlet  Woman  in  their 
rear?]  Doubting,  hesitating  men,  they  are  not  fit  for  your  work. 
You  must  not  expect  that  men  o'  hesitating  spirits,  under  the  bondage 
of  scruples,  will  be  able  to  carry  on  this  work,  much  less  such  as  are 
merely  carnal,  natural  ;  such  as  having  an  "  outward  profession  of 
"  Godliness,"  whom  the  Apostle  speaks  of  so  often,  "  are  enemies  to 
"  the  cross  of  Christ  ;  whose  god  is  their  belly  ;  whose  glory  is  in  their 
"  shame  ;  who  mind  earthly  things."  \A  really  frightful  kind  of 
character;  and  not  yet  obsolete,  though  its  dialect  is  changed  I]  Do 
you  think  these  men  will  rise  to  suchi  a  spiritual  heat  for  the  Nation 
as  shall  carry  you  a  Cause  like  this  as  will  meet  '  and  defy '  all  the 
oppositions  that  the  Devil  and  wicked  men  can  make  ?  [Not  to  BE 
expected,  your  Highness;  tiot  at  all.  And  yet  we,  two  hundred  years 
later,  how  do  we  go  07i  expecting  it,  by  the  aid  of  Ballot  boxes,  ReJor77t-' 
Club  Attor7ieys,  &^c.  &^c.  /] 

Give  me  leave  to  tell  you, — those  that  are  called  to  this  work,  it  will 
not  depend  '  for  them '  upon  formalities,  nor  notions,  nor  speeches  1 
[A  certai7i  t7'uculency  07t  His  Highnesses  visage^  I  do  not  look  the 
work  should  be  done  by  these.  '  No  ; '  but  by  men  of  honest  hearts, 
engaged  to  God  ;  strengthened  by  Providence  ;  enlightened  in  His 
words,  to  know  His  Word, — to  which  He  hath  set  His  Seal,  sealed 
with  the  blood  of  His  Son,  with  the  blood  of  His  Servants  :  that  is 
such  a  spirit  as  will  carry  on  this  work.  [Scant  i7i  the  Peda7it  Parlia- 
7ne7it,  scant  i7i  the  Rota  Club ;  7iot  to  be  fotmd  in  the  Refor77i-Club 
Attorney,  or  his  Ballot-box,  at  all.] 

Therefore  I  beseech  you,  do  not  dispute  of  unnecessary  and  unpro- 
fitable things  which  may  divert  you  from  carrying  on  so  glorious  a 
work  as  this  is.  I  think  every  objection  that  ariseth  is  not  to  be 
answered  ;  nor  have  I  time  for  it.  I  say,  Look  up  to  God  ;  hive 
peace  among  yourseh^es.  Know  assuredly  that  if  1  have  interest,"* 
*  Means  '  if  you  see  me  in  power.' 


J22  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


I  am  by  the  voice  of  the  People  the  Supreme  Magistrate  ;  \}Ve  will 
have  no  dispiUme^  about  thai,— you  are  aware  /]  and,  it  may  be,  do 
know  somewhat  that  might  satisfy  my  conscience,  if  I  stood  in  doubt  ! 
But  it  is  a  union,  really  it  is  a  union,  '  this '  between  you  and  me  : 
and  both  of  us  united  in  faith  and  love  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  His 
peculiar  Interest  in  the  world,— //m/ must  ground  this  work.  And  in 
ihat,'\i  I  have  any  peculiar  Interest  which  is  personal  to  myself,  which 
is  not  subservient  to  the  Public  end,— it  were  not  an  extravagant  thing 
for  me  to  airse  myself:  because  I  know  God  will  curse  me,  if  I  have  ! 
\Look  in  that  coutitcnance  of  his  Hightess  /]  I  have  learned  too 
much  of  God  to  dally  with  Him,  and  to  be  bold  with  Him,  in  these 
things.  And  I  hope  I  never  shall  be  bold  with  Him  ; — though  I  can 
be  bold  with  men,  if  Christ  be  pleased  to  assist ! — 

I  say,  if  there  be  love  between  us,  so  that  the  Nations"^  may  say, 
"  These  are  knit  together  in  one  bond,  to  promote  the  glory  of  God 
"  against  the  Common  Enemy  ;  to  suppress  everything  that  is  Evil, 
"  and  encourage  whatsoever  is  of  Godliness," — yea,  the  Nation  will 
bless  you  !  And  really  that  and  nothing  else  will  work  off  these  Dis- 
afifections  from  the  minds  of  men  ;  which  are  great, — perhaps  greater 
than  all  the  '  other '  oppositions  you  can  meet  with.  I  do  know 
what  I  say.  When  I  speak  of  these  things,  I  speak  my  heart  before 
God  ;— and,  as  I  said  before,  I  dare  not  be  bold  with  Him.  I  have  a 
little  faith  :  1  have  a  little  lived  by  faith,  and  therein  I  may  be  "bold." 
If  I  spoke  other  than  the  affections  and  secrets  of  my  heart,  I  know 
He  would  not  bear  it  at  my  hands!  [Deep  silence ;  his  Highness' s 
voice-,  in  sonorous  bass,  alone  audible  in  the  Painted  Chamber^  There- 
fore in  the  fear  and  name  of  God  :  Go  on,  with  love  and  integrity, 
against  whatever  arises  of  contrary  to  those  ends  which  you  know  and 
have  been  told  of ;  and  the  blessing  of  God  go  wdth  you, — and  the 
blessing  of  God  will  go  with  you  !     \Ainen  !^^ 

I  have  but  one  thing  more  to  say.  I  know  it  is  troublesome  : — But 
I  did  read  a  Psalm  yesterday  ;  which  truly  may  not  unbecome  both 
me  to  tell  you  of,  and  you  to  observe.  It  is  the  Eighty-fifth  Psalm  ;t 
it  is  very  instructive  and  significant  :  and  though  I  do  but  a  little 
touch  upon  it,  I  desire  your  perusal  at  pleasure.  \\Ve  will  many  of  us 
read  it,  this  night!  almost  all  of  us,  with  one  view  or  the  other  I — 
and  some  of  us  may  sing  a  part  of  it  at  evening  worship^ 

It  begins  :  "  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  very  favourable  to  Thy  Land  ; 
"  Thou  hast  brought  back  the  captivity  of  Jacob.  Thou  hast  forgiven 
"  the  iniquity  of  thy  People  ;  Thou  hast  covered  all  their  sin.  Thou 
"  hast  taken  away  all  the  fierceness  of  thy  wrath  :  Thou  hast  turned 
"  Thyself  from  the  fierceness  of  Thine  anger.  Turn  us,  O  God  of  our 
"our  salvation,  and  cause  Thine,  anger  toward  us  to  cease.  Wilt 
"  Thou  be  angry  with  us  forever ;  wilt  Thou  draw  out  Thine 
"  anger  to  all  generations  ?  Wilt  Thou  not  revive  us  again,  that  Thy 
"  People  may  rejoice  in  Thee  ?"      Then  he  calls  upon  God  as  "  the 

*  The  Three  Nations. 

t  Historical  :  Tuesday,  i6th  Sept.  1656 ;  Oliver  Protector  reading  the  Eighty's 
fifth  Psalm  in  Whitehall.  We  too  might  read  it  ;  but  as  his  Highness  recites  it  all 
here  except  one  short  verse,  it  is  not  so  necessary. 


SPEECH  V.  '  -    123 


"  God  of  his  salvation,"*  and  then  saith  he  :  "I  will  hear  what  God 
"  the  Lord  will  speak:  for  He  will  speak  peace  unto  His  People, and 
"  to  His  Saints  ;  but  let  them  not  turn  again  to  folly.  Surely  His 
"  salvation  is  nigh  them  that  fear  Him  ;"  Oh — "  that  glory  may  dwell 
"  in  our  land  !  Mercy  and  Truth  are  met  together  ;  Righteousness  and 
"  Peace  have  kissed  each  other.  Truth  shall  spring  out  of  the  Earth, 
"  and  Righteousness  shall  look  down  from  Heaven.  Yea  the  Lord 
"  shall  give  that  which  is  good,  and  our  Land  shall  yield  her  increase. 
"  Righteousness  shall  go  before  Him,  and  shall  set  us  in  the  way  of 
*'  His  steps."  [W/ial  a  vision  oj  celestial  hope  is  this  :  vista  into  Lands 
of  Li^ht,  God's  will  done  on  Earth;  this  poor  English  Earth  an 
Emblem  of  Heaven ;  where  God 's  Blessi7ig  reigns  supreme ;  where 
ghastly  Falsity  and  Brutal  Greed  and  Baseness,  afid  Cruelty  and 
Cowardice,  and  Sin  a?id  Fear,  and  all  the  Helldogs  of  Gehenna  shall 
lie  chained  tinder  our  Feet  I  and  Man,  augrist  in  divine  manhood, 
shall  step  victorious  over  thetn,  heavenward,  like  a  god!  O  Oliver, 
I  could  weep, — and  yet  it  steads  not.  Do  not  I  too  look  into  "  Psalms  ^^ 
into  a  kind  of  Eternal  Psalm,  unalterable  as  adamant, — which  the 
whole  world  yet  will  look  into  ?      Courage,  my  brave  one  .■'] 

Truly  I  wish  that  this  Psalm,  as  it  is  written  in  the  Book,  might  be 
better  written  in  our  hearts.  That  we  might  say  as  David,  "  Thou 
"  hast  done  this,"  and  "  Thou  hast  done  that  ;"  "  Thou  hast  pardoned 
"  our  sins  ;  Thou  hast  taken  away  our  iniquities  !"  Whither  can  we 
go  to  a  better  God  ?  For  "  He  hath  done  it."  It  is  to  Him  any  Na- 
tion may  come  in  their  extremity,  for  the  taking  away  of  His  wrath. 
How  did  He  do  it  ?  "  By  pardoning  their  sins,  by  taking  away  their 
iniquities  !"  If  we  can  but  cry  unto  Him,  He  will  "turn  and  take 
away  our  sins." — Then  let  us  listen  to  Him.  Then  let  us  consult,  and 
meet  in  Parliament  ;  and  ask  Him  counsel,  and  hear  what  He  saith, 
"  for  He  will  speak  peace  unto  His  People."  If  you  be  the  People  of 
God,  He  will  speak /^<2r<?y — and  we  will  not  turn  again  to  folly. 

"  Folly  :"  a  great  deal  of  grudging  in  the  Nation  that  we  cannot 
have  our  horse-races,  cock-fightings,  and  the  like  !  {^Abolished,  sus- 
pended, for  good  reasons  I'\  I  do  not  think  these  are  lawful,  except 
to  make  them  recreations.  That  we  will  not  endure  'for  necessary  ends' 
[^For  preventing  Royalist  Plots,  and  such  like^  to  be  abridged  of 
them  : — Till  God  hath  brought  us  to  another  spirit  than  this.  He  will 
not  bear  with  us.  Ay,  "but  He  bears  with  them  in  France  ;"  "  they 
in  France  are  so  and  so  !" — Have  they  the  Gospel  as  we  have  ?     They 

have  seen  the  sun  but  a  little  ;  we  have  great  lights. If  God  give 

you  a  spirit  of  Reformation,  you  will  preserve  this  Nation  from  "turn- 
ing again"  to  those  fooleries  : — and  what  will  the  end  be?  Comfort 
and  l3lessing.  Then  "  Mercy  and  Truth  shall  meet  together."  Here 
is  a  great  deal  of  "truth"  among  professors,  but  very  little  "  mercy  !" 
They  are  ready  to  cut  the  throats  of  one  another.  But  when  we  are 
brought  into  the  right  way,  we  shall  be  mercilul  as  well  as  orthodox  : 
and  we  know  who  it  is  that  saith,  "  If  a  man  could  speak  with  the 
"  tongues  of  men  and  angels,  and  yet  want  that,  he  is  but  sounding 
"  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal  !" — 

Therefore  I  beseech  you  in  the  name  of  God,  set  your  hearts  to  this 
*  Verse  7,  '  Shew  us  Thy  mercy,  O  Lord,  and  grant  us  Thy  salvation.' 


124  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


*work'  And  if  you  set  your  hearts  to  it,  then  you  will  sing  Luther's 
Psalm.*  That  is'a  rare  Psalm  for  a  Christian  !— and  if  he  set  his  heart 
open,  and  can  approve  it  to  God,  we  shall  hear  him  say,  "  God  is  our 
refuge  and  strength,  a  very  present  help  in  time  of  trouble."  If  Pope 
and  Spaniard,  and  Devil  and  all,  set  themselves  agamst  us,— though 
they  should  "  compass  us  like  bees,"  as  it  is  in  the  Hundred- and- 
eighteenth  Psalm,— yet  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  we  should  destroy 
them  !  And.  as  it  is  in  this  Psalm  of  Luther's  :  "  We  will  not  fear, 
"  thout,'h  the  Earth  be  removed,  and  though  the  mountains  be  carried 
"  into  "the  middle  of  the  sea  ;  though  the  waters  thereof  roar  and  be 
"troubled;  though  the  mountains  shake  with  the  swelling  thereof." 
\^A  terrible  scene  indeed :— but  there  is  something  in  the  Heart  of 
Man,  then,  greater  than  anv  "  scetie ;"  which,  in  the  Name  of  the 
Highest,  can  defy  any  "  scene  "  or  terror  whatsoever?  "  Yea^'  answers 
the  Hebrew  David;  "  Yea^'  answers  the  German  Lnther ;  "  Yea,''  the 
Eftglish  Cromwell.  The  A^es  responsive  to  one  another;  soul  hailing 
soul  across  the  dead  Abysses;  deep  calli7ig  unto  deep.l  "There  is  a 
"  river,  the  streams  vvhereof  shall  make  glad  the  City  of  God.  God  is 
"in  the  midst  of  her  ;  she  shall  not  be  moved."  [No/]  Then  he 
repeats  two  or  three  times,  "The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us  ;  the  God 
of  Jacob  is  our  refuge."  [What  are  the  Ki?ig  of  Spain,  Charles  Stuart, 
Joseph  Wagstaff,  Chancellor  Hyde,  a?td your  triple-hatted  Chimera  at 
Rome  f  What  is  the  Devil  in  General,  for  that  matter, — the  still  very 
extensive  Eittity  called  "  Devil,''  with  all  the  force  he  can  raise  f] 

I  have  done.  All  1  have  to  say  is.  To  pray  God  that  He  may  bless 
you  with  His  presence  ;  that  He  who  hath  your  hearts  and  mine  would 
"shew  His  presence  in  the  midst  of  us. 

I  desire  you  will  go  together,  and  choose  your  speaker.* 

The  latest  of  the  Commentators  expresses  himself  in  reference  to 
this  Speech  in  the  following  singular  way  : 

'  No  Royal  Speech  like  this  was  ever  delivered  elsewhere  in  the 
'world!  It  is, — with  all  its  prudence,  and  it  is  very  prudent, 
'  sagacious,  courteous,  right  royal  in  spirit, — perhaps  the  most  artless 
'  transparent  piece  of  Pubhc  Speaking  this  Editor  has  ever  studied. 

*  Psalm  Forty-sixth;  of  which  Luther's  Paraphrase,  Eine  feste  Burg  ist  V7isef 
Gott,  is  still  very  celebrated.     Here  is  the  original  Psalm  : 

'  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength  ;  a  very  present  help  in  trouble  :  therefore  we 
•will  not  fear,— though  the  Earth  be  removed,  and  though  the  mountains  be 
'  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea;  though  the  waters  roar  and  be  troubled;  though 
'  the  mountains  sliake  with  the  swelling  thereof! 

'There  is  a  river,  the  streams  whereof  shall  make  glad  the  City  of  God,  the  Holy 
'  Place  of  the  Tabernacles  of  the  Most  High.  God  is  in  the  midst  of  her;  she  shall 
'not  be  moved  :  God  shall  help  her,  and  that  right  early.  The  Heathen  raged, 
'the  Kingdoms  were  moved  :  He  uttered  His  voice,  the  Earth  melted.  The  Lord 
'of  Hosts  is  with  us;  the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge. 

'Clome  behold  the  works  of  the  Lord,  what  desolations  He  hath  made  in  the 
'Earth  !  He  maketh  wars  to  cease  unto  the  ends  of  the  Earth;  He  breaketh  the 
•bow,  and  cutteth  the  spear  in  sunder  ;  He  burneth  the  chariot  in  the  fire  :— Be 
•still,  and  know  that  I  am  God;  I  will  be  exalted  among  the  Heathen,  I  will  be 
•  exalted  in  the  Earth  1  The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us,  the  God  of  Jacob  is  out 
'refuge.' 

t  Burton's  Diary,  i.  Introd.  p.  clxxix.  et  seqq.  (from  Additional  Ayscough  MSSi 
no.  6125). 


SPEECH  V.  125 

Rude,  massive,  genuine  ;  like  a  block  of  unbeaten  gold.  A  Speech 
not  so  fit  for  Drury  Lane,  as  for  Valhalla,  and  the  Sanhedrim  of  the 
Gods.  The  man  himself,  and  the  England  he  presided  over,  there 
and  then,  are  to  a  singular  degree  visible  in  it ;  open  to  our  eyes,  to 
our  sympathies.  He  who  would  see  Oliver,  \vill  find  more  of  him  here 
than  in  most  of  the  history-books  yet  written  about  him. 
'  On  the  whole,  the  cursory  modern  Englishmen  cannot  be  expected 
to  read  this  Speech  : — and  yet  it  is  pity  ;  the  Speech  might  do  him 
good,  if  he  understood  it.  We  shall  not  again  hear  a  Supreme 
Governor  talk  in  this  strain  ;  the  dialect  of  it  is  very  obsolete  ;  much 
more  than  the  grammar  and  diction,  forever  obsolete, — not  to  my 
regret  the  dialect  of  it.  But  the  spirit  of  it  is  a  thing  that  should 
never  have  grown  obsolete.  The  spirit  of  it  will  have  to  revive  itself 
again  ;  and  shine  out  in  neiu  dialect  and  vesture,  in  infinitely  wider 
compass,  wide  as  God's  known  Universe  now  is, — if  it  please 
Heaven  !  Since  that  spirit  went  obsolete,  and  men  took  to  "dally- 
ing" with  the  Highest,  to  "  being  bold"  with  the  Highest,  and  not 
"  bold  with  men  "  (only  Belial,  and  not  "  Christ  "  in  any  shape  assist- 
ing them),  we  have  had  but  sorry  times,  in  Pariiament  and  out  of  it. 
There  has  not  been  a  Supreme  Governor  worth  the  meal  upon  his 
periwig,  in  comparison, — since  this  spirit  fell  obsolete.  How  could 
there .'  Belial  is  a  desperately  bad  sleeping-partner  in  any  concern 
whatever  !  Cant  did  not  ever  yet,  that  I  know  of,  turn  ultimately  to 
a  good  account,  for  any  man  or  thing.  May  the  Devil  swiftly  be 
compelled  to  call  m  large  masses  of  our  current  stock  of  Cant,  and 
withdraw  it  from  circulation  !  Let  the  people  "  run  for  gold,"  as  the 
Chartists  say  ;  demand  Veracity,  Performance,  instead  of  mealy- 
mouthed  Speaking ;  and  force  him  to  recal  his  Cant.  Thank 
Heaven,  stern  Destiny,  merciful  were  it  even  to  death,  does  now 
compel  them  verily  l^j  "  run  for  gold  : "  Cant  in  all  directions  is 
swiftly  ebbing  into  Bank  it  was  issued  by.' — 

Speech  being  ended,  the  Honourable  Members  'went  to  the  House,' 
says  Bubtrode  ;  *  and  in  the  Lobby,  with  considerable  crowding  I 
think. '  received,  from  the  Chancery  Clerk,  Certificates  in  this  form,' 
• — for  m  ,*ance  : 

'  County  of  Bucks.  These  are  to  certify  that '  Sir  Bulstrode 
WVitlocke  ^  is  returned  by  Indenture  07ie  of  the  Knights  to  serve  in 
'  this  present  Parliament  for  the  said  County,  and  approved  by  his 

*  Highnesses  Council.     Nath.  Tayler,  Clerk  of  the  Commonivealth 

*  in  Chancery  e 

Mr.  Tayler  has  received  Four-hundred  '  Indentures  '  from  Honour- 
able Gentlemen  ;  but  he  does  not  give  out  Four-hundred  '  Certifi- 
cates,' he  only  gives  Three-hundred  and  odd.  Near  One-hundred 
Honourable  Gentlemen  can  get  no  Certificate  from  Mr.  Tayler, — 
none  provided  iox you  ; — and  without  Certificate  there  is  no  admit- 
tance. Soldiers  stand  ranked  at  the  door  ;  no  man  enters  without 
his  Certificate  !  Astonishing  to  see.  Haselrig,  Scott,  and  the  stiff 
Republicans,  Ashley  Cooper  and  the  turbulent  persons,  who  might 
have  leavened  this  Parliament  into  strange  fermentation,  cannot^  i^ 
*  Whitlock'%  p.  639. 


126  THE  MAJOR-GENERALS. 


appears,  get  in  !     No  admittance  here  :  saw  Honourable  Gentlemen 

ever  the  like? —  ^   ,      x.  .  .,  r  t.    ,. 

The  most  flagrant  violation  of  the  Privileges  of  Parliament  that 
was  ever  known  !  exclaim  they.  A  sore  blow  to  Privilege  indeed. 
With  which  the  Honourable  House,  shorn  of  certain  limbs  in  this 
rdde  way,  knows  not  well  what  to  do.  The  Clerk  of  the  Common- 
wealth, being  summoned,  answers  what  he  can  ;  Nathaniel  Fiennes, 
for  the  Council  of  State,  answers  what  he  can  :  the  Honourable 
House,  actually  intent  on  Setthng  the  Nation,  has  to  reflect  that  in 
real  truth  this  will  be  a  greater  furtherance  thereto  ;  that  matters  do 
stand  in  an  anomalous  posture  at  present ;  that  the  Nation  should 
and  must  be  settled.  The  Honourable  House,  with  an  effort,  swallows 
this  injury  ;  directs  the  petitioning  Excluded  Members  '  to  apply  to 
the  Council.' *  The  Excluded  Members,  or  some  one  Excluded 
Member,  redacts  an  indignant  Protest,  with  all  the  names  appended  ;t 
prints  it,  privately  circulates  it,  '  in  boxes  ^ent  by  carriers,  a  thou- 
sand copies  in  a  box  : ' — and  there  it  rests  ;  his  Highness  saying 
nothing  to  it  ;  the  Honourable  House  and  the  Nation  saying  nothing. 
In  this  Parliament,  different  from  the  last,  we  trace  a  real  desire  for 
Settlement. 

As  the  power  of  the  Major-Generals,  '  in  about  two  months  hence,';]; 
or  three  months  hence,  was,  on  hint  of  his  Highness  himself,  to 
the  joy  of  Constitutional  England,  withdrawn,  we  may  here  close 
Part  Ninth.  Note  first,  however,  as  contemporary  with  this  event, 
the  glorious  news  we  have  from  Blake  and  Montague  at  sea  ;  who, 
in  good  hour,  have  at  last  got  hold  of  a  Spanish  Fleet,  and  in  a  tragic 
manner  burnt  it,  and  taken  endless  silver  therein. §  News  of  the 
fact  comes  in  the  beginning  of  October  :  in  the  beginning  of 
November  comes,  as  it  were,  the  fact  itself, — some  Eight-and-thirty 
waggonloads  of  real  silver  ;  triumphantly  jingling  up  from  Ports- 
mouth, across  London  pavements  to  the  Tower,  to  be  coined  into 
current  English  money  there.  The  Antichrist  King  of  Spain  has 
lost  Lima  by  an  earthquake,  and  infinite  silver  there  also.  Heaven's 
vengeance  seems  awakening.  '  Never,'  say  the  old  Newspapers,!] 
'  never  was  there  a  more  terrible  visible  Hand  of  God  in  judgment 
*  upon  any  People,  since  the  time  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  !  Great 
'  is  the  Lord  ;  marvellous  are  His  doings,  and  to  be  had  in  reve- 
'  rence  of  all  the  Nations.'  England  holds  universal  Thanksgiving 
Day ;  sees  Eight-and-thirty  waggonloads  of  silver,  sees  hope  of 
Settlement,  sees  Major-Generals  abolished  ;  and  piously  blesses 
Heaven. 

*  Commons  Journals,  vii,  424,  5,  6  (Sept.  18-22). 

t  Copy  of  it  and  them  in  iVhiilocke,  p.  641-3  ;  see  also  Thurloe,  v.  456,  490. 

X  Kimber,  p.  211.  The  real  date  and  circumstances  may  be  seen  in  Burton's 
Diary,  i.  310  (7  Jan.  1656-7),  Commons  Journals,  vii,  483  (29  Jan.)  ;  compared 
with  Ludlow,  ii.  581,  2.     See  Godwin,  iv.  328. 

§  Captain  Stayner's  Letter  (9  Sept.  1656,  Thurloe,  v,  399)  ;  General  Montague's 
Letter  (lb.  p.  433);   Whitlocke,  p.  643  :  &c. 

I  6  October  (m  Cromwelliana,  p.  i6o), 


CROMWELL'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES. 


PART     X. 

SECOND   PROTECTORATE   PARLIAMENT. 

1657-1658. 


\ 


129 


LETTERS   CXLIX,   CL. 

Two  Letters  near  each  other  in  date,  and  now  by  accident  brought 
contiguous  in  place  ;  which  offer  a  rather  singular  contrast  ;  the  one 
pointing  us  towards  the  Eternal  Heights,  the  other  as  towards  the 
Tartarean  Deeps  !  Between  which  two  Extremes  the  Life  of  men 
and  Lord  Protectors  has  to  pass  itself  in  this  world,  as  wisely  as  it 
can.  Let  us  read  them,  and  hasten  over  to  the  new  Year  Fifty-Seven, 
and  last  Department  of  our  subject. 


LETTER   CXLIX. 


Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  or  the  Municipal  Authorities  there,  as  we 
may  perceive,  are  rather  of  the  Independent  judgment ;  and  have  a 
little  dread  of  some  encouragement  his  Highness  has  been  giving  to 
certain  of  the  Presbyterian  sect  in  those  parts.  This  Letter  ought  to 
be  sufficient  reassurance. 

To  the  Mayor  of  Newcastle :  To  be  communicated  to  the  Aldermen 
and  others  whom  it  doth  concern. 

Whitehall,  i8th  December,  1656. 

Gentlemen  and  my  very  good  Friends, 

My  Lord  Strickland,  who  is  one  of  our  Council,  did  impart  to 
us  a  Letter  written  from  yourselves  to  him,  according  to  your  desire 
therein  expressed  ;  which  occasions  this  return  from  us  to  you. 

As  nothing  that  may  reflect  to  the  prejudice  of  your  outward  Good, 
either  Personal  or  as  you  are  a  Civil  Government,  shall  easily  pass 
with  us  ;  so,  much  less  what  shall  tend  to  your  discouragement,  as  you 
are  Saints,  to  your  Congregations,  gathered  in  that  way  of  fellowship 
commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Independents,  whether  of  one  judg- 
ment or  other  : — '  this  '  shall  be  far  from  being  actually  discoun- 
tenanced, or  passively  '  left  to '  suffer  damage,  by  any  applying  them- 
selves to  me  I  do,  once  for  all,  give  you  to  understand,  that  I  should 
thereby  destroy  and  disappoint  one  of  the  main  ends  for  which  God 
hath  planted  me  in  the  station  1  am  in. 

Wherefore  I  desire  you  in  that  matter  to  rest  secure.  True  it  is 
that  two  Ministers,  one  Mr.  Cole  and  one  Mr.  Pye,  did  present  to  me 
a  Letter  in  the  name  of  divers  Ministers  of  Newcastle,  the  Bishoprick 
of  Durham  and  Northumberland  ;  of  an  honest  and  Christian  pur- 
pose :  the  sum  whereof  I  extracted,  and  returned  an  Answer  there- 

VOL.  III.  F 


I30        SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

unto  ;— a  true  Copy  whereof  I  send  you  here  enclosed.  By  which  I 
think  it  will  easily  appear,  that  the  consideration  of  my  kindness  is 
well  deserved  by  them  ;  provided  they  observe  the  condition  '  there ' 
expressed  ;  which  in  charity  I  am  bound  to  believe  they  will ;  and 
without  which  their  own  consciences  and  the  world  will  know  how  to 
judge  of  them. 

Having  said  this,  I,  or  rather  the  Lord,  require  of  you.  That  you 
walk  in  all  peaceableness  and  gentleness,  inoffensiveness,  truth  and 
love  towards  them,  as  becomes  the  Servants  and  Churches  of  Christ. 
Knowing  well  that  Jesus  Christ,  of  whose  diocese  both  they  and  you 
are,  expects  it.  Who,  when  He  comes  to  gather  His  People,  and  to 
make  Himself  "  a  name  and  praise  amongst  all  the  people  of  the 
"  earth," — He  "  will  save  her  that  halteth,  and  gather  her  that  was 
"  driven  out,  and  will  get  them  praise  and  fame  in  every  land,  where 
"  they  have  been  put  to  shame."*  And  such  "  lame  ones "  and 
"  driven  out  ones  "  were  not  the  Independents  only,  and  Presbyterians, 
a  few  years  since,  by  the  Popish  and  Prelatical  Party  in  these 
Nations  ;  but  such  are  and  have  been  the  Protestants  in  all  lands, — 
persecuted,  and  faring  alike  with  you,  in  all  the  Reformed  Churches. 
And  therefore,  knowing  your  charity  to  be  as  large  as  all  the  Flock  of 
Christ  who  are  of  the  same  Hope  and  Faith  of  the  Gospel  with  you  ; 
I  thought  fit  to  commend  these  few  words  to  you  ; — being  well  assured 
it  is  written  in  your  heart.  So  to  do  with  this  that  I  shall  stand  by  you 
in  the  maintaining  of  all  your  just  privileges  to  the  uttermost. 

And  committing  you  to  the  blessing  of  the  Lord,  I  rest, 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.t 


LETTER    CL. 

Cardinal  Mazartn,  the  governing  Minister  of  France  in  those 
days,  is  full  of  compliance  for  the  Lord  Protector ;  whom,  both  for  the 
sake  of  France  and  for  the  Cardinal's  sake,  it  is  very  requisite  to  keep 
in  good  humour.  On  France's  score,  there  is  Treaty  with  France  and 
War  with  its  enemy  Spain  ;  on  the  Cardinal's  are  obscure  Court- 
intrigues,  Queen-mothers,  and  one  knows  not  what  :  in  brief,  the 
subtle  Cardinal  has  found,  after  trial  of  the  opposite  course  too,  that 
friendship,  or  even  at  times  obedient-servantship  to  Cromwell,  will  be 
essentially  advantageous  to  him. 

Some  obscure  quarrel  has  fallen  out  between  Charles  Stuart  and 
the  Duke  of  York  his  Brother.  Quarrel  complicated  with  open 
politics,  with  Spanish  War  and  Royalist  Revolt,  on  Oliver's  side  ; 
with  secret  Queen-mothers  and  back-stairs  diplomacies  on  the 
Cardinal's  :— of  which  there  flit  in  the  dreariest  manner  this  and  the 
other  enigmatic  vestige  in  the  Night-realm  of  Thurloe  \X  and  which 
is  partly  the  subject  of  this  present  Letter.     A  Letter  unique  in  two 

*  Zepbaniah,  iii.  19,  20. 

t  Thurloe,  v.  714  :  in  Secretary  Thurloe's  hand. 

X  iv.  506  ;  V.  753 ;  &c.  &x. 


WHITEHALL  \yi 


respects.  It  is  the  only  one  we  have  of  OHver  Cromwell,  the  English 
Puritan  King,  to  Giulio  Mazarini,  the  Sicilian-French  Cardinal,  and 
King  of  Shreds  and  Patches  ;  who  are  a  very  singular  pair  of  Corres- 
pondents brought  together  by  the  Destinies  !  It  is  also  the  one 
ghmpse  we  have  from  Oliver  himself  of  the  subterranean  Spy-world, 
in  which  by  a  hard  necessity  so  many  of  his  thoughts  had  to  dwell, 
Oliver,  we  find,  cannot  quite  grant  Toleration  to  the  Catholics ;  but 
he  is  well  satisfied  with  this '  our  weightiest  affair,' — not  without  weight 
to  me  at  least,  who  sit  expecting  Royalist  Insurrections  backed  by 
Spanish  Invasions,  and  have  Assassins  plotting  for  my  life  at  present 
'  on  the  word  of  a  Christian  King  ! ' — 

Concerning  the  '  affair '  itself,  and  the  personages  engaged  in  it,  let 
us  be  content  that  they  should  continue  spectral  for  us,  and  dwell  in 
the  subterranean  Night-realm  which  belongs  to  them.  The  *  Person' 
employed  from  England,  if  anybody  should  be  curious  about  him,  is 
one  Colonel  Bamfield,  once  a  flaming  Presbyterian  Royalist,  who 
smuggled  the  Duke  of  York  out  of  this  Country  'in  woman's  clothes  ;' 
and  now  lives  as  an  Oliverian  Spy,  very  busy  making  mischief  for  the 
Duke  of  York.  'Berkley'  is  the  Sir  John  Berkley  who  rode  with 
Charles  First  to  the  Isle  of  Wight  long  since  -^  the  Duke  of  York's 
Tutor  at  present.  Of  '  Lockhart,'  OHver's  Ambassador  in  France,  we 
shall  perhaps  hear  again.  The  others, — let  them  continue  spectral  to 
us.  Let  us  conceive, never  so  faintly,  that  their  'affair'  is  to  maintain 
in  the  Duke  of  York  some  Anti-Spanish  notion  ;  notion  of  his  having 
a  separate  English  interest,  independent  of  his  Brother's,  perhaps 
superior  to  it  ;  wild  notion,  of  one  or  the  other  sort,  which  will  keep 
the  quarrel  wide  : — as  accordingly  we  find  it  did  for  many  months,t 
whatever  notion  it  was.  We  can  then  read  with  intelligence  sufficient 
for  us. 

*  To  his  Eminency  Cardinal  Mazarin! 

'  Whitehall,'  26th  December,  1656. 

The  obligations,  and  many  instances  of  affection,  which  I  have 
received  from  your  Eminency,  do  engage  '  me '  to  make  returns  suit- 
able to  your  merits.  But  although  I  have  this  set  home  upon  my 
spirit,  I  may  not  (shall  I  tell  you,  I  cannot  ?)  at  this  juncture  of  time, 
and  as  the  face  of  my  affairs  now  stands,  answer  to  your  call  for 
Toleration.;);  ^ 

I  say,  I  cannot,  as  to  a  public  Declaration  of  my  sense  in  that  point ; 
although  I  believe  that  under  my  Government  your  Eminency,  in  the 
behalf  of  Catholics,  has  less  reason  for  complaint  as  to  rigour  upon, 
men's  consciences  than  under  the  Parliament.  For  I  have  of  some,, 
and  those  very  many,  had  compassion  ;  making  a  difference.  Truly 
I  have  (and  I  may  speak  it  with  cheerfulness  in  the  presence  of  God, 
who  is  a  witness  within  me  to  the  truth  of  what  I  affirm)  made  a 
difference  ;  and,  as  Jude  speaks,  "  plucked  many  out  of  the  fire,"§ — ^ 

*  Antea,  i.  176. 

f  Thurloe,  iv.,  v.,  vi. ;  see  also  Biog.  Brit.  (2nd  Edition),  ii.  154. 
X  To  the  Catholics  here. 

§  Verses  22,  23  :  a  most  remarkable  Epistle,   to  which  his  Highness  oftSB^ 
enough  solemnly  refers,  as  we  have  seen. 

F  2 


132         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT 

the  raging  fire  of  persecution,  whicJi  did  tyrannise  over  their  roji- 
sciences,  and  encroached  by  an  arbitrariness  of  power  upon  tli>  u 
estates.  And  herein  it  is  my  purpose,  as  soon  as  I  can  remove  iui- 
pediments,  and  some  weights  that  press  me  down,  to  make  a  farther 
progress,  and  discharge  my  promise  to  your  Eminency  in  relation  to 
that. 

And  now  I  shall  come  to  return  your  Eminency  thanks  for  your  judi- 
cious choice  of  that  Person  to  whom  you  have  entrusted  our  weightiest 
Affair  :  an  Affair  wherein  your  Eminency  is  concerned,  though  not  in 
an  equal  degree  and  measure  with  myself.  I  must  confess  that  I  had 
some  doubts  o»f  its  success,  till  Providence  cleared  them  to  me  by  the 
effects.  I  was,  truly,  and  to  speak  ingenuously,  not  without  doubtings  ; 
and  shall  not  be  ashamed  to  give  your  Eminency  the  grounds  I  had 
for  much  doubting.  I  did  fear  that  Berkley  would  not  have  been  able 
to  go  through  and  carry  on  that  work  ;  and  that  either  the  Duke  would 
have  cooled  in  his  suit,"^  or  condescended  to  his  Brother.  I  doubted 
also  that  those  Instructions  which  I  sent  over  with  29of  were  not  clear 
enough  as  to  expressions  ;  same  affairs  here  denying  me  leisure  at 
that  time  to  be  so  particular  as,  '  in  regard  '  to  some  circumstances,  I 
would. — If  I  am  not  mistaken  in  his  'the  Duke's'  character,  as  I 
received  it  from  your  Eminency,  that  fire  which  is  kindled  between 
them  will  not  ask  bellows  to  blow  it  and  keep  it  burning.  But  what  I 
think  farther  necessary  in  this  matter  I  will  send  '  to  '  your  Eminency 
by  Lockhart. 

And  now  I  shall  boast  to  your  Eminency  my  security  upon  a  well- 
builded  confidence  in  the  Lord  :  for  I  distrust  not  but  if  this  breach 
'  be  '  widened  a  little  more,  and  this  difference  fomented,  with  a  httle 
caution  in  respect  of  the  persons  to  be  added  to  it, —  I  distrust  not  but 
that  Party,  which  is  already  forsaken  of  God  as  to  an  outward  dispen- 
sation of  mercies,  and  noisome  to  their  countrymen,  will  gow  lower 
in  the  opinion  of  all  the  world. 

If  I  have  troubled  your  Eminency  too  long  in  this,  you  may  impute 
it  to  the  resentment  of  joy  which  I  have  for  the  issue  of  this  Affair  ; 
and  '  I'  will  conclude  with  giving  you  assurance  that  I  will  never  be 
backward  in  demonstrating,  as  becomes  your  brother  and  confederate, 
tjiat  I  am, 

Your  servant, 

Oliver  P.:J: 

*  His  suit,  I  understand,  was  for  levae  to  continue  in  France  ;  an  Anti- 
Spanish  notion. 

+  Cipher  for  some  Man's  Name,  now  undecipherable;  to  all  appearance, 
Bam  field. 

Z  Thurloe,  v.  735.  In  the  possession  of  a  '  Mr.  Theophilus  Rowe  of  Hamp- 
stead  in  Middlesex,'  says  Birch.  Where  did  Rowe  get  it?  Is  it  in  the  original 
hand,  or  only  a  copy  ?  Birch  is  silent  even  as  to  the  latter  point.  T  he  style 
sufficiently  declares  it  to  be  a  genuine  Letter. 


BiNDERCOMn.  1^3 


SPEECH  VI. 

SINDERCOMB. 

The  Spanish  Invasion  and  Royalist  Insurrection  once  more  came  to 
no  effect :  on  mature  judgment  of  the  case,  it  seemed  necessary  to 
have  Oliver  Protector  assassinated  first ;  and  that,  as  usual,  could  not 
be  got  done.  Colonel  Sexby,  the  frantic  Anabaptist,  he  and  others 
have  been  very  busy  :  '  riding  among  his  Highness's  escort '  in  Hyde 
Park  and  elsewhere,  with  fleet  horses,  formidable  weapons,  with  'gate- 
hinges  ready  filed  through,'  if  the  deed  could  have  been  done  ; — but 
it  never  could.  Sexby  went  over  to  Flanders  again,  for  fresh  consul- 
tations ;  left  the  assassination-affair  in  other  hands,  with  ^i,6oo  of 
ready  money,  '  on  the  faith  of  a  Christian  King-.'  Quartermaster 
Sindercomb  takes  Sexby's  place  in  this  great  enterprise  ;  finds,  he  too, 
that  there  is  nothing  but  failure  in  it. 

Miles  Sindercomb,  now  a  cashiered  Quartermaster  living  about 
Town,  was  once  a  zealous  Deptford  lad,  who  enlisted  to  fight  for 
Liberty,  at  the  beginning  of  these  Wars.  He  foiight  strongly  on  the 
side  of  Liberty,  being  an  earnest  fierce  young  fellow  ; — then  gradually 
got  astray  into  Levelling  courses,  and  wandered  ever  deeper  there,  tiil 
daylight  forsook  him,  and  it  became  quite  dark.  He  was  one  of  the 
desperate  misguided  Corporals,  or  Quartermasters,  doomed  to  be  shot 
at  Burford,  seven  years  ago  :  but  he  escaped  over  night,  and  was  not 
shot  there  ;  took  service  in  Scotland  ;  got  again  to  be  Quartermaster  ; 
was  in  the  Overton  Plot,  for  seizing  Monk  and  marching  into  England, 
lately  :  whereupon  Monk  cashiered  him  :  and  he  came  to  Town  ; 
lodged  himself  here,  in  a  sulky  threadbare  manner, — in  Alsatia  or 
elsewhere.  A  gloomy  man  and  Ex- Quartermaster  ;  has  become  one 
of  Sexby's  people,  '  on  the  faith  of  a  Christian  King  ; '  nothing  now 
left  of  him  but  the  fierceness,  groping  some  path  for  itself  in  the  utter 
dark.  Henry  Toope,  one  of  his  Highness's  Lifeguard,  gives  us,  or  will 
give  us,  an  inkling  of  Sindercomb  ;  and  we  know  something  of  his 
courses  and  inventions,  which  are  many.  He  rode  in  Hyde  Park, 
among  his  Highness's  escort,  with  Sexby  ;  but  the  deed  could  not 
then  be  done.  Leave  me  the  i{^i,6oo  said  he  ;  and  I  will  find  a  way  to 
do  it.     Sexby  left  it  him,  and  went  abroad. 

Inventive  Sindercomb  then  took  a  House  in  Hammersmith  ; 
Garden- House,  I  think,  '  which  had  a  banqueting-room  looking  into 
the  road  ; '  road  very  narrow  at  that  part  ; — road  from  Whitehall  to 
Hampton  Court  on  Saturday  afternoons.  Inventive  Sindercomb  here 
set  about  providing  blunderbusses  of  the  due  explosive  force, — ancient 
'  infernal-machines,'  in  fact, — with  these  he  will  blow  his  Highness's 
Coach  and  Highness's  self  into  small  pieces,  if  it  please  Heaven.  It 
did  not  please  Heaven, — probably  not  Henry  Toope  of  his  Highness's 
Lifeguard.     This  first  scheme  proved  a  failure. 

Inventive  Sindercomb,  to  justify  his  ;^i,6oo  had  to  try  something. 


134         SECOAD  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

He  decided  to  fire  Whitehall  by  night,  and  have  a  stroke  at  his  High- 
ness in  the  tumult.  He  has  *a  hundred  swift  horses,  two  in  a  stable, 
up  and  down  : ' — set  a  hundred  stout  ruffians  on  the  back  of  these,  in 
the  nocturnal  fire  ;  and  try.  Thursday,  8th  January,  1656-7  ;  that  is 
to  be  the  Night.  On  the  dusk  of  Thursday,  January  8th,  he  with  old- 
trooper  Cecil,  his  second  in  the  business,  attends  Public  Worship  in 
Whitehall  Chapel  ;  is  seen  loitering  there  afterwards,  '  near  the  Lord 
Lambert's  seat.'  Nothing  n^ore  is  seen  of  him  :  but  about  half-past 
eleven  at  night,  the  sentinel  on  guard  catches  a  smell  of  fire  ;— finds 
holed  wainscots,  picked  locks  ;  a  basket  of  the  most  virulent  wildfire, 
*  fit  to  burn  through  stones,' — with  lit  match  slowly  creeping  towards 
it,  computed  to  reach  it  in  some  half-hour  hence,  about  the  stroke  of 
midnight'! — His  Highness  is  summoned,  the  Council  is  summoned  ; — 
alas  Toope  of  the  Lifeguard  is  examined,  and  Sindercomb's  lodging 
is  known.  Just  when  the  wildfire  should  have  blazed,  two  Guardsmen 
wait  upon  Sindercomb  ;  seize  him,  not  without  hard  defence  on  his 
part,  '  wherein  his  nose  was  nearly  cut  off  ; '  bring  him  to  his  Highness. 
Toope  testifies  ;  Cecil  peaches  : — inventive  Sindercomb  has  failed  for 
the  last  time.  To  the  Tower  wath  him,  to  a  jury  of  his  country  with 
him  ! — The  emotion  in  the  Parliament  and  in  the  Public,  next  morning, 
was  great.  It  had  been  proposed  to  ring  an  alarm  at  the  moment  of 
discovery,  and  summon  the  Trainbands  ;  but  his  Highness  would  not 
hear  of  it.* 

This  Parliament,  really  intent  on  settling  the  Nation,  could  not 
want  for  emotions  in  regard  to  such  a  matter  !  Parliament  adjourns 
for  a  week,  till  the  roots  of  the  Plot  are  investigated  somewhat. 
Parliament,  on  reassembling,  appoints  a  day  of  Thanksgiving  for  the 
Nation  ;  Friday  come  three  weeks,  which  is  February  20th,  that  shall 
be  the  general  Thanksgiving  Day  :  and  in  the  meantime  we  decide  to 
go  over  in  a  body,  and  congratulate  his  Highness.  A  mark  of  great 
respect  to  him.f 

Parliament  accordingly  goes  over  in  a  body,  with  mellifluous 
Widdrington,  whom  they  have  chosen  for  Speaker,  at  their  head,  to 
congratulate  his  Highness.  It  is  Friday,  23rd  January,  1656-7  ;  about 
Eleven  in  the  morning  ;  scene,  Banqueting-house,  Whitehall.  Melli- 
fluous Widdrington's  congratulation,  not  very  prolix,  exists  in  abstract  ;J 
but  we  suppress  it.  Here  is  his  Highness's  Reply  ;— rather  satisfactory 
to  the  reader.  We  have  only  to  regret  that  in  passing  from  the  Court 
up  to  the  Banqueting-house,  *  part  of  an  ancient  wooden  staircase,'  or 
balustrade  of  a  staircase,  '  long  exposed  to  the  weather,  gave  way  in 
the  crowding ;  '§  and  some  honourable  Gentlemen  had  falls,  though 
happily  nobody  was  seriously  hurt.  Mellifluous  Widdrington  having 
ended,  his  Highness  answers  : 

*  Burton,  i.  322,  3,  355 ;  Official  Narrative  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  160,  i) ;  State- 
Tnals,  V.  §  Sindercomb. 

t  Commons  Journals,  vii.  481,  493;   Burton's  Diary,  i.  369,  377. 

X  Burton,  ii.  488. 

§  Cromwelliana,  p.  162.  See  Thurloe  (vi.  49),  and  correct  poor  Noble  (i.  161), 
who,  with  a  double  or  even  triple  blunder,  says  My  Lord  Richard  Cromwell  had 
his  leg  broken  on  this  occasion,  and  dates  it  August  1657. 


SPEECH  VI.  135 


Mr.  Speaker, 

I  confess  with  much  respect,  that  you  have  put  this  trouble  on 
yourselves  upon  this  occasion  : — but  I  perceive  there  be  two  things 
that  fill  me  full  of  sense.  One  is,  The  mercy  on  a  poor  unworthy 
creature  ;  the  second  is,  This  great  and,  as  I  said,  unexpected  kind- 
ness of  Parliament,  in  manifesting  such  a  sense  thereof  as  this  is 
which  you  have  now  expressed.  I  speak  not  this  with  compliment  ! 
That  which  detracts  from  the  thing,  in  some  sense,  is  the  inconsider- 
ableness  and  unworthiness  of  the  person  that  hath  been  the  object 
and  subject  of  this  deliverance,  to  wit,  myself.  I  confess  ingenuously 
to  you,  I  do  lie  under  the  daily  sense  of  my  unworthiness  and  unpro- 
fitableness, as  I  have  expressed  to  you  :  and  if  there  be,  as  I  most 
readily  acknowledge  there  is,  a  mercy  in  it  to  me,  I  wish  I  may 
never  reckon  it  on  any  other  account  than  this,  That  the  life  that  is 
lengthened,  may  be  spent  and  improved  to  His  honour  who  hath 
vouchsafed  the  mercy,  and  to  the  service  of  you,  and  those  you  represent. 

I  do  not  know,  nor  did  I  think  it  would  be  very  seasonable  for  me, 
to  say  much  to  you  upon  this  occasion  ;  being  a  thing  that  ariseth 
from  yourselves.  Yet,  methinks,  the  kindness  you  bear  should  kindle 
a  little  desire  in  me  ;  even  at  this  present,  to  make  a  short  return. 
And,  as  you  have  been  disposed  hither  by  the  Providence  of  God,  to 
congratulate  my  mercy ;  so  give  me  leave,  in  a  very  word  or  two,  to 
congratulate  with  you.  {^Rtisty,  but  sincere.] 

Congratulations  are  ever  conversant  about  good,  bestowed  upon 
men,  or  possessed  by  them.  Truly,  I  shall  in  a  word  or  two  congra- 
tulate you  with  goody 01^  are  in  possession  of,  and  in  some  respect,  I 
also  with  you.  God  hath  bestowed  upon  you,  and  you  are  in  posses- 
sion of  it, — Three  Nations,  and  all  that  appertains  to  them.  Which 
in  either  a  geographical,  or  topical  consideration,  are  Nations.  \Indis- 
putably  r\  In  which  also  there  are  places  of  honour  and  considera- 
tion, not  inferior  to  any  in  the  known  world, — without  vanity  it  may 
be  spoken.  Truly  God  hath  not  made  so  much  soil,  furnished  with 
so  many  blessings,  in  vain  !  \^Here  is  an  idea  of  one's  own.]  But  it 
is  a  goodly  sight,  if  a  man  behold  it  tmo  intuitti.  And  therefore  this 
is  a  possession  of  yours,  worthy  of  congratulation. 

This  is  furnished, — give  me  leave  to  say,  for  I  believe  it  is  true, 
—with  the  best  People  in  the  world,  possessing  so  much  soil.  A 
People  in  civil  rights, — in  respect  of  their  rights  and  privileges, 
— very  ancient  and  honourable.  And  in  this  People,  in  the  midst 
of  this-  People,  '  you  have,  what  is  still  more  precious,'  a  People 
(I  know  every  one  will  hear  '  and  acknowledge '  it)  that  are  to  God 
"  as  the  apple  of  His  eye," — and  He  says  so  of  them,  be  they  many, 
or  be  they  few  !  But  they  are  many.  A  People  of  the  blessing  of 
God  ;  a  People  under  His  safety  and  protection.  A  People  calling 
upon  the  Name  of  the  Lord  ;  which  the  Heathen  do  not.  A  People 
knowing  God  ;  and  a  People  (according  to  the  ordinary  expressions) 
fearing  God.  \We  hope  so  J]  And  you  have  of  this  no  parallel ;  no, 
not  in  all  the  world  !     You  have  in  the  midst  of  you  glorious  things. 

Glorious  things  :  for  you  have  Laws  and  statutes,  and  ordinances, 
which,  though  not  all  of  them  so  comformable  as  were  to  be  wished  to 


136         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT       . 

the  Law  of  God,  yet,  on  all  hands,  pretend  not  to  be  long  rested  in 
farther  than  as  they  are  comformable  to  the  just  and  righteous  Laws  of 
God.  Therefore,  I  am  persuaded,  there  is  a  heart  and  spirit  in  every 
good  man  to  wish  they  did  all  of  them  answer  the  Pattern.  [Veal] 
I  cannot  doubt  but  that  which  is  in  the  heart  will  in  due  time  break 
forth.  [Am^  we  shall  actually  have  Just  Laws,  your  Highness  thinks  .^] 
That  endeavours  will  be  '  made '  that  way,  is  another  of  your  good 
things,  with  which  in  my  heart  '  I  think'  you  are  worthily  to  be  con- 
gratulated. And  you  have  a  Magistracy  ;  which,  in  outward  profes- 
sion, in  pretence,  in  endeavour,  doth  desire  to  put  life  into  these 
Laws.  And  I  am  confident  that  among  yo?/.  will  rest  the  true  desire 
to  promote  every  desire  in  others,  and  every  endeavour,  that  hath 
tended  or  shall  tend  to  the  putting  of  these  Laws  in  execution. 

I  do  'also'  for  this  congratulate  you  :  You  have  a  Gospel  Ministry 
among  you.  That  have  you  !  Such  an  one  as, — without  vanity  I 
shall  speak  it  ;  or  without  caring  at  all  for  any  favour  or  respect  from 
the?n,  save  what  I  have  upon  an  account  above  flattery,  or  good  words, 
— such  an  one  as  hath  excelled  itself  ;  and,  I  am  persuaded, — to  speak 
with  confidence  before  the  l  ord, — is  the  most  growing  blessing  (one 
of  the  most  growing  blessings)  on  the  face  of  this  Nation. 

You  have  a  good  Eye  '  to  watch  over  you,' — and  in  that  I  will  share 
with  your  good  favours.  A  good  God  ;  a  God  that  hath  watched  over 
you  and  us.  A  God  that  hath  visited  these  Nations  with  a  stretched-out 
arm  ;  and  borne  His  witness  against  the  unrighteousness  and  ungod- 
liness of  men,  against  those  that  'would'  have  abused  such  Nations, 
— such  mercies  throughout,  as  I  have  reckoned  up  unto  you  !  A  God 
that  hath  not  only  withstood  such  to  the  face  ;  but  a  God  that  hath 
abundantly  blessed  you  with  the  evidence  of  His  goodness  and 
presence.  And  He  "hath  done  things  wonderful  amongst  us," "  by 
terrible  things  in  righteousness."^  He  hath  visited  us  by  "wonderful 
things  ! "  [A  Time  of  Miracle ;  as  indeed  all  "  Times "  are,  your 
Higlmess,  when  there  are  Men  alive  in  them  !\  In  mercy  and  com- 
passion hath  he  given  us  this  day  of  freedom,  and  liberty  to  speak 
this,  one  to  another  ;  and  to  speak  of  His  mercies,  as  he  hath  been 
pleased  to  put  into  our  hearts.  [  Where  now  are  the  Starchambers^ 
High  Commissions,  Comtcil-Chambers ;  pitiless  oppressors  of  God's 
Gospel  in  this  land?  The  Hatigmen  with  their  whips  and  red-hot 
branding-irons,  with  their  Three  blood-sprinkled  Pillories  in  Old 
Palaceyard,  and  Four  clean  Stirplices  at  A  llhallow tide, —where  are 
they  ?  Vanished.  Much  has  vanished;  fled  from  us  like  the  Phan- 
tasms of  a  Nightmare  Dream  .^] 

Truly,  this  word  in  conclusion.  If  these  things  be  so,  give  me  leave 
to  remember  you  but  one  word  ;  which  I  offered  to  you  with  great 
love  and  affection  the  first  day  of  meeting  with  you,  this  Parliament. 
It  pleased  God  to  put  into  my  heart  then  to  mention  a  Scripture  to 
you,  which  would  be  a  good  conclusion  of  my  Speech  now  at  this  time 
to  you.  It  was,  That  we  being  met  to  seek  the  good  of  so  great  an 
Interest,  as  I  have  mentioned,  and  the  glory  of  that  God  who  is  both 
yours  and  mine,  how  could  we  better  do  it  than  bv  thinking  of  such 
words  as  these,  "  His  salvation  is  nigh  them  that  Vear  Him,"  "  that 
*  Isaiah,  xxv.  i;  Psalm  ixv.  5. 


SPEECH  VI. 


*'  glory  may  dwell  in  our  land  !  "  I  would  not  comment  iipon  it,  I 
hope  I  fear  Him  ; — and  let  us  more  fear  Him  !  if  this  'present' 
mercy  at  all  doth  concern  you,  as  I  see  it  doth, — let  me,  and  I  hope 
you  will  with  me,  labour  more  to  fear  Him  I  ^Amen  /]  Then  we  have 
done,  '  that  includes  all  ; '  seeing  such  a  blessing  as  His  salvation  "  is 
nigh  them  that  fear  Him," — seeing  we  are  all  of  us  representatives  of 
all  the  good  of  all  these  lands,  '  to  endeavour  with  our  whole  strength  ' 
*'  that  glory  may  dwell  in  our  land." 

*  Yes,'  if  it  be  so,  "  Mercy  and  Truth  shall  meet  together,  Righteous- 
ness and  Peace  shall  kiss  each  other."  We  shall  know,  you,  and  I  as 
the  father  of  this  family,  how  to  dispose  our  mercies  to  God's  glory  ; 
and  how  to  dispose  our  severity.  How  to  distinguish  between  obedient 
and  rebellious  children  ; — and  not  to  do  as  Eli  did,  who  told  his  sons 
"he  did  not  hear  well  of  them,"  when  perhaps  he  saw  ill  by  them. 
And  we  know  the  severity  of  that.  And,  therefoie,  let  me  say, — 
— though  I  will  not  descant  upon  the  words,— that  Mercy  must  be 
joined  with  Truth  :  Truth,  in  that  respect,  that  we  think  it  our  duty 
to  exercise  a  just  severity,  as  well  as  to  apply  kindness  and  mercy. 
And,  truly,  Righteousness  and  Mercy  must  kiss  each  other.  If  we 
will  have  Peace  without  a  worm  in  it,  lay  we  foundations  of  Justice 
and  Righteousness.  \^tlear  this  Lord  Protector  /]  And  if  it  shall 
please  God  so  to  move  you,  as  that  you  marry  this  redoubtable 
Couple  together,  Mercy  and  Truth,  Righteousness  and  Peace, — you 
will,  if  I  may  be  free  to  say  so,  be  blessed  whether  you  will  or  no  ! 
And  that  you  and  I  may,  for  the  time  the  Lord  shall  continue  us 
together,  set  our  hearts  upon  this,  shall  be  my  daily  prayer.  And  I 
heartily  and  humbly  acknowledge  my  thankfulness  to  you.* 

On  Monday  9th  February,  Sindercomb  was  tried  by  a  jury  in  the 
Upper  Bench  ;  and  doomed  to  suffer  as  a  traitor  and  assassin,  on  the 
Saturday  following.  The  night  before  Saturday  his  poor  Sister, 
though  narrowly  watched,  smuggled  him  some  poison  :  he  went  to 
bed,  saying,  "  Well,  this  is  the  last  time  I  shall  go  to  bed  ; "  the  atten- 
dants heard  him  snore  heavily,  and  then  cease  ;  they  looked,  and  he 
lay  dead.     '  He  was  of  that  wretched  sect  called  Soul-Sleepers,  who 

*  believe  that  the  soul  falls  asleep  at  death  :  'f  a  gloomy,  far-misguided 
man.  They  buried  him  on  Tower-hill  with  due  ignominy,  and  there 
he  rests  ;  with  none  but  Frantic-Anabaptist  Sexby,  or  Deceptive- 
Presbyterian  Titus,  to  sing  his  praise  :j: 

Next  Friday,  Friday  the  20th,  which  was  Thanksgivmg  Day,    the 

*  Honourable  House,  after  hearing  two   Sermons  at  Margaret's  West- 

*  minster,  partook  of  a  most  princely  Entertainment,' by  invitatiom 
from  his  Highness,  at  Whitehall.     'After  dinner  his  Highness  with- 

*  drew  to  the  Cockpit ;  and  there  entertained  them  with  rare  music, 

*  Burton's  Diary  (from  Lansdown  MSS.  755,  no.  244),  ii.  490-3. 
f  Cromwelliana,  p.  162. 

X  '  Equal  to  a  Roman  in  virtue,'  says  the  noisy  Pamphlet  Killing  110  Murder, 
which  seems  to  have  been  written  by  Sexby.  though  Titus,  as  adroit  Kmgs- 
Flunkey,  at  an  after-period,  saw  "ood  to  claim  it.  A  Pamphlet  nmch  noised  ot  m 
tQose  months  and  afterwards;  recommending  all  persons  to  a^sasstnaie  Cromwell; 
—has  this  merit,  considerable  pr  not,  and  no  other  v\orib  speaking  of. 


138         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

*both  of  voices  and  instruments,  till  the  evening;'*  his  Highness 
being  very  fond  of  music.  In  this  manner  end,  once  more,  the  grand 
Assassination  projects,  Spanish-Invasion  projects;  unachievable 
even  the  Preface  of  them ;— and  now  we  will  speak  of  somethmg 
else. 


LETTER  CLL;  SPEECHES  VII.— XIII. 

KINGSHIP. 

This  Second  Protectorate  Parliament,  at  least  while  the  fermenting 
elements  or  '  hundred  Excluded  Members '  are  held  aloof  from  it, 
unfolds  itself  to  us  as  altogether  reconciled  to  the  rule  of  Oliver,  or 
even  right  thankful  for  it ;  and  really  striving  towards  Settlement  of 
the  Nation  on  that  basis.  Since  the  first  constitutioning  Parliament 
went  its  ways,  here  is  a  great  change  among  us  :  three  years  of  suc- 
cessful experiment  have  thrown  some  light  on  Oliver,  and  his  mode 
of  ruling,  to  all  Englishmen.  What  can  a  wise  Puritan  Englishman  do 
but  decide  on  complying  with  Oliver,  on  strengthening  the  hands  of 
Oliver  ?  Is  he  not  verily  doing  the  thing  we  all  wanted  to  see  done  t 
The  old  Parchments  of  the  case  may  have  been  a  little  hustled,  as  in- 
deed in  a  Ten- Years  Civil  War,  ending  in  the  Execution  of  a  King,  they 
could  hardly  fail  to  be  ; — but  the  divine  Fact  of  the  case,  meseems,  is 
well  cared  for  !  Here  is  a  Governing  Man,  undeniably  the  most 
English  of  Englishmen,  the  most  Puritan  of  Puritans, — the  Pattern 
Man,  I  must  say,  according  to  tlie  model  of  that  Seventeenth  Century 
in  England  ;  and  a  Great  Man,  denizen  of  all  the  Centuries,  or  he 
could  never  have  been  the  Pattern  one  in  that.  Truly,  my  friends, 
I  think,  you  may  go  farther  and  fare  worse  ! — To  the  darkest  head  in 
England,  even  to  the  assassinative  truculent-flunkey  head  in  steeple- 
hat  worn  brown,  some  light  has  shone  out  of  these  three  years  of 
Government  by  Oliver.  An  uncommon  Oliver,  even  to  the  truculent- 
flunkey.  If  not  the  noblest  and  worshipfullest  of  all  Englishmen, 
at  least  the  strongest  and  terriblest ;  with  whom  really  it  might  be 
as  well  to  comply ;  with  whom,  in  fact,  there  is  small  hope  in  not 
complying  ! — 

For  its  wise  temper  and  good  practical  tendency,  let  us  praise  this 
Second  Parliament ;— admit  nevertheless  that  its  History,  like  that  of 
most  Parliaments,  amounts  to  little.  This  Parliament  did  what  they 
could  :  forbore  to  pester  his  Highness  with  quibblings  and  cavillings 
and  constitution-pedantries ;  accomplished  respectably  the  Parlia- 
mentary routine  ;  voted,  what  perhaps  was  all  that  could  be  expected 
of  them,   some   needful   modicum   of  supplies  ;  '  debated  whether  it 

•  Newr-spapers  (in  Burton,  i.  377) ;  Commons  Journals,  vii.  493. 


kTNGSHlP.  13$ 


should  be  debated/  '  put  the  question  whether  this  question  should  be 
put/ — and  in  a  mild  way  neutralised  one  another,  and  as  it  were  hand- 
somely did  nothings  and  left  OHver  to  do.  A  record  of  their  proceed- 
ings has  been  jotted  down  by  one  of  their  Members  there  present, 
who  is  guessed  rather  vaguely  by  Editorial  sagacity  to  have  been  '  one 
Mr.  Burton.'  It  was  saved  from  the  fire  in  late  years,  that  Record  ; 
has  been  printed  under  the  title  of  Burton's  Diary  ;  and  this  Editor 
has  faithfully  read  it, — not  without  wonder  once  more  at  the  in- 
adequacy of  the  human  pen  to  convey  almost  any  glimmering  of 
insight  to  the  distant  human  mind  !  Alas,  the  human  pen,  oppressed 
by  incubus  of  Parliamentary  or  other  Pedantry,  is  a  most  poor  matter. 
At  bottom,  if  we  will  consider  it,  this  poor  Burton, — let  us  continue 
to  call  him  '  Burton/  though  that  was  not  his  name, — cared  nothing 
about  these  matters  himself ;  merely  jotted  them  down  pedantically, 
by  impulse  from  without, — that  he  might  seem,  in  his  own  eyes  and 
those  of  others,  a  knowing  person,  enviable  for  insight  into  facts  '  of 
an  high  nature.'  And  now,  by  what  possibility  of  chance,  can  he 
interest  thee  or  me  about  them  ;  now  when  they  have  turned  out  to 
be  facts  of  no  nature  at  all, — mere  wearisome  ephemera,  cast- clothes 
of  facts,  gone  all  to  dust  and  ashes  now  ;  which  the  healthy  human 
mind  resolutely,  not  without  impatience,  tramples  under  its  feet !  A 
Book  filled,  as  so  many  are,  with  mere  dim  inanity,  and  moaning 
wind.  Will  nobody  condense  it  into  sixteen  pages  ;  instead  of  four 
thick  octavo  volumes  ?  For  there  are,  if  you  look  long,  some  streaks 
of  dull  light  shining  even  through  //;  perhaps,  in  judicious  hands, 
one  readable  sheet  of  sixteen  pages  might  be  made  of  it  ; — and  even 
the  rubbish  of  the  rest,  with  a  proper  Index,  might  be  useful  ;  might 
at  least  be  left  to  rot  quietly,  once  it  was  known  to  be  rubbish.  But 
enough  now  of  poor  Mr.  Burton  and  his  Diary, — who,  as  we  say,  is 
not '  Mr.  Burton  '  at  all,  if  anybody  cared  to  know  who  or  what  he 
was  !•  Undoubtedly  some  very  dull  man.  Under  chimerical  circum- 
stances he  gives  us,  being  fated  to  do  it,  an  inane  History  of  a  Parlia- 
ment now  itself  grown  very  inane  and  chimerical  ! — 

This  Parliament,  as  we  transiently  saw,  suppressed  the  Major- 
Generals  ;  refused  to  authorise  their  continued  '  Decimation '  or  Ten- 
per-centing  of  the  Royalists  ;t  whereupon  they  were  suppressed.  Its 
next  grand  feat  was  that  of  James  Nayler  and  his  Procession  which 
we  saw  at  Bristol  lately.  Interminable  Debates  about  James  Nayler, 
— excelling  in  stupor  all  the  Human  Speech,  even  in  English  Parlia- 
ments, this  Editor  has  ever  been  exposed  to.  Nayler,  in  fact,  is 
almost  all  that  survives  with  one,  frpm  Burton,  as  the  sum  of  what 
this  Parliament  did.  If  they  did  aught  else,  the  human  mind,  eager 
enough  to  carry  otf  news  of  them,  has  mostly  dropt  it  on  the  way 
hither.     To  Posterity  they  sit  there  as  the  James- Nayler  Parliament, 

*  Compare  the  Diary,  vol.  ii.  p.  404,  line  2,  and  vol.  ii.  p.  347,  line  7,  with  Com- 
mons Journals,  vii.  588  ;  and  again  Diary,  vol.  ii.  p.  346,  line  13,  with  Commons 
Journals,  vii.  450,  580:  Two  I'arliament-Committees,  on  both  of  which  "I"  the 
writer  of  the  Diary  sat ;  in  neither  of  which  is  there  such  a  name  as  Burton.  Guess 
rather,  if  it  were  worth  while  to  guess,  one  of  the  two  Suffolk  Bacons  ;  most  pro- 
bably Nathaniel  Bacon,  Master  of  tlie  'Court  of  Requests,' — a  dim  old  Law-Court 
fallen  obsolete  now. 

*  Commons  Journals,  7  Jan.— 29  Jan.  1656-7. 


140         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT.     . 

Four  hundred  Gentlemen  of  England,  and  I  think  a  sprinkling  of 
Lords  anioni,^  them,  assembled  from  all  Counties  and  Boroughs  of  the 
Three  Nations,  to  set  in  solemn  debate  on  this  terrific  Phenomenon  ; 
a  Mad  (2uaker  fancying  or  seeming  to  fancy  himself,  what  is  not  un- 
common since,  a  new  Incarnation  of  Christ.  Shall  we  hang  him, 
shall  we  whip  him,  bore  the  tongue  of  him  with  hot  iron  ;  shall  we 
imprison  him,  set  him  to  oakum  ;  shall  we  roast,  or  boil,  or  stew  him  ; 
—  shall  we  put  the  question  whether  this  question  shall  be  put ;  debate 
whether  this  shall  be  debated  ;— in  Heaven's  name,  what  shall  we  do 
with  him,  the  terrific  Phenomenon  of  Nayler  ?  This  is  the  history  of 
Oliver's  Second  Parliament  for  three  long  months  and  odd.  Nowhere 
does  the  unfathomable  Deep  of  Dulness  which  our  English  character 
has  in  it,  more  stupendously  disclose  itself.  Something  almost  grand 
in  it ;  nay,  something  really  grand,  though  in  our  impatience  we  call 
it  "  dull."  They  hold  by  Use  and  Wont,  these  honourable  Gentlemen, 
almost  as  by  Laws  of  Nature, — by  Second  Nature  almost  as  by  First 
Nature.  Pious  too  ;  and  would  fain  know  rightly  the  way  to  new 
objects  by  the  old  roads,  without  trespass.  Not  insignificant  this 
English  character,  which  can  placidly  debate  such  matters,  and  even 
feel  a  certain  smack  of  delight  in  them  !  A  massiveness  of  eupeptic 
vigour  speaks  itself  there,  which  perhaps  the  liveliest  wit  might  envy. 
Who  is  there  that  has  the  strength  of  ten  oxen,  that  is  able  to  support 
these  things .?  Couldst  thou  debate  on  Nayler,  day  after  day,  for  a 
whole  Winter?  Thou,  if  the  sky  were  threatening  to  fall  on  account 
of  it,  wouldst  sink  under  such  labour,  appointed  only  for  the  oxen  of 
the  gods  ! — The  honourable  Gentlemen  set  Nayler  to  ride  with  his 
face  to  the  tail,  through  various  streets  and  cities  ;  to  be  whipt  (poor 
Nayler),  to  be  branded,  to  be  bored  through  the  tongue,  and  then  to 
do  oakum  ad  libitum  upon  bread  and  water  ;  after  which  he  repented, 
confessed  himself  mad,  and  this  world-great  Phenomenon,  visible  to 
Posterity  and  the  West  of  England,  was  got  winded  up.* 


LETTER   CLE 

•Concerning  which,  however^  and  by  what  power  of  jurisdiction 
the  honourable  Gentlemen  did  it,  his  Highness  has  still  some  inquiry 
to  make  ;--for  the  limits  of  jurisdiction  between  Parliament  and  Law- 
Courts,  Parliament  and  Single  Person,  are  never  yet  very  clear ;  and 
Parliaments  uncontrolled  by  a  Single  Person  have'been  known  to  be 
very  tyrannous  before  now  !  On  Friday  26th  December,  Speaker 
Widdrington  intimates  that  he  is  honoured  with  a  Letter  from  his 
Highness  ;  and  reads  the  same  in  these  words  : 

*  Sentence  pronounced,  Commons  Journals,  vii.  486,  7(16  Dec.  1656)  ;  executed 
in  part,  Thursday  18  Dec.  (ib.  470)  ;— petitions,  negotiations  on  it  do  not  end  till 
May  26,  1657.    James  Nayler's  Recantation  (Somers  Tracts,  vi.  22-29). 


KINGSHIP,  141 


To  our  Right  Trusty  and  Right  Well-beloved  Sir  Thomas  Wid- 
dringion,  Speaker  of  the  Parliainent :  To  be  communicated  to 
the  Parliament. 

O.  P. 

Right  Trusty  and  Well-beloved,  we  greet  you  well.  Having  taken 
notice  of  a  Judgment  lately  given  by  Yourselves  against  one  James 
Nayler  :  Although  we  detest  and  abhor  the  giving  or  occasioning  the 
least  countenance  to  persons  of  such  opinions  and  practices,  or  who 
are  under  the  guilt  of  the  crimes  commonly  imputed  to  the  said  Per- 
son :  Yet  We,  being  entrusted  in  the  present  Government,  on  behalf 
of  the  People  of  these  Nations  ;  and  not  knowing  how  far  such  Pro- 
ceeding, entered  into  wholly  without  Us,  may  extend  in  the  con- 
sequence of  it, — Do  desire  that  the  House  will  let  us  know  the  grounds 
and  reasons  whereupon  they  have  proceeded. 

Given  at  Whitehall  the  25th  of  December  1656.* 

A  pertinent  inquiry  ;  which  will  lead  us  into  new  wildernesses  of 
Debate,  into  ever  deeper  wildernesses  ; — and  in  fact  into  our  far 
notablest  achievement,  what  may  be  called  our  little  oasis,  or  island 
of  refuge  :  That  of  reconstructing  the* Instrument  of  Government  upon 
a  more  liberal  footing,  explaining  better  the  boundaries  of  Parlia- 
ment's and  Single  Person's  jurisdiction  ;  and  offering  his  Highness 
the  Title  of  King. — 

Readers  know  what  choking  dust-whirlwind  in  certain  portions  of 
*the  Page  of  History'  this  last  business  has  given  rise  to  !  Dust- 
History,  true  to  its  nature,  has  treated  this  as  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant businesses  in  Oliver's  Protectorate  ;  though  intrinsically  it 
was  to  Oliver,  and  is  to  us,  a  mere  '  feather  in  a  man's  cap,'  throwing 
no  new  light  on  Oliver  ;  and  ought  to  be  treated  with  great  brevity 
indeed,  had  it  not  to  many  thrown  much  new  darkness  on  him.  It  is 
now  our  painful  duty  to  deal  with  this  matter  also  ;  to  extricate  Oliver's 
r  al  words  and  procedure  on  it  from  the  detestable  confusions  and 
lumber-mountains  of  Human  Stupidity,  old  and  recent,  under  which 
as  usual  they  lie  buried.  Some  Seven  Speeches  of  Oliver,  and  in- 
numerable Speeches  of  others  persons  on  this  subject  have  unluckily 
come  down  to  us  ;  and  cannot  yet  be  consumed  by  fire  ; — not  yet  till 
one  has  painfully  extricated  the  real  speakings  and  proceedings  of 
Oliver,  instead  of  the  supposititious  jargonings  and  imaginary  dark 
pettifoggings  of  Oliver  ;  and  asked  candid  mankind.  Whether  there  is 
anything  particular  in  them?  Mankind  answering  No,  fire  can  be 
applied  ;  and  mountains  of  rubbish,  yielding  or  not  some  fractions  of 
Corinthian  brass,  may  once  more  be  burnt  out  of  men's  way. 

The  Speeches  and  Colloquies,  reported  by  one  knows  not  whom, 
upon  this  matter  of  the  Kingship,  which  extend  from  March  to  May 
of  the  year  1657,  and  were  very  private  at  the  time,  came  out  two 
years  afterwards  as  a  printed  Pamphlet,  when  Kingship  was  once  more 
the  question,  Charles  Stuart's  Kingship,  and  men  needed  incitements 
thereto.     Of  course  it  is  with  the  learned  Lnw-arguments  in  favour  of 

*  Burton,  i.  370;  see  Commons  Journals,  vii.  475. 


142         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT: 

Kingship  that  the  Pamphleteer  is  chiefly  concerned  ;  the  words  of 
OHver  which  again  arc  our  sole  concern,  have  been  left  by  him  in  a 
very  accidental  condition !  Most  accidental,  often  enough  quite 
meaningless  distracted  condition  ;— growing  ever  ircre  distracted,  as 
each  new  Imaginary-Editor  and  unchecked  Printer,  in  succession, 
did  his  part  to  them.  Till  now  in  Sojners  Tracts,'*'  which  is  our 
latest  form  of  the  business,  they  strike  description  silent !  Chaos 
itself  is  Cosmos  in  comparison  with  that  Pamphlet  in  So?ners.  In  or 
out  of  Bedlam,  we  can  know  well,  gods  or  men  never  spake  to  one 
another  in  that  manner !  Oliver  Cromwell's  meaning  is  there  ;  and 
that  is  not  it.  O  Sluggardship,  Imaginary-Editorship,  Flunkeyism, 
Falsehood,  Human  Platitude  in  general — !— But  we  will  complain  of 
nothing.  Know  well,  by  experience  of  him,  that  Oliver  Cromwell 
always  had  a  meaning,  and  an  honest  manful  meaning  ;  search  well 
for  that,  after  ten  or  twenty  reperusals  you  will  find  it  even  there. 
Those  frightful  jungles,  trampled  down  for  two  centuries  now  by  mere 
bisons  and  hoofed  cattle,  you  will  begin  to  see,  ivcre  once  a  kind  of 
regularly  planted  wood  !—  Let  the  Editor  with  all  brevity  struggle  to 
indicate  so  much,  candid  readers  doing  their  part  along  with  him ; 
and  so  leave  it.  A  happier  next  generation  will  then  be  permitted  to 
seek  the  aid  of  ^re ;  and  this  immense  business  of  the  Kingship, 
throwing  little  new  light  but  also  no  new  darkness  upon  Ohver  Pro- 
tector, will  then  reduce  itself  to  very  small  compass  for  his 
Biographers. 

Monday^  22,rd  February,  1656-7.  Amid  the  Miscellaneous  busi- 
ness of  this  day.  Alderman  Sir  Christopher  Pack,  one  of  the  Members 
for  London,  a  zealous  man,  craves  leave  to  introduce  *  Somewhat 
tending  to  the  Settlement  of  the  Nation,' — leave,  namely,  to  read  this 
Paper  '  which  has  come  to  his  hand,'  which  is  written  in  the  form  of 
a  *  Remonstrance  from  the  Parliament'  to  his  Highness;  which  if 
the  Parliament  please  to  adopt,  they  can  modify  it  as  they  see  good, 
and  present  the  same  to  his  Highness.  Will  not  the  Honourable 
House  consent  at  least  to  hear  it  read?  The  Honourable  House  has 
great  doubts  on  that  subject ;  debates  at  much  length,  earnestly  puts 
the  question  whether  the  question  shall  be  put ;  at  length  however, 
after  two  divisions,  and  towards  nightfall,  decides  that  it  will ;  and 
even  resolves  by  overwhelming  majority  *  that  a  candle  be  brought 
in.'  Pack  reads  his  Paper  :  A  new  Instrument  of  Government,  or 
improved  Constitution  for  these  Nations ;  increased  powers  to  the 
Single  Person,  intimation  of  a  Second  Itiouse.  of  Parliament,  the  Pro- 
tector something  like  a  King  ;  very  great  changes  indeed  1  Debate 
this  matter  farther  tomorrow. 

Debate  it,  manipulate  it,  day  after  day, — let  us  have  a  Day  of 
Fasting  and  Prayer  on  Friday  next ;  for  the  matter  is  really  impor- 
tantt  On  farther  manipulation,  this  '  Remonstrance '  of  Pack's  takes 
improved  form,  increased  development ;  and,  under  the  name  '  Peti- 
tion and  Advice  presented  to  his  Highness,'  became  famous  to  the 
world  in  those  spring  months.  We  can  see,  the  Honourable  House 
has  'a  very  good  resentment  of  it'  The  Lawyer-party  is  all  zealous 
for  it ;  certain  of  the  Soldier-party  have  their  jealousies.  Already, 
*  vi.  349"403'  t  Commons  Journals,  vii.  496,  7. 


KINGSHIP.  143 


notwithstanding  the  official  reticence,  it  is  plain  to  every  clear-sighted 
man  they  mean  to  make  his  Highness  King  I 

Friday,  2yth  February.     '  The  Parliament  keep  a  Fast  within  their 

*  own  House  ;  Mr.  Caryl,  Mr.  Nye,  Mr.  Manton,  carrying  on  the  work 

*  of  the  day  ;  it  being  preparatory  to  the  great  work  now  on  hand  of 

*  Settling  the  Nation.'*  In  the  course  of  which  same  day,  with  an 
eye  also  to  the  same  great  work,  though  to  the  opposite  side  of  it, 
there  waits  upon  his  Highness,  Deputation  of  a  Hundred  Officers, 
Ex- Major- Generals  and  considerable  persons  some  of  them  :  To 
signify  that  they  have  heard  with  real  dismay  of  some  project  now  on 
foot  to  make  his  Highness  King;  the  evil  effects  of  which,  as  *a 
'scandal  to  the  People  of  God,'  'hazardous  to  his  Highness's  person, 

*  and  making  way  for  the  return  of  Charles  Stuart,'  are  terribly  appar- 
ent to  them  ! — 

Whereto  his  Highness  presently  makes  answer,  with  dignity,  not 
without  sharpness  :  "  That  he  now  specifically  hears  of  this  project 
"  for  the  first  time, — he  "  (with  emphasis  on  the  word,  and  a  look  at 
some  individuals  there)  "  has  not  been  caballing  about  it,  for  it  or 
"  against  it.  That  the  title  '  King '  need  not  startle  them  so  much  ; 
"inasmuch  as  some  of  them  well  know"  (what  the  Historical  Public 
never  knew  before)  "it  was  already  offered  to  him,  and  pressed  upon 
"  him  by  themselves  when  this  Government  was  undertaken.  That 
"  the  Title  King,  a  feather  in  a  hat,  is  as  little  valuable  to  him  as  to 
"  them.  But  that  the  fact  is,  they  and  he  have  not  succeeded  in 
"  settling  the  Nation  hitherto,  by  the  schemes  they  clamoured  for. 
"  Their  Little  Parliament,  their  first  Protectorate  Parliament,  and  now 
"  their  Major-Generalcies,  have  all  proved  failures  ; — nay  this  Parlia- 
"  ment  itself,  which  they  clamoured  for,  had  almost  proved  a  failure. 
"  That  the  Nation  is  tired  of  Major-Generalcies,  of  uncertain  arbi- 
"trary  ways;  and  really  wishes  to  come  to  a  Settlement.  That 
"actually  the  original  Instrument  of  Government  does  need  mending 
"in  some  points.  That  a  House  of  Lords,  or  other  check  upon  the 
"  arbitrary  tendencies  of  a  Single  House  of  Parliament,  may  be  of 
"  real  use  :  see  what  they,  by  their  own  mere  vote  and  will,  I  having 
"  no  power  to  check  them,  have  done  with  James  Nayler  :  may  it  not 
"  be  any  one's  case  some  other  day  ?  "  That,  in  short,  the  Deputation 
of  a  Hundred  Officers  had  better  go  its  ways,  and  consider  itself  again. 
— So  answered  his  Highness,  with  dignity,  with  cogency,  not  without 
sharpness.  The  Deputation  did  as  bidden.  '  Three  Major-Generals,' 
we  find  next  week,  'have  already  come  round.  The  House  hath  gone 
on  with  much  unity. 'f 

The  House  in  fact  is  busy,  day  and  night,  modelling,  manipulating 
its  Petition  and  Advice.  Amid  the  rumour  of  England,  all  through 
this  month  of  March  1657.  '  Chief  Magistrate  for  the  time  being  is 
to  name  his  successor ; '  so  much  we  hear  they  have  voted.  What 
Title  he  shall  have  is  still  secret  ;  that  is  to  be  the  last  thing.  All 
men  may  speculate  and  guess  ! — Before  March  ends,  the  Petition  and 

*  Newspapers  (in  Burton,  i.  380). 

t  Passages  between  the  Protector  and  the  Hundred  Officers  (in  Additional  Ays- 
cough  Mss.  no.  6125;  printed  in  Burton,  i.  382-4),  a  Fragment  of  a  Letter,  bearing 
date  7  March  J656-7 ;— to  tiie  effect  abridged  as  above. 


144         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

Advice  is  got  ready  ;  in  Eighteen  well-debated  Articles  ;*  fairly  en- 
grossed on  vellum  :  the  Title,  as  we  guessed,  is  to  be  King.  His 
Highness  shall  adopt  the  whole  Document,  or  no  part  of  it  is  to  be 
binding. 


SPEECH   VII. 

On  Tuesday,  March  31,  1657,  'the  House  rose  at  eleven  o'clock, 
*and  Speaker  Widdrington,  attended  by  the  whole  House,  repaired 
'to  his  Highness  at  Whitehall,'!-  to  present  this  same  'Petition  and 
Advice,'  '  engrossed  on  vellum,'  and  with  the  Title  of  "  King "  re- 
commended to  him  in  it.  Banqueting  House,  Whitehall ;  that  is  the 
scene.  Widdrington's  long  flowery  Speech]:  is  omissible.  As  the 
Interview  began  about  eleven  o'clock,  it  may  now  be  past  t  elve  ; 
Oliver  loq^citur: 

Mr.  Speaker, 

This  Frame  of  Government  which  it  hath  pleased  the  Parlia- 
ment through  your  hand  to  offer  to  me, — truly  I  should  have  a  very 
brazen  forehead  if  it  did  not  beget  in  me  a  great  deal  of  consterna- 
tion of  spirit  ;  it  being  of  so  high  and  great  importance  as,  by  your 
opening  of  it,||  and  by  the  mere  reading  of  it,  is  manifest  to  all  men  ; 
the  welfare,  the  peace  and  settlement  of  Three  Nations,  and  all  that 
rich  treasure  of  the  best  people  in  the  world  §  being  involved  therein  ! 
I  say,  this  consideration  alone  ought  to  beget  in  me  the  greatest  rev- 
erence and  fear  of  God  that  ever  possessed  a  man  in  the  world. 

Truly  I  rather  study  to  say  no  more  at  this  time  than  is  necessary 
for  giving  some  brief  general  answer,  suitable  to  the  nature  of  the 
thing.  The  thing  is  of  weight  ;  the  greatest  weight  of  anything  that 
was  ever  laid  upon  a  man.  And  therefore,  it  being  of  that  weight, 
and  consisting  of  so  many  parts  as  it  doth, — in  each  of  which  much 
more  than  my  life  is  concerned,— truly  I  think  I  have  no  more  to  de- 
sire of  you  at  present,  but  that  you  would  give  me  time  to  deliberate 
and  consider  what  particular  answer  I  may  return  to  so  great  a 
business  as  this. — 

I  have  lived  the  latter  part  of  my  age  in,— if  I  may  say  so,— the 
fire  ;  m  the  midst  of  troubles.  But  all  the  things  that  have  befallen 
me  smce  I  was  first  engaged  in  the  affairs  of  this  Commonwealth,  if 
they  could  be  supposed  to  be  all  brought  into  such  a  compass  that  I 
could  take  a  view  of  them  at  once,  truly  I   do  not  think  they  would 

so  move,'  nor  do  I  think  they  ought  so  to  move,  my  heart  and  spirit 
with  that  fear  and  reverence  of  God  that  becomes  a  Christian,  as  this 
tiling  that  hath  now  been  offered  by  you  to  me  !— And  truly  my  com- 

*  Copy  of  it  in  Whitlocke,  p.  648  d  seqq. 

t  Commons  Journals,  vii.  516.  J  Burton,  i.  397-413. 

§  In  tins  long  tiorid  speech.  •      jy/  'fr  o 

II  Us  and  all  the  Gospel  Protestants  in  the  world. 


SPEECH  VII.  145 


fort  in  all  my  life  hath  been  that  the  burdens  which  have  lain  heavy 
on  me,  they  were  laid  upon  me  by  the  hand  of  God.  And  I  have  not 
known,  I  have  been  many  times  at  a  loss,  which  way  to  stand  under 
the  weight  of  what  hath  lain  upon  me  : — except  by  looking  at  the 
conduct  and  pleasure  of  God  in  it.  Which  hitherto  I  have  found  to 
be  a  good  pleasure  to  me. 

And  should  I  give  any  resolution  in  this  '  matter '  suddenly,  without 
seeking  to  have  an  answer  put  into  my  heart,  and  so  into  my  mouth, 
by  Him  that  hath  been  my  God  and  my  Guide  hitherto, — it  would 
give  you  very  little  cause  of  comfort  in  such  a  choice  as  you  have 
made  \0f  me  to  be  Kin^]  in  such  a  business  as  this.  It  would  savour 
more  to  be  of  the  flesh,  to  proceed  from  lust,  to  arise  from  arguments 
of  self.  And  if, — whatsoever  the  issue  of  this  '  great  matter  '  be, — 
*  my  decision  in '  it  have  stcch  motives  in  me,  have  sjtch  a  rise  in  me,  it 
may  prove  even  a  curse  to  you  and  to  these  Three  Nations.  Who,  I 
verily  believe,  have  intended  well  in  this  business  ;  and  have  had 
those  honest  and  sincere  aims"^  towards  the  glory  of  God,  the  good  of 
His  People,  the  rights  of  the  Nation.  I  verily  believe  these  have 
been  your  aims  :  and  God  forbid  that  so  good  aims  should  suffer  by 
any  dishonesty  and  indirectness  on  my  part.  For  although,  in  the 
affairs  that  are  in  the  world,  things  may  be  intended  well, — as  they  are 
always,  or  for  the  most,  by  such  as  love  God,  and  fear  God  and  make 
Him  their  aim  (and  such  honest  ends  and  purposes,  I  do  believe,  yours 
now  are) ; — yet  if  these  considerationst  fall  upon  a  person  or  persons 
whom  God  takes  no  pleasure  in  ;  who  perhaps  may  be  at  the  end  of 
his  work  ;  [^Growing  old  and  weak  ^  Say  not  that  your  Highness  ! 
— A  kind  of  pathos  and  much  dignity  and  delicacy  iji  these  tones.'\  who, 
to  please  any  of  those  humours  or  considerations  which  are  of  this 
world,  shall  run  upon  such  a  rock  as  this  is,;}; — without  due  considera- 
tion, without  integrity,  without  approving  the  heart  to  God,  and  seek- 
ing an  answer  from  Him  ;  and  putting  things  to  Him  as  if  for  life  and 
death,  that  such  an  answer  may  be  received  '  from  Him '  as  may  be  a 
blessing  to  the  person  [il/^]  who  is  to  be  used  for  these  noble  and 
worthy  and  honest  intentions  of  the  persons  {^Voii]  that  have  prepared 
and  perfected  this  work  : — '  why  then.'  it  would  be  like  a  match  where 
a  good  and  worthy  and  virtuous  man  mistakes  in  the  person  he  makes 
love  to  ;  and,  as  often  turns  out,  it  proves  a  curse  to  the  man  and  to 
the  family,  through  mistake  !  And  if  this  should  be  so  to  you,  and  to 
these  Nations,  whose  good  I  cannot  but  be  persuaded  you  have  in  your 
thoughts  aimed  at, — why  then,  it  had  been  better,  I  am  sure  of  it,  that 
I  had  never  been  born  !  — 

I  have  therefore  but  this  one  word  to  say  to  you  :  That  seeing  you 
have  made  progress  in  this  Business,  and  completed  the  work  on  your 
part,  I  '  on  my  side '  may  have  some  short  time  to  ask  counsel  of  God 
and  of  my  own  heart.  And  I  hope  that  neither  the  humour  of  any 
weak  unwise  people,  nor  yet  the  desires  of  any  who  may  be  lusting 
after  things  that  are  not  good,  shall  steer  me  to  give  other  than  such 

*  Subaudi,  but  do  not  insert,  'which  you  profess.* 

t  Means  '  your  choice  in  regard  to  "Such  purpose'  speaks  delicately  in  an  oblique 
way. 
X  '  or  may  be  :'  this  of  the  Kingship, 


,46         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 


an 


«„  answer  as  may  be  ingenuous  and  thankful,— thankfully  acknow- 
redgino-  your  care  and  integrity  ;— and  such  an  answer  as  shall  be  for 
the  good  of  those  whom  I  presume  you  and  I  serve,  and  are  mado 

for  serving.  ,       , .         .„    , 

And  truly  I  may  say  this  also  :  That  as  the  thing  will  deserve  de- 
liberation, the  utmost  deliberation  and  consideration  on  my  part,  so 
I  shall  think  myself  bound  to  give  as  speedy  an  answer  to  these  things 
as  I  can.* 


SPEECH  VIII. 

Friday,  yd  Aprils  1657.  Three  days  after  the  foregoing  Speech, 
there  comes  a  Letter  from  his  Highness  to  Mr.  Speaker,  the  purport 
of  which  we  gather  to  have  been,  that  now  if  a  Committee  will  attend 
his  Highness,  they  shall  have  answer  to  the  Petition  and  Advice. 
Committee  is  nominated,  extensive  Committee  of  persons  already  en- 
gaged in  this  affair,  among  whom  are  Lord  Broghil,  General  Monta- 
gue, Earl  of  Tweeddale,  Whalley,  Desborow,  Whitlocke  and  others 
known  to  us  ;  they  attend  his  Highness  at  three  o'clock  that  afternoon  ; 
and  receive  what  answer  there  is, — a  negative,  but  none  of  the  most 
decidedf 

My  Lords, 

I  am  heartily  sorry  that  I  did  not  make  this  desire  of  mine 
known  to  the  Parliament  sooner  ;  '  the  desire '  which  I  acquainted 
them  with,  by  Letter,  this  day.  The  reason  was,  Because  some  in- 
firmity of  body  hath  seized  upon  me  these  two  last  days.  Yesterday 
and  Wednesday.     [//  is  yet  but  three  days^  your  Highness^ 

I  have,  as  well  as  I  could,  taken  consideration  of  the  things  con- 
tained in  the  Paper,  which  was  presented  to  me  by  the  Parliament,  in 
the  Banqueting-House,  on  Tuesday  last ;  and  sought  of  God  that  I 
might  return  such  an  answer  as  might  become  me,  and  be  worthy  of 
the  Parliament.  I  must  needs  bear  this  testimony  to  them.  That  they 
have  been  zealous  of  the  two  greatest  Concernments  that  God  hath 
in  the  world.  The  07ie  is  that  of  Religion,  and  of  the  just  preser- 
vation of  the  professors  of  it ;  to  give  them  all  due  and  just  Liberty  ; 
and  to  assert  the  Truth  of  God  ;— which  you  have  done,  in  part,  in 
this  Paper  ;  and  do  refer  it  more  fully  to  be  done  by  yourselves  and 
me.  And  as  to  the  Liberty  of  men  professing  Godliness,  you  have 
done  that  which  was  never  done  before  !  And  I  pray  it  may  not  fall 
upon  the  People  of  God  as  a  fault  in  them,  in  any  sort  of  them,  if 
they  do  not  put  such  a  value  upon  this  that  is  now  done  as  never  was 
put  on  anything  since  Christ's  time,  for  such  a  Catholic  interest  of  the 
People  of  God  !  {^Liberty  in  non-essentials ;  Freedom  to  all  peaceable 
Believers  in  Christ  to  worship  in  stich  outward foim  as  they  will;  a 
very  "  Catholic  interest "  ittdeed.']    The  other  thing  cared  for  is  the 

*  Burton's  Diary,  i.  413-16. 

f  Commons  Journals,  vii.  519,  20  :  Burton,  i.  417. 


SPEECH  VIII,  147 


Civil  Liberty  and  Interest  of  the  Nation.  Which  though  it  is,  and 
indeed  I  think  ought  to  be,  subordinate  to  the  more  peculiar  Interest 
of  God, — yet  it  is  the  next  best  God  hath  given  men  in  this  world  ; 
and  if  well  cared  for,  it  is  better  than  any  rock  to  fence  men  in  their 
other  interests.  Besides,  if  any  whosoever  think  the  Interest  of 
Christians  and  the  Interest  of  the  Nation  inconsistent,  'or  two 
different  things,'  I  wish  my  soul  may  never  enter  into  their  secrets  ! 
[  IV e  will  take  another  course  than  theirs^  your  Highness  /] 

These  are  things  I  must  acknowledge  Christian  and  honourable  ; 
and  they  are  provided  for  by  you  like  Christian  men  and  also  men  of 
honour, — like  yourselves,  English  men.  And  to  this  I  must  and  shall 
bear  my  testimony,  while  I  live,  against  all  gainsayers  whatsoever. 
And  upon  these  Two  Interests,  if  God  shall  account  me  worthy,  I 
shall  live  and  die.  And  I  must  say,  If  I  were  to  give  an  account  be- 
fore a  greater  Tribunal  than  any  earthly  one  ;  if  I  were  asked.  Why 
I  have  engaged  all  along  in  the  late  War,  I  could  give  no  answer 
that  were  not  a  wicked  one  if  it  did  not  comprehend  these  Two  ends  ! 
— Meanwhile  only  give  me  leave  to  say,  and  to  say  it  seriously  (the 
issue  will  prove  it  serious),  that  you  have  one  or  two  considerations 
which  do  stick  with  me.  The  one  is,  You  have  named  me  by  another 
Title  than  I  now  bear.     What  shall  /  answer  to  that/] 

You  do  necessitate  my  answer  to  be  categorical ;  and  you  have  left 
me  without  a  liberty  of  choice  save  as  to  all.  [Must  accept  the  whole 
Petition  and  Advice^  or  reject  the  whole  of  iL\  I  question  not  your 
wisdom  in  doing  so  ;  I  think  myself  obliged  to  acquiesce  in  your 
determination  ;  knowing  you  are  men  of  wisdom,  and  considering  the 
trust  you  are  under.  It  is  a  duty  not  to  question  the  reason  of  any- 
thing you  have  done.     \Not  even  of  the  Kingship :  say  Yes,  then  /] 

I  should  be  very  brutish  did  I  not  acknowledge  the  exceeding  high 
honour  and  respect  you  have  had  for  me  in  this  Paper.  Truly, 
according  to  what  the  world  calls  good,  it  hath  nothing  but  good  in 
it, — according  to  worldly  approbation  of*  sovereign  power.  You 
have  testified  your  value  and  affection  as  to  my  person,  as  high  as 
you  could  ;  for  more  you  could  not  do  !  I  hope  I  shall  always  keep 
a  grateful  memory  of  this  in  my  heart ; — and  by  you  I  return  the  Par- 
liament this  my  grateful  acknowledgment.  Whatever  other  men's 
thoughts  may  be,  I  shall  not  own  ingratitude. — But  I  must  needs  say, 
That  that  may  be  fit  for  you  to  offer,  which  may  not  be  fit  for  me  to 
undertake.  [Profound  silence.']  And  as  I  should  reckon  it  a  very 
great  presumption,  were  I  to  ask  the  reason  of  your  doing  any  one 
thing  in  this  Paper, — (except  '  in '  some  very  few  things,  the  '  new  ' 
Instrument,  '  this  Paper,'  bears  testimony  to  itself), — so  you  will  not 
take  it  unkindly  if  I  beg  of  you  this  addition  to  the  Parliament's 
favour,  love  and  indulgence  unto  me.  That  it  be  taken  in  tender  part 
if  I  give  such  an  answer  as  I  find  in  my  heart  to  give  in  this  business, 
without  urging  many  reasons  for  it,  save  such  as  are  most  obvious, 
and  most  to  my  advantage  in  answering  :  Namely,  that  I  am  not  able 
for  such  a  trust  and  charge.     [14'^on^t  have  it,  then  I] 

And  if  the  "  answer  of  the  tongue "  as  well  as  the  preparation  of 
th^  h^art  be  "  from  God,"  I  must  say  my  heart  and  thoughts  ever 
*  Means  '  value  for.' 


us         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

since  I  heard  the  Pailiament  were  upon  this  business, — {^Sentence 
breaks  down]—'  For'  though  1  could  not  take  notice  of  your  proceed- 
ings therein    without  breach  of  your  privileges,   yet  as  a  common 

pe'rson  1  confess  I  heard  of  it  in  common  with  others I  must  say 

I  have  been  able  to  attain  no  farther  than  this,  That,  seeing  the  way 
is  hedged  up  so  as  it  is  to  me,  and  I  cannot  accept  the  things  offered 
unless  I  accept  all,  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  it  my  duty  to  God 
and  you  to  undertake  this  charge  under  that  Title,  y^eftcses,  yet  not 
so  very  peremptorily  /] 

The  most  1  said  in  commendation  of  the  '  new '  Instrument  may  be 
retorted  on  me  ; — as  thus  :  "  Are  there  such  good  things  provided  for 
"  '  in  this  Instrument ; '  will  you  refuse  to  accept  them  because  of  such 
"  an  ingredient  ?  "  Nothing  must  make  a  man's  conscience  a  servant. 
And  really  and  sincerely  it  is  my  conscience  that  guides  me  to  this 
answer.  And  if  the  Parliament  be  so  resolved,  '  for  the  whole  Paper 
or  none  of  it/  it  will  not  be  fit  for  me  to  use  any  inducement  to  you 
to  alter  their  resolution. 

This  is  all  I  have  to  say.  I  desire  it  may,  and  do  not  doubt  but  it 
will,  be  with  candour  and  ingenuity  represented  unto  them  by  you.  * 

His  Highness  would  not  in  all  circumstances  be  inexorable,  one 
would  think  ! — No ;  he  is  groping  his  way  through  a  very  in4:ricate 
business,  which  grows  as  he  gropes  ;  the  final  shape  of  which  is  not 
yet  disclosed  to  any  soul.  The  actual  shape  of  it  on  this  Friday 
Afternoon,  3rd  April,  1657,  I  suppose  he  has,  in  his  own  manner, 
pretty  faithfully,  and  not  without  sufficient  skill  and  dignity,  contrived 
to  express.  Many  considerations  weigh  upon  his  Highness  ;  and  in 
itself  it  is  a  most  unexampled  matter,  this  of  negotiating  about  being 
made  a  King  !  Need  of  wise  speech ;  of  wise  reticence  no  less. 
Nay  it  is  of  the  nature  of  a  Courtship  withal  :  the  young  lady  cannot 
answer  on  the  first  blush  of  the  business  ;  if  you  insist  on  her  answer- 
ing, why  then  she  must  even  answer,  No  ! — 

Wednesday^  Zth  Api'iL  The  Parliament,  justly  interpreting  this 
No  of  his  Highness,  has  decided  that  it  will  adhere  to  its  Petition  and 
Advice,  and  that  it  will  '  present  reasons  to  his  Highness  ;'  has  got, 
thanks  to  our  learned  Bulstrode  and  others,  its  reasons  ready  ; — and, 
this  day,  walks  over  in  a  body  to  the  Banqueting-House,  Speaker 
Widdrington  carrying  in  his  hand  the  Engrossed  Vellum,  and  in  his 
head  the  '  Reasons,'  to  present  the  same.t  The  '  Reasons,'  with 
Speaker  Widdrington's  flowery  eloquence,  and  his  Highness's  Reply 
on  this  occasion,  are  happily  all  lost.  Let  us  know  only  that  the 
Honourable  House  has  here  actually  gone  a  second  time  in  a  body, 
and  not  yet  prevailed.  We  gather  that  his  Highness  has  doubts,  has 
scruples  ;  on  which,  however,  he  is  willing  to  be  dealt  with,  '  to  re- 
ceive satisfaction,'— -has  intimated,  in  fact,  that  though  the  answer  is 
still  No,  the  Courtship  may  continue. 

Committee  to  give  satisfaction  is  straightway  nominated  :  Whit- 
locke,  Lord  Chief-Justice  Glynn,  Lord  Broghil,  Plennes,  Old-Speaker 

*  Additional  Ayscough  MSS.  no.  6125  :  printed  in  Burton,  i.  417  ;  and  Parlia- 
mentary History,  xxiii.  161. 
t  Commons  journals,  vii.  520,  521  (6,  8  April);   Burton,  i.  421, 


SPEECH  VliL  t4^ 


Lenthall,  Ninety-nine  of  them  in  all  ;  *  and  is  ready  to  confer  with 
his  Highness.  At  this  point,  however,  there  occurs  an  extraneous 
Phenomenon  which  unexpectedly  delays  us  for  a  day  or  two  :  a  rising 
of  the  Fifth-Monarchy,  namely.  The  Fifth-Monarchy,  while  men  are 
meditating  earthly  Kingship,  and  Official  Persons  are  about  appoint- 
ing an  earthly  tyrannous  and  traitorous  King,  thinks  it  ought  to  bestir 
itself,  now  or  never  ; — explodes  accordingly,  though  in  a  small  way  ; 
testifying  to  us  how  electric  this  element  of  England  now  is. 

Tuesday,  Cfih  April.  The  Fifth- Monarchy,  headed  mainly  by 
one  V^enner  a  Wine-Cooper,  and  other  civic  individuals  of  the  old 
Feak-and-Powel  species  whom  we  have  transiently  seen  emitting  soot 
and  fire  before  now,  has  for  a  long  while  been  concocting  under 
ground  ;  and  Thurloe  and  his  Highness  have  had  eye  on  it.  The 
Fifth-Monarchy  has  decided  that  it  will  rise  this  Thursday  ;  expel 
carnal  sovereignties  ;  and  call  on  the  Christian  population  to  intro- 
duce a  Reign  of  Christ, — which  it  is  thought,  if  a  beginning  were  once 
made,  they  will  be  very  forward  to  do.  Let  us  rendezvous  on  Mile- 
End  Green  this  day,  with  sword  and  musket,  and  assured  heart  : 
perhaps  General  Harrison,  Colonel  Okey,  one  knows  not  who,  will 
join  us, — perhaps  a  miracle  will  be  wrought,  such  as  Heaven  might 
work  in  such  a  case,  and  the  Reign  of  Christ  actually  take  effect. 
Alas,  Heaven  wrought  no  miracle  :  Heaven  and  his  Highness  sent  a 
Troop  of  Horse  into  the  Mile-End  region  early  in  the  morning  ; 
seized  Venner,  and  some  Twenty  Ringleaders,  just  coming  for  the 
rendezvous  ;  seized  chests  of  arms,  many  copies  of  a  flaming  Pamphlet 
or  War-manifesto  with  title  A  Standard  set  up ;  seized  also  a  War- 
flag  with  Lion  Couchant  painted  on  it.  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah, 
and  this  motto,  "Who  shall  rouse  him  up.?"  O  Reader,  these  are 
not  fictions,  these  were  once  altogether  solid  facts  in  this  brick 
London  of  ours  ;  ancient  resolute  individuals,  busy  with  wine-cooper- 
age and  otherwise,  had  entertained  them  as  very  practicable  things  ! 
—  But  in  two  days  time,  these  ancient  individuals  and  they  are  all 
lodged  in  the  Tower  ;  Harrison,  hardly  connected  with  the  thing, 
except  as  a  wellwisher,  he  and  others  are  likewise  made  secure  :  and 
the  Fifth-Monarchy  is  put  under  lock  and  key.f  Nobody  was  tried 
for  it  :  Cooper  Venner  died  on  the  scaffold,  for  a  similar  attempt 
under  Charles  Second,  some  two  years  hence.  The  Committee  of 
Ninety-nine  can  now  proceed  with  its  '  satisfaction  to  his  Highness  ; ' 
his  Highness  is  now  at  leisure  for  them  again. 

This  Committee  did  proceed  with  its  satisfactions  ;  had  various 
Conferences  with  his  Highness, — which  unfortunatelv  are  not  lost  ; 
which  survive  for  us,  in  Somers  Tracts  and  the  old  Pamphlets,  under 
the  title  of  Monarchy  Asserted;  in  a  condition,  especially  his  High- 
ness's  part  of  them,  enough  to  drive  any  Editor  to  despair  !  The  old 
Pampleteer,  as  we  remarked,  was  intent  only  on  the  learned  law- 
arguments  in  favour  of  Kingship  ;  and  as  to  what  his  Highness  said, 
seems  to  have  taken  it  very  easy  ;  printing  what  vocables  he  found 
on  his  Note-paper,  with  or  without  meaning,  as  it  might  chance. 
Whom  new  unchecked  Printers  and  Imaginary-Editors  following,  and 

*  List  in  Commons  Journal?;,  vii.  531 ;  in  Somers  Tracts,  vi.  351. 
^  Narrative  in  Thurloe,  vi.  184-S. 


lejo         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

makinj,^  the  matter  ever  worse,  have  produced  at  last  in  our  late  time 
such  a  Coagulum  of  Jargon  as  was  never  seen  before  in  the  world  ! 
Let  us  not  speak  of  it ;  let  us  endeavour  to  get  through  it,— through 
this  also,  now  since  we  have  arrived  at  it,  and  are  not  yet  permitted 
to  burn  it  !  Out  of  this  sad  monument  of  Human  Stupor  too  the 
imprisoned  Soul  of  a  Hero  must  be  extricated.  Souls  of  Heroes, — 
they  have  been  imprisoned,  enchanted  into  growing  Trees,  into  glass 
Phials,  into  leaden  Caskets  sealed  with  Solomon's  signet,  and  sunk  in 
the  deep  sea  ; — but  to  this  of  Vomers  Tracts  there  wants  yet  a 
parallel  !  Have  not  we  English  a  talent  of  musical  utterance  ?  Here 
are  men  consummating  the  most  epic  of  acts.  Choosing  their  King  ; 
and  it  is  with  such  melodious  elegancies  that  they  do  it  ;  it  is  in  such 
soft-flowing  hexameters  as  the  following  that  the  Muse  gives  record 
of  it  !— 

My  reader  must  be  patient ;  thankfull  for  mere  Dulness,  thankful 
that  it  is  not  Madness  over  and  above.  Let  us  all  be  patient  ;  walk 
gently,  swiftly,  lest  we  awaken  the  sleeping  Nightmares  !  We  sup- 
press, we  abridge,  we  elucidate  ;  struggle  to  make  legible  his  High- 
ness's  words, — dull  but  not  insane.  Notes  where  not  indispensable 
are  not  given.  The  curious  reader  can,  in  all  questionable  places, 
refer  to  the  Printed  Coagulum  of  Jargon  itself,  and  see  whether  we 
have  read  aright. 


SPEECH    IX. 

Properly  an  aggregate  of  many  short  Speeches,  and  passages  of 
talk  :  his  Highness's  part  m  this  First  Conference  with  the  Committee 
of  Nmety-nine.  His  Highness's  pari  in  it ;  the  rest,  covering  many 
pages,  IS,  so  for  as  possible,  strictly  suppressed.  One  of  the  dullest 
Conferences  ever  held,  on  an  epic  subject,  in  this  world.  Occupied, 
great  part  of  it,  on  mere  preliminaries,  and  beatings  about  the  bush  ; 
throws  light,  even  in  its  most  elucidated  state,  upon  almost  nothing. 
Oliver  IS  here— simply  what  we  have  known  him  elsewhere.  Which 
so  soon  as  Mankind  once  understand  to  be  the  fact,  but  unhappily 
not  till  then,— the  aid  o{  fire  can  be  called  in,  as  we  suggested. 

Pancy,  however,  that  the  large  Committee  of  Ninety-nine  has  got 
itseU  introduced  into  some  Council-room,  or  other  fit  locality  in 
Whitehall,  on  Saturday,  nth  April,  1657,  'about  nine  in  the  morn- 
ing ;  has  made  Its  salutations  t)  his  Highness,  and  we  hope  been 
inv'ited  to  take  seats  ;—ai\d  all  men  are  very  uncertain  how  to  act. 
Who  shall  begin .?  His  Highness  wishes  much  they  would  begin  ; 
ana  in  a  delicate  way  urges  and  again  urges  them  to  do  so  ;  and,  not 
till  a.ter  great  labour  and  repeated  failures,  succeeds.  Fancy  that  old 
scene  ;  the  ancient  honourable  Gentlemen  waiting  there  to  do  their 
epic  teat:  the  ponderous  respectable  Talent  for  Silence,  obliged  to 
break  up  and  become  a  kind  of  Utterance  in  this  thick-skinned 
manner  .-—really  rather  strange  to  witness,  as  dull  as  it  is  !— 


SPEECH^  tX.  \^\ 


The  Dialogue  has  gone  on  for  a  passage  or  t\^o,  but  the  Reporter 
considers  it  mere  preliminary  flourishing,  and  has  not  taken  it  down. 
Here  is  his  first  Note, — in  the  abridged  lucidified  state  :* 

Lord  Whitlocke.  "  Understands  that  the  Committee  is  here 
"  only  to  receive  what  his  Highness  has  to  offer ;  such  the  letter  and 
"  purport  of  our  Instructions  ;  which  I  now  read.  \Reads  //.]  Your 
*' Highness  mentions  'the  Government  that  now  is,' seems  to  hint 
/  thereby  :  The  Government  being  well  now,  why  change  it  .'*  If  that 
"  be  your  Highness's  general  objection,  the  Committe  will  give  you 
"  satisfaction." 

The  Lord  Protector.  Sir,  I  think  both  parties  of  us  meet 
here  with  a  very  good  heart  to  come  to  some  issue  in  this  great  busi- 
ness ;  and  truly  that  is  what  I  have  all  the  reason  in  the  world  to 
move  me  to.  And  I  am  exceeding  ready  to  be  ordered  by  you  as  to 
the  manner  of  proceeding.  Only  I  confess,  according  to  the  thoughts 
I  have, — ^.in  preparing  my  thoughts  for  so  great  a  work,  I  formed  this 
notion  to  myself : — That  the  Parliament  having  already  done  me  the 
honour  of  Two  Conferences  ;  t  and  now  sent  you  again,  their  kind 
intention  to  me  evidently  is  no  other  than  this,  That  I  should  receive 
satisfaction.  They  might  have  been  positive  in  the  thing  ;  might 
have  declared  their  Address  itself  to  be  enough,  and  insisted  upon 
Yes  or  No  to  that.  But  I  perceive  that  it  is  really  and  sincerely  the 
satisfaction  of  my  doubts  that  they  aim  at  ;  and  there  is  one  clause 
in  the  Paper  itself,  *  quoted  by  my  Lord  Whitlocke,'  which  doth  a 
little  warrant  that  :  "To  offer  such  reasons  for  his  satisfaction," &c. — 
Now,  Sir,  it's  certain  the  occasion  of  all  this  'Conference'  is  the 
Answer  I  already  made  ;  that's  the  occasion  of  your  having  to  come 

hither  again.     And  truly.  Sir,  I  doubt  whether  by  your  plan If  you 

will  draw  out  my  reasons  from  me,  1  will  offer  them  to  you  :  but  on 
my  own  part,  I  doubt,  if  you  should  proceed  that  other  way,  it  would 
a  little  put  me  out  of  the  method  of  my  own  thoughts.  And  it  being 
mutual  satisfaction  that  is  endeavoured,  if  you  will  do  me  the  favour 
— ["  ^(^  ^<^  by  ^f^y  inethod^'  his  Highness  means  ;  "  to  offer  me  YOUR 
"  Reaso?ts,  and  DRAW  me  otit,  rather  than  oblige  me  to  COME  ouf''^ — I 
shall  take  it  as  a  favour  if  it  please  you  !  I  will  leave  you  together  to 
consider  your  own  thoughts  of  it.     [^Motioning  to  go?^ 

Lord  Whitlocke.  "  This  Committee,  bemg  sent  to  wait  upon 
"  your  Highness,  I  do  suppose  cannot  undertake  to  give  the  Parlia- 
"  ment's  reasons  for  what  the  Parliament  hath  done.  But  any  gentle- 
"  man  here  may  give  for  your  Highness's  satisfaction  his  own  par- 
"  ticular  apprehension  of  them.  And  if  you  will  be  pleased  to  go  in 
"  the  way  you  have  propounded,  and  on  any  point  require  a  satisfac- 
"  tion  from  the  Committee,  I  suppose  we  shall  be  ready  to  do  the 
"  best  we  can  to  give  you  satisfaction."  \^Bar  Practice  I  Is  not  yet 
what  his  Highness  wants.] 

*  Somers  Tracts,  vi.  352, 

t  Two  C'onferences  with  the  whole  Parliament,  and  one  with  a  Committee.  We 
read  two  of  his  Highness's  Answers  (Speeches, — March  31,  April 3) ;  the  OtUer 
(>Second  Conference  with  the  Padiament,  April  2]  is  happily  iast. 


152         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

The  Lord  Protector.  If  this  be  so,  then  I  suppose  nothing 
can  be  said  by  you  but  what  the  Parhament  hath  dictated  to  you  ? — 
However,  I  think  it  is  clearly  expressed  that  the  Parliament  intends 
satisfaction.  Then  it  is  as  clear  that  there  must  be  reasons  and  argu- 
ments which  have  light  and  conviction  in  them,  in  order  to  satisfac- 
tion !  I  speak  for  myself  in  this  ;  I  hope  you  will  not  take  it  other- 
wise.* I  say  it  doth  appear  to  me  you  have  the  liberty  of  giving  your 
own  reasons.  If  1  should  write  down  any  of  them,  I  could  not  call 
that  "the  reason  of  Parliament."  [IVhit/ocke,  in  a  heavy  manner, 
smiles  respectful  assent.]  But  in  Parliamentary  and  other  such  con- 
clusions the  efficient  "reason"  is  diffused  over  the  general  body, 
and  every  man  hath  his  particular  share  of  it  ;  yet  when  they  have 
determined  such  and  such  a  thing,  certainly  it  was  reason  that  led 
them  up  into  it.  And  if  you  shall  be  pleased  to  make  me  partaker  of 
some  of  that  "  reason  "—1  —  1  do  very  respectfully  represent  to  you 
that  I  have  a  general  dissatisfaction  at  the  thing  \Gla7ici)ig  at  the 
Engrossed  Vellum ;  but  meaning  the  Kingship]  ;  and  do  desire  to 
be  informed  of  the  grounds  that  lead  you,  whom  I  presume  to  be  all 
satisfied  with  it  and  with  every  part  of  it.  And  if  you  will  be  pleased, 
if  you  so  think  fit, — I  will  not  urge  it  farther  upon  you, — to  proceed 
in  that  way,  it  will  be  a  favour  to  me.  Otherwise,  I  deal  plainly  with 
you,  it  doth  put  me  out  of  the  method  of  my  own  conceptions  :  and 
in  that  case  I  shall  beg  that  we  may  have  an  hour's  deliberation,  and 
meet  again  in  the  afternoon. 

Lord  Chief-Justice  Glyn,— one  of  the  old  expelled  Eleven, 
whom  we  saw  in  great  straits  in  1647  ;  a  busy  man  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  now  again  busy  ;  begs  to  say  in  brief :  "  The  Parliament 
"  has  sent  us  to  give  all  the  satisfaction  which  it  is  in  our  understand- 
"  ings  to  give.  Certainly  we  will  try  to  proceed  according  to  what 
"  method  your  Highness  finds  best  for  that  end.  The  Paper  or 
"  Vellum  Instrument,  however,  is  general,  consisting  of  many  heads  ; 
"  and  we  can  give  but  general  satisfaction." 

The  Lord  Protector.  If  you  will  please  to  give  me  leave. 
[Clearing  his  throat  to  get  imder  way .]  I  do  agree,  truly,  the  thing  is  a 
general  ;  for  it  either  falls  under  the  notice  of  Settlement,  which  is  a 
general  consisting  of  many  particulars  ;  or  if  you  call  it  by  the  name 
it  JDears  in  the  Paper,  "  Petition  and  Advice,"— that  again  is  a  general ; 
it  is  advice,  desires  and  Advice.  What  in  it  I  have  objected  to  is  as 
yet,  to  say  truth,  but  one  thing.  Only,  the  last  time  I  had  the  honour 
to  meet  the  Parliament,!  I  did  offer  to  them  that  they  might  put  me  in 
the  way  of  getting  satisfaction  as  to  particulars,. '  any  or  all  particulars.' 
Now,  no  question  I  might  easily  otter  something  particular  for  debate, 
if  I  thought  that  would  answer  the  end.  \}\' hat  curious  pickeering, 
flourishing,  and  fencing  backwards  and  forwards,  before  the  parties 
will  come  to  close  action.  As  in  other  a^airs  of  courtship ?{  For  truly 
I  know  my  end  and  yours  is  the  same  :  To  bring  things  to  an  issue 
one  way  or  the  other,  that  we  may  know  where  we  are, — that  we  may 

*  As  if  I  meant  to  dictate  to  you,  or  tutor  you  in  your  duties. 
I  Wednesday  last,  8  April,  all  record  of  which  is  happily  lost. 


SPEECH  iX. 


attain  the  general  end,  which  is  Settlement.  [Safe  ground  here,  your 
Highness/]  The  end  is  in  us  both  !  And  I  durst  contend  with  any 
one  person  in  the  world  that  it  is  not  more  in  his  heart  than  in  mine! 

I  would  go  into  some  particulars  {Especially  one  paricular,  the 

Kingship.]  to  ask  a  question,  to  ask  a  reason  of  the  alteration  '  made  ;' 
which  might  well  enough  let  you  into  the  business,— that  it  might.'-'- 
Yet,  I  say,  it  doth  not  answer  me.  I  had  counted  on  deing  drawn  out, 
not  on  COIVIING  out :  I  understood  I  was  the  young  lady,  and  YOU  the 
wooer/]  I  confess  I  did  not  so  strictly  examine  the  terms  of  your 
Order  from  the  Parliament  'which  my  Lord  Whitlocke  cites;'  whether 
I  even  read  it  or  no  i  cannot  tell. — [Pause.] — If  you  will  have  it  that 
way,  I  shall,  as  well  as  I  can,  make  such  an  objection  as  may  occasion 
some  answer,  'and  so  let  us  into  the  business  ;'— though  perhaps  I 
shall  object  weakly  enough  !  I  shall  very  freely  submit  to  you. 

Glyn  (with  official  solemnity).  "  The  Parliament  hath  sent  us 
"for  that  end,  to  give  your  Highness  satisfaction." 

Lord  Commissioner  Fiennes,— Nathaniel  Fiennes,  alias  Fines 
alias  Fenys,  as  he  was  once  called  when  condemned  to  be  shot  for 
surrendering  Bristol  ;  second  son  of  '  Old  Subtlety '  Say  and  Sele  ; 
and  now  again  a  busy  man,  and  Lord  Keeper, — opens  his  broad  jaw, 
and  short  snub  face  full  of  hard  sagacity, t  to  say  :  "  Looking  upon  the 
"  Order,  I  find  that  we  may  offer  your  Highness  our  reasons,  if  your 
"  Highness's  dissatisfaction  be  to  the  alteration  of  the  Government 
whether  in  general  or  in  particular." — So  that  his  Highness  may  have 
it  his  own  way,  after  all  ?  Let  us  hope  the  preliminary  flourishing  is 
now  near  complete  !  His  Highness  would  like  well  to  have  it  his  own 
way. 

The  Lord  Protector.  I  am  very  ready  to  say,  I  have  no 
dissatisfaction  that  it  hath  pleased  the  ParHament  to  find  out  a  way, 
though  it  be  of  alteration,  for  bringing  these  Nations  into  a  good 
Settlement.  Perhaps  you  may  have  judged  the  Settlement  we 
hitherto  had  was  not  so  favourable  to  the  great  end  of  Govern- 
ment,—The  Liberty  and  Good  of  the  Nations,  and  the  preservation 
of  all  honest  Interests  that  have  been  engaged  in  this  Cause.  I  say  I 
have  no  objection  to  the  general  '  fact,'  That  the  Parliament  hath 
thought  fit  to  take  consideration  of  a  new  Settlement  or  Government. 
But  you  having  done  it  in  such  way,  and  rendered  me  so  far  an 
interested  party  in  it  by  making  such  an  Overture  to  me  {As  this  of 
the  Kingship,  which  modesty  forbids  me  to  mention], — I  shall  be  very 
glad  'to  learn,'  if  you  please  to  let  me  know  it,  besides  ihQ pleasure 
of  the  Parliament,  somewhat  of  the  reason  they  had  for  interesting  me 
in  this  thing,  by  such  an  Overture. 

Truly  I  think  I  shall,  as  to  the  other  particulars,  have  less  to  object.^ 
I  shall  be  very  ready  to  specify  objections,  in  order  to  clear  for  you 
whatsoever  it  may  be  better  to  clear  ;  '  in  order'  at  least  to  help  myself 
towards  a  clearer  understanding  of  these  things  ; — for  better  advantage 

*  A  favourite  reduplication  with  his  Highness  ;  that  it  is  ! 

f  Good  Portrait  of  him  in  Lord  Nugent's  Memorials  of  Hampden. 

X   '  as  to  the  other  particulars,  swallow  this  '  in  orig. 


1^4        SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

•  to  us  all,'  for  that,  I  know,  is  in  your  hearts  as  well  as  mine.  Though 
I  cannot  presume  that  1  have  anything  to  offer  calculated  to  convince 
you  ;  yet,  if  you  will  take  it  in  good  part,  I  shall  offer  somewhat  to 
every  particular. 

'And  now/  if  you  please,— As  to  thejirsf  of  the  things  [Kingship], 
I  am  clear  as  to  the  ground  of  the  thing,  being  so  put  to  me  as  it  hath 
been  put,*  And  I  think  that  some  of  the  reasons  which  moved  the 
Parliament  to  do  it,  would,  '  if  they  were  now  stated  to  me,'  lead  us 
into  such  objections  or  doubts  as  I  may  have  to  offer ;  and  would 
be  a  very  great  help  to  me  in  that.  And  if  you  will  have  me  offer 
this  or  that  or  the  other  doubt  which  may  arise  methodically,  I  shall 
do  it 

Whereupon  Lord  Whitlocke,  summoning  into  his  glassy  coal- 
black  eyes  and  ponderous  countenance  what  animation  is  possible, 
lifts  up  .his  learned  voice,  and  speaks  several  pages  if— which  we 
abridge  almost  to  nothing.  In  fact  the  learned  pleadings  of  these 
illustrious  Official  Persons,  which  once  were  of  boundless  importance, 
are  now  literally  shrank  to  zero  for  us  ;  it  is  only  his  Highness's  reply 
to  them  that  is  still  something,  and  that  not  very  much.  Whitlocke 
intimates, 

"That  perhaps  the  former  Instrument  of  Government  having 
"originated  in  the  way  it  did,  the  Parliament  considered  it  would 
"  be  no  worse  for  sanctioning  by  the  Supreme  Authority  ;  such  was 
"  their  reason  for  taking  it  up.  '  Their  intentions  I  suppose  were ' — 
"  this  and  that,  at  some  length.  As  for  the  new  Title,  that  oi Protector 
"  was  not  known  to  the  Law  ;  that  of  King  is,  and  has  been  for  many 
"  hundreds  of  years.  If  we  keep  the  title  of  Protector,  as  I  heard  some 
"  argue,  our  Instrument  has  only  its  own  footing  to  rest  upon  ;  but 
"  with  that  of  King  '  it  will  ground  itself  in  all  the  ancient  foundations 
"of  the  Laws  of  England,'"  &c.  &c. 

Master  of  the  Rolls,— old  Sly-face  Lenthall,  once  Speaker  of 
the  Long  Parliament ;  the  same  whom  Harrison  helped  out  of  his 
Chair,— him  also  the  reader  will  conceive  speaking  for  the  space  of 
half  an  hour  : 

" '  May  it  please  your  Highness,'  Hum-m-m  !     Drum-m-m  !    Upon 

*  due  consideration  you  shall  find  that  the  whole  body  of  the  Law  is 
*|* carried  upon  this  wheel'  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  being  called  King. 
"  Hum— m— m  !  [Monotonous  humming  for  ten  minutes  ^^  'The 
"  tide  of  Protector  is  not  limited  by  any  rule  of  Law  that  I  under- 
"  stand  ;'  the  title  of  King  is.  Hum— m— m  !  King  James  wanted 
*|to  change  his  Title,  and  that  only  from  King  of  P:ngla7id \.o  King  of 
^'-^  Great  Britain;  and  the  Parliament  could  not  consent,  so  jealous 
"were  they  of  new  titles   bringing  new   unknown  powers.     Much 

depends  upon  a  title  !      The    Long   Parliament   once  thought   of 

^^changmg  its  Title  to  Represoitative  of  the  People;  but  durst  not. 

^^  Hum— m— m  !     ^ Nolumus  Leges  AnoHce  mutari?     Drum— m— m  ! 

\Y-^^populi:  it  is  the  voice  of  the  Three  Nations  that  offers  your 

Highness  this  Title.'  Drum— m— m  !" Such,   in   abbreviated 

*  In  our  last  Conference,  8  April,  now  happily  lost. 
\  Somers,  vi.  355. 


SPEECH  IX.  m 


shape,  is  the  substance  of  Lenthall's  Speech  for  us."*  At  the  ending  of 
it,  a  pause. 

The  Lord  Protector.  I  cannot  deny  but  the  things  that  have 
been  spoken  have  been  spoken  with  a  greal  deal  of  weight.  And  it 
is  not  fit  for  me  to  ask  any  of  you  if  you  have  a  mind  to  speak  farther 
of  this.  But  if  such  had  been  your  pleasure,  tiuly  then  I  think  it 
would  have  put  me  into  a  way  of  more  preparedness,  according  to  the 
method  and  way  I  had  conceived  for  m.yself,  to  return  some  answer. 
And  if  it  had  not  been  to  you  a  trouble — Surely  the  business  requires, 
from  any  man  in  the  world  in  any  case,  and  much  more  from  me,  that 
there  be  given  to  it  serious  and  true  answers  !  I  mean  such  answers 
as  are  not  feigned  in  my  own  thoughts  ;  but  such  wherein  I  express 
the  truth  and  honesty  of  my  heart.  \See7ns  a  tautology,  and  almost 
an  impertinence^  and  ground  of  suspicion,  your  Highness; — but  has 
perhaps  a  kind  of  meaning  struggling  hcilfde^'eloped  in  it.  Many 
answers  which  call  and  even  think  themselves  '"'' true'^  are  but 
"  feigned  in  one's  own  thoughts  "  after  all;  from  that  to  "  the  truth  and 
honesty  of  heart "  is  still  a  great  way ; — witness  jnany  men  in  most 
times ;  witness  almost  all  men  in  such  times  as  ours.]  That  is  what 
I  mean  by  true  answers. 

I  did  hope  that  when  I  had  heard  you,  so  far  as  it  might  be  your 
pleasure  to  speak  on  this  head,  I  should  then,  having  taken  some 
short  note  of  it  as  I  do  [Glancing  at  his  Note-paper],  have  been  in  a 
condition,,  this  afternoon  [Would  still  fain  be  off!\ — if  it  had  not  been 
a  trouble  to  you, — to  return  my  answer,  upon  a  little  advisement  with 
myself  But  seeing  you  have  not  thought  it  convenient  to  proceed 
that  way, — truly  I  think  I  may  very  well  say,  I  shall  need  to  have  a 
little  thought  about  the  thing  before  returning  answer  to  it  :  lest  our 
Debate  should  end  on  my  part  with  a  very  vain  discourse,  and  with 
lightness  ;  as  it  is  very  like  to  do.  [A  Drama  COMPOSING  itself  as  it 
gets  ACTED,  this ;    very  different  from  the  blank-vet  se  Dramas^ 

I  say  therefore,  if  you  had  found  good  to  proceed  farther  in  speaking 
of  these  things,  I  should  have  made  my  own  short  animadversions  on 
the  whole,  this  afternoon,  and  have  made  some  short  reply.  And  this 
would  have  ushered  me  in  not  only  to  give  the  best  answer  I  could, 
but  to  make  my  own  objections  'too.'  \An  interrogative  look:  evi- 
dently some  of  us  must  speak!  Glyn  steps  forward^ 

Lord  Chief-Justice  Glyn  steps  forward,  speaks  largely  ;  then 
Sir  Charles  Wolseley  steps  forward ;  and  Nathaniel  Fiennes 
steps  forward  ;  and  Lord  BROGHlL(Earl  of  Orrery  that  is  to  be)  steps 
forward  ;  and  all  speak  largely  :  whom,  not  to  treat  with  the  indignity 
poor  Lenthall  got  from  us,  we  shall  abridge  down  to  absolute  nothing. 
Good  speaking  too  ;  but  without  interest  for  us.  In  fact  it  is  but  re- 
petition, under  new  forms,  of  the  old  considerations  offered  by  heavy 
Bulstrode  and  the  Master  of  the  Rolls.  The  only  idea  of  the  slightest 
novelty  is  this  brought  forward  by  Lord  Broghil  in  the  rear  of  all  :t 

Lord  Broghil.    *'  By  an  Act  already  existing  (the  nth  of  Henry 
*  Soraers,  vi.  356,  7.  f  Ibid.  p.  363, 


156        SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


«  VII.),  'ill  persons  that  obey  a  '  Kxng de  facto' ?iYe  to  be  held  guiltless  5 
**  not  so  if  thev  serve  a  Protector  de  facto.  Think  of  this.— And  then 
"  *  in  the  7th  and  last  place,'  I  observe  :  The  Imperial  Crown  of  this 
"  country  and  the  Pretended  King  are  indeed  divorced  ;— nevertheless 
"  persons   divorced   may   come    together   again  ;   but   if  the    person 

"  divorced  be  married  to' another,  there  is  no  chance  left  of  that  !" 

Having  listened  attentively  to  perhaps  some  three  hours  of  this,  his 
Highness,  giviog  up  the  present  afternoon  as  now  hopeless,  makes 
brief  answer. 

The  Lord  Protector.  I  have  very  little  to  say  to  you  at  this 
time.  I  confess  I  shall  never  be  willing  to  deny  or  defer  those  things* 
that  come  from  the  Parliament  to  the  Supreme  Magistrate,  [He  ac- 
cepts then  ?]  if  they  come  in  the  bare  and  naked  authority  of  such  an 
Assembly  as  is  known  by  that  name,  and  is  the  Representative  of  so 
many  people  as  a  Parliament  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  is.  I 
say  this  ought  to  have  its  weight  ;  and  it  hath  so,  and  ever  will  have 
with  me. 

In  all  things  a  man  is  free  to  grant  desires  coming  from  Parliament. 
I  may  say,  inasmuch  as  the  Parliament  hath  condescended  so  far  as 
to  do  me  this  honour  (a  very  great  one  added  to  the  rest)  of  giving  me 
the  privilege  of  counsel  from  so  many  members  of  theirs,  so  able,  so 
intelligent  of  the  grounds  of  things — {Sentence  breaks  do'wn'\ — This  is, 
I  say,  a  very  singular  honour  and  favour  to  me  ;  and  I  wish  1  may  do, 
and  1  hope  I  shall  do,  what  becomes  an  honest  man  in  giving  an 
answer  to  these  things,— according  to  such  insightt  either  as  I  have, 
or  as  God  shall  give  me,  or  as  I  may  be  helped  into  by  reasoning 
with  you.  But  indeed  I  did  not  in  Vain  allege  conscience  in  the  first 
answer  I  gave  you.  {Well  f]  For  1  must  say,  I  should  be  a  person 
very  unworthy  of  such  favour  if  I  should  prevaricate  in  saying  things 
did  stick  upon  my  conscience.  Which  I  must  still  say  they  do  !  Only, 
I  must  '  also '  say,  I  am  in  the  best  way  I  could  be  '  in '  for  informa- 
tion ;  and  I  shall  gladly  receive  it. 

Here  have  been  divers  things  spoken  by  you  today,  with  a  great 
deal  of  judgment  and  abihty  and  knowledge.  '  I  think  the  arguments 
and  reasonings  that  have  been  used  were  upon  these  three  heads  \X 
First,  Speaking  to  the  thing  simply,  to  the  abstract  notion  of  the  Title, 
and  to  the  positive  reasons  upon  which  it  stands.  Then  '  secondly ^ 
Speaking'  comparatively  of  it,  and  of  the  foundation  of  it  ;  in  order  to 
shew  the  goodness  of  it  comparatively,  '  in  comparison  with  our  pre^ 
sent  title  and  foundation.'  It  is  alleged  to  be  so  much  better  than 
what  we  now  have  ;  and  that  it  will  do  the  work  which  this  other  fails 
in.  And  thirdly,  Some  things  have  been  said  by  way  of  precaution  • 
which  are  not  arguments  from  the  thing  itself,  but  are  considerations 
drawn  from  the  temper  of  the  English  People,  what  will  gratify  them, 
and  so  on  ;' — which  is  surely  considerable.  As  also  '  some  things 
were  said  '  by  way  of  anticipation  of  me  in  my  answer  ;  speaking  to 
some  objections  which  others  have  made  against  this  proposal.  These 

*  Means  'anything, --the  Kingship  for  one  thing.' 
f  '  desire '  in  orig.  :  but  there  is  no  sense  in  that, 
.  X  'accounts '  in  ori^. 


SPEECH  IX.  157 


are  things,  in  themselves,  each  of  them  considerable.  \The  " objec- 
tlo?ts?"  or  the  ''  Three  heads''''  in  general?  Uncertain  ;  nay  it  is 
uncertain  to  Oli^'er  himself !  He  inainly  means  the  objections,  but 
the  other  also  is  hovering  i7t  his  head, — as  is  so jue times  the  way  with 
hijn.^ 

To  answer  objections,  I  know,  is  a  very  weighty  business  ;  and  to 
make  objections  is  very  easy  ;  and  that  will  fall  to  my  part.  And  I 
am  sure  I  shall  make  them  to  men  who  know  somewhat  how  to  answer 
them, — '  to  whom  they  are  not  strange,'  having  already  in  part  been 
suggested  to  them  by  the  Debates  already  had. 

But  upon  the  whole  matter,  I  having  as  well  as  I  could  taken  those 
things  ^Looking  at  his  Notes'\  that  have  been  spoken, — which  truly  are 
to  be  acknowledged  as  very  learnedly  spoken, — I  hope  you  v/ill  give 
me  a  little  time  to  consider  of  them.  As  to  when  it  may  be  the  best 
time  for  me  to  return  hither  and  meet  you  again,  I  shall  leave  that  to 
your  consideration. 

Lord  Whitlocke.  "Your  Highness  will  be  pleased  to  appoint 
your  own  time." 

The  Lord  Protector.  On  Monday  at  nine  of  the  clock  I  will 
be  ready  to  wait  upon  you.* 

And  so,  'vvith  many  bows,  exeunt. — Thus  they,  doing  their  epic  feat, 
not  in  the  hexameter  measure,  on  that  old  Saturday  forenoon,  1 1  April 
1657  ;  old  London,  old  England,  sounding  manifoldly  round  them  ; — ■ 
the  Fifth- Monarchy  just  locked  in  the  Tower. 

Our  learned  friend  Bulstrode  says  :  '  The  Protector  often  advised 

*  about  this'  of  the  Kingship  '  and   other  great  businesses  with  the 

*  Lord  Broghil,  Pierrepoint'  (Earl  of  Kingston's  Brother,  an  old  Long- 
Parliament  man),  with  'Whitlocke,  Sir  Charles  Wolseley,  and  Thur- 

*  loe  ;  and  would  be  shut  up  three  or  four  hours  together  in  private 

*  discourse,  and  none  were  admitted  to  come  in  to  him.  He  would 
'  sometimes  be  very  cheerful  with  them  ;  and  laying  aside  his  great- 
'  ness,  he  would  be  exceeding  familiar ;  and  by  way  of  diversion 
'  would  make  verses,'  play  at  crambo,  '  with  them,  and  every  one 
'  must  try  his  fancy.  He  commonly  called  for  tobacco,  pipes  and  a 
'  candle,  and  would  now  and  then  take  tobacco  himself ;'  which  was 
a  very  high  attempt.  '  Then  he  would  fall  again  to  his  serious  and 
'great  business'  of  the  Kingship;  'and  advise  with  them  in  those 
'  affairs.     And  this   he  did   often  with  them  ;  and  their  counsel  was 

*  accepted  and'  in  part  'followed  by  him  in  most  of  his  greatest 
'  affairs,' — as  it  deserved  to  be.t 

*  Somers  Tracts,  vi.  351-365,  f  Whitlocke,  p.  647. 


158         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


SPEECH  X. 

On  Monday,  April  13th,  at  Whitehall,  at  nine  in  the  morning,*  ac- 
cording to  agreement  on  Saturday  last,  the  Committee  of  Ninety-nine 
attend  his  Highness,  and  his  Highness  there  speaks  ;— addressing 
Whitlocke  as  reporter  of  the  said  Committee  : 

My  Lord, 

I  think  I  have  a  very  hard  task  on  my  hand.  Though  it  be 
but  to  give  an  account  of  jnyself,  yet  I  see  I  am  beset  on  all  hands 
here.  I  say,  but  to  give  an  account  of  "  myself  :"  yet  that  is  a  busi- 
ness very  comprehensive  of  others  ;— '  comprehending'  us  all  in  some 
sense,  and,  as  the  Parliament  have  been  pleased  to  shape  it,  compre- 
hending all  the  interests  of  these  Three  Nations  ! 

I  confess  I  have  two  things  in  view.  The  Jirst  is,  To  return  some 
answer  to  what  was  so  well  and  ably  sairi  the  other  day  on  Ijehalf  of 
the  Parliament's  putting  that  Title  in  the  Instrument  of  Settlement. 
[This  is  the  First  thing  ;  what  the  Second  is,  does  not  yet  for  a  long 
while  appear ^^  I  hope  it  will  not  be  expected  I  should  answer 
everything  that  was  then  said  :  because  I  suppose  the  main  things 
that  were  spoken  were  arguments  from  ancient  Constitutions  and 
Settlements  by  the  Laws  ;  in  which  I  am  sure  I  could  never  be  well 
skilled, — and  therefore  must  the  more  ask  pardon  for  what  I  have 
already  transgressed  '  in  speaking  of  such  matters,'  or  shall  now 
transgress,  through  my  ignorance  of  them,  in  my  '  present '  answer  to 
you. 

Your  arguments,  which  I  say  were  chiefly  upon  the  Law,  seem  to 
carry  with  them  a  great  deal  of  necessary  conclusiveness,  to  inforce 
that  one  thing  of  Kingship.  And  if  your  arguments  come  upon  me 
to  inforce  upon  me  the  ground  of  Necessity, — why,  then,  I  have  no 
room  to  answer  :  for  what  must  be  must  be  !  And  therefore  I  did 
reckon  it  much  of  my  business  to  consider  whether  there  were  such  a 
necessity,  or  would  arise  such  a  necessity,  from  those  arguments. — It 
was  said  :  "  Kingship  is  not  a  Title,  but  an  Office,  so  interwoven  with 
"  the  fundamental  Laws  of  this  Nation,  that  they  cannot,  or  cannot 
"well,  be  executed  and  exercised  without  'it,' — partly,  if  I  may  say  so, 
"  upon  a  supposed  ignorance  which  the  Law  hath  of  any  other  Title. 
"  It  knows  no  other;  neither  doth  any  know  another.  And,  by  reci- 
"  procaiion,— this  said  Title,  or  N  ame,  or  Office,  you  were  farther 
"  pleased  to  say,  is  understood  ;  in  the  dimensions  of  it,  in  the  power 
"  and  prerogatives  of  it ;  which  are  by  the  Law  made  certain  ;  and 
"  the  Law  can  tell  when  it  \^Kitigship'\  keeps  within  compass,  and 
"  when  it  exceeds  its  limits.  And  the  Law  knowing  this,  the  People 
"  can  know  it  also.  And  the  People  do  love  what  they  know.  And 
"  it  will  neither  be  pro  salute  popidi,  nor  for  our  safety,  to  obtrude 
**  upon  the  People  what  they  do  not  nor  cannot  understand." 

f  At  '  eight,'  say  the  Journals,  vii.  ^23, 


SPEECH  X.  159 


It  was  said  also,  "  That  the  People  have  always,  by  their  repre- 
"  sentatives  in  Parliament,  been  unwilling  to  vary  Names, — seeing 
"  they  love  settlement  and  known  names,  as  was  said  before."  And 
there  were  two  good  instances  given  of  that:  the  one,  in  King  James's 
time,  about  his  desire  to  alter  somewhat  of  the  Title  :  and  the  other 
in  the  Long  Parliament,  where  they  being  otherwise  rationally  raoved 
to  adopt  the  word  "  Representative  "  instead  of  "  Parliament,"  refused 
it  for  the  same  reason.  \Lefithall  tries  to  blush.'] — It  was  said  also, 
"That  the  holding  to  this  word  doth  strengthen  the  'new'Settle- 
"  ment ;  for  hereby  there  is  not  anything  de  novo  done,  but  merely 
*'  things  are  revolved  into  their  old  current."  It  was  said,  "  That  it 
"  is  the  security  of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  and  that  it  secures  all  who 
"  act  under  him." — Truly  these  are  the  principal  of  those  grounds 
that  were  offered  the  other  day,  so  far  as  I  do  recollect. 

I  cannot  take  upon  me  to  refel  those  grounds  ;  they  are  so  strong 
and  rational.  But  if  I  am  to  be  able  to  make  mty  answer  to  them,  I 
must  not  grant  that  they  are  necessarily  conclusive  ;  I  must  take 
them  only  as  arguments  which  perhaps  have  in  them  much  conve- 
niency,  much  probability  towards  conclusiveness.  For  if  a  remedy 
or  expedient  may  be  found,  they  are  not  of  necessity,  they  are  not 
inevitable  grounds  :  and  if  not  necessary  or  concluding  grounds,  why 
then  they  will  hang  upon  the  reason  of  expediency  or  conveniency. 
And  if  so,  I  shall  have  a  little  liberty  '  to  speak  ;'  otherwise  I  am  con- 
cluded before  I  speak. — Therefore  it  will  behove  me  to  say  what  I 
can.  Why  these  are  not  7iecessary  reasons  ;  why  they  are  not — why 
it*  is  not  (I  should  say)  so  interwoven  in  the  Laws  but  that  the  Laws 
may  still  be  executed  as  justly,  and  as  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
people,  and  answering  all  objections  equally  well,  without  such  a 
Title  as  with  it.  And  then,  when  I  have  done  that,  I  shall  only  take 
the  liberty  to  say  a  word  or  two  for  my  own  grounds,  t  And  when  I 
have  said  what  I  can  say  as  to  that  '  latter  point,' — I  hope  you  will 
think  a  great  deal  more  than  I  say.  S^Not  convenient  to  speak  every- 
thing in  so  ticklish  a  predicament ;  with  Deputations  of  a  Hundred 
Officers,  and  so  many  "  scruptilous  fellows ^^  "  considerable  in  their 
own  conceit ^^  glaring  into  the  business,  with  eyes  much  sharper  than 
they  are  deep  !\ 

Truly  though  Kingship  be  not  a  *  mere '  Title,  but  the  Name  of  an 
Office  which  runs  through  the  '  whole  of  the '  Law  ;  yet  is  it  not  so 
raiione  no  minis,  by  reason  of  the  name,  but  by  reason  of  what  the 
name  signifies.  It  is  a  Name  of  Office  plainly  implying  a  Supreme 
Authority  :  is  it  more  ;  or  can  it  be  stretched  to  more  ?  I  say, 
it  is  a  Name  of  Office  plainly  implying  the  Supreme  Authority  : 
and  if  so,  why  then  I  should  suppose, — I  am  not  peremptory  in 
anything  that  is  matter  of  deduction  or  inference  of  my  own, 
—but  I  should  suppose  that  whatsoever  name  hath  been  or  shall  be 
the    Name    under  which    the    Supreme  Authority  acts — {Sentence 

*  The  Kingship  :  his  Highness  finds  that  the  grammar  will  require  to  be  at- 
tended to. 

f  'Grounds'  originating  with  myself  independently  of  yours.  Is  this  the 
"second"  thing,  which  his  Highness  had  in  view,  but  did  not  specify  after  thQ 
*'  first,"  when  he  started  ?    Thq  issue  prove§  it  to  Ue  so, 


r6o        SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


abruptly  stops ;  the  conclusion  being  visible  without  speech  /]  Why, 
I  say,  if  it  had  been  those  Four  or  Five  Letters,  or  whatever  else  it 
had  been—  !  That  signification  goes  to  the  thing,  certainly  it  does  ; 
and  not  to  the  name.  [Certainly  /]  Why,  then,  there  can  no  more 
be  said  but  this  :  As  such  a  Title  hath  been  fixed,  so  it  may  be  un- 
fixed. And  certainly  in  the  right  of  the  Authority,  I  mean  the  Legis- 
lative Power,— in  the  rights  of  the  Legislative  Power,  I  think  the  Autho- 
rity that  could  christen  it  with  such  a  name  could  have  called  it  by 
another  name.  Therefore  the  name  is  only  derived  from  that  '  Autho- 
rity.' And  certainly  they,  '  the  primary  Legislative  Authority,'  had 
the  disposal  of  it,  and  might  have  detracted  from  it,'  changed  '  it  :'— 
and  I  hope  it  will  be  no  offence  to  say  to  you,  as  the  case  now  stands, 
"  So  may  you."  And  if  it  be  so  that  you  may,  why  then  I  say,  there  is 
nothing  of  necessity  in  your  argument  ;  and  all  turns  on  consideration 
of  the  expedience  of  it.     [Is  the  Kiiigship  expedient  f] 

Truly  1  had  rather,  if  I  were  to  choose,  if  it  were  the  original  question, 
—which  I  hope  is  altogether  out  ot  the  question  [His  Highness  means, 
afar  off,  in  a  polite  manner,  "  You  don' t  pretend  that  I  still  need  to  be 
made  Protector  by  you  or  by  any  creature  /"\ — I  had  rather  have  any 
Name  from  this  Parliament  than  any  other  Name  without  it  :  so  much 
do  I  value  the  authority  of  the  Parliament.  And  I  beheveall  men  are  of 
my  mind  in  that  ;  I  believe  the  Nation  is  very  much  of  my  mind, — 
though  it  be  an  uncertain  way  of  arguing,  what  mind  they  are  of.* 
I  think  we  may  say  it  without  offence  ;  for  I  would  give  none  !  [No 
offence  to  you.  Honourable  Gentlemen  ;  who  are  Itere,  by  ftmction,  to 
interpret  and  signify  the  Mind  of  the  Nation.  It  is  very  difficult  to  do .-'] 
— Though  the  Parliament  be  the  truest  way  to  know  what  the  mind  of 
the  Nation  is,  yet  if  the  Parliament  will  be  pleased  to  give  me  a  liberty 
to  reason  for  myself ;  and  if  that  be  one  of  your  arguments — [''  That:^^ 
what,  your  Highness  ?  That  the  mind  of  the  Nation,  well  interpreted 
by  this  Parliament,  is  really  for  a  King  ?  That  our  Laws  cannot  go  on 
without  a  Kingl — His  Highness  means  the  former  mainly,  but  means 
the  latter  too  ;  means  seve?'al  things  together,  as  his  inanner  sometimes 
is,  in  abstruse  cases  I) — I  hope  I  may  urge  against  it  that  the  reason  of 
my  own  mind  is  not  quite  to  that  effect.  But  I  do  say  undoubtedly  (let 
us  think  about  otherthings,  'about  the  mind  of  the  Nation  and  such  hke,' 
what  we  will],  What  the  Parliament  settles  is  what  will  run, '  and  have 
currency,'  through  the  Law  ;  and  will  lead  the  thread  of  Government 
through  this  Land  equally  well  as  what  hath  been.  For  1  consider  that 
what  hath  been  was  upon  the  same  account, '  by  the  same  authority.'  Save 
that  there  hath  been  some  long  continuance  of  the  thing  [This  thing 
of  Kingship],  it  but  upon  the  same  account  !  It  had  its  original  some- 
where !  And  it  was  with  consent  of  the  whole, — there  is  the  original 
of  it.  And  consent  of  the  whole  will '  still,'  I  say,  be  the  needle  that 
will  lead  the  thread  through  all  ;  [  The  same  tailor-metaphor  a  second 
time.']  and  I  think  no  man  wil  pretend  right  against  it,  or  wrong  ! 

And  if  so,  then,  under  favour  to  me,  I  think  these  arguments  from 
the  Law  are  all  jtot  as  of  necessity,  but  are  to  be  understood  as  of 
conveniency.     It  is  in  your  power  to  dispose  and  settle  ;  and  before- 

*  ■Naturally  a  delicate  subject  :  some  assert  the  Nation  lias  never  recognised  his 
Highness,— his  Highness  himself  being  of  a  very  different  opmion  indeed  ! 


SPEECH  X.  i6i 


hand  we  can  have  confidence  that  what  you  do  settle  will  be  as 
authentic  as  the  things  that  were  of  old. — especially  as  this  individual 
thing,  the  Name,  or  Title,  according  to  the  Parliament's  appointment. 
'  Is  not  this  so  ?  It  is  question  not  of  necessity  ;  we  have  power  to 
settle  it  as  conveniency  directs.'  Why  then,  there  will  (with  leave) 
be  way  made  for  me  to  offer  a  reason  or  two  to  the  other  considera- 
tions you  adduced  :  otherwise,  I  say  my  mouth  is  stopped  !  \^His 
Highness  is  plunging  in  deep  brakes  a7td  imbroglios  ;  hopes,  however, 
that  he  now  sees  daylight  athwart  themi\ 

There  are  very  many  inforcements  to  carry  on  this  thing.  [Thing 
of  the  Kingship.'l  But  I  suppose  it  will  'have  to'  stand  on  its 
expediency— Truly  I  should  have  urged  one  consideration  more 
which  I  forgot  [Looks  over  his  shoulder  ifi  the  jungle  and  bethinks 
him  /],  namely,  the  argument  not  of  reason  only,  but  of  experience. 
It  is  a  short  one,  but  it  is  a  true  one  (under  favour),  and  is 
known  to  you  all  in  the  fact  of  it  (under  favour)  \A  damnable 
iteration  ;  but  too  characteristic  to  be  omitted\  :  That  the  Supreme 
Authority  going  by  another  Name  and  under  another  Title  than  that 
of  King  hath  been,  why  it  hath  been  already  twice  complied 
with  !  [Long  Parliament,  called  " Keepers  of  the  Liberties  of  England^^ 
found  compliance  ;  and  now  the  "  Protectorate  ^^  fi?tds.]  '  Twice,'  under 
the  Custodes  Libertatis  Anglia;,  and  also  since  I  exercised  the  place,  it 
hath  been  complied  with.  And  truly  I  may  say  that  almost  universal 
obedience  hath  been  given  by  all  ranks  and  sorts  of  men  to  both.  Now 
this, '  on  the  part  of  both  these  Authorities,'  was  a  beginning  with  the 
highest  degree  of  Magistracy  at  the  first  alteration  ;  and  'at  a  time' 
when  that  '  Kingship '  was  the  name  '  established  : '  and  the  new 
Name,  though  it  was  the  name  of  an  invisible  thing,  the  very  Name, 
I  say,  was  obeyed,  did  pass  current,  was  received  and  did  carry  on 
the  '  Public  '  Justice  of  the  Nation.  I  remember  very  well,  my  Lords 
the  Judges  were  somewhat  startled  :  yet  upon  consideration,  — if  I 
mistake  not, —  I  believe  so, — they,  there  being  among  them  (without 
reflection)  as  able  and  as  learned  as  have  sat  there, — though  they  did 
I  confess,  at  first,  demur  a  little, — they  did  receive  satisfaction,  and 
did  act,  as  I  said  before.  [Untwist  this  extraordinary  withe  of  a 
sentence  ;  you  willfifid  it  not  inextricable,  and  very  characteristic  of 
Oliver  f]  And  as  for  my  own  part  [My  own  Protectorate],  I  profess 
I  think  I  may  say  :  Since  the  beginning  of  that  change, — though  I 
should  be  loath  to  speak  anything  vainly, — but  since  the  beginning 
of  that  change  to  this  day,  I  do  not  think  there  hath  been  a  freer  pro- 
cedure of  the  Laws,  not  even  in  those  years  called,  and  not  unworthily, 
the  "  Halcyon  days  of  Peace," — from  the  Twentieth  of  Elizabeth  to 
King  James's  and  King  Charles's  time.  I  do  not  think  but  the  Laws 
have  proceeded  with  as  much  freedom  and  justice,  and  with  less  of 
private  solicitation,  since  I  came  to  the  Government,  as  they  did  in 
those  years  so  named, — '  Halcyon.'  I  do  not  think,  under  favour, — 
[His  Highness  gets  more  emphatic] — that  the  Laws  had  a  freer  exer- 
cise, more  uninterrupted  by  any  hand  of  Power,  in  those  years  than 
now  ;  or  that  the  Judge  has  been  less  solicited  by  letters  or  private 
interpositions  either  of  my  own  or  other  men's,  in  double  so  many 
years  in  all  those  times  '  named '  "  of  Peace  ! "    [Sentma  involving 

VOL.   HI.  G 


l62         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


an  incurable  Irish-bull ;  the  head  of  it  eating  the  tail  of  it,  like  a 
Serpent-of-Eternity  ;  but  the  meaning  shining  very  clear  through  its 
contortiofis  nevertheless  f]  And  if  more  of  my  Lords  the  Judges  were 
here  than  now  are,  they  could  tell  us  perhaps  somewhat  farther  *— 
—And  therefore  I  say,  under  favour  :  These  two  Experiences  do 
manifestly  shew  that  it  is  not  a  Title,  though  never  so  interwoven 
with  our  Laws,  that  makes  the  Law  to  have  its  free  passage  and  to 
do  its  office  without  interruption  (as  we  venture  to  think  it  is  now  doing): 
'  not  a  Title,  no  ; '  and  if  a  Parliament  shall  determine  that  another 
Name  run  through  the  Laws,  I  believe  it  will  run  with  as  free  a  passage 
as  this  '  of  King  ever  did.'  Which  is  all  I  have  to  say  upon  that  head. 
And  if  this  be  so,  then  truly  other  things  may  fall  under  a  more  in- 
different consideration  \\  and  so  I  shall  arrive  *  at  the  Second  thing  I 
had  in  view,'  at  some  issue  of  answering  for  myself  in  this  great 
matter.  And  all  this  while,  nothing  that  I  say  doth  any  way  deter- 
mine as  to  my  final  resolution,  or  '  intimate  any '  thought  against  the 
Parliament's  wisdom  in  this  matter  ;  but  '  endeavoureth '  really  and 
honestly  and  plainly  towards  such  an  answer  as  may  be  fit  foV  me  to 
give.  The  Parhament  desires  to  have  this  Title.  It  hath  stuck  with 
me,  and  doth  yet  stick.  And  truly,  as  I  hinted  the  other  day,J  it 
seemed  as  if  your  arguments  to  me  did  partly  give  positive  grounds 
for  what  was  to  be  done,  and  partly  comparative  grounds ;  stating 
the  matter  as  you  were  then  pleased  to  do, — for  which  I  gave  no  cause 
that  I  know  of,  that  is,  for  comparing  the  effects  of  Kingship  with 
those  of  such  a  Name  as  I  at  present  bear,  with  '  those  of  the 
Protectorship  '  to  wit.'  I  say  I  hope  it  will  not  be  understood  that 
I  contend  for  the  name  ;  or  for  any  name,  or  any  thing  '  of  a 
merely  extraneous  nature  ; '  but  truly  and  plainly  '  for  the  substance 
of  the  business, — if  I  speak  as  in  the  Lord's  presence  ;  ay, 
in  all  right  things,  as  a  person  under  the  disposal  of  the  Providence 
of  God, — neither  "  naming  "  one  thing  nor  other  ;  but  only  endea- 
vouring to  give  fit  answer  as  to  this  proposed  Name  or  Title.§  For 
I  hope  I  do  not  desire  to  give  a  rule  to  anybody — '  much  less  to  the 
Parliament.'  I  professed  I  had  not  been  able, — and  I  truly  profess  I 
have  not  yet  been  able, — to  give  a  rule  to  myself '  in  regard  to  your 
Proposal'  I  would  be  understood  in  this.  [  Yes,  your  Highness. 
"  That  it  is  not  doubt  of  the  Parliamenfs  wisdotn  \  that  it  is  7tot 
"  vain  preferetice  or  postponence  of  one  '  name  '  to  another  ;  but  doubt 
"as  to  the  substantial  expediency  of  the  thing  proposed,  uncertainty 
"  as  to  God's  will  and  monition  in  regard  to  it,  -that  has  made  and 
''''still  7nakes  me  speak  in  this  uncomfortable,  haggling,  struggling 
"and  wriggling  manner.  It  is  no  easy  ihing"^ Jorcing  one's  way 
"  through  a  jungle  of  such  depth  I  An  affair  of  Courtship  moreoi'cr, 
"  which  grows  and  has  to  grow  by  the  very  handling  of  it  I  I  would 
"not  be  misunderstood  in  this."'\ 

*  Reform  of  Chancery;   improvements  made  in  Law. 

f  '  Otherlhings,  your  other  arguments,  may  lose  a  great  deal  of  their  formid- 
able air  of  cogency,  as  if  Necessity  herself  were  backing  them. 

X  Saturday  last,  day  before  Yesterday. 

§  The  original  [Somers,  vi.  368)  unintelligible,  illegible  except  with  the  power- 
fullest  lenses,  yields  at  last,— with  some  slight  changes  of  the  points  and  so  forth, 
—this  sense  as  strugghng  at  the  bottom  of  it. 


SPEECH  X.  165 


I  am  a  man  standing  in  the  Place  I  am  \rv[^Clearly,your  Hig/mess]; 
which  Place  I  undertook  not  so  much  out  of  hope  of  doing  any  good, 
as  out  of  a  desire  to  prevent  mischief  and  evil  \_N'ote  ////j],— which  I 
did  see  was  imminent  on  the  Nation.  I  say,  we  were  running 
headlong  into  confusion  and  disorder,  and  would  necessarily  '  have ' 
run  into  blood  ;  and  I  was  passive  to  those  that  desired  me  to  under- 
take the  Pl^ce  which  I  now  have.  [With  tones,  with  a  look  oj 
sorrow,  solemnity  and  ?tobleness  ;  the  brave  Oliver  f]  A  Place,  I 
say,  not  so  much  of  doing  good, — which  a  man  lawfully  7nay,  if  he 
deal  deliberately  with  God  and  his  own  conscience, — a  man  tJtay  (I 
say)  lawfully,  if  he  deal  deliberately  with  God  and  his  own  con- 
science ;  a  man  may  lawfully,  as  the  case  may  be  (though  it  is  a 
very  tickle  case),  desire  a  Place  to  do  good  in  !  [IViftdow  once 
more  into  his  Highness  J  "  Tichle"  is  the  oldforin  ^ticklish  :  "-a 
iiJde  case  indeed^'  his  Hii^hness  candidly  allows  ;  yet  a  case  which 
does  occur, — shame  and  woe  to  him,  the  poor  cowardly  Pedant,  tiea 
tip  in  cobwebs  and  tapcthrums,  that  neglects  it  when  it  does  /']  I  profess 
I  had  not  that  apprehension,  when  I  undertook  the  Place,  that  I 
could  so  much  do  good  ;  but  I  did  think  I  might  prevent  imminent 
evil. — And  therefore  I  am  not  contending  for  one  "name"  compared 
with  another  ; — and  therefore  have  nothing  to  answer  to  any  argu- 
ments that  were  used  for  preferring  *the  name' Kingship  to  Pro- 
tectorship. For  I  should  almost  think  any  "  name  "  were  better  than 
my  "  Name  ;"  and  I  should  altogether  think  any  person  fitter  than  I 
am  for  such  business  ;  [Your  Highness  ?— But  St.  Paul  too  professed 
himself''''  the  chief  of  sinners  ^''-^and  has  not  been  altogether  thotight  to 
"  cant "  in  doing  so  /] — and  I  compliment  not,  God  knows  it  !  But 
this  I  should  say.  That  I  do  think,  you,  in  the  settling  of  the  peace 
and  liberties  of  this  Nation,  which  cries  as  loud  upon  you  as  ever 
Nation  did  for  somewhat  that  may  beget  a  consistence  *  ought  to 
attend  to  that ; '  otherwise  the  Nation  will  fall  in  pieces  !  And  in 
that,  so  far  as  I  can,  I  am  ready  to  serve  not  as  a  King  but  as  Con- 
stable '  if  you  like  ! '  For  truly  I  have,  as  before  God,  often  thought 
that  I  could  not  tell  what  my  business  was,  nor  what  I  was  in  the 
place  I  stood  in,  save  comparing  myself  to  a  good  Constable  set  to 
keep  the  peace  of  the  Parish.  [Hear  his  Highness  f]  And  truly  this 
hath  been  my  content  and  satisfaction  in  the  troubles  I  have  under- 
gone, That  you  yet  have  peace. 

Why  now,  truly, — if  I  may  advise, — I  wish  to  God  you  may  be  so 
happy  as  to  keep  the  peace  still  !'*  If  you  cannot  attain  to  such  per- 
fection as  to  accomplish  this  '  that  we  are  now  upon,'  I  wish  to  God 
we  may  still  have  peace, — that  I  do  ! — But  "  the  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness "  are  shewn  in  "meekness;"  a  better  thing  that  we  are  aware 

of ! 1   say  therefore,  I  do  judge  for    myself  there  is   no   such 

necessity  of  this  Name  of  King  ;  for  the  other  Names  may  do  as 
well.  I  judge  for  myself.  I  must  say  a  little  (I  think  I  have  some- 
what of  conscience  to  answer  as  to  the  matter),  why  I  cannot  under- 
take this  Name.  [We  are  now  fairly  entered  upon  the  Second  head 
oJ  method'\     And  truly    I    must  needs  go  a  little  out  of  the  way, 

*  If  I  may  advise,  I  sliould  sa)  (he  purport  and  soul  of  our  whole  inquiry  at 
persent  ought  to  be  that  of  keeping  the  peace. 

G  2 


i64         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

to  come  to  my  reasons.  And  you  will  be  able  to  judge  of  them 
when  I  have  told  you  them.  And  I  shall  deal  seriously,  as  bclore 
God. 

If  you  do  not  all  of  you,  I  am  sure  some  of  you  do,  and  it  behoves 
me  to  say  that  I  do,  "  know  ny  calling  from  the  iirst  to  this  day." 
I  was  a  person  who,  from  my  f  rst  employment,  was  suddenly  pre- 
ferred and  lifted  up  from  lesser  trusts  to  greater ;  from  my  first  being 
a  Captain  of  a  Troop  of  Horse  ;  and  did  labour  as  well  as  I  could  to 
discharge  my  trust  ;  and  God  blessed  me  '  therein '  as  it  pleased 
Him.  And  I  did  truly  and  plainly, — and  in  a  way  of  foolish  sim- 
pHcity,  as  it  was  judged  by  very  great  and  wise  men,  and  good  men 
too, — desire  to  make  my  instruments  help  me  in  that  work.  And  I 
will  deal  plainly  with  you  :  I  had  a  very  worthy  Friend  then  ;  and  he 
was  a  very  noble  p3rson,  and  I  know  his  memory  is  very  grateful  to 
all, — Mr.  John  Hampden.  [Hear,  hear  ;~-a  iiotable  piece  of  History  J'\ 
At  my  first  going  out  into  this  engagement,"*  I  saw  our  men  were 
beaten  at  every  hand.  I  did  indeed  ;  and  desired  him  that  he  would 
make  some  additions  to  my  Lord  Essex's  Army,  of  some  new  regi- 
ments ;  and  I  told  him  I  would  be  serviceable  to  him  in  bringing 
such  men  in  as  I  thought  had  a  spirit  that  would  do  something  in  the 
work.  This  is  very  true  that  I  tell  you  ;  God  knows  I  lie  not.f 
"  Your  troops,"  said  I,  "  are  most  of  them  old  decayed  serving-men, 
"  and  tapsters,  and  such  kind  of  fellows  ;  and,"  said  I,  "their  troops 
"  are  Gentlemen's  sons,  younger  sons  and  persons  of  quality  :  do  you 
"  think  that  the  spirits  of  such  base  and  mean  fellows  will  ever  be 
"  able  to  encounter  gentlemen,  that  have  honour  and  courage  and 
"  resolution  in  them?"  Truly  I  did  represent  to  him  in  this  manner 
conscientiously  ;  and  truly  I  did  tell  him  :  "  You  must  get  men  of  a 
"  spirit  :  and  take  it  not  ill  what  I  say, — I  know  you  will  not, — of  a 
"  spirit  that  is  likely  to  go  on  as  far  as  gentlemen  will  go  : — or  else 
"  you  will  be  beaten  still."  I  told  him  so  ;  I  did  truly.  He  was  a 
wise  and  worthy  person  ;  and  he  did  think  that  I  talked  a  good 
notion,  but  an  impracticable  one.  SJ^ery  natural  in  Mr.  Hampdeii,  if 
I  recollect  him  well,  your  Highiiess  !  With  his  close  thin  lips,  and 
voy  vigilant  eyes  ;  with  his  clear  official  understanding ;  lively  sensi- 
bilities to  *'  imspotted  character ^^  "  safe  courses ^^  &^cl  &^c.  A  very 
brave  man  ;  but  formidably  thick-quilted,  and  with  pincer-lips,  and 
eyes  very  vigilant. — Alas,  there  is  no  possibility  for  poor  Columbus 
at  a7ty  of  the  Public  Offices,  till  once  he  become  an  Actuality,  and 
say,  ''Here  IS  the  America  I  was  telling  you  of!']  Truly  I  told 
him'- 1  could  do  somewhat  in  it.  I  did  so—'  did  this  somewhat  : ' 
and  truly  I  must  needs  say  this  to  you,  '  The  result  was,'— impute 
it  to  what  you  please,— I  raised  such  men  as  had  the  fear  of  God 
before  them,  as  made  some  conscience  of  what  they  did  ;  \The 
Ironsides ;  yea  !\  and  from  that  day  forward,  I  must  say  to  you, 
they  were  never  beaten,  and  wherever  they  were  engaged  against  the 

*  enterprise. 

t  A  notable  clause  of  a  sentence,  this  latter  too;  physiognomic  enough;— and 
perhaps  very  liable  to  be  misunderstood  by  a  modern  reader.  The  old  phrase, 
still  current  in  remote  quarters,  "  It's  no  lie,"  which  signifies  an  emphatic  and  even 
courteous  assent  and  affirmation,  must  be  borne  in  mind. 


SPEECH  X.  165 


enemy,  they  beat  continually.  [  Yea  /]  And  truly  this  is  matter  of 
praise  to  God  : — and  it  hath  some  instruction  in  it,  To  own  men 
who  are  r'eligious  and  godly.  And  so  many  of  them  as  are  peaceably 
and  honestly  and  quietly  disposed  to  live  within  '  rules  of  Govern- 
ment, and  will  be  subject  to  those  Gospel  rules  of  obeying  Magistrates 
and  living  under  Authority — [^Sentence  catches  fire  abruptly^  and  ex- 
plodes here'] — I  reckon  no  Godliness  without  that  circle  !  Without 
that  spirit,  let  it  pretend  what  it  will,  it  is  diabolical,  it  is  devilish,  it  is 
from  diabolical  spirits,  from  the  depth  of  Satan's  wickedness"*^ — 
[Checks  himself] — Why  truly  I  need  not  say  more  than  to  apply  all 
thisf  '  to  the  business  we  have  in  hand. 

I  will  be  bold  to  apply  this  to  our  present  purpose,  because  it  is 
my  all  !  I  could  say  as  all  the  world  says,  and  run  headily  upon  any 
thing  ;  but  I  must  tender  this  '  my  present  answer'  to  you  as  a  thing 
that  sways  upon  my  conscience  ;  or  else  I  were  a  knave  and  a  de- 
ceiver. *  Well  ; '  I  tell  you  there  are  such  men  in  this  Nation  ;  godly 
men  of  the  same  spirit,  men  that  will  not  be  beaten  down  by  a 
worldly  or  carnal  spirit  while  they  keep  their  integrity.  And  I  deal 
plainly  and  faithfully  with  you,  '  when  I  say  : '  I  cannot  think  that 
God  would  bless  an  undertaking  of  anything,  '  Kingship  or  whatever 
else,'  which  would  justly  and  with  cause,  grieve  tJiein.  True,  they 
may  be  troubled  without  cau«e  ; — and  I  must  be  a  slave  if  I  should 
comply  with  any  such  humour  as  that  [  Leaves  the  matter  ope7t  still  I] 
But  I  say  there  are  honest  men  and  faithful  men,  true  to  the  great 
things  of  the  Government,  namely  the  Liberty  of  the  People,  giving 
them  what  is  due  to  them,  and  protecting  this  Interest  (and  I  think 
,  verily  God  will  bless  you  for  what  you  have  done  in  thsLi)— [Sentence 
broken ;  try  it  another  way] — But  if  I  know,  as  indeed  I  do,  that 
very  generally  good  men  do  not  swallow  this  Title, — though  really  it 
is  no  part  of  their  goodness  to  be  willing  to  submit  to  what  a 
Parliament  shall  settle  over  them,  yet  I  must  say,  it  is  my  duty  and 
my  conscience  to  beg  of  you  that  there  may  be  no  hard  things  put 
upon  me  ;  things,  I  mean,  hard  to  them,  which  they  cannot  swallow. 
{^The  Yo7m^  Lady  will  and  she  will  not !]  If  the  Nation  may  be  as 
well  provided  for  without  these  things  we  have  been  speaking  of 
[Kingships,  &^c.]  as,  according  to  my  apprehension,  it  may,  — '  then ' 
truly  I  think  it  will  be  no  sin  in  you,  it  will  be  to  you  as  it  was  to 
David  in  another  case,t  "  no  grief  of  heart  in  time  coming,"  that 
you  have  a  tenderness  even  possibly  (if  it  be  their  weakness)  to  the 
weakness  of  those  who  have  integrity  and  honesty  and  uprightness, 
and  who  are  not  carried  away  with  the  hurries  I  see  some  taken  with 
— ["  A  Standard  lifted  up; "  the  other  day  /—  We  have  had  to  turn  the 
key  upoft  them,  in  Chepstow,  ijt  the  Tower  and  elsewhere] — that  think 
their  virtue  lies  in  despising  Authority,  in  opposing  it  !     I  think  you 

*  Not  'height  of  Jotham's  wickedness,'  as  the  lazy  Reporter  has  it.  Jotham 
was  not  '  wicked '  at  all  {fudges,  c.  9).  Nay  the  lazy  Reporter  corrects  himself 
elsewhere.  -  if  he  had  not  been  asleep  !  Compare  p.  369  line  16,  of  Somers,  with 
p.  385  line  2. 

t  'this'  of  my  jld  proposal  to  Mr.  Hampden ;  and  how  good  it  is  to  'own  men 
who  are  religious  and  godly.' 

X  Nabals  and  Abigail's  case  (i  Samuel  xxv.  31). 


i66         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


will  be  the  better  able  to  root  out  of  this  Nation  that '  disobedient ' 
si)irit  and  principle,— and  to  do  so  is  as  desirable  as  anything  in  this 
^vorld,— by  complying,  indulging,  and  being  patient  to  the  weakness 
and  infirmities  of  men  who  have  been  faithful,  and  have  bled  all 
along  in  this  Cause  ;— and  who  are  faithful,  and  will  oppose  all  op- 
positions (I  am  confident  of  it)  to  the  things  that  are  Fundamentals 
in  your  Government,  in  your  Settlement  for  Civil  and  Gospel 
Liberties  \Not  ill  said^  your  Highness  j  and  really  could  7iot  well 
be  better  thought !—  The  inoral  is\-  "  As  my  old  lro7isides,  men  fear- 
^^  ing  God, proved  the  successful  soldiers;  so  in  all  things  it  is  men 
^'■feari7ig  God  that  we  must  get  to  enlist  with  tis.  Without  these  we 
^^are  lost :  with  these,  if  they  will  be  soldiers  with  us  {not  noisy  muti- 
'^  neers  like  Wildman,  Harrisojt  and  Company,  but  true  soldiers, 
"  rational  persons  that  will  learn  discipline),— we  shall,  as  heretofore, 
"  hope  to  prevail  against  the  whole  wo7'-ld  and  the  Devil  to  boot,  and 
" '  never  be  beaten  at  all,'  no  more  than  the  Ironsides  were.  See,  there- 
^'-  fore  that  you  do  not  disaffect  THEM.  Mount  no  foolish  cockade  or 
"  Kingship  which  can  convert  them,  ratio?ial  obedient  men  true  in  all 
*'  essential  points  into  mutineers^'] 

I  confess,  for  it  behoves  me  to  deal  plainly  with  you — [  Young  Lady 
now  flings  a  little  weight  into  the  other  scale, — ajtd  the  Sentence  trips 
itself  07ice  or  twice  befo7'e  it  ca7i get  starkd^^ — I  must  confess  1  would  say 
— I  hope  I  may  not  be  misunderstood  in  this,  for  indeed  I  must  be 
tender  in  what  I  say  to  such  an  audience  : — I  say  I  would  have  it 
understood.  That  in  this  argument  I  do  not  make  a  parallel  between 
men  of  a  different  mind,  '  mere  dissentient  individuals,'  and  a  Parlia- 
ment, '  as  to,'  Which  shall  have  their  desires.  1  know  there  is  no 
comparison.  Nor  can  it  be  urged  upon  me  that  my  words  have  the 
least  colour  that  way.  For  the  Parliament  seems  to  have  given  me 
liberty  to  say  whatever  is  on  my  mind  to  you  ;  as  that  '  indeed '  is  a 
tender  of  my  humble  reasons  and  judgment  and  opinion  to  the7n  : 
and  now  if  I  think  these  objectors  to  the  Kingship*  are  such  '  as  I 
describe,'  and  'that  they' will  be  such  ;  '  if  I  think'  that  they  are 
faithful  servants  and  will  be  so  to  the  Supreme  Authority,  and  the 
Legislative  wheresoever  it  is, — if,  I  say,  I  should  7iot  tell  you,  knowing 
their  minds  to  be  so,  then  I  should  not  be  faithful.  I  am  bound  to 
tell  it  you,  to  the  end  you  may  report  it  to  the  Parliament.  \Parlia- 
me7it  very  jealous  lest  the  Ar77iy  be  thought  of  greater  weight  tha7i  it. 
We  try  to  carry  the  scales  eve7t.] 

I  will  now  say  something  for  77?yse{f.  As  for  my  own  mind,  I  do 
profess  it,  I  am  not  a  man  scrupulous  about  words,  or  names,  or  such 
things.  I  have  not  '  hitherto  clear  direction  'f — But  as  I  have  the 
Word  of  God,  and  I  hope  shall  ever  have,  for  the  rule  of  my  con- 
science, for  my  information  and  direction  ;  so,  truly,  if  men  have  been 
led  into  dark  paths  [As  this  77tatter  of  the  Ki7tgship  is  to  7ne  even 
now ;  very  "  dark  "  and  tmdecidable  .^]  though  the  Providence 
and  dispensations  of  God — why  surely  it  is  not  to  be  objected  to  a 
man  !     For  who  can  love  to  walk  in  the  dark  ?     But  Providence  doth 

*  '  thoy '    in  oriff 
,  +  Coagulated  Jargon  [Somers,  p.  370)  is  almost  worth  looking  at  here  :— never 
was  such  a  Reporter  since  the  Tower  of  Babel  fell. 


SPEECH  X.  167 


often  so  dispose.  And  though  a  man  may  impute  his  own  folly  and 
blindness  to  Providence  sinfully, — yet  this  must  be  at  a  man's  own 
peril.  The  case  may  be  that  it  is  the  Providence  of  God  that  doth 
lead  men  in  darkness  !  I  must  needs  say  I  have  had  a  great  deal  of 
experience  of  Providence  ;  and  though  such  experience  is  no  rule 
without  or  against  the  Word,  yet  it  is  a  very  good  expositor  of  the 
Word  in  many  cases.     [  Yes,  my  braue  one  /J 

Truly  the  Providence  of  God  hath  laid  aside  this  Title  of  King 
providentially  de  facto :  and  that  not  by  sudden  humour  or  passion  ; 
but  it  hath  been  by  issue  of  as  great  deliberation  as  ever  was  in  a 
Nation.  It  hath  been  by  issue  of  Ten  or  Twelve  Years  Civil  War, 
wherein  much  blood  hath  been  shed.  I  will  not  dispute  the  justice 
of  it  when  it  was  done  ;  nor  need  I  tell  you  what  my  opinion  is  in  the 
case  were  it  de  novo  to  be  done.  \Somewhat  grim  expression  of  face, 
your  Highness  !'\  But  if  it  be  at  all  disputable  ;  and  a  man  comes 
and  finds  that  God  in  His  severity  hath  not  only  eradicated  a  whole 
Family,  and  thrust  them  out  of  the  land,  for  reasons  best  known  to 
Himself,  but  also  hath  made  the  issue  and  close  of  that  to  be  the 
very  eradication  of  a  Name  or  Title — !  Which  de  facto  is  '  the  case.' 
It  was  not  done  by  me,  nor  by  them  that  tendered  me  the  Govern- 
ment I  now  act  in  :  it  was  done  by  the  Long  Parliament, — that  was 
it.*  And  God  hath  seemed  Providential,  '  seemed  to  appear  as  a 
Providence,'  not  only  in  striking  at  the  Family  but  at  the  Name.  And, 
as  I  said  before,  it  is  blotted  out  :  it  is  a  thing  cast  out  by  an  Act  of 
Parliament  ;  it  hath  been  kept  out  to  this  day.  And  as  Jude  saith, 
in  another  case,  speaking  of  abominable  sins  that  should  be  in  the 
Latter  Times,t — he  doth  farther  say,  when  he  comes  to  exhort  the 
Saints,  he  tells  them, — they  should  "  hate  even  the  garments  spotted 
with  the  flesh."J 

I  beseech  you  think  not  that  I  bring  this  as  an  argument  to  prove* 
anything.  God  hath  seemed  so  to  deal  with  the  Persons  and  the 
Family  that  He  blasted  the  very  Title.  And  you  know  when  a  man 
comes,  a  parte  post,  to  reflect,  and  see  this  done,  this  Title  laid  in  the 
dust, — I  confess  I  can  come  to  no  other  conclusion.  ["  But  that  God 
seeins  to  have  blasted  the  very  Title  ; " — this,  however,  is  felt  to  need 
sojne  qualifying?^  The  like  of  this  may  make  a  strong  impression  upon 
such  weak  men  as  I  am  ; — and  perhaps  upon  weaker  men  (if  there 
be  any  such)  it  will  make  a  stronger.  I  will  not  seek  to  set  up  that 
which  Providence  hath  destroyed,  and  laid  in  the  dust ;  I  would  not 
build  Jericho  again  !  And  this  is  somewhat  to  me,  and  to  my  judg- 
ment and  my  conscience.  This,  in  truth,  it  is  this  that  hath  an  awe 
upon  my  spirit.  \^Hear  !^^  And  I  must  confess,  as  the  times  are, — 
they  are  very  fickle,  very  uncertain,  nay  God  knows  you  had  need 
have  a  great  deal  of  faith  to  strengthen  you  in  your  work,  you 
had  need  look  at  Settlement  ! — I  would  rather  I  were  in  my  grave 
than  hinder  you  in  anything  that  may   be  for   Settlement   of  the 

*  Oliverian  reduplication  of  the  phrase. 

f  Very  familiar  with  this  passage  of  lude;  see  Speech  II.,  vol.  ii.  p.  254. 
P"  X  Grammar  a  little  imperfect.     Really  one  begins  to  find   Oliver  would,  as  it 
were,  have  needed  a  new  Grammar.     Had  all  men  been  Olivers,  what  a  different 
set  of  rules  would  Lindley  Murray  and  the  Governesses  now  have  gone  upon  I 


168 


SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


Nation.  For  the  Nation  needs  it,  never  needed  it  more!  And 
therefore,  out  of  the  love  and  honour  I  bear  you,  I  am  forever  bound, 
whatever' becomes  of  me,  to  do  '  what  is  best  for  that  ; ' — '  and'  I  am 
forever  bound  to  acknowledge  you  have  dealt  most  honourably  and 
worthily  with  me,  and  lovingly,  and  have  had  respect  for  one  who 
deserves  nothing. 

Indeed,  out  of  the  love  and  faithfulness  I  bear  you,  and  out  of  the 
sense  I  have  of  the  difficulty  of  your  work,  I  would  not  have  you  lose 
any  help  S^Help  of  the  name  "  King;''  help  of  the  scrupulous  Anti- 
King  people  : — it  is  a  dark  case  /]  that  may  serve  you,  that  may  stand 
in  stead  to  you.  I  would  willingly  be  a  sacrifice  [King,  Protector, 
Constable,  or  what  you  like\  that  there  might  be,  so  long  as  God 
shall  please  to  let  this  Parliament  sit,  a  harmony,  and  better  and 
good  understanding  between  all  of  you.  And, — whatever  any  man 
may  think, — it  equally  concerns  one  of  us  as  another  to  go  on  to 
Settlement  :  and  where  I  meet  with  any  that  is  of  another  mind, 
indeed  I  could  almost  curse  him  in  my  heart.  And  therefore,  to 
deal  heartily  and  freely,  I  would  have  you  lose  nothing  \Not  even  the 
Scrupulous?^  that  may  stand  you  in  stead  in  this  way.  I  would  advise, 
if  there  be  '  found '  any  of  a  froward,  unmannerly  or  womanish  spirit, 
— I  would  not  that  you  should  lose  them  !  I  would  not  that  you 
snould  lose  any  servant  or  friend  who  might  help  in  this  Work  ;  that 
any  such  should  be  offended  by  a  thing  that  signifies  no  more  to  me 
than  I  have  told  you  it  does.  That  is  to  say  :  I  do  not  think  the 
thing  necessary  ;  I  do  not.  I  would  not  that  you  should  lose  a  friend 
for  it.  If  I  could  help  you  to  many '  friends,'  and  multiply  myself 
into  many,  that  would  be  to  serve  you  in  regard  to  Settlement  !  And 
therefore  I  would  not  that  any,  especially  any  of  these  who  indeed 
perhaps  are  men  that  do  think  themselves  engaged  to  continue  with 
•  you,  and  to  serve  you,  should  be  anywise  disobliged  from  you. 

'  I  have  now  no  more  to  say.'  The  truth  is,  I  did  indicate  this  as 
my  conclusion  to  you  at  the  first,  when  I  told  you  what  method  I 
would  speak  to  you  in.*  I  may  say  that  I  cannot,  with  conveniency 
to  myself,  nor  g'ood  to  this  service  which  I  wish  so  well  to,  speak  out 
all  my  arguments  as  to  the  safety  of  your  Proposal,  as  to  its  tendency 
to  the  effectual  carrying  on  of  this  Work.  \The7'e  are  many  angry 
suspicious  persons  listening  to  me,  and  every  word  is  liable  to 
different  mismtder standings  in  every  different  narrow  headf]  I  say, 
I  do  not  think  it  fit  to  use  all  the  thoughts  I  have  in  my  mind  as  to 
that  point  of  safety.  But  I  shall  pray  to  God  Almighty  that  he 
would  direct  you  to  do  what  is  according  to  His  will.  And  this  is 
that  poor  account  I  am  able  to  give  of  myself  in  this  thing.f 

And  so  enough  for  Monday,  which  is  now  far  spent  :  '  till  to- 
morrow at  three  o'clock  '|  let  us  adjourn  ;  and  diligently  consider  in 
the  interim. 

*  .<  'pjjjg  ^^  ^y  ^g^g^^^  i^g^jj  Qf  method ;  all  this  about  myself  and  my  own 
''feelings  in  regard  to  the  Kingship,— after  I  had  proved  to  you  in  my  first  head 
l^that  it  was  not  necessary,  and  that  it  was  only  expedient  or  not  expednent.  I  am 
"iK)w  therefore  got  to  the  end  of  my  second  head,  to  my  conclusion." 

t  Somers  TracU,  vi.  365-371. j  Burton,  ii.  2. 


SPEECH  X.  169 


His  Highness  is  evidently  very  far  yet  from  having  made  up  his 
ir.ind  as  to  this  thing  ;  the  undeveloped  Yes  still  balancing  itself 
r  jainst  the  undeveloped  No,  in  a  huge  dark  intricate  manner,  with 
•  m.  Unable  to  '  declare' himself ;  there  being  in  fact  nothing  to 
v'jclare  hitherto,  nothing  but  what  he  does  here  declare, — namely 
c'arkness  visible.  An  abstruse  time  his  Hig^hness  has  hal  of  it,  since 
the  end  of  February,  six  or  seven  weeks  now  ;  all  England  sounding 
round  him,  waiting  for  his  Answer.  And  he  is  yet  a  good  way  off  the 
Answer.  For  it  is  a  considerable  question  this  of  the  Kingship  : 
important  to  the  Nation  and  the  Cause  he  presides  over  ;  to  himself 
not  unimportant, — and  yet  to  himself  of  very  minor  importance,  my 
erudite  friend  !  A  Soul  of  a  Man  in  right  earnest  about  its  own  awful 
Life  an*  Work  in  this  world  ;  much  superior  to  '  feathers  in  the  hat,' 
of  one  sort  or  the  other,  my  erudite  friend  ! — Of  all  which  he  gives 
here  a  candid  and  honest  account  ;  and  indeed  his  attitude  towards 
this  matter  is  throughout,  what  towards  other  matters  it  has  been,  very 
manful  and  natural. 

However,  on  the  morrow,  which  is  Tuesday,  at  three  o'clock,  the 
Committee  cannot  see  his  Highness  ;  attending  at  Whitehall,  as 
stipulated,  they  find  his  Hig'hness  indisposed  in  health  ; — are  to  come 
again  tomorrow,  Wednesday,  at  the  same  hour.  Wednesday  they 
come  again  ;  '  wait  for  above  an  hour  in  the  Council-Chamber  ; ' — 
Highness  still  indisposed,  "has  got  a  cold  :"  Come  again  to-morrow, 
Thursday  !  '  Which,'  says  the  writer  of  the  thing  called  Biirtoii's 
Diary,  who  was  there,  '  did  strongly  build  up  the  faith  of  the  Con- 
trariants,' — He  will  not  dare  to  accept,  think  the  Contrariants.  The 
Honourable  House  in  the  meanwhile  has  little  to  do  but  denounce 
that  Shoreditch  Fifth- Monarchy  Pamphlet,  the  Standard  set  up, 
which  seems  to  be  a  most  incendiary  piece  ; — and  painfully  adjourn 
and  re-adjourn,  till  its  Committee  do  get  answer.  A  most  slow  busi- 
ness ; — and  the  hopes  of  the  Contrariants  are  rising. 

Thursday,  i6th  April  1657,  Committee  attending  for  the  third  time, 
the  Interview  does  take  effect.  Six  of  the  Grandees,  Glyn,  Lenthall, 
Colonel  Jones,  Sir  Richard  Onslow,  Fiennes,  Broghil,  Whitlocke, 
take  up  in  their  order  the  various  objections  of  his  Highness's  former 
Speech  of  Monday  last,  and  learnedly  rebut  the  same, — in  a  learned 
and  to  us  insupportably  wearisome  manner  ;  fit  only  to  be  entirely 
omitted.  Whitlocke  urges  on  his  Highness  That,  in  refusing  this 
Kingship,  he  will  do  what  never  any  that  were  actual  Kings  of  Eng- 
land did,  reject  the  advice  of  his  Parliament.*  Another  says.  It  is 
his  duty  ;  let  him  by  no  means  shrink  from  his  duty  ! — Their  dis- 
coursings,  if  any  creature  is  curious  on  the  subject,  can  be  read  at 
great  length  in  the  distressing  pages  of  Sojners,-\  and  shall  be  matter 
of  imagination  here.  His  Highness  said.  These  were  weighty  argu- 
ments ;  give  him  till  tomorrow  to  think  of  them.]:  '  Tomorrow  at 
three  :  spero  ! '  says  the  writer  of  the  thing'called  Burtofis  Diary  ^  who 
is  not  one  of  the  Contrariants. 

*  Somers,  p,  386.  f  Ibid.  vi.  371-387.  +  Burton,  ii.  5. 


170        SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


SPEECH  XI. 

Alas,  tomorrow  at  three  his  Highness  provies  again  indisposed ; 
which  doth  a  httle  damp  our  hopes,  I  fancy  !  Let  us  appoint 
Monday  morning  ;  Monday  ten  o'clock,  '  at  the  old  place/  Cham- 
ber of  the  Council-of-State  in  Whitehall.  And  so,  on  Monday 
2oth  April,  1657,  at  the  set  place  and  hour,  the  Committee  of 
Ninety-nine  is  once  more  in  attendance,  and  his  Highness  speaks 
— answering  our  arguments  of  Thursday  last,  and  indicating  still 
much  darkness. 

'My  Lords/ 

I  have,  as  well  as  I  could,  considered  the  arguments  used  by 
you,  the  other  day,  to  enforce  your  conclusion  as  to  that  Name  and 
Title,  which  has  been  the  subject  of  various  Debates  and  Conferences 
between  us.  I  shall  not  now  spend  your  time  nor  my  own  much,  in 
recapitulating  those  arguments,  or  giving  answers  to  them.  Indeed 
I  think  they  were  '  mainly '  but  the  same  we  formerly  had,  only  with 
some  additional  inforcements  by  new  instances  :  and  truly,  at  this 
rate  of  debate,  I  might  spend  your  time,  which  I  know  is  very  pre- 
cious ;  and  unless  1  were  '  to  end  in  being '  a  satisfied  person,  the 
time  would  spin  out,  and  be  very  unprofitably  spent, — so  it  would.  1 
will  say  a  word  or  two  to  that  only  which  I  think  was  new. 

'  You  were  pleased  to  say  some  things  as  to  the  power  of  Parlia- 
'  liament,  as  to  the  force  of  a  Parliamentary  sanction  in  this  matter.'* 
What  comes  from  the  Parliament  in  the  exercise  of  their  Legis- 
lative power,  as  this  Proposal  does, — I  understand  this  to  be  an  exer- 
cise of  the  Legislative  power,  and  the  Laws  formerly  were  always 
passed  in  this  way  '  of  Proposal  or  Conference/  and  the  way  of  Bills 

is  of  a  newer  date, — I  understand  that,  I  say  ;  but \^In  short,  the 

Sentence  falls  prostrate,  and  we  must  start  again/\ — You  said 
"  that  what  was  done  by  the  Parliament  now,  and  simply  made  to 
"  hang  upon  this  Legislative  power,  '  as  any  Title  but  that  of  King 
"  will  do,'  might  seem  partly  as  if  it  were  a  thing  ex'do?io,  not  de  jure; 
"  a  thing  that  had  not  the  same  weight,  nor  the  same  strength,  as  if 
"  it  bore  a  reference  to  '  the  general  Body  of  the  Law  that  is  already 
"  in  being."  I  confess  there  is  some  argument  in  that, — that  is  there  ! 
But  if  the  degree  of  strength  will  be  as  good  without  Parliamentary 

sanction,  '  then ' — {Sentence  pauses^  never  gets  started  again^ 

'I'hough  it  too,  *  this  Title,  of  Kingship/  comes  as  a  gift  from  you  !  I 
niean  as  a  thing  which  you  either  provide  for  the  people  or  else  it 
will  never  come  to  them  ;  so  in  a  sense  it  comes  ixoiwyou,  it  is  what 
they  cannot  otherwise  arrive  at ;  therefore  in  a  sense  it  is  ex  dono  ;  for 
whoever  helps  a  man  to  what  he  cannot  otherwise  attain,  doth  an  act 
that  is  very  near  a  gift ;  and  you  helping  them  to  this  Title,  it  were  a 
kind  of  gift  to  them,  since  otherwise  they  could  not  get  it  '  though 
theirs' — {This  Sentence  also  Jinds  that  it  will  come  to  nothing,  and 

*  Glyn,  Lenthall,  Broghil,  Whitlocke,  [Somers)  pp.  371,  2,  386,  4. 


SPEECH  XI.  17: 


so  calls  hall.l — But  if  you  do  it  simply  by  your  Legislative  power — 
[Halt  ai^ain. — /?t  what  bottomless  imbroglios  of  Consiitictional 
philosophy  a7t.i  C7'abbed  Law-logic,  with  the  Fifth- Mo7tarchy  and  sple- 
netic Cofitrariajtts  looking  on,  is  his  poor  Highness  plunging !  A 
ray  of  natural  sagacity  now  rises  on  him  with  guidcmce.] — The 
question,  ''  What  makes  such  a  thing  as  this  more  firm  ? "  is  not 
the  manner  of  the  settling  of  it,  or  the  manner  of  your  '  or  another's  ' 
doing  of  it ;  there  remains  always  the  grand  question  after  that  ;  the 
grand  question  lies.  In  ihe  acceptance  oi it  by  those  who  are  concerned 
to  yield  obedience  to  it  and  accept  it  !  [Certainly,  your  Highness  ; 
that  is  worth  all  the  Law-logic  in  the  world /'I  And  therefore  if  a 
thing  [Like  this  Protectorate,  according  to  your  arguine?it, — not  alto- 
gether to  mine']  hath  but,  for  its  root,  your  Legislative  sanction If 

I  may  put  a  *•  But  "  to  it,  *  to  that  most  valid  sanction  ! '  I  will  not 
do  so  :  for  I  say,  It  is  as  good  a  foundation  as  that  other,  '  which  you 
'ascribe  to  the  Kingship,  howsoever  "grounded  in  the  body  of  Law." ' 
And  if  that  thing,  '  that  Protectorate '  be  as  well  accepted,  and  the 
other  be  less  well—  ?  Why,  then  truly  //,  I  shall  think,  is  the  better  ; 
— and  then  all  that  I  say  is  founded  upon  Law  too  ! 

Your  arguments  founded  upon  the  Law  do  all  make  for  the  King- 
ship. Because,  say  you,  it  doth  agree  with  the  Law  ;  the  Law  knows, 
— the  People  know  it,  and  are  liJ^elier  to  receive  satisfaction  that  way. 
Those  were  arguments  that  have  ["  had^^  is  truer,  but  less  polite]  been 
used  already  ;  and  truly  I  know  nothing  that  I  have  to  add  to  them. 
And  therefore,  I  say,  those  arguments  also  may  stand  as  we  found 
them  and  left  them  already  ^— except,  truly,  this  '  one  point.'  It  hath 
been  said  to  me  [Saluting  my  Lord  Whitlocke  slightly  with  the  eye, 
whose  heavy  face  cndeavouts  to  smile  in  response]  that  I  am  a  person 
who  meditate  to  do  what  never  any  that  were  actually  Kings  of  Eng- 
land did  :  "  Refuse  the  Advice  of  Parliament."  I  confess,  that  runs 
deep  enough,  '  that  runs '  to  all ;  that  may  be  accounted  a  very  great 
fault  in  me  ;  and  may  rise  up  in  judgment  against  me  another  time, — 
if  my  case  be  not  different  from  any  man's  that  ever  was  in  the  Chief 
Command  and  Government  of  these  Nations  before.  But  truly  I 
think,  all  they  that  have  been  in  this  Office  before,  and  owned  in  right 
of  Law,  were  inheritors  coming  to  it  by  birthright, — or  if  owned  by 
the  authority  of  Parliament,  they  yet  had  some  previous  pretence  of 
title  or  claim  to  it.  And  so,  under  favour,  I  think  I  deserve  less  blame 
than  any  of  them  would  have  done,  if  I  cannot  so  well  comply  with 
this  Title,  and  '  with  '  the  desire  of  Parliament  in  regard  to  it,  as  these 
others  might  do.  For  they  when  they  were  iti,  would  have  taken  it 
for  an  injury  not  to  be  in.  Truly  such  an  argument,  to  them,  might 
be  very  strong.  Why  they  should  not  refuse  what  the  Parliament 
offered  !  But  '  as  for  me,'  I  have  dealt  plainly  with  you  :  and  I  have 
not  complimented  with  you  '  in  saying'  I  have  not  desired,  I  have  no 
title  to,  the  Government  of  these  Nations.  '  No  title,'  but  what  was 
taken  up  in  a  case  of  necessity,  and  as  a  temporary  means  to  meet  the 
actual  emergency  ;  without  which  we  must  needs  [Have  gone  you 
know  whither !] — I  say  we  had  been  all  'topsyturvying  now'  at  the 
rate  of  the  Printed  Book  'you  have  just  got  hold  of  [Shoreditch 
Standard  set  up,  and  Painted  Lion  there],  and  at  the  rate  of  those 


172         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 


men  that  have  been  seized  going  into  arms,— if  that  expedient  had  not 
been  taken  !  Tliat  was  visible  to  me  as  the  day,  unless  I  undertook 
it.  And  so,  it  being  put  upon  me,  I  being  then  General,  as  I  was 
General  by  Act  of  Parliament,— it  being  'put'  upon  me  to  take  the 
power  into  my  hand  after  the  Assembly  of  Men  that  was  called  to- 
gether had  been  dissolved [''  I  took  it,  as  you  all  know  .•"  bid  his 

Highness  blazing  off  here,  as  his  wont  is  when  that  subject  rises,  the 
Sentence  explodes'] —  !  — 

Really  the  thing  would  have  issued  itself  in  this  Book  : — for  the 
Book,  I  am  told,  knows  an  Author  {^Harrison,  they  say,  is  Author']  ;  he 
was  a  Leading  Person  in  that  Assembly  !  And  now  when  I  say  (I 
speak  in  the  plainness  and  simplicity  of  my  heart,  as  before  Almighty 
God),  I  did  out  of  necessity  undertake  that  '  Business,'  which  I  think 
no  man  but  myself  would  have  undertaken, — it  hath  pleased  God  that 
I  have  been  instrumental  in  keeping  the  Peace  of  the  Nation  to  this 
day.  And  have  kept  it  under  a  Title  {Protector']  which,  some  say, 
signifies  but  a  keeping  of  it  to  another's  use, — to  a  better  use  ;  '  a 
Title '  which  may  improve  it  to  a  better  use  !  And  this  I  may  say  :  I 
have  not  desired  the  continuance  of  my  power  or  place  either  under 
one  Tide  or  another,— that  have  I  not  !  I  say  it :  If  the  wisdom  of 
the  Parliament  could  find  where  to  place  things  so  as  they  might  save 
this  nation  and  the  Interests  of  it, — ihe  Interest  of  the  People  of  God 
in  the  first  place  ;  of  those  Godly  honest  men, — for  such  a  character 
I  reckon  them  by,  who  live  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  desire  to  hold  forth 
the  excellency  '  of  Christ '  and  a  Christian  course  in  their  life  and  con- 
versation— [Seittence  i7tay  be  said  to  burst  asunder  here  for  the  present, 
but  will  gather  itself  together  again  perhaps  I]  I  reckon  that  proceeds 
from  Faith,  and  '  from '  looking  to  ou/  duties  towards  Christians,  and 
our  humanity  to  men  as  men  ;  and  to  such  Liberties  and  Interests  as 
the  People  of  this  Nation  are  of: — and  '  I '  do  look-  upon  that  as  a 
standing  truth  of  the  Gospel ;  and  whoso  lives  up  to  that  is  a  Godly 

Man   in   my   apprehension  !     {Looks  somewhat  animated.] And 

therefore  I  say.  If  the  wisdom  of  this  Parliament, — I  speak  not  this 
vainly  or  as  a  fool,  but  as  to  God, — if  the  wisdom  of  this  Parliament 
should  have  found  a  way  to  settle  the  Interests  of  this  Nation,  upon 
the  foundations  of  justice  and  truth  and  hberty,  to  the  people  of  God, 
and  concernments  of  men  as  Englishmen  {Voice  risen  into  a  ki7id of 
recitative],— \  would  have  lain  at  their  feet,  or  at  anybody  else's  feet, 
that  things  might  have  run  in  such  a  current !  {Your  LLighness  can't 
get  out ;  710  place  for  you  7iow  but  here  ori7i  the  ^rave  I  His  Highness 
fetches  a  deep  breath.]  -  I  say  I  have  no  pretensions  to  things  for  my- 
self; to  ask  this  or  that,  or  to  avoid  this  or  that.  I  know  the  censures 
of  the  world  may  quickly  pass  upon  me,  '  and  are  already  passing  :' 
but  I  thank  God  I  know  where  to  lay  the  weight  that  is  laid  upon  me, 
— I  mean  the  weight  of  reproach  and  contempt  and  scorn  that  hath 
been  cast  upon  me  !  {E7tds,  I  think,  in  a  ki7id of  snort,— a7id  the  look 
partly  as  of  an  injia-ed  dove,  partly  as  of  a  couchant  lio7i.]— 

I  have  not  offered  you  any  Name  in  competition  with  Kingship.  I 
know  the  evil  spirits  of  men  may  easily  obtrude  upon  a  man,  That  he 
would  have  a  Name  which  the  Laws  know  not,  and  which  is  bound- 
less, and  is  one  under  which  he  may  exercise  more  arbitrariness  :  but 


SPEECH  XT.  173 


I  know  there  is  nothing  in  that  argument ;  and  if  it  were  in  your 
thoughts  to  offer  any  Name  of  that  kind,  I  think,  whatsoever  it  was, 
you  would  bound  it  and  hmit  it  sufficiently.  I  wish  it  were  come  to 
that.  That  no  favour  should  be  shewed  to  me  ;  but  that  the  good  of 
these  Nations  should  be  consulted  ;— as  'indeed'  I  am  confident  it 
will  be  by  you  in  whatsoever  you  do.—  But  I  may  say  a  word  to  another 
thing  which  doth  a  httle  pinch  upon  me  :  That  it  is  my  duty  'to  accept 
this  Title.'  I  think  it  can  be  no  man's  duty  but  between  God  and 
himself,  if  he  be  conscious  of  his  own  infirmities,  disabilities  "and  weak- 
ness ;  'conscious'  that  he  perhaps  is  not  able  to  encounter  with  it, — 
although  he  may  have  a  little  faith  too,  for  a  little  exercise.  I  say  I 
do  not  know  what  way  it  can  be  imputed  to  me  fcr  a  fault,  or  laid  upon 
me  as  a  duty.  Except  I  meant  to  gripe  at  the  Government  of  the 
Nations  without  a  legal  consent, — as  I  say  I  have  done  in  time  past 
upon  principles  of  Necessity,  '  but  have  no  call  now  to  do  again.'  And 
I  promise  I  shall  think  whatever  is  done  towards  Settlement,  without 
authority  of  Parliament,  will  neither  be  very  honest,  nor  to  me  very 
comprehensible  at  this  stage  of  the  business.  I  think  we  have  fought 
for  the  Liberties  of  the  Nation  and  for  other  Interests  ! — {Checks 
himse(f.'] — 

You  will  pardon  me  that  I  speak  these  things  in  such  a  '  desultory ' 
way  as  this.  I  may  be  borne  withal,  because  I  have  not  truly  well 
stood  the  exercise  that  hath  been  upon  me  these  three  or  four  days, — 
I  have  not,  I  say.  {Besides  your  HigJuiess  is  suff'eri7tg  from  the 
dregs  of  a  cald,  aftd  I  doubt  still  soineivhat  Jeverish  .-'] — I  have  told 
you  my  thoughts,  and  have  laid  them  before  you.  You  have  been 
pleased  to  give  me  your  grounds,  and  I  have  given  you  mine.  And 
truly  I  do  purposely  refuse  to  mention  those  arguments  that  were  used 
when  ye  were  last  here  ;  but  rather  tell  you  what  since  (as  I  say)  lies 
upon  my  heart, — '  speaking  to  you '  out  of  the  abundance  of  difficulty 
and  trouble  that  lies  upon  me.  \His  Highness,  sick  of  body,  feverish, 
unequal  io  such  a  jungle  of  a  subject  and  its  adjuncts,  is  really 
weltering  and  staggering  like  a  wearied  man,  i?i  the  thickets  and 
puddles^  And  therefore  you  having  urged  me,  I  mean  offered  reasons 
to  me,  and  urged  them  in  such  way  as  did  occur  to  you  ;  and  I  having 
told  you,  the  last  time  we  met,  that  the  satisfaction  from  them  did  not 
reach  to  me  so  as  wholly  to  convince  me  of  my  duty, — I  have  thought 
rather  to  answer  today  by  telling  you  my  grief,  and  the  trouble  J  ain 
under.     {Poor  Sovereign  Man  .^] — 

And  truly  my  intentions  and  purposes,  they  are  honest  to  the  Nation, 
— and  shall  be,  by  the  Grace  of  God.  And  1  have  it  not  in  view,  upon 
collateral  pretences,  '  either  by  asking  this  Kingship  or  by  refusing  it ' 
— to  act  towards  things  that  may  be  destructive  to  the  liberties  of  this 
Nation  !     ["  /  am  worn  and  weary  ;  let  me  be  as  c'ay  in  the  hands  oj 

the  potter  / ''^ Any  man  may  give  me  leave  to  die;  every  one  may 

give  me  leave  to  be  as  a  dead  man,^when  God  takes  away  the  spirit 
and  life  and  activity  that  are  necessary  for  the  carrying  on  of  such  a 
work  !  {Poor  Highness,  still  somewhat  feverish,  suffering  from  the 
dregs  of  a  cold  f] — 

And  therefoie  I  do  leave  the  former  Debates  as  they  were,  and  as 


174         SECOAD  PROTLCTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


we  had  them  ; — and  will  let  you  know  that  I  have  looked  a  little  upon 
the  Paper  [Petition  and  Advice] ;  the  Instrument,  I  would  say,  in  the 
other  parts  of  it,  '  unconnected  with  this  of  the  Kingship.'  And  con- 
sidering that  there  are  very  many  particulars  in  this  Instrument 
[Holding  it  in  his  hand\  some  of  a  general  reference  and  others 
specific,  and  all  of  weight  (let  this  business  of  the  Title  be  decided  as 
it  may)  to  the  concernment  of  the  Nations, — I  think  I  may  desire  that 
those  '  particulars '  may  be  really  such  as  will  serve  their  object, — let 
the  "  Title  "  wejh'  upon  be  one  or  the  other.  They  might  be  such  as  the 
People  have  no  cause — [Sentence  checking  itselj] — But  I  am  confident 
your  care  and  faithfulness  need  neither  a  spur  nor  an  admonition  to 
that ! — I  say,  reading  in  your  Order,  the  Order  of  the  Parliament  to 
this  Committee,  I  find  mention  there  of  "  divers  particulars,"  concern- 
ing which,  if  I  do  make  any  scruple  of  them,  I  am  to  have  the  freedom 
with  this  Committee  to  cast*  my  doubts. 

The  truth  of  it  is,  I  have  a  Paper  here  in  my  handsf  that  doth 
contain  divers  things  with  relation  to  the  Instrument  ;  which,  I  hope, 
have  a  Public  aspect  in  them  ;  therefore  1  cannot  presume  but  they 
will  be  very  welcome  to  you.  Therefore  I  shall  desire  that  you  will 
read  them.  [Hands  Whitlocke  the  Paper.]  I  should  desire,  if  it  please 
you,  the  liberty,— which  I  submit  to  your  judgment  whether  you  think  I 
have  or  no, — that  I  might  tender  these  few  things  ;  and  some  others 
which  1  have  in  preparation.  And  truly  I  shall  reduce  them  to  as 
much  brevity  as  I  can  :— they  are  too  large  here,  '  these  in  the  Paper 
are  diffuse.'^  And  if  it  please  you,  Tomorrow  in  the  afternoon  at  three 
o'clock  I  may  meet  you  again.  And  I  hope  we  shall  come  to  know 
one  another's  minds  ;  and  shall  agree  to  that  that  may  be  for  the  glory 
of  God  and  for  the  good  of  these  Nations. § 

So  much  for  Monday  the  2oth  ;— noontide  and  the  hour  of  dinner 
being  now  nigh.     Herewith  exeunt  till  tomorrow  at  three. 

We  returned  '  much  unsatisfied  with  the  Lord  Protector's  Speech,' 
says  the  Writer  of  Bnrto7i ;  it  is  '  as  dark  and  promiscuous  as  before  : ' 
nobody  can  know  whether  he  will  have  the  Kingship  or  not.  Some- 
tunes  the  '  Contrariants '  are  up  in  hope,  and  sometimes  again  we," — 
and  the  bets,  if  betting  were  permitted  under  Gospel  Ordinances, 
would  fluctuate  not  a  Httle. 

Courage,  my  Lord  Protector  !  Blake  even  now,  though  as  yet  you 
know  It  not,  is  giving  the  Spaniards  a  terrible  scorching  for  you,  in  the 
Port  of  Santa  Cruz  !— Worth  noting  :  In  those  very  minutes  while  the 
Lord  Protector  is  speaking  as  above,  there  goes  on  far  off.  on  the 
Atlantic  brine,  under  shadow  of  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe,  one  of  the 
fieriest  actions  ever  fought  by  land  or  water  ;  this  action  of  the  Sea- 
king  Blake,  at  the  Port  of  Santa  Cruz.     The  case  was  this.     Blake 

*  canvass,  shake  out, 
^  t  A  Paper  of  Objections  by  his  Highness  ;  repeatedly  alluded  to  in  the  Journals  ; 
unhappily  altogether  lost  now,'  says  the  Parliamentary  History,  and  the  Editor  of 
Hurton^-woi  very  nnh;ippily,  sny  my  readers  and  I. 

+  He  gave  them  the  complete  Paper  on  the  morrow  (Burton,  ii.  7). 

§  bomers,  vi.  387-389.  ||  Sce  B  nton.  ii.  et  seqq. 


SPEECH  XL  175 


cruising  on  the  coast  of  Spain,  watching  as  usual  for  Plate  Fleets, 
heard  for  certain  that  there  was  a  Fleet  actually  coming,  actually 
come  as  far  as  the  Canary  Isles,  and  now  lying  in  the  Bay  of  Santa 
Cruz  in  Teneriffe  there.  Blake  makes  instant  sail  thither  ;  arrives 
there  still  in  time,  this  Monday  morning  early  ;  finds  the  Fleet  fast 
moored  in  Santa  Cruz  Bay  ;  rich  silver-ships,  strong  war-ships,  sixteen 
as  we  count  them  ;  stronger  almost  than  himself, — and  moored  here 
under  defences  unassailable  apparently  by  any  mortal.  Santa  Cruz 
Bay  is  shaped  as  a  horse-shoe  :  at  the  entrance  are  Castles,  in  the 
inner  circuit  are  other  Castles,  Eight  of  them  in  all,  bristling  with  great 
guns  ;  war-ships  moored  at  the  entrance,  war-frigates  moored  all  round 
the  beach,  and  men  and  gunners  at  command  :  one  great  magazine  of 
sleeping  thunder  and  destruction  :  to  appearance,  if  you  wish  for  sure 
suicide  to  run  into,  this  must  be  it.  Blake,  taking  measure  of  the 
business,  runs  into  it,  defying  its  loud  thunder  ;  much  out-thunders  it, 
— mere  whirlwinds  of  fire  and  iron  hail,  the  old  Peak  never  heard  the 
like  ; — silences  the  Castles,  sinks  or  burns  every  sail  in  the  Harbour  ; 
annihilates  the  Spanish  Fleet  ;  and  then,  the  wind  veering  round  in 
his  favour,  sails  out  again,  leaving  Santa  Cruz  Bay  much  astonished  at 
him.*  It  is  the  last  action  of  the  brave  Blake  ;  who,  worn  out  with 
toil  and  sickness  and  a  cruise  of  three  years,  makes  homewards  shortly 
after;  dies  within  sight  of  Plymouth.t 

On  the  whole,  the  Spanish  Antichrist  finds  his  Highness  a  rough 
enemy.  In  these  same  April  days,  Six-thousand  men  are  getting  mus- 
tered here,  '  furnished  with  new  red  coats'  and  other  equipments,  to 
join  French  Turenne  in  the  Low  Countries,  and  fight  the  Spaniard  by 
land  too.  For  our  French  Treaty  has  become  a  French  League 
Offensive  and  Defensive,;!;  to  last  for  one  year  ;  and  Reynolds  is  to 
be  Land- General,  and  Montague  to  help  him  as  Sea-General:  of 
whom  by  and  by  there  may  be  tidings. — But  meanwhile  this  matter  of 
the  Kingship  must  be  settled.  All  men  wish  it  settled  ;  and  the  pre- 
sent Editor  as  much  as  any  !  They  have  to  meet  tomorrow  again, 
Tuesday  21st,  at  three  o'clock  :  they  for  their  uncertain  airy  talking, 
while  so  much  hard  fighting  and  sohd  work  has  to  be  managed 
withal. 


SPEECH  XIL 

His  Highness  this  Tuesday,  we  find,  has  deserted  the  question  oi 
the  Kingship  ;  occupies  himself  with  the  other  points  of  the  New  In- 
strument, what  he  calls  the  '  essentials '  of  it  ;  leaving  that  compara- 
tively empty  unessential  one  to  hang  undecided,  for  the  present.  The 
Writer  of  Burtons  Diary,  Nathaniel  Bacon  or  another,  is  much  dis- 
appointed. The  question  of  the  Kingship  not  advanced  a  whit  by 
this  long  Discourse,  one  of  the  most  tedious  we  have  yet  listened  to 

*  Heath's  Chronicle,  pp.  720,  i. 

t  7  Aug.   1657,  in  his  Fifty-ninth  year  (Biog.   Brit,  in  voce). 

%  Signed  23  March  1656-7  (Godwin,  iv.  540). 


176         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


his  Highness.  *  Nothing  but  a  dark  speech/  says  he  *  '  more  promis- 
cuous than  before  !  '—A  sensible  Speech  too,  in  some  respects,  Mr. 
Bacon.  His  Highness  once  more  elucidates  as  he  best  can  his  past 
conduct,  and  the  course  of  Providence  in  bringing  us  all  hither  to  the 
very  respectable  pass  we  now  stand  in  ; — explains  next  what  are  the 
essential  elements  of  keeping  us  safe  here,  and  carrying  us  farther,  as 
checking  of  Public  Immorality,  attention  wiser  and  wiser  to  the 
Preaching  Clergy,  and  for  one  indispensable  thing,  additional  Provi- 
sion of  Cash  ; — and  terminates  by  intimating  with  soft  diffuseness. 
That  when  he  has  heard  their  answer  as  to  these  essential  things  (not 
th-it  he  makes  them  '  conditions,"  that  were  terribly  ill-judged  !),  he 
will  then  be  prepared,  in  regard  to  unessential  things,  to  King's  Cloaks, 
Titles,  and  suchlike  frippery  and  feathers  in  the  cap,  which  are  not 
without  use  say  the  Lawyers,  but  which  irritate  weak  brethren, — to 
give  such  answer  as  may  reasonably  be  expected  from  him,  as  God 
may  set  him  free  to  do. — Let  us  listen,  us  and  Whitlocke  who  also  has 
to  report,  the  best  we  can. 

My  Lord, 

I  think  you  may  well  remember  what  the  issue  was  of  the  last 
Conference  I  had  with  you  '  yesterday,'  and  what  the  stickf  then  was. 
I  confess  I  took  liberty  '  at  that  time,'  from  the  Order  of  Parliament; 
whereby  they  gave  me  power  to  speak  with  you  about  those  things 
that  were  in  the  body  of  that  Instrument  and  Desire  which  you  have 
been  pleased  to  speak  with  me  '  upon  ;'  that  I  might  confer  with  you 
about  those  particulars,  and  might  receive  satisfaction  from  you  as  to 
them.  Whether  there  will  a  good  issue  be  to  all  these  affairs  or  no, 
is  only  in  the  hands  of  God.  That  is  a  great  secret  ; — and  secrets 
belong  to  God.  To  us  belong  things  revealed  ; — and  such  things  are 
the  subject-matter  of  this  Instrument  of  yours  :  and  'the  course  is,' 
so  far  as  they  may  have  relation  to  me.  That  you  and  I  shall  consider 
what  may  be  for  the  public  good  '  therein,'  that  so  they  may  receive 
such  an  impression^  as  can  humanly  be  given  them. 

I  would  be  well  understood  in  that  I  say,  The  former  Debates  and 
Conferences  have  been  upon  the  Title  ;  and  that  rests  as  it  did.  But 
seeing,  as  I  said  before,  your  Order  of  Commitment,  'your  Order  to 
Committee,'  doth  as  well  reach  to  the  particulars  contained  in  the 
Instrument  '  generally '  as  to  that  of  the  Title,— I  did  offer  to  you  that 
I  should  desire  to  speak  with  you  about  thetn  also.  That  so  we 
may  come  to  an  understanding  one  with  another,  not  What  the  things 
in  their  parts  are,  but  What  is  in  the  whole  conduceable  to  that  end 
we  ought  all  to  aim  at,— which  is  a  general  Settlement  upon  good 
foundations. 

'I'ruly,  as  I  have  often  said  to  the  Parliament  itself  when  they  did 
me  the  honour  to  meet  me  in  the  Banqueting-House,  so  I  may  now 
say  to  you  who  are  a  Committee,  a  very  considerable  representation 
of  the  Parliament  :  I  am  hugely  taken  with  the  word  Settlement ;  with 
the  thing,  and  with  the  notion  of  it.  '  And  indeed '  I  think  he  is  not 
worthy  to  hve  m  England  who  is  not !     No  ;  I  will  do  my  part,  so  far 

*  Burton,  ii.  7.  f  stop.  J  impulse  and  decision. 


SPEECH  XII.  177 


as  I  able,  to  expel  that  man  out  of  the  Nation  who  desireth  not  that 
in  the  general  we  come  to  a  Settlement.  Because  indeed  it  is  the 
great  misery  and  unhappiness  of  a  Nation  to  be  without  such  :  it  is 
like  a  house  (and  so  much  worse  than  a  "  house  ")  divided  against  it- 
self ;  it  "  cannot  stand  "  without  Settlement  ! — And  therefore  I  hope, 
so  far,  we  are  all  at  a  good  point  ;  and  the  spirit  of  the  Nation,  I  hope, 
in  the  generality  of  it,  is  so  far  at  a  good  point  :  we  are  all  contending 
for  a  Settlement.  That  is  sure.  But  the  question  is,  De  modo,  and 
Of  those  things  '  and  conditions '  that  will  make  it  a  good  Settlement 
if  possible.  It's  no  fault  to  aim  at  perfection  in  Settlement  !  And 
truly  I  have  said,  and  I  say  it  again  :  That  I  think  this  '  present  pro- 
posed Form  of  Settle«ient '  doth  tend  to  the  making  of  the  Nation 
enjoy  the  things  we  have  '  all  along '  declared  for  ;  and  I  would  come 
upon  that  issue  with  all  men,  or  with  any  man.  The  things  we  have 
declared  for,  which  have  been  the  ground  of  our  quarrelling  and  fight- 
ing all  along, — the  securing  of  these  is  what  will  accomplish  the 
general  work.  Settlement  is  the  general  work.  That  which  will  give 
to  the  Nation  to  enjoy  their  civil  and  religious  liberties  ;  that  which 
will  conserve  the  liberties  of  every  man,  and  not  rob  any  man  of 
what  is  justly  his  !  I  think  these  two  things  make  up  Settlement.  I 
am  sure  they  acquit  us  before  God  and  man  ;  having  endeavoured, 
as  we  have  done,  through  some  streamings  of  blood,  to  attain  that 
end. 

I  may  tell  you  my  '  own '  experience  in  this  business,  and  offend  no 
good  man  who  loves  the  Public  before  what  is  personal.  Truly  I 
shall,  a  little,  shortly  recapitulate  to  you  what  my  observations  and 
endeavours  and  interest  have  been  to  this  end.  And  I  hope  no  man 
that  hath  been  interested  in  transactions  all  along*  will  blame  me. 
And  he  shall  have  no  cause  to  blame  me  :  because  I  will  take  myself 
into  the  number  of  the  Culpable  Persons  ( if  there  be  any  such), — 
though  perhaps  apt  enough,  from  the  self-love  I  have,  to  be  willing 
to  be  '  reckoned '  innocent  where  I  am  so  !  And  yet  as  willing  witha 
to  take  my  reproach,  if  anybody  will  lay  it  upon  me,  where  I  am  cul- 
pable !  And  truly  I  have,  through  the  Providence  of  God,  endeavoured 
to  discharge  a  poor  duty  ;  have  had,  as  I  conceive,  a  clear  call  to  the 
stations  I  have  acted  in  through  all  these  affairs  ; — and  I  believe  very 
many  are  sufficiently  satisfied  in  that.  I  shall  not  go  about  saying 
anything  to  clear  it  to  you  ;  \^No,  your  Highness,  let  it  sta7idon  its  own 
feet7\ — but  must  exercise  myself  in  a  little  short  Chronology.  To  come 
to  that  '  issue,'  {Not  the  "  Chronology','  but  what  the  Chronolooy  will 
help  to  teach  us  !'\  I  hay,  is  really  all  our  business  at  present  ;  and  the 
business  of  this  Nation  :  To  come  upon  clear  grounds  ;  To  consider 
the  Providence  of  God,  how  He  hath  led  us  hitherunto. 

After  it  pleased  God  to  put  an  end  to  the  War  of  this  Nation  ;  a 
final  end  ;  which  was  done  at  Worcester,  in  the  determination  and 
decision  that  was  there  by  the  hand  of  God,— for  other  War  we  have 
had  none  that  deserves  the  name  of  War,  since  that  time,  which  is 
now  six  years  gone  September  '  last  ;  '—1  came  up  to  the  Parliament 
ti;at  then  was.  And  truly  I  found  the  Parliament,  as  I  thought,  very 
*  Not  polite  to  add,  "as  I  have  been." 


178         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

*  well'  disposed  to  put  a  good  issue  to  all  those  Transactions  which 
had  been  in  the  Nation  ;  and  I  rejoiced  at  it.     And  though  I  had  not 
been  well  skilled  in  Parliamentary  affairs,  having  been  near  ten  years 
in  the  Field ;  yet,  in  my  poor  measure,  my  desires  did  tend  to  the 
same  issue ;  believing  verily  that  all  the  blood  which  had  been  shed, 
and  all  the  distemper  which  God  had  suffered  to  be  among  us,  which 
in  some  sense  God  had  raised  among  us, — '  believing,  I   say,'  that 
surely  Fighting  was  not  the  end,  but  the  means,  which  had  an  end, 
and  was  in  order  to  somewhat  !     Truly  the  end,  then,  was,  I  thought. 
Settlement ;  that  is,  that  men  might  come  to  some  consistencies.  And 
to  that  end  I  did  endeavour  to  add  my  mite, — which  was  no  more 
tlian  the  interest  any  one  member    there  might  have, — after  I  was 
returned  again  to  that  capacity.     And  I  did, — I  shall  tell  you  no  fable, 
but  things  '  of  which  divers  persons  here  can  tell  whether  they  be  true 
or  no,  [Threatening  to  blaze  tip    again  f\ — I    did  endeavour  it.     I 
would  make  the  best  interpretation  of  all  that :  but  yet  it  is  a  truth, 
and  nothing  of  a  discovery  on  my  part,  but  a  fact  which  everybody 
knows  to  be  true,  That  the  Parliament,  having  done  those  memorable 
\}[{mg'i— [Sentence  explodes;  and  even  launches  off  into  a  panegyric 
of  the  Long  Parliament, — preparatory  to  EXECUTION]— They  had 
done  things  of  honour,  and  things  of  necessity  ;  things  which,  if  at 
this  day  you  have  any  judgment  that  there  lieth  a  possibility  upon  you 
to  do  any  good,  and  to  bring  this  Nation  to  any  foot  of  Settlement,  I 
may  say  you  are  all  along,  in  a  good  manner,  beholden  to  that  Parlia- 
ment 'for.'     But  yet  truly  as  men  who  contend  for  the  Public  Interest 
are  not  like  to  have  the  applause  of  all  men,  nor  justification  from  all 
hands,  so  it  was  with  them.     And  truly,  when  they  had  made  prepara- 
tions which  might  have  led  to  the  issuing  in  some  good  for  the  Settle- 
ment of  these  Nations,  in  point  of  liberty,  in  point  of  freedom  from 
tyranny  and  oppression  and  from  hazard  of  our  religion, — To  throw  it 
all  away  upon  men  who  designed  by  innovations  to  introduce  Popery, 
and  by  complying  with  some  notions  introduce  Arbitrariness  upon  a 
Civil  account- [" /v'^y/<2//i-/  Malignattts,  in   1647,    1648,  a7id  Crypto- 
"  Royalists ;  with  .  heir  '  notions '  that  of  all  things  indispenscible,  a 
"  Stuart  King  was  indispe7isablest  ?     That  would  never  have  done  I 
"  The  Long  Parliament  did  need  a  Pride's  Purge  ;  could  noP'— But 
the  Sentcfice  here,  in  its  hasty  impatience,  as  is  usual,  bursts'] — Why 
they  had  more  enemies  than  friends,  'that  Long  Parliament  had  ;' 
they  had  so  all  along  !     And  this  made  them  careful,  [/;/  1648,  trying 
to  bargain  with  Charles,  they  were  ^^  full  of  care ;''  and  even  after- 
wards they  could  not  decide  all  at   o?tce  on  granting  a  new  Free 
Parliament  and  General  Election  ;  no  .^]— upon   principles  of  Nature, 
which  do  sometimes  suggest  the  best.     And  upon  the  most  undeniable 
grounds,  they  did  think  that  it  was  not  fit  for  them  presently  to  go  and 
throw  themselves,  and  all  this  Cause,  into  hands  that  perhaps  had  no 
heart  nor  principle  '  in  common '  with  them  to  accomplish  the  end 
they  had  aimed  at.  [In  short,  they,  vary  properly,  decided  on  sitting 
still  for  a  while.']  ^  jt    jt     ^  •>  .     ,s 

I  grant,  perhaps  through  infirmity  they  did  desire  to  have  continued 

themselves  ;  to  have  perpetuated    themselves  upon  that  Act.*     An 

*Act,  lo  May,  1641,  That  we  are  not  to  be  dissolved  without  our  own  consent. 


SPEECH  XII .  179 


Act  which  was  justly  enough  obtained,  and  necessarily  enough  ob- 
tained, when  they  did  get  it  from  the  King.  But  though  truly  it  was 
good  in  the  first  obtaining  of  it ;  yet  it  was,  by  most  men  who  had 
ventured  their  lives  in  this  Cause,  judged  not  fit  to  be  perpetuated, 
but  rather  a  thing  that  was  to  have  an  end  when  it  had  finished  its 
course  !  Which  was  certainly  the  true  way  of  doing, — in  subserviency 
to  the  bringing-in  of  what  might  be  a  good  and  honest  Settlement  to 
the  Nation. — I  must  say  to  you  that  I  found  them  very  willing  to  per- 
petuate themselves  !  And  truly  this  is  not  a  thing  of  reflection  upon 
ally  for  perhaps  some  were  not  so  ; — I  can  say  it  of  some.  The  sobjr 
men  whom  I  had  converse  with,  were  not  for  continuing  ;  but  the 
major  part,  I  think,  did  overrule  in-that  they  would  have  continued. 
This  is  true  that  1  say  to  you  :  I  was  entreated  to  comply  with  the 
plan,  and  advised  to  it  ;  and  it  was  to  have  been  accomplished  by  tnis 
medium,  '  They  were'  to  have  sent  into  the  country  to  have  got  their 
number  reinforced,  and  the  Parliament  filled  up  by  new  elections. 
And  it  had  this  excuse.  That  it  would  not  be  against  the  Liberty  of 
the  People,  nor  against  a  succession  of  men  coming  into  rule  and 
government  ;  because  as  men  died  out  of  the  House,  so  they  should 
be  supplied  again.  [Z//'^  ^Vry^;/!;^  Cockle's  silk  hose;  which  ahuays, 
after  injinile  darnings,  could  remain  the  same  hose,  though  not  a 
thread  of  the  original  silk  was  now  left  in  them  :  a  perennial 
pair  of  stockings.  Such  was  the  plan  of  the  Rump?[  And  this  was 
the  best  answer  they  could  give  to  all  objections,  '  this,'  "  That  the 
"  proper  way  to  govei^n  is  to  have  successive  men  in  such  great  bodies 
"  as  Parliaments  ;  to  have  men  learning  to  know  how  to  obey  as 
"  well  as  how  to  govern."*  And  truly  the  expedient  they  then  offered 
was  what  I  tell  you. 

The  truth  of  it  is,  this  did  not  satisfy  a  company  of  poor  men, 
\Certain  insignifica7it  individuals, — mentioned  elsewhere  by  the  same 
name/]  who  thought  they  had  ventured  their  lives,  and  had  some 
interest  to  inquire  after  these  things  !  And  the  rather,  because  really 
they  had  been  invited  out,  '  first  of  all,  into  this  War,'  upon  principles 
of  honesty,  conscience  and  religion  ;  "  for  Spiritual  Liberties  ; "  as 
many  as  would  come.  '  Yes  ; '  when  the  Cause  was  a  little  doubtful, 
there  had  issued  forth  a  Declaration  '  of  that  purport,'  which  was  very 
inviting  ;  and  men  did  come  in  '  and  enlist '  upon  that  invitation  ; — 
and  did  thereby  think  themselves  not  to  be  mercenary  men,  but  men 
who  had  wives  and  children  in  the  Nation,  and  '  who  '  therefore  might 
a  little  look  after  satisfaction  in  what  would  be  the  Issue  of  the  Busi- 
ness !  [They  told  us  always,  We  were  Soldiers,  sworn  as  our  first 
duty  to  obey ;  but  we  answered  {and  it  was  intriftsically  a  fact).  We 
were  the  most  peculiar  Soldiers  that  had  ever  nandled  steel  in  Eng- 
land;  whereby  our  first,  and  also  our  second  and  third,  duties  had 
become  modified  a  good  deal !] 

And  when  this  thing  was  thus  pressed,  and  perhaps  oyerpressed  '  by 

Necessary  in  all  ways;  the  City  would  not  lend  money  otherwise, —not  even  money 
could  be  had  otherwise  [Aiitea,  vol.  i.  93). 

*  The  '  Rota  Club'  (see  Wood,  -"v.  11T9,  1120,  §  Harrington)  had  not  started  in 
1653,  but  this  doctrine  it  would  seem  was  already  afloat ; —not  much  patronised 
by  his  Highness  at  any  time. 


i8o         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


us '  That  a  period  might  be  put,  and  some  ascertainment  made,  and  a 
time  fixed,— why  then  truly  the  extreme  ran  another  way.  'Parliament 
would  7iot  ^0  at  all,  that  had  been  in  the  one  extreme  ;  Parliament 
shall  i>o  straightway,  that  was  now  the  other.'  This  is  very  true  that 
I  tell 'you  ;  although  it  shame  me.  '  Extremes  give  rise  to  their  oppo- 
site extremes  ;  and  are  honourable  to  nobody  ! '  I  do  not  say  it 
shames  all  that  were  of  the  House,  for  I  know  all  were  not  of  that 
mind  ;  but  truly  when  this  was  urged,  they  on  their  side  did  fall 
into  another  extreme.  And  what  was  that  ?  Why  truly  then  it  was  : 
Seeing  this  Parliament  could  not  be  perpetual,  yet  a  Parliament 
mio-ht*^  always  be  sitting.  And  to  that  end  there  was  a  Bill  framed, 
That  Parliaments  might  always  be  sitting  ;  that  as  soon  as  one  Par- 
liament went  out  of  place,  another  might  leap  in.*  When  we  saw 
this,  truly  we  thought  it  did  but  make  a  change  in  pretence  ;  and  did 
not  remedy  the  thing  !— However,  it  was  pursued  with  such  heat  '  in 
the  House,'  I  dare  say  there  was  more  progress  in  it  in  a  month  than 
had  ever  been  with  the  like  business  in  four  ;  'so  eager  were  they' 
to  hasten  it  to  an  issue,  to  get  such  a  Parliament  brought  in  ;  — to 
bring  the  state  of  the  Nation  into  this,  A  continual  sitting  of  Par- 
liament. 

We  did  think,  who  were  plain  men,  and  I  do  think  it  still.  That 
that  had  been,  according  to  the  old  foolish  Proverb,  "out  of  the 
fryingpan  into  the  fire  ! "  For,  looking  at  the  Government  you  would 
then  have  had,  it  was  '  still '  a  "  Commonwealth's "  Government. 
\Not  entirely  the  Ideal  of  a  Government,  your  Hit^hne^s  thinks  ?\ 
Why,  we  should  have  had  fine  work  then  !  We  should  have  had  a 
Council  of  State,  and  a  Parliament  of  Four-hundred  men,  executing 
arbitrary  government  {^As  the  Long  Parliament  did'\  without  inter 
mission  ;  except  some  change  of  a  part  of  them  ;  one  Parliament 
stepping  into  the  seat  of  another,  just  left  warm  for  them  ;  the  same 
day  that  the  one  left,  the  other  was  to  leap  in  ! — Truly  I  did  think, 
and  I  do  think,  however  much  some  are  enamoured  with  that  kind  of 

Government — {Style  getting  hasty,  hot;    the   Sejitence  breaks'] 

Why  it  was  no  more  but  this.  That  Committees  of  Parliament  should 
take  '  all '  upon  them,  and  be  instead  of  the  Courts  at  Westminster  ! 
Perhaps  some  will  think  there  had  been  no  hurt  in  that  arbitrariness 
of  Committees  ?  Where  a  mafn  can  neither  come  to  prove  nor  to 
defend, — nor  to  know  his  judges  ;  because  there  are  one  set  of  men 
who  judge  him  to-day,  and  another  set  of  men  to-morrow  !  Thus 
was  to  have  been  the  Law  of  England  ;  and  thus  was  to  have  been 
the  way  of  judging  this  Nation.  And  truly  I  thought  that  it  was 
an  ill  way  of  "judging."     For  I  may  say  to  you,  with  truth  in  regard 

*  This  arrangement,  of  a  Parliament  constantly  sitting,  his  Highness  and  the 
company  of  poor  men  did  by  no  means  consider  a  good  '  Issue  of  the  Business.' 
It  leads  almost  infallibly  to  'arbitrariness,'  argues  his  Highness  [Antea,  Speech 
III.  p.  i6),  leads  to  ike.  ike. — in  fact,  as  in  these  days  of  ours  is  everywhere 
becoming  too  apparent,  leads  to  '  Nothing,'  to  self-cancelment  (like  that  of  the 
Kilkenny  Cats)  and  pe:iceable  Zero.  Which  in  very  few  epochs  of  the  world's 
history  is  the  desirable  thing  !  His  Highness's  logic-argume2ts,  here  and  in  his 
other  Speech,  are  none  ot  the  best  ;  but  instincts  and  inarticulate  insiglus  much 
deeper  than  logic  taui-jlit  him  well  that  '  a  Parliament  always  sitting'  was  not  the 
IJalm  of  Gilead  we  hud  all  been  fighting  for, 


Speech  xit.  i^i 


to  that,  After  it  pleased  God,  your  poor  Army,  those  poor  contempti- 
ble men,  came  up  hither, — it  did  prove  so.  An  outcry  here  in  this 
place,  '  then  an  outcry  there  in  that,'  to  get  some  cause  determined 
and  judged.  \^77ie  way  of  Farlitunents,  your  Highness^  with  thei?' 
caballings  and  committeem^s^  and  Jutile  jar^oimigs,  and  Babel  out- 
babbled  !\  And  Committees  erected  to  fetch  men  from  the  extremest 
parts  of  the  Nation  to  London,  to  attend  Committees  '  set'  to  deter- 
mine all  things.  And  without  any  manner  of  satisfaction.  Whether 
a  man  travel  with  never  such  right  or  never  su|:h  wrong,  he  must 
come, — and  he  must  go  back  again,  as  wise  as  he  came.  This  truly 
was  the  case  {Fancy  an  old  Ironside  who  had  stood  Du7ibar  an'/ 
Worcester,  and  Marston  and  Naseby,  dancing  attendance  here  !\ 
and  our  condition.  And  truly  I  must  needs  say.  Take  all  that  was 
in  the  practices  there, — {Better  not,  your  Highness  !^ — I  am  sorry  to 
tell  the  story  of  it  ! — Though  there  was  indeed  some  necessity  for 
such  a  thing.  A  necessity  for  some  Committees  to  look  to  In- 
demnity, '  and  such  like  : '  but  no  necessity  for  Committees  instead 
of  Coyrts  of  Justice  !  However,  so  it  was  ;  and  this  was  the  case  of 
the  People  of  England  at  that  time  ;  the  Parhament  assuming  to 
itself  the  authority  of  the  Three  Estates  that  were  before.  It  had  so 
assumed  that  authority  :  and  if  any  man  had  come  and  said,  "  What 
"  rules  do  you  judge  by  ?  " — "  Why,  we  have  none  !  We  are  supreme, 
" '  we,'  in  Legislature  and  in  Judicature  !  " — 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  case.  And  I  thought,  and  we  thought, 
and  I  think  so  still,  That  this  was  a  pitiful  remedy,  '  this  that  they 
proposed.'  {This  of  a  Perpetual  Parliament,  NEW-DARNED,  like  Sir 
JoJm^s  Perpetual  Pair  of  Stockings :  —a  bad  article  in  itself,  whether 
new  or  new  darned,  if  you  make  it  the  exclusive  one  .^J  And  it  will 
always  be  so  when  and  whensoever  a  Perpetual  Legislative  is  exer- 
cised ;  where  the  Legislati\  e  and  Executive  Powers  are  always  the 
same. — Truly  I  think  the  Legislature  might  almost  as  well  be  in  the 
Four  Courts  of  Westminster  Hall  !  If  they  could  make  Laws  and 
Judges  too,  you  would  have  excellent  Laws  ;  and  the  Lawyers  would 
be  able  to  give  excellent  counsel !  And  so  it  was  then.  This  was 
our  condition,  without  scruple  or  doubt ;  and  I  shall  sa^  no  more  to 
it.  But  the  offer  was  made  by  us  wath  a  true  and  honest  spirit ;  the 
desire,  the  entreaty  that  we  might  have  a  Settlement.  And  there  is 
our  "  Settlement ; "  that  is  what  they  propose  for  a  Settlement ! — 

It  was  desired  then,  it  was  offered  and  desired,  that  the  Parliament 
would  be  pleased,  either  of  their  own  body  or  of  any  eke,  to  choose  a 
certain  number  of  men  {The  Puritan  Notables;  ah  yes/]  to  settle  the 
Nation  :  "  This,"  said  we,  "  is  unsettlement,  this  is  confusion  ! "  For 
give  me  leave,  if  any  body  now  have  the  face  to  say, — and  I  would 
die  upon  this— {Sentence  catchingfre] — if  any  man  in  England  have 
the  impudence  {Ah  /]  or  face  to  say,  That  the  reluctance  of  the  Par- 
liament to  dissolve  themselves  was  their  fear  of  hasty  throwing  of  the 
Liberties  of  the  People  of  God,  and  of  the  Nation,  into  the  hands  of 
a  bare  Representative  of  the  People, — which  was  then  the  business 
we  opposed  :  if  any  man  have  the  face  to  say  this  now,  who  did  then 
judge  it,  •  that  last  measure  of  theirs,'  and  I  will  say  more,  ought  then 
to  have  judged  it,  to  be  a  confounding  of  the  whole  Cause  we  had 


l82         SECOM)  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

foiK'lit  for,-  which  it  was,-- 1  would  look  upon  that  man's  face  !  I 
would  be  glad  to  see  such  a  man  !*  I  do  not  say  there  is  any  such 
here  :  but  if  any  such  should  come  to  me,— see  if  I  would  not  look 
upon  him,  and  tell  him  he  is  an  hypocrite  !  I  dare  say  it,  and  I  dare 
die  for  it,  *  he  is  an  hypocrite  ;'— knowing  the  spirit  that  hath  been  in 
some  men  to  me.  They  come  and  tell  me,  They  do  not  like  my 
iDcing  Protector.  Why  do  you  not .?— "  Why,  because  you  will  exer- 
cise arbitrary  Government."—"  Why,  what  is  it  you  want  me  to  do .? " 
— "  Pray,  turn  those  Gentlemen '  of  the  Long  Parliament'  all  in  again  ; 
then  we  will  like  you  exceedingly  well  1 ''-— {Inarticulate  z?tterJection  ; 
snort  or  "  Humph  /  "]— I  was  a  child  in  swaddling  clouts  !  f  I  cannot 
go  beyond  the  Instrument  of  Government.  I  cannot  do  anything  but 
in  coordination  with  the  Council.  They  fear, '  these  objectors,'  "  arbi- 
trary government "  by  7ne  in  that  way  ;  but  if  arbitrary  government 
were  restored  to  be  general  '  by  reinstatement  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment,' then  they  are  not  afraid  of  it  !  Such  things  as  these  are,  such 
hypocrisies  as  these  are,  should  they  enter  into  the  heart  of  any  man 

that  hath  truth  or  honesty  in  him  ? 

Truly  that  was  our  case  : — and  finding  our  case  to  be  thus,  we  did 
press  the  Parliament,  as  I  told  you,  That  they  would  be  pleased  to 
select  some  Worthy  Persons  who  had  loved  this  Cause,  and  the 
liberties  of  England,  and  the  interest  of  England  :  and  we  told  them 
we  would  acquiesce  and  lie  at  their  '  the  Worthy  Persons's'  feet ;  but 
that  to  be  thrown  into  Parliaments  which  should  sit  perpetually, 
though  but  for  three  years  '  each,'  we  had  experience  of  that  !  An  ex- 
perience which  may  remain  to  this  day,  to  give  satisfaction  to  honest 
and  sober  men  !^Why,  truly  this  might  have  satisfied,  this  proposal 
of  ours  ;  but  it  did  not.  And  therefore  we  did  think  that  it  was  the 
greatest  of  dangers,  '  thus'  to  be  overwhelmed,  and  brought  under  a 
slavery  by  our  own  consent,  and  '  Iniquity  to  become  a  Law."|  And 
there  was  our  ground  we  acted  upon  at  that  time.  And  truly  they  had 
perfected  their  Bill  lor  perpetuating  of  Parliaments  to  the  last  Clause  ; 

*  A  dangerous  spectator,  your  Highness,  with  that  thundery  countenance  of 
yours  !  — His  Highness's  anger  is  exceedingly  clear  ;  but  the  cause  of  it,  in  this  in- 
tricate sentence,  much  more  in  the  distracted  coaguluni  of  jargon,  which  the  Original 
liere  offers,  is  by  no  means  so  clear.  On  intense  inspection,  he  discovers  himself 
to  be  (as  above)  reproaching  certain  parties  who  now  affect  to  regret  the  Long 
Parliament,  which  while  it  existed  they  had  been  sufficiently  loud  in  condemning. 
You  say  :  "  They  were  afraid  to  liing  the  whole  Cause  into  the  lottery  of  a  general 
Parliament  :" — T/iey  f  while  we  opposed  that  ;  and  while  that  was  the  very  thing 
they  at  last  were  recklessly  doing  !  I  should  like  to  see  the  face  of  a  man  brazen 
enough  for  a  story  like  this  ! 

t  So  tied  up  with  restrictions  in  that  first  Instrument ;  had  not  the  smallest 
power  to  ao  '  arbitrary  government.' 

i;  '  Thel^Tlirone  of  Iniquity,  which  frameth  mischief  by  a  Law'  (Psalm  xciv. 
20).  A  fearful  state  of  matters;  shadowed  forth  by  old  Prophets  as  the  fearfullest 
of  all  ;  but  entirely  got  rid  of  in  these  modern  days,— if  Dryasdust  and  tlie  general 
course  of  new  Prophecy  may  be  credited,  to  whom  Law  is  Equity,  and  the  mere 
want  of  '  Law,' with  its  three  readings,  and  ta.nned  pieces  of  sheepskin  written 
over  in  bad  English,  is  Iniquity.— O  Dryasdust,  thy  works  in  this  world  are  won- 
derful. Thy  notions  of  this  world,  thy  ideas,  what  thou  namest  ideas,  perhaps 
defy  all  ages,  even  a<;es  when  Witchcraft  was  believed  in, — or  when  human  creatures 
worshipped  Leeks,  and  considered  that  the  Founder  of  this  Universe  was  one  Apis, 
a  sacred  Prize-Ox  I    1  begin  to  be  weary  of  thee. 


SPEECH  Xlt.  1S3 


\^Hear !^  and  were  resolved  to  pass  it  as  a  Bill  in  Paper,  'not  even 
engrossed  on  Parchment  as  the  wont  was,'  rather  than  comply  with 
any  expedient.  [  We  then  etitcred  upon  them ;  bade  them  with  em- 
phasis^ Go  about  their  business  I  That^s  no  He  I] — If  your  own  ex- 
perience add  anything  to  you  in  this,  '  if  you  ever  individually  had  to 
'  do  with  a  Long  Parliament  Committee,  and  know  its  ways' — in  this 
point,  "  Whether  or  no,  in  cases  civil  and  criminal,  ifaParhament 
"  assume  an  absolute  power,  without  any  control,  to  determine  the  in- 
"  terests  of  men  in  property  and  liberty  ;  v/hether  or  no  this  be  desir- 
"  able  in  a  Nation  ?" — if  you  have  any  sense,  ["  General  openness  oj 
perception ;"  7iot  exactly  our  modern  word;  but  a  questioiiable  expres- 
sion, as  his  Highness  immediately  sees :  "  any   sense.'^] — as    I    believe 

you  have, — you  have  more  than  I, 'then'  I  think  you  will  take  it 

for  a  mercy  that  that  did  not  befall  England  at  that  time  I  And  that 
is  all  I  will  say  of  it. 

Truly  I  will  now  come  and  tell  you  a  story  of  my  own  weakness 
and  folly.  [The  Little  Parliajnent.']  And  yet  it  was  done  in  my  sim- 
plicity, I  dare  avow  it  was  :  and  though  some  of  my  companions — 
["  May  dislike  my  mentioning  the  story  f — The  Senteftce,  in  its  haste, 
has  no  time  to  END.] — And  truly  this  is  a  story  that  should  not  be  re- 
corded, that  should  not  be  told,  except  when  good  use  may  be  made 
of  it.  I  say,  It  was  thought  then  that  men  of  our  own  judgment,  who 
had  fought  in  the  Wars,  and  were  all  of  a  piece  upon  that  account ; — 
'■  it  was  thought,'  "  Why  surely  these  men  will  hit  it,  and  these  men 
"  will  do  it  to  the  purpose,  whatever  can  be  desired  !"  And  truly  we 
did  think,  and  I  did  think  so, — the  more  blame  to  me.  And  sucli  a 
Company  of  Men  were  chosen;  \The  Little  Parliament : — Conven- 
tio7i  of  the  Picfitan  Notables.]  and  did  proceed  to  action.  And  truly 
this  was  the  naked  truth,  That  the  issue  was  not  answerable  to  the 
simplicity  and  honesty  of  the  design.  [Poor  Puritan  Notables  fl 

What  the  issue  of  that  Meeting  would  have  been  '  seemed  ques- 
tionable,' and  was  feared  :  upon  which  the  sober  men  of  that  Meeting 
did  withdraw  ;  and  came  and  returned  my  power  as  far  as  they  could, 
— they  did  actually  the  greater  part  of  them, — into  my  hands  ;  pro- 
fessing and  behevingthat  the  issue  of  that  Meeting  would  have  been 
The  subversion  cff  your  Laws  and  of  all  the  Liberties  of  this  Nation, 
the  destruction  of  the  Ministers  of  this  Nation  ;  in  a  word,  the  con- 
fusion of  all  things.  '  Confusion  of  all  things  :'  To  set  up,  instead  of 
Order,  the  Judicial  Law  of  Moses,  in  abrogation  of  all  our  adminis- 
trations ;  to  have  had  administered  the  Judicial  Law  of  Moses  pro 
hie  et  mmc,  according  to  the  wisdom  of  any  man  that  would  have  in- 
terpreted the  Text  this  way  or  that — ! — And  if  you  do  not  believe  that 
these  Persons,  '  thereupon  sent  home,'  were  sent  home  by  the  major 
part '  of  themselves '  who  were  judicious  and  sober  and  learned  (the 
minority  being  the  worser  part  upon  this  account),  and  with  my  con- 
sent a  parte  post, — you  will  believe  nothing  !  [Somewhat  tart^  For 
the  persons  that  led  in  that  Meeting  were  Mr.  Feake  and  his  Assem- 
blage in  Blackfriars.  [  We  know  "  Feake^''  and  other  foul  chimneys  on 
fire,  from  of  old!— As  for  '''Mr.  Squib,'^  he  sits  now  with  Vennerand 
the  Fifth- Monarchy,  safe  locked  in  the  To7aer.]  '  Mr.  Feake,'  Major- 
General  Harrison,  and  the  rest  that  associated  with  him  at  one  Mr, 


lc^4         SECOND  PROfECTORATk  PARLIAMENf. 

Squib's  house.  There  were  all  the  resolutions  taken  that  were  acted 
in  that  House  *  of  Parliament '  day  by  day.  And  this  was  so  de  facto  j 
I  know  it  to  be  true.  And  that  such  must  naturally  be  the  product 
of  it,  I  do  but  appeal  to  that  Book  I  told  you  of  the  other  day  y'-  Stan- 
dard set  ///."J,  That  all  Magistracy  and  Ministry  is  Antichristian, 
wherefore  all  these  things  ought  to  be  abolished.  Which  we  are  cer- 
tain must  have  been  the  issue  of  that  Meeting.  \A  failure^  that  poor 
Convention  of  the  Puritan  Notables  !^ 

So  that  you  have  been  delivered,  if  I  think  aright,  from  two  evils. 
The  one,  a  secular  evil,  which  would  have  swallowed  up  all  religious 
and  civil  interest,  and  brought  us  under  the  horridest  arbitrariness 
that  ever  was  exercised  in  the  world  :  To  have  had  Five  or  Six  hun- 
dred "  Friends,""^  with  their  friends,  'the  Feakes,  &c.,'  entrusted  with 
the  judgment  of  all  causes,  and  to  judge  of  them  without  rule  ;  think- 
ing that  '•  the  Power  which  swallowed  up  all  other  Lawful  Powers  in 
the  Nation  "  hath  all  the  power  they  ever  had,  both  Legislative  and 
Judiciary  !  In  short,  a  thing  which  would  have  swallowed  both  the 
Civil  and  Religious  Interest.  And  the  other  evil — [//?>  Highness  has 
already  inextricably  candled  the  two  together,  and  here  merely  gives 
them  afiolher  stir.l — merely  under  a  Spiritual  Interest,  would  have 
swallowed  up  all  again  in  another  extreme, — '  no  stated  Ministry  being 
allowed.'  All  our  Civil  and  Religious  Interest  ;  and  had  made  our 
Ministry,  and  all  the  things  we  were  beholding  to  God  for,  'of  no  ac- 
count !'  Truly  we  think  we  ought  to  value  this  Interest  above  all 
the  interests  in  the  world  :  but  if  this  latter  had  not  as  surely  been 
destroyed  as  the  former,  I  understand  nothing. — 

And  having  told  you  these  two  things,  '  two  Failures  in  getting 
Settlement' — truly  it  makes  me  in  love  with  this  Paper ;  and  with  all 
things  in  it ;  and  with  the  additions  I  have  now  to  tender  you  thereto  ; 
and  with  Settlemetit  above  all  things  in  the  world  ! — Except  '  only ' 
that,  where  I  left  you  last  time  ;  ["  The  Kingship  P'  Committee  of 
Ninety-7iine  look  alert'] — for  that,  I  think,  we  have  debated.  {^Look 
dianpish  agaiTi.]  I  have  heard  your  mind,  and  you  have  heard  mine 
'  as  to  that  ;'  I  have  told  you  my  heart  and  judgment ;  and  the  Lord 
bring  forth  His  own  issue.  \^His  Highness  produces  the  Engrossed 
Vellum^ 

I  think  we  are  now  to  consider,  not  what  we  are  in  regard  to  our 
Footing  and  that  of  the  Government  which  called  this  Parliament. 
\No:  our  First  foolish  Parliament  spent  all  their  ti7ne  on  that;  Jiotyou, 
my  7uiser  Friends.]  Our  Footing  and  Government  is,  till  there  be  an 
end  put  to  it,— that  that  hath  existence  !  \\Vhat  other  definition  of 
It  can  be  given,  or  need.]  And  so  I  shall  say  nothing  to  //.  If  it 
accomplisheth  the  end  of  our  Fighting,  and  all  those  blessed  ends  and 
aims  that  we  should  aim  at  ;  if  it  do,— I  would  we  might  keep  it, 
and  remain  where  we  are.  If  it  do  not,  I  would  we  might  have  a 
better  !— Whicht  truly  I  do  come  out  of  myself  to  tell  you.  That  as  to 
the  substance  and  body  of  your  Instrument,  I  do  look  upon  it  as  hav- 

*The  name  of  Quakers  already  budding  in  1653,— now,  in  1657,  budded  and 

t  Ungrammatical,  but  unalterable.     Means  *  On  which  hint.' 


SPEECH  Xlh  ig5 


ing  things  in  it, — if  I  may  speak  freely  and  plainly  ;  I  may,  and  we 
all  may! — I  say,  the  things  that  are  provided  for  in  this  'Act  of  Govern- 
ment {Handling  the  Velhmi\  do  secure  the  Liberties  of  the  People 
of  God  so  as  they  never  before  had  them  !  And  he  must  be  a  pitiful 
man  who  thinks  the  People  of  God  ever  had  the  like  Liberty  either 
de  facto  or  de  jure;  —dejjcreirom.  God,  I  think  they  have  had  it  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world  to  this  day,  and  have  it  still, — but  asserted 
by  3.  jus  hutnanum,  I  say,  they  never  had  it  so  as  they  iiave  it  now.  I 
think  you  have  provided  for  the  Liberty  of  the  People  of  God,  and  'for 
the  Liberty'  of  the  Nation.  And  I  say  he  sings  sweetly  that  sings  a 
song  of  reconciliation  betwixt  those  two  Interests  !  And  it  is  a  pitiful 
fancy,  like  wisdom  and  ignorance,  to  think  they  are  /^consistent. 
Certainly  they  may  consist  !  And,  I  speak  my  conscience  of  this 
'  Act  of  Government,  I  think  you  have  made  them  to  consist. 

And  therefore,  I  must  say,  in  that,  and  in  other  things,  you  have 
provided  well, — that  you  have.  And  because  1  see  the  Rule  of  the 
Parliament, '  your  written  Order  here,'  gives  you  leave  to  speak  with 
me  about  the  particulars  (I  judge  the  Parliament  doth  think  that  any 
Member  it  has  is  not  to  be  neglected  in  offering  of  anything  that  may 
be  of  additional  good), — therefore,  I  having  a  little  surve\ed  the 
Instrument,  I  have  a  paper  here  to  offer  you  upon  that  account. 
[Handles  a  Paper  of  his  own.]  And  truly  I  must  needs  say  and  think 
that,  in  such  a  case  as  this,  where  so  new  a  work  and  so  strange  a 
work  as  this  is  before  you,  it  will  not  be  thought  ill  [N'ot  at  all,  your 
Highness, — only  get  on  !\  if  I  do  with  a  little  earnestness  press  you  for 
some  explanations  in  some  things.  'A  few  explanations'  that  may 
help  to  complete  the  business,  and  leave  me — (for  it  is  only  handled 
with  me  'and  for  my  behoof  at  this  time,  not  with  you  and  the  Parlia- 
ment whom  you  represent)  : — I  say,  I  would  be  glad  that  you  might 
leave  me,  and  all  opposers,  without  excuse  ;  as  well  as  glad  that  you 
should  settle  this  Nation  to  the  uttermost  advantage  for  it ;— in  all 
the  things  I  have  to  offer  you.  They  are  not  very  weighty  ;  they  may 
tend  to  the  completion  of  the  business  ;  and  therefore  I  shall  take  the 
freedom  to  read  them  to  you. 

[First,  however,  this  Editor,  with  your  Highness's  leave,  will  read 
to  the  Moderns  a  certain  excerpt  or  abstract  from  the  Engrossed 
Vellum  itself,  which  he  has  obtained  sight  of,*  that  they  also  may 
understand  what  your  Highness  will  animadvert  upon.  Let  the 
Moderns  pay  what  attention  they  can. 

'  Article  Fourth  of  the  Petition  and  Advice  is  taken  up  with  describ- 

*  ing  who  are  to  be  Electors  to  Parliament  and  EKgibles, — or  rather 

*  who  not ;  for  it  is  understood  that,  except  the   classes  of  persons 

*  here  specified,  all  who  had  such  a  privilege  by  the  old  Laws  are 

*  still  entitled  to  vote  and  to  be  voted  for. 

'The   Classes  excluded  from  electing  or  being  elected  are   the 

*  following  : 

'  I.  All  who  have  been  concerned  in  the  rebellion  of  Ireland  ;    fir 
'  who,  with  or  without  concern  in  said  Rebellion,  are  or  shall  become 
'Papists. — All  who  have  advised,  abetted  or  assisted  in  any  War 
*  Whitlccke,  p,  648  ct  seqq.;  Parliamentary  History,  xxi.  129  et  seqq. 


M         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

'against  the  Parliament  since  the  First  of  January  1641-2, — unless 
'  they  have  since  given  signal  proofs  of  repentance,  by  bearing  arms 
'•foi    the  Parliament, — or  in  some  other  "  signal "  manner,  difficult  to 

*  define.  The  defining  of  which  has  occasioned  great  debates  in 
'Parliament.*     This  excludes  all  the  English  and  other  Malignants. 

*  — All  who  h;ive  ever  been  engaged  in  any  Plot  against  the  Person  of 
'  his  Highness  ;  or  apart  from  that,  have  been  engaged  in  any  Insur- 
'  rection  in  England  or  Wales  "  since  i6th  December  1653,"  beginning 
'  of  the  Protectorate. 

'2.  In  Scotland  all  who  have  been  in  arms  against  the  Parliament 
*of  P-^ngland  or  the  Parliament  of  Scotland  before  the  First  of  April 
*■  1648.     This  excludes  the  Montrose  Party  and  Royalists  Proper  of 

*  Scotland,— except  such  as  have  given  "signal"  &c.  But  then 
'follows  this  clause  in  favour  of  the  Hamilton  Engagers,  and  the 
'  Dunbar  and  Worcester  people,  which  attracts  his  Highness's  an- 
'imadversion  in  the  present  Discourse  :  "Nor  any"  (shall  elect  or 
'be  elected)  "whoi-zVzr*?  the  First  of  April  1648  have  been  in  arms 
'  or  otherwise  aided,  abetted "  &c.  (which  includes  all  the  Preston 
'  and  all  the  Dunbar  and  Worcester  people  ;  with,  however,  a  most  U7t- 
'  important  exception) — "  except  such  as  since  the  First  day  of  March 
'  1 65 1 -2  have  lived  peaceably^'' — as  they  might  very  well  do,  having 
'  been  all  smashed  to  powder,  six  months  before,  at  Worcester  Fight, 
'  and  their  "  Chief  Malignant,"  whom  they  had  set  up  as  King,  being 
'  now  sent  on  his  travels,  somewhat  in  a  style  of  a  King  of  the 
'  Gipsies  ! '  His  Highness  cannot  but  animadvert  on  this  with  some 
tartness. 

With  these  exceptions,  and  one  *  proviso  for  Ireland '  to  be  speedily 
noticed,  all  Freeholders  of  Counties,  according  to  the  old  definition, 
shall  vote  ;  and  all  Burgesses  and  Citizens  of  Towns, — nay,  I  think, 
there  is  in  this  latter  department  a  tendency  towards  the  Potwalloper 
System  ;  but  modified  of  course  by  the  established  custom  of  each 
several  locality  in  that  respect. 

And  now  let  us  hear  his  Highness  in  regard  to  Paragraph  Second, 
Article  Fourth  :] 

In  the  Fourth  Article  and  Second  Paragraph,  you  have  something 
that  respects  the  calling  of  Members  to  Parliament  'for  Scotland.' 
You  would  not  have  those  excluded  that  were  under  Duke  Hamilton, 
and  made  that  Invasion.f  Because  it  hath  been  said  to  you,  perhaps, 
that  if  you  should  exclude  all  '  such,'  you  would  have  no  Members 
h-om  that  Nation  .?  I  hope  there  be  persons  of  that  Nation  who  wnll 
be  ready  to  give  a  better  testimony  of  their  country  than  admit  that 
argument  !  And  1  hope  it  is  no  argument  :  but  if  it  be  one,  then 
truly,  to  meet  with  the  least  certainty  as  to  qualifications,  you  should 
indeed  exclude  men  of  your  own  country  upon  better  '  defined '  crimes; 
you  should  hold  them  off  upon  stricter  characters  '  than  those  given  !' 

'^  »  4^?  '  ^^^  qualification  there  which  saith,  of  their  "  good  testi- 
mony, That  they  are  to  be  men  who  have  given  good  testimony  by 
their  quiet  living— Why,  truly,  for  divers  years,  they  have  not  been 
willing  to  do  other  ;  they  have  not  had  an  easy  possibility  to  do  other- 
*  Burtons  Diary,  +  which  met  its  due  at  Preston. 


SPEECH  XIL  \^ 

wise,  than  to  live  quietly  !  [Not  since  the  tamiJig  they  got  at  Worcester^ 
your  Hig;hness  /]  Though  perhaps  '  at  bottom  '  many  of  them  have 
been  the  same  men  : — and  yet  '  certainly  too'  I  know  many  of  them 
are  good  men,  worthy  men  — And  therefore  whether  it  be  not  fit,  in 
that  place,  to  explain  somewhat  farther,  and  put  some  other  character* 
upon  what  may  really  be  regarded  as  '  a  good  testimony  "  of  their  deing 
otherwise  minded,  of  their  deing  now  of  another  judgment  ?  I  con- 
fess I  have  not  anything  here  to  supply  this  defect  with  ;  but  certainly 
if  the  description  so  stand  as  it  now  is  in  your  Article, — those  men, 
though  they  be  never  so  indisposed,  enemies  and  remain  so,  yet  if 
they  have  "  lived  peaceably,"  where  they  could  neither  will  nor  choose 
'  to  live  otherwise,'  they  are  to  be  admitted.  I  only  tell  you  so,  being 
without  any  amendment  for  it ;  and  when  done,  I  shall  leave  it  with 
yourselves.     This  is  for  the  Second  Paragraph. 

[For  the  second  Paragraph  his  Highness  is  "  without  any  amend- 
ment "  of  his  own  ;  offers  us  nothing  to  "  supply  the  defect  : "  indeed 
it  is  difficult  to  supply  well, as  that  Nation  stands  and  has  stood.  Be- 
sides they  send  but  Fifty  Members  in  all,  poor  creatures  ;  it  is  no  such 
vital  matter  !  Paragraph  Second  remains  //^/altered. — And  now  let 
the  Moderns  attend  for  an  instant  to  Paragraph  Third  : 

'Article  7v?//fr///,  Paragraph  Third:  A  proviso  as  to  Ireland  ''that 
'no  English  or  Scotch  Protestant  in  Ireland  who  before  the  First  of 
'  March  1649-50"'  ijust  about  the  time  his  now  Highness,  then  Lord 
'  General,  was  quitting  Ireland,  having  entirely  demolished  all  chance 
'  of  opposition  there)  "  have  borne  arms  for  the  Parliament  or  your 
'Highness,  or  otherwise  given  signal  testimony"  &c.  "shall  be  ex- 
cluded."' This  also  to  his  Highness  seems  worthy  of  animadver- 
sion.] 

In  the  Third  Paragraph  of  the  same  Article,  whereas  it  is  said, 
"That  all  persons  in  Ireland  be  made  capable  to  elect  or  to  be 
"elected  who,  before  the  First  of  March  1649,  have  borne  arms  for 
"  the  Parliament,  or  otherwise  given  testimony  of  their  good  affec- 
"tions  to  the  Parliament  and  continued  faithful  to  the  Parlia?ne?tt :" 
—and  yet  perhaps  many  of  them  are  since  revolted  '  against  us  !' — 
Whether  it  be  not  necessary  that  this  be  more  clearly  expressed  ? 
For  it  seems  to  capacitate  all  those  who  revolted  from  the  Parliament  ;f 
if  they  have  borne  arms  for  the  State  before  the  First  of  March  1649, 
it  seems  to  restore  them.  But  if  since  then  they  have  revolted,  as  I 
doubt  many  of  our  English-Irish  have  done,  why  then  the  question  is. 
Whether  those  men  who  lately!]:  have  been  angry  and  have  flown  to 
arms  ;  Whether  you  will  think  their  having  borne  arms  formerly  on 
the  Parliament's  side  shall  be  an  exemption  to  them  .^  This  is  but 
tendered  to  you,  for  some  worthy  person  here  to  give  an  answer 
unto .'' 


[Very  rational  and  irrefragable.     It  is  accordingly  altered  :  *  Signal 

*  description. 
t  The  Ormond 
X  in  late  years. 


*  description. 

t  The  Ormonde  Royalists  almost  all ;— Malignant  enough  many  of  them. 


188         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


testimony  of  their  good  affection  to  the  Commonwealth  or  your  High- 
7U'ss,and  conti?tue(PQr^c,—hr\d  now  let  us  look  at  Paragraph  Fifth ; 
concerning  the  last  item  of  which  his  Highness  has  a  word  to  say : 
'  Article  Fourth,  Paragraph  Fifth.     All  who  are  atheistical,  blasphe- 

*  mous,  "  married  to  Popish  wives,"  who  train  or  shall  train  any  child 
'  to  be  Popish,  or  consent  that  a  son  or  daughter  of  theirs  shall  marry 
*a  Papist  ; — who  are  scoffers  of  religion,  or  can  be  proved  to  have 

*  scoffed  any  one  for  being  religious  ;  who  deny  the  Scriptures  to  be 
'Ciod's  Word;  who  deny  Sacraments,  Ministry  or  Magistracy  to  be 

*  ordinances  of  God  (Harrison's  set)  ;  who  are  Sabbath-breakers, 
'swearers,  haunters  of  taverns  or  ale-houses  ; — in  short  demonstrably 

*  unchristian  men.  All  who  are  Public  Preachers  too.'  Concerning 
this  latter  clause  his  Highness  has  a  remark  to  make. 

'  Following  in  the  rear  of  which,  in  the  same  Third  Paragraph,  is 
'  an  Article  which  still  more  merits  consideration.  For  securing  the 
"  Freedom  of  Parliament "  as  well  as  its  Purity,  there  are  to  be  Forty- 
'  one  Commissioners  appointed  "  by  Act  of  Parliament  with  your 
'Highness's  consent,"  who  are  to  examine  and  certify  whether  the 

*  Persons  returned  by  these  rules  are,  after  all,  qualified  to  sit.' — So  that 
it  is  not  to  be  by  the  Cauncil  of  State  henceforth,  and  by  "  Nathaniel 
Tayler  Clerk  of  the  Commonwealth  in  Chancery  "  with  his  Certificate 
in  the  Lobby,  that  Honourable  Gentlemen  are  to  be  turned  back  at 
the  door  of  the  House,  and  sent  to  redact  Protests,  as  in  the  case  of 
this  present  Parliament  !  Forty-one  Commissioners  are  now  to  do  it. 
His  Highness  on  this  also  will  have  a  word  to  say.] 

In  the  Fifth  Paragraph  of  the  same  Article,  you  have  incapacitated 
Public  Preachers  from  sitting  in  Parliament.  And  truly  I  think  your 
intention  is  '  of  such  '  only  '  as  have  Pastoral  Function  ;  such  as  are 
actually  real  Ministers.  For  I  must  say  to  you,  in  behalf  of  our  Army, — 
in  the  next  place  to  their  fighting  //z<?yhave  been  very  good  "  Preachers  :" 
and  I  should  be  sorry  they  should  be  excluded  from  serving  the  Com- 
monwealth because  they  have  been  accustomed  to  "preach"  to  their 
troops,  companies  and  regiments  : — which  I  think  has  been  one  of  the 
blessings  upon  them  to  the  carrying  on  ot  the  great  Work.  I  think  you 
do  not  mean  so  '  that  they  should  be  excluded  :'  but  I  tender  it  to  you 
that,  if  you  think  fit,  there  may  be  a  consideration  had  of  it.  There 
may  be  some  of  us,  it  may  be,  who  have  been  a  little  guilty  of  that, 
who  would  be  loth  to  be  excluded  from  sitting  in  Parliament  '  on 
account  of  it ! '  [•'  /  myself  have  been  htown,  ''  on  occasion,  to  exhort 
"  7ny  troops  with  Bible  texts  a?id  considerations  ;  "  to  ^  preach^,  if  you 
"  like  to  call  it  so  I  What  has  my  whole  Life  been  but  a '  Sermon ' 
"  of  some  emphasis  ;  preached  with  tongue  and  sword,  with  head  and 
'•  heart  and  right  hand,  and  soul  and  body  and  breeches-pocket, — 
'''  not  without  results,  one  would  venture  to  hope  I  ""^ — This  Clause, 
the  Committee,  expressly  or  tacitly,  will  modify   as  desired.'l 

In  the  same  Paragraph,  there  is  care  taken  for  the  nominating  of 
Commissioners  to  try  the  Members  who  are  chosen  to  sit  in  Parlia- 
ment.    And  truly  those  Commissioners  are  uncertain  Persons  ;  and 
is  hard  to  say  what  may  happen.     I  hope  they,  will  be  always  good 
men  ;— but  if  they  should  be  bad,  then  perhaps  they  will  keep  out 


SPEECH  XII.  189 


good  men  !  Besides  we  think, — truly,  if  you  will  give  us  leave  to  help 
as  to  the  "  freedom  of  Parliament,"  this  '  of  the  Commissioners '  will  be 
something  that  may  go  rather  harshly  down  than  otherwise  !  Very 
many  reasons  might  be  given  :  but  I  do  only  tender  it  to  you.  I  think, 
If  there  were  no  Commissioners,  it  might  be  never  a  whit  the  worse: 
— if  you  make  qualifications  '  for  Membership,'  and  any  man  presume 
to  sit  without  those  qualifications,  you  may  deal  with  him.  A  man 
without  qualifications,  sitting  there,  is  as  if  he  were  not  chosen  ;  and 
if  he  sit  without  being  chosen,  without  having  qualification, — I  am 
sure  the  old  custom  was  to  send  him  to  the  Tower,  [  That  will  settle 
him!^  to  imprison  such  a  one  !  If  any  sit  there  that  have  not  right 
to  sit, — if  any  stranger  come  in  upon  a  pretended  title  of  6'/6y//V?;/,  perhaps 
it  is  a  different  case, — but  if  any  sit  there  upon  a  pretence  oi qualfication 
in  him,  you  may  send  him  to  prison  without  more  ado.  Whether  you 
think  fit  to  do  so  or  no,  is  parliamentary  business  :— I  do  but  hint  it  to 
you.  I  believe,  If  any  man  had  sat  in  former  Parliaments  without, 
'  for  instance,'  taking  the  oaths  &c.  that  were  prescribed,  it  would 
have  been  fault  enough  in  him.      I  believe  something  of  that  kind 

*  instead  of  your  Forty-one  Commissioners,'  might  be  equivalent  to 
any  other  way,  if  not  better. 

[The  Honourable  House  does  not  want  any  more  concern  with 
Nathaniel  Tayler  and  his  Certificates.  This  Paragraph  remains  un- 
altered. Forty-one  Commissioners,  Fifteen  a  quorum  ;  future  Parlia- 
ments to  name  a  future  set  when  they  like  :  the  Examinations  as  to 
Members  are  to  be  by  oath  of  informer  in  writing,  with  copies  left 
&c.,  and  rigorous  enough  formahties. — Let  us  now  glance  at  Article 
Fifth  : 

'Article  Fifth  relates  to   the  "Other  House;"  a  new  House  of 

*  Lords  we  are  getting  up  Not  more  than  Seventy  of  them,  not 
'fewer  than  Forty  :  they  are  to  be  nominated  by  your  Highness  and 
'approved  by  this  House:  all  classes  excluded  by  the  preceding 
'  Article  from  our  body  are  of  course  excluded  from  theirs.'  His 
Highness  has  a  remark  to  make  on  this  also.]  * 

In  that  Article,  which  I  think  is  the  Fifth' Article  \_Yes\  which  con- 
cerns the  Nomination  of  the  Other  House, — in  the  beginning  of  that 
Article  it  stands,  That  the  House  is  to  be  nominated  as  you  there 
deJgn  it,*  and  the  approbation  is  to  be  from  This  House, — I  would 
say,  from  the  Parliament.  It  stands  so.  But  then  now,  if  any  shall 
be  subsequently  named,  after  the  Other  House  is  sat,  upon  any  acci- 
dental removal  or  death, — you  do  not  say  '  How.'  Though  it  seems 
to  refer  to  the  same  '  rule  '  as  the  first  '  original '  selection  doth  ;  yet 
it  doth  not  so  clearly  intimate  this.  That  the  nomination  shall  be, 
where  it  was,  with  the  Chief  Officer,t  and  the  approbation  of  the 
"  Other  House."  If  I  do  express  clearly  what  you — Pardon  me  :  but 
I  think  that  is  the  aim  of  it  ;  and  it  is  not  clearly  expressed  there  ; — 
as  I  think  you  will  be  able  to  judge  whether  it  be  or  no. 

*   '  as  you  there  design  it ; '  poliie  for  •  by  me.  f  Cannot  say  '  me.' 


I90         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

[Article  Fifth  ruled  as  his  Highness  wishes.  And  now  take  Article 
Seventh  : 

*  Article  Seventh  promises,  but  does  not  say  how,  that  there  shall 

*  be  a  yearly  revenne  of  ^1,300,000  ;  one  million  for  Navy  and  Army, 
'^300,000  for  the  support  of  the  Government.     No  part  of  it  by  a 

*  Land-tax.     Other  temporary  supplies  to  be  granted  by  the  Commons 

*  in   Parliament,— and  neither   this    Revenue   nor  any  other   charge 

*  whatever  to  be  laid  upon  the  subject  except  according  to  the  Parlia- 
'ment's  direction  and  sanction.'  Such  yearly  Revenue  the  Parlia- 
ment promises  in  this  Petition  and  Advice,  but  does  not  specify  in 
what  way  it  shall  be  raised  :  which  omission  also  his  Highness  fails 
not  to  comment  on.] 

In  the  Seventh  Article,  which  concerns  the  Revenue,  that  is,  the 
Revenue  which  you  have  appointed  for  the  Government ;  wherein 
you  have  distributed  Three-hundred-thousand  pounds  of  it  to  the 
Maintenance  of  the  Civil  Authority,  and  One- million  to  the  main- 
tenance of  your  Forces  by  Sea  and  Land  : — you  have  indeed  in  your 
Instrument  said  so,  '  that  there  shall  be  such  a  Revenue,'  and  we 
cannot  doubt  of  it :  but  yet  you  have  not  made  it  certain  ;  nor  yet 
those  "  temporary  supplies  "  which  are  intended  for  the  peace  and 
safety  of  the  Nations.  It  is  desired.  That  you  will  take  this  into 
your  thoughts,  and  make  the  general  and  temporary  allowances  of 
Revenue  certain,  both  as  to  the  sum  and  to  the  time  those  *'  sup- 
plies "  are  to  be  continued.  [Let  11s  know  what  ground  we  stand  on.] 
And  truly  I  hope  I  do  not  curry  favour  with  you  :  but  another  thing 
is  desised,  and  I  may  very  reasonably  desire  it,  That  these  monies, 
whatever  they  are  ;  —that  they  may  not,  if  God  shall  bring  n  e  to  any 
interest  in  this  busmess,"^  aslieth  at  His  disposal ; — that  these  monies, 
'  I  say,'  may  not  be  issued  out  by  the  authority  of  the  Chief  Magis- 
trate, but  by  the  advice  of  his  Council.  You  have  made  in  your  in- 
strument a  coordination  'of  Council  and  Chief  Magistrate'  in  general 
terms  :  '  but  I  could  wish '  that  this  might  be  a  specified  thing,  That 
the  monies  were  not  to  be  distributed  '  except  by  authority  of  both.' 
It  will  be  a  safety  to  whosoever  is  your  Supreme  Magistrate,  as  well 
as  a  security  to  the  Public,  That  the  monies  be  issued  out  by  advice 
of  the  Council,  and  that  the  Treasurers  who  receive  these  monies  be 
accountable  every  Parliament,  within  a  certain  time  limited  by  your- 
selves ;— '  that '  every  new  Parliament,  the  Treasurer  be  accountable 
to  the  Parliament  for  the  disposing  of  the  Treasury. 

P  Article  Ninth :  Judges,  Principal  Officers  of  State,  Commanders  in 

*  Chief  by  Sea  or  Land,  all  chief  officers  civil  and  military,  "  are  to  be 
'  approved  of  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament." '] 

There  is  mention  made  of  the  Judges  in  your  Ninth  Article.  It  is 
mentioned  that  the  Officers  of  State  and  the  Judges  are  to  be  chosen 
with  the  approbation  of  Parliament.  But  now  if  there  be  no  Parlia- 
ment sitting,  should  there  be  never  so  great  a  loss  of  Judges,  it  cannot 
be  supplied.  And  whether  you  do  nrot  intend  that,  in  the  intervals  of 
*  If  I  live,  and  continue  to  govern. 


SPEECH  XII.  191 


Parliament,  it  should  be  by  the  choice — {Omit  ^^  of  the  Chief  Magis- 
trate^'' or  politely  7numble  it  into  indistinctness\ — with  the  consent  of 
the  Council  ;  to  be  afterwards  approved  by  Parliament  ? 

[Certainly,  your  Highness  ;  reason  so  requires  it.  Be  it  tacitly  so 
ruled. — And  now  for  Article  Twelfth  : 

'  Article  Twelfth  (Let  us  still  call  it  Article  Twelfth,  though  in  the 
'  ultimate  Redaction  it  has  come  to  be  marked  Thirteenth)  : — Classes 
'  of  persons  incapable  of  holding  any  office.  Same,  I  think,  as  those 
'excluded  from  elections, — only  there  is  no  penalty  annexed.  His 
'  Highness  makes  some  remarks  upon  this,  under  the  Title  of  Article 
'  Twelfth  ; " — a  new  article  introduced  for  securing  Purchasers  of 
'  Church  Lands,  which  is  now  Article  Twelfth,*  has  probably  pushed 

*  this  into  the  Thirteenth  place.'] 

The  Twelfth  Article  relates  to  several  qualifications  that  persons 
must  be  qualified  with,  who  are  put  into  places  of  Public  Office  and 
Trust.  [Treats  all  of  T)\?,gualif cations,  your  Highness  ;  which,  how- 
ever, comes  to  the  same  thing.']  Now  if  men  shall  step  into  Public  Places 
and  Trust  who  are  not  so  qualified,  '  I  do  not  see  but  hereby  still ' 
they  may  execute  them.  "  Office  of  Trust "  is  a  very  large  word  ;  it 
goeth  almost  to  a  Constable,  if  not  altogether  ; — it  goeth  far.  Now  if 
any  shall  come  in  who  are  not  so  qualified,  they  certainly  do  commit 
a  breach  upon  your  rule  : — and  whether  you  will  not  think  in  this  case 
that  if  any  shall  take  upon  him  an  Office  of  Trust,  there  shall  not  some 
Penalty  be  put  upon  him,  where  he  is  excepted  by  the  general  rule  ? 
Whether  you  will  not  think  it  fit  in  that  respect  to  deter  men  from 
accepting  Offices  and  Places  of  Trust,  contrary  to  that  Article  ? 

[Nothing  done  in  this.  The  "Penalty,"  vague  in  outline,  but  all 
the  more  terrible  on  that  account,  can  be  sued  for  by  any  complainant 
in  Westminster  Hall. 

*  Article  Thirteenth  suddenly  provides  that  your  Highness  will  be 

*  pleased  to  consent  that  "  Nothing  in  this  Petition  and  Advice,  or 
'the  assent  thereto,  shall  be  construed  to  extend  to — the  dissolving  of 

*  this  present  Parliament  ! '" — "  Oh,  no  !  "  answers  his  Highness  in  a 
kind  of  bantering  way  :  "  not  in  the  least  ! "] 

The  next  *  Article  '  is  fetched,  in  some  respects,  I  may  say,  by  head 
and  shoulders  into  your  Instrument  !  Yet  in  some  sense  it  hath  an 
affinity  '  with  the  rest,  too  ; '  I  may  say,  I  think  it  is  within  your  general 
scopef  upon  this  account  ; — 'yes,'  I  am  sure  of  it  :  There  is  mention 
made  in  the  last  parts  of  your  Instrument  [Looking  ijt  the  Paper; 
Article  Eighteen']  of  your  purpose  to  do  many  good  things  : — I  am 
confident,  not  like  the  gentleman  who  made  his  last  will,  and  set 
down  a  great  number  of  names  of  men  who  were  to  receive  benefit  by 
him,  and  there  was  no  sum  at  the  latter  end  !  ["  You  cannot  do  these 
"  '  ma7iy  good  things^  if  I  dissolve  you  !  That  will  be  a  Will,  with 
"  many  beneficiafy  legatees,  and  7to  sum  mcntioiied  at  the  end  /  "  His 
Highftess  wears  a  pleasant  bantering  look ; — to  which  the  counten-' 
^  *  Whitlocke,  p.  659.  f  '  order '  in  orig. 


192         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


ances  of  the  others,  even  Bulstrode's  leaden  countenance^  respond  by  a 
kind  of  smile ?^  ,     ,     «.         i,    .      , 

I  am  confident  you  are  resolved  to  deal  effectually  in  these  things 
at  the  latter  end  ;  and  I  should  wrong  my  own  conscience  if  I  thought 
otherwise.  I  hope  you  will  think  sincerely,  as  before  God,  "  That 
the  Laws  be  regulated  !  "*  I  hope  you  will.  We  have  been  often 
talking  of  them  :— and  I  remember  well,  at  the  old  Parliament 
\\Vhitlocke  and  Glyn  look  intelligence\  we  were  three  months,  and 
could  not  get  over  the  word  "Incumbrances"  [Hjim—jn — mf]: 
and  we  thought  there  was  little  hope  of  "  regulating  the  Law  "  where 
there  was  such  difficulty  as  to  that.  But  surely  the  Laws  need  to  be 
regulated  !  And  I  must  needs  say,  I  think  it  were  a  sacrifice  accept- 
able to  God  upon  many  accounts.  And  I  am  persuaded  it  is  one  of 
the  things  that  God  looks  for,  and  would  have.  {Alas,  your  IJigh- 
7tess  /] — I  confess,  if  any  man  should  ask  me,  "  Why,  how  would  you 
have  it  done  ?"  I  confess  I  do  not  know  How.  But  I  think  verily,  at 
the  least,  the  Delays  in  Suits,  and  the  Excessiveness  in  Fees,  and  the 
Costhness  of  Suits,  and  those  various  things  which  I  do  not  know 
what  names  they  bear— I  heard  talk  of  "  Demurrers  "  and  such-hke 
things,  which  I  scarce  know — [Sentence  is  wrecked'] ! — But  I  say 
certainly.  The  people  are  greatly  suffering  in  this  respect  ;  they  are 
so.  And  truly  if  this  whole  business  of  Settlement,  whatever  be  the 
issue  of  it,  if  it  come,  which  I  am  persuaded  it  doth,  as  a  thing  that 
would  please  God  ;— '  then,'  by  a  sacrifice  '  to  God  '  in  it,  or  rather  as 
an  expression  of  our  thankfulness  to  God,  I  am  persuaded  that  this 
will  be  one  thing  that  will  be  upon  your  hearts,  to  do  something  that 
is  honourable  and  effectual  in  this.  \^^  Reforming  of  the  Law  /  "  Alas, 
your  Highness  /] — 

'  Another  thing'  that— truly  I  say  that  it  is  not  in  your  Instrument — 
[Nothing  said  of  it  there,  which  partly  embarrasses  his  Highness; 
who  is  now  getting  into  a  small  Digression^  ! — Somewhat  that  relates 
to  the  Reformation  of  Manners, — you  will  pardon  me  ! — My  Fellow 
Soldiers  '  the  Major- Generals,'  who  were  raised  up  upon  that  just 
occasion  of  the  Insurrection,  not  only  "to  secure  the  Peace  of  the 
Nation,"  but  to  see  that  persons  who  were  least  likely  to  help-on 
"  peace "  or  to  continue  it,  but  rather  to  break  it— (""  These  Major- 
"  Generals,  I  say,  did  look  after  the  restraining  of  sicch  persons;  sup- 
'"'' pressed  their  horse-raci7is,s,  cock-fightings,  sinful  roysterings ;  took 
^^ some  charge  ^/'Reformation  'of  Manners,'  they:" — but  his 
Highness  is  off  elsewhiiher,  excited  by  this  '  tickle-subject^  and  the 
Sentence  has  evaporated] — Dissolute  loose  persons  that  can  go  up 
and  down  from  house  to  house, — and  they  are  Gentlemen's  sons  who 
have  nothing  to  live  on,  and  cannot  be  supplied  with  means  of  living 
to  the  profit  of  the  Commonwealth  :  these  I  think  had  a  good  course 
taken  with  them.  [Ordered  to  fly-away  their  game-cocks,  u?tmti2zle  their 
bear-baitings  J  fall  to  some  regular  livelihood,  some  fixed  habitat,  if  they 
could, — and,  on  the  whole,  to  duck  low,  keep  remarkably  quiet,  and 
i:i7'e  no  rational  man  any  trouble  with  them  which  could  be  avoided!] 
\nd  1  think  what  was  done  to  them  was  honourably  and  honestly  and 

*  Q^e  of  their  conclud-i'T  promises  (Article  Eighteen), 


SPEECH  XII.  193 


profitably  done.  And,  for  my  part,  I  must  needs  say,  It*  shewed  the 
dissoluteness  which  was  then  in  the  Nation  ;— as  indeed  it  springs 
most  from  that  Party  of  the  Cavaliers  !  Should  that  Party  run  on, 
and  no  care  to  be  taken  to  reform  the  Nation  ;  to  prevent,  perhaps, 
abuses  which  will  not  fall  under  this  head  alone — !  \_Not  under  Kc- 
formation  of  Manners  alone  :  what  will  the  consequence  be  ?] 

We  send  our  children  into  France  before  they  know  God  or  Good 
Manners  ;t  and  they  return  with  all  the  licentiousness  of  that  Nation. 
Neither  care  to  educate  them  before  they  go,  nor  to  keep  them  in  good 
order  when  they  come  home  !  Indeed  this  makes  the  Nation  not 
only  commit  those  abominable  things,  most  inhuman  things,  but 
hardens  men  to  justify  those  things  ;— as  the  Apostle  saith,  "  Not  only 
to  do  wickedly  themselves,  but  to  take  pleasure  in  them  that  do  so." 
And  truly,  it  something  be  not  done  in  this  kind,  '  in  the  way  of 
reforming  public  morals,'  without  sparing  that  condition  of  men,  with- 
out sparing  men's  sons,  though  they  be  Noblemen's  sons—  !  {Sentence 
breaks  down'] — Let  them  be  who  they  may  that  are  deboist,  it  is  for 
the  glory  of  God  that  nothing  of  outward  consideration  should  save 
them  in  their  debauchery,  from  a  just  punishment  and  reformation  ! 
And  truly  I  must  needs  say  it,  I  would  much  bless  God  to  see  some- 
thing done  in  that  matter  heartily,  not  only  as  to  those  persons  men- 
tioned, but  to  nil  the  Nation  ;  that  some  course  might  be  taken  for 
Reformation  ;  that  there  might  be  some  stop  put  to  such  a  current  of 
wickedness  and  evil  as  this  is  !  And  truly,  to  do  it  heartily,  and  nobly 
and  worthily  !  The  Nobility  of  this  Nation,  they  especially,  and  the 
Gentry,  would  have  cause  to  bless  you.  And  likewise  that  some  care 
might  be  taken  that  those  good  Laws  already  made  for  punishing  of 
vice  might  be  put  in  execution. 

This  I  must  needs  say  of  our  Major  Generals  who  did  that  service : 
I  think  it  was  an  excellent  good  thing; — I  profess  I  do!  {Yesj 
though  there  were  great  outcries  about  it.]  And  I  hope  you  will  not 
think  it  unworthy  of  you  '  to  consider '  that  though  we  may  have  good 
Laws  against  the  common  Country  disorders  that  are  everywhere, 
yet  Who  is  to  execute  them  'now,  the  Major-Generals  being  off?' 
Really  a  Justice  of  the  Peace, — he  shall  by  the  most  be  wondered  at 
as  an  owl,  if  he  go  but  one  step  out  of  the  ordinary  course  o "  his  fellow 
Justices  in  the  reformation  of  these  things  !  \Cannot  do  it ;  not  he.] 
And  therefore  I  hope  I  may  represent  this  to  you  as  a  thing  worthy 
your  consideration,  that  something  may  be  found  out  to  repress  such 
evils.  I  am  persuaded  you  would  glorify  God  by  this  as  much  as 
by  any  one  thing  you  could  do.  And  therefore  I  hope  you  will 
pardon  me. 

[His  Highness  looks  to  the  Paper  again,  after  this  Digression. 
Article  Fifteenth  in  his  Highness's  copy  of  the  Paper,  as  we  under- 
stand, must  have  provided  '  That  no  part  of  the  Public  Revenue  be 
alienated  except  by  consent  of  Parliament  : '  but  his  Highness  having 

*  The  course  taken  with  them     the  quantity  of  coercion  they  needed,  and  of 
complaint  made  thereupon  are  all  loosely  included  in  this  "  It." 
t  Morals. 
VOL.  III. 


194         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

thus  remonstrated  against  it,  the  Article  is  suppressed,  expunged  ; 
and  we  only  gather  by  this  passage  that  such  a  thing  had  ever  been.] 

I  cannot  tell,  in  this  Article,  that  I  am  now  to  speak  unto,  whether 
I  speak  to  anything  or  nothing  !  There  is  a  desire  that  '  no  part  of 
"  the  Public  Revenue  be  alienated  except  by  consent  of  Parliament  " 
I  doubt  "  Public  Revenue  "  is  like  "  "  Custodes  Liber  talis  Anglice  ;  " 
a  notion  only  ;  and  not  \.o  found  that  I  know  of !  [//IS  all  alienated ; 
Crown  Lands ^  ^c.  are  all  gone ^  long  ago.  A  beautiful  dream  of  our 
youth,  as  the  '^Keepers  of  the  Liberty  of  England''  were,- a 
tjiing  you  could  nowhere  lay  hands  on,  that  I  know  of  /]  But  if 
there  be  any,— and  if  God  bless  us  in  our  Settlement,  there  will  be 
Public  Revenue  accruing, — the  point  is.  Whether  you  will  subject  this 
to  any  alienation  without  consent  of  Parliament  ? 

[We  withdraw  the  question  altogether,  your  Highness  :  when  once 
the  chickens  are  hatched,  we  will  speak  of  selling  them  !— Let  us  now 
read  Article  Sixteenth  : 

Article  Sixteenth,  in  his  Higness's  copy  of  the  Paper,  '  Provides 

*  that  no  Act  or  Ordinance  already  extant,  which  is  not  contrary  to 

*  this  Petition  and  Advice,  shall  be  in  the  least  made  void  hereby.' — 
His  Highness,  as  we  shall  see,  considers  this  as  too  indefinite,  too 
indistinct ; — a  somewhat  vague  foundation  for  Church- Land  estates 
(for  example),  which  men  purchased  with  money,  but  hold  only  in 
virtue  of  Writs  and  Ordinances  issued  by  the  Long  Parliament. — A 
new  Article  is  accordingly  added,  in  our  Perfect-copy  ;  specifying,  at 
due  breadth,  with  some  hundreds  of  Law-vocables,  that  all  is  and 
shall  be  safe,  according  to  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  in  that 
particular.] 

«  Truly  this  thing  that  I  have  now  farther  to  offer  you, — it  is  the  last 
in  this  Paper  ;  it  is  the  thing  mentioned  in  the  Sixteenth  Article  ; 
That  you  would  have  those  Acts  and  Ordinances  which  have  been 
made  since  the  late  Troubles,  and  during  the  time  of  them,  '  kept 
unalDrogated  ; '  that  they  should,  if  they  be  not  contrary  to  this 
Advice,* — that  they  should  remain  in  force,  in  such  manner  as  if  this 
Advice  had  not  been  given.  Why,  what  is  doubted  is,  Whether  or 
no  this  will  be  sufficient  to  keep  things  in  a  settled  condition  ?  t  Be- 
cause it  is  but  an  implination  '  that  you  here  make  ; '  it  is  not  deter- 
mined. You  do  pass-by  the  thing,  without  such  a  foundation  as  will 
keep  those  people,  who  are  now  in  possession  of  Estates  upon  this 
account,  that  their  titles  be  not  questioned  or  shaken,— if  the  matter 
be  not  explained.  Truly  I  believe  you  intend  very  fullv  in  regard  to 
this  '  of  keeping  men  safe  who  have  purchased  on  that  footing.'  If 
the  words  already  '  used '  do  not  suffice— That  I  submit  to  your  own 
advisement. 

But  there  is  in  this  another  very  great  consideration.  There  have 
been,  smce  the  present  Government  '  began,' several  Acts  and  Ordi- 
nances, which  have  been  made  by  the  exercise  of  that  Legislative 

*  Petition  and  Advice  ;  but  we  politely  suppress  the  former  part  of  the  name. 
T  It  was  long  debated ;  see  Burton. 


SPEECH  XTT.  19$ 


Power   that  was  exercised   since  we  undertook  this  Government  : 

^iVery  cumbrous  phraseology,  yotir  Highness  ;—for  indeed  the  subject 
is  so?ne'what  cumbrous.  Questionable,  to  some,  mhether  one  CAN  make 
Acts  and  Ordinances  by  a  niere  Council  and  Protector  !^  And  I 
think  your  Instrument  speaks  a  Httle  more  faintly  'as '  to  these,  and 
dubiously,  than  to  the  other  !  And  truly,  I  will  not  make  an  apology 
for  anything  :  but  merely  two  persons,  two  sorts  of  them,  '  very  exten- 
sive sorts,'  will  be  merely  concerned  upon  this  account  :  They  who 
exercised  that  authority,  and  they  who  were  objects  of  its  exercise  ! 
This  wholly  dissettles  them  ;  wholly,  if  you  be  not  clear  in  your 
expressions.  It  will  dissettle  us  very  much  to  think  that  the  Parlia- 
ment doth  not  approve  well  of  what  hath  been  done  '  by  us '  upon  a 
true  ground  of  necessity,  in  so  far  as  the  same  hath  saved  this  Nation 
from  running  into  total  arbitrariness.  '  Nay,  if  not,'  why  subject  the 
Nation  to  a  sort  of  men  who  perhaps  would  do  so.*  We  think 
we  have  in  that  thing  deserved  well  of  the  State.  [  Do  not  "  dis- 
settle "  his  Highness  !  He  has,  "  in  that  thifig  "  of  assuming  the 
Government  and  passing  what  Ordinances  &'c.  were  i7idispensable, 
*^  deserved  well.'^ — Committee  of  Ninety-nine  agree  to  what  is  reason- 
able?^ 

If  any  man  will  ask  me,  "  But  ah,  Sir,  what  have  you  done  si?ice  f" 
— Why,  ah, — as  I  will  confess  my  fault  where  I  am  guilty,  so  I  think, 
taking  things  as  they  '  then '  were,  I  think  we  have  done  the  Com- 
monwealth service  !  We  have  therein  made  great  settlements, — that 
have  we.  We  have  settled  almost  all  the  whole  affairs  in  Ireland  ; 
the  rights  and  interests  of  the  Soldiers  there,  and  of  the  Planters  and 
Adventurers.  And  truly  we  have  settled  very  much  of  the  business  of 
the  Ministry; — \^^  Triers"  diligent  here,  '"'' Expur gators''^  diligent 
everywhere ;  much  good  wo7'k  completed."]  and  I  wish  that  be  not  an 
aggravation  of  our  fault  :t  I  wish  it  be  not !  But  I  must  needs  say. 
If  I  have  anything  to  rejoice  in  before  the  Lord  in  this  world,  as 
having  done  any  good  or  service,  '  it  is  this.'  I  can  say  it  fi;om  my 
heart  ;  and  I  know  I  say  the  truth,  let  any  man  say  what  he  will  to 
the  contrary,— he  will  give  me  leave  to  enjoy  my  own  opinion  in  it, 
and  my  own  conscience  and  heart  ;  and  'to'  dare  bear  my  testimony 
to  it,  There  hath  not  been  such  a  service  to  England  since  the  Christian 
Religion  was  perfect  in  England  !  I  dare  be  bold  to  say  it ;  however 
there  may  have,  here  and  there,  been  passion  and  mistakes.  And 
the  Ministers  themselves  take  the  generality  of  them — ["  are  unexcep- 
tionable, nay  exemplary  as  Triers  and  as  Expurgators : "  but  his 
Highness,  blazing  up  at  touch  of  this  tender  topic,  wants  to  utter  three 
07' four  things  at  once,  and  his  '■'■elements  of  rhetoric"  fly  into  the 
ELEMENTAL  State  !  We  perceive  he  has  got  much  blame  for  his  Two 
Church  Co?nmissions ;  and  feels  that  he  has  deserved  far  the  reverse.'] 
— They  will  tell  '  you,'  it  is  beside  their  instructions,  '  if  they  have 
'  fallen  "  into  passion  and  mistakes,"  if  they  have  meddled  with  civil 

*  Why  subject  the  Nation  to  us,  who  perhaps  would  drive  it  into  arbitrariness, 
as  your  non-approval  of  us  seems  to  insinuate. 

t  Be  not  to  secure  the  grave  men '  (Scott's  Somers,  p.  399)  is  unadulterated 
nonsense  ;  iov grave  men  read  gravamen ,  and  we  have  dubiously  asense  as  above  : 
••  an  aggravation  of  our  fault  with  such  objectors." 

H  2 


196         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT.        ^ 

'  matters,  in  their  operations  as  Triers  ! '  And  we  did  adopt  the  thing 
upon  that  acrount ;  \\-3  did  not  trust  upon  doing  what  we  did  v/r////o' 
Instituti,  as  if  these  Triers  v^^x^'  jure  ^/W/zc?,  but  as  a  civil  good. 
But-  {Checks  himself]  — so  we  end  in  this:  We  'knew  not  and' 
know  not  better  how  to  keep  the  Ministry  good,  and  to  augment 
it  in  goodness,  than  by  putting  such  men  to  be  Triers.  Men  of 
known  integrity  and  piety  ;  orthodox  men  and  faithful  We  knew 
not  how  better  to  answer  our  duty  to  God  and  the  Nation  and  the 
People  of  God,  in  that  respect,  than  by  doing  what  we  did. 

And,  I  dare  say,  if  the  grounds  upon  which  we  went  will  not  justify 
us,  the  issue  and  event  of  it  doth  abundantly  justify  us  ;  God  having 
had  exceeding  glory  by  it,— in  the  generality  of  it,  I  am  confident, 
forty-fold  !  For  as  heretofore  the  men  that  were  admitted  into  the 
Ministry  in  times  of  Episcopacy— alas  what  pitiful  Certificates  served 
to  make  a  man  a  Minister  !  {Forty-fold  better  now.]  If  any  man 
could  understand  Latin  and  Greek,  he  was  sure  to  be  admitted  ;— as 
if  he  spake  Welsh  ;  which  in  those  days  went  for  Hebrew  with  a  good 
many  !  [Satirical.  "  They  studied  Pan,  Bacchus,  and  the  Longs  and 
'•  Shorts,  rather  than  their  Hebrew  Bible,  a7id  the  Truths  of  the  Living 
^^fehovah  I "  ]  Certainly  the  poorest  thing  in  the  world  would  serve  a 
turn  ;  and  a  man  was  admitted  upon  such  an  account  [As  this  of  mere 
Latin  and  Greek,  with  a  suspicion  of  Welsh- He  brew]  ;— ay,  and  upon 
a  less.— I  am  sure  the  admission  granted  to  such  places  since  has  been 
under  this  character  as  the  rule  :  That  they  must  not  admit  a  man 
unless  they  were  able  to  discern  something  of  the  Grace  of  God  in  him. 
[Really  it  is  the  i^rand  primary  essential,  your  Highness.  Without 
which  Pan,  Bacchus,  Welsh-Hebrew,  nay  Hebrew  itself,  must  go  for 
nothing, — nay  for  less  if  we  co7isider  well.  In  some  points  of  view,  it 
is  honible  /  ]  '  Grace  of  God  ;'  which  was  to  be  so  inquired  for, 
as  not  foolishly  nor  senselessly,  but  so  far  as  men  could  judge  accord- 
ing to  the  rules  of  Charity.  Such  and  such  a  man,  of  whose  good  life 
and  conversation  they  could  have  a  very  good  testimony  from  four  or 
five  of  tlie  neighbouring  ministers  who  knew  him, — he  could  not  yet 
be  admitted  unless  he  could  give  a  very  good  testimony  of  the  Grace 
of  God  in  him.  And  to  this  I  say,  I  must  speak  my  conscience  in  it,'* 
— though  a  great  many  are  angry  at  it,  nay  if  all  are  angry  at  it, — lor 
how  shall  you  please  everybody  } 

Then  say  some.  None  must  be  admitted  except  perhaps,  he  will  be 
baptised  '  again.'  That  is  their  opinion.  [Anabaptists.]  They  will 
not  admit  a  man  into  a  Congregation  to  be  Minister,  except  he 
commence  by  being  so  much  less.  The  Presbyterians  '  again,'  they 
will  not  admit  him  unless  he  be  ''  ardained."  Generally  they  will  not 
go  to  the  Independents  : — truly  I  think,  if  I  be  not  partial,  I  think  if 
there  be  a  freedom  ot  judgment,  it  is  there.  [With  the  Independents  : 
that  is  your  Hightiess's  opinion.]  Here  are  Three  sorts  of  Godly  Men 
whom  you  are  to  take  care  for  ;  whom  you  have  provided  for  in  your 
Settlement.  And  how  could  you  put  the  selection  upon  the  Presby- 
terians without  by  possibility  excluding  all  those  Anabaptists,  all 
those  Independents  !  And  so  now  you  have  put  ii  into  this  way, 
That  though  a  man  be  of  any  of  those  three  judgments,  if  he  have  the 
*  "  I  do  approve  it  "   is  modestly  left  out. 


SPEECH  XII.  197 


root  of  the  matter  in  him,  he  may  be  admitted.  [  Very  good,  your 
Hii^hness .''\  This  hath  been  our  care  and  work;  both  by  some 
Ordinances  of  ours,  laying  the  foundations  of  it,  and  by  many  hun- 
dreds of  Ministers  being  'admitted' in  upon  it.  And  if  this  be  a 
"  time  of  Settlement/'  then  I  hope  it  is  not  a  time  of  shaking  ; — and 
therefore  I  hope  you  will  be  pleased  to  settle  this  business  too  ;  and 
that  you  will  neither  "shake"  the  Persons  \Us\  who  have  been  poorly 
instrumental  in  calling  you  to  this  opportunity  of  settling  this  Nation, 
and  of  doing  good  to  it ;  nor  shake  those  honest  men's  interests  who 
have  been  thus  settled.  And  so  I  have  done  with  the  offers  to  you, 
with  these  my  suggestions  to  you.' 

[His  Highness  looks  now  on  the  Paper  again  ;  looks  at  Article 
Seventh  there.  '  That  the  Revenue  should  be  ^1,300,000  ; '  and  also 
at  a  Note  by  himself  of  the  Current  Expenses  ; — much  wondering  at 
the  contrast  of  the  two ;  not  having  Arithmetic  enough  to  reconcile 
them  !]  . 

But  here  is  somewhat  that  is  indeed  exceedingly  past  my  under- 
standing ;  for  I  have  as  little  skill  in  Arithmetic  as  I  have  in  Law  ! 
These  are  great  sums  ;  it  is  well  if  I  can  count  them  to  you.  S^Look- 
iiig  on  his  Note^  The  present  charge  of  the  Forces  both  by  Sea  and 
Land  will  be  ^2,426,989.  The  whole  present  Revenue  in  England, 
Scotland  and  Ireland,  is  about  ^1,900,000  ;  I  think  this  was  reckoned 
the  most,  as  the  Revenue  now  stands.  Why,  now,  towards  this  you 
settle,  by  your  Instrifment,  ^1,300,000  for  the  Government  ;  and  out 
of  that  "  to  maintain  the  Force  iDy  Sea  and  Land,'  and  "  without 
Land-tax,"  I  think  :  and  this  is  short  of  the  Revenue  which 
now  can  be  raised  by  the  '  present  Act  of  Government  ^600,000 ! 
\^A  grave  discrepa7icy  /  ]  Because,  you  see,  the  present  Govern- 
ment has  ^1,900,000;  and  the  whole  sum  which  can  be  raised 
comes  '  short  '*  of  the  present  charge  by  ^{^542,689,  —  [So  His 
Highness  says  :  but  by  the  above  data,  viust  be  mistaken  or  mis- 
reported :  ^ 526,989  is  what  '■''Arithmetic''^  gives.]  And  although 
an  end  should  be  put  to  the  Spanish  War,  yet  there  will  be  a 
necessity,  for  preserving  the  peace  of  the  three  Nations,  to  keep  up 
the  present  established  Army  in  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  ;  also 
a  considerable  Fleet  for  some  good  time,  until  it  shall  please  God  to 
quiet  and  compose  men's  minds,  and  bring  the  Nation  to  some  better 
consistency.  So  that,  considering  the  Pay  of  the  Army,  which  comes 
to  upwards  of  ^  1,100,000  per  annum,  and  the  "Support  of  the 
Government  "  ^300,000,  it  will  be  necessary  for  some  convenient  time, 
— seeing  you  find  things  as  you  do,  and  it  is  not  good  to  think  a 
wound  healed  before  it  be, — that  there  be  raised,  over  and  above  the 
£^1,300,000,  the  sum  of  ^6oo,oco  per  annum ;  which  makes  up  the 
sum  of  ^1,900,000.  And  likewise  that  the  Parliament  declare.  How 
far  they  will  carry  on  the  Spanish  War  and  for  what  time  ;  and  what 
farther  sum  they  will  raise  for  carrying  on  the  same,  and  for  what 
time.  {Explicit,  and  undeiiiable  !]  And  if  these  things  be  not  ascer- 
tained,— as  one  saith  "  Money  is  the  Cause,"  and  certainly  whatever 
the  Cause  is,  if  Money  be  wanting,  the  business  will  fall  to  the  ground 


I9S         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLlAAfENT. 

—all  our  labour  will  be  lost.     And  therefore  I  hope  you  will  have  a 
care  of  our  undertakings  \— [Most practical  paraj^raph.'] 

And  having  received  expressions  from  you  which  we  may  believe, 
M-e  need  not  offer  these  things  to  you  ;  '  we  need  not  doubt'  but  these 
tilings  will  be  cared  for.  Those  things  have  'already  in  Parliament 
been  made  overture  of  to  you  ;  and  are  before  you  : — and  so  has 
likewise  the  consideration  of  the  Debts,  which  truly  I  think  are 
apparent. 

And  so  I  have  done  with  what  I  had  to  offer  you,— I  think  I  have, 
truly,  for  my  part.  \^^  Nothmg  of  the  Kim^ship^  your  Highness  ?^^ 
Couwtittee  of  Ninety -nine  looks  expectant']— P\x\di  when  I  shall  under- 
stand where  it  lies  on  me  to  do  farther  ;  and  when  I  shall  under- 
stand your  pleasure  in  these  things  a  little  farther  : — we  have  answered 
the  Order  of  Parliament  in  considering  and  debating  of  those  things, 
that  were  the  subject-matter  of  debate  and  consideration  ; — and  when 
you  will  be  pleased  to  let  me»hear  farther  of  your  thoughts  in  these 
things,  then  I  suppose  I  shall  be  in  a  condition  to  discharge  myself, 
[Throws  no  additio7ial  light  07i  the  Kingship  at  <z//.^]  as  God  shall 
put  in  my  mind.  And  I  speak  not  this  to  evade  ;  but  I  speak  m  the 
fear  and  reverence  of  God.  And  I  shall  plainly  and  clearly,  I  say, 
— when  you  shall  have  been  pleased  among  yourselves  to  take  con- 
sideration of  these  things,  that  I  may  hear  what  your  thoughts  are  of 
them, — I  do  not  say  that  as  a  cojtdition  to  anything— but  I  shall  then 
be  free  and  honest  and  plain  to  discharge  myself  of  what,  in  the  whole 
and  upon  the  whole,  may  reasonably  be  expected  from  me,  and '  what ' 
God  shall  set  me  free  to  answer  you  in  * 

Exeunt  the  Ninety-nine,  much  disappointed  ;  the  Moderns  too  look 
very  weary.     Courage,  my  friends,  I  now  see  land  ! — 

This  Speech  forms  by  far  the  ugliest  job  of  btukwashing  (as  Vol- 
taire calls  it)  that  his  Highness  has  yet  given  us.  Af  printed  in  the 
last  edition  of  So7ners,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  unadulterated  piece  of 
coagulated  nonsense  that  was  ever  put  into  types  by  human  kind.  In 
order  to  educe  some  sense  out  of  it  as  above,  singularly  few  altera- 
tions, except  in  the  punctuation,  have  been  required  ;  no  change  that 
we  could  detect  has  been  made  in  the  style  of  dialect,  which  is  phy- 
siognomic and  ought  to  be  preserved  ;  in  the  meaning,  as  before,  all 
change  was  rigorously  forbidden.  In  only  one  or  two  places,  duly  in- 
dicated, did  his  Highness's  sense,  on  earnest  repeated  reading,  con- 
tinue dubious.  And  now  the  horrid  buck-basket  is  reduced  in  some 
measure  to  clean  linen  or  huckaback  :  thanks  be  to  Heaven  ! — 

For  the  next  ten  days  there  is  nothing  heard  from  his  Highness  ; 
much  as  must  have  been  thought  by  him  in  that  space.  The  Parlia- 
ment is  occupied  incessantly  considering  how  it  may  as  far  as  possible 
fulfil  the  suggestions  offered  in  this  Speech  of  his  Highness  ;  assidu- 
ously perfecting  and  new-polishing  the  Petition  and  Advice  according 
to  the  same.  Getting  Bills  ready  for  '  Reformation  of  Manners,' — 
with  an  eye  on  the  '  idle  fellows  about  Piccadilly,'  who  go  bowling 
*  Somers  Tracts,  vi.  389-400. 


SPEECH  XII.  199 


and  gambling,  with  much  tippling  too,  about  'Piccadilly  House'  and 
its  green  spaces."^  Scheming  out  how  the  Revenue  can  be  raised  : — 
'  Land  tax'  alas,  in  spite  of  former  protest  on  that  subject ;  '  tax  on 
new  buildings  '  (Lincoln's  Inn  fields  for  one  place),  which  gives  the 
public  some  trouble  afterwards.  Doing  somewhat  also  in  regard  to 
*  Triers  for  the  Ministry  ;'  to  '  Penalties  '  for  taking  Office  when  dis- 
qualified by  Law  ;  and  very  much  debating  and  scrupling  as  to 
what  Acts  and  Ordinances  (of  his  Highness  and  Council)  are  to  be 
confirmed. 

Finally,  however,  on  Friday  ist  of  May,  the  Petition  and  Advice  is 
again  all  ready  ;  and  the  Committee  of  Ninety-nine  wait  upon  his 
Highness  with  it,t— who  answers  briefly, '  speaking  very  low,'  That 
the  things  are  weighty  and  will  require  meditation  ;  that  he  cannot 
just  at  present  say  On  what  day  he  will  meet  them  to  give  his  final 
answer,  but  will  so  soon  as  possible  appoint  a  day. 

So  that  the  Kingship  remains  yet  a  great  mystery !  *  By  the 
generality '  it  is  understood  that  he  will  accept  it.  But  to  the  gene- 
rality, and  to  us,  the  interior  consultations  and  slow-formed  resolutions 
of  his  Highness  remain  and  must  remain  entirely  obscure.  We  can 
well  believe  with  Ludlow,  sulkily  breathing  the  air  in  Essex,  who  is 
incorrect  as  to  various  details.  That  in  general  a  portion  of  the  Army 
were  found  averse  to  the  Title  ;  a  more  considerable  portion  than 
the  Title  was  worth.  Whereupon,  *  for  the  present,'  as  Bulstrode 
indicates, '  his  Highness  did  decide  to  ^— in  fact  speak  as  follows. 


SPEECH  XHL 

Banqueting-House,  Whitehall,  Friday  forenoon,  8th  May  1657, 
the  Parliament  in  a  body  once  more  attends  his  Highness  ;  re- 
ceives at  length  a  final  Answer  as  to  this  immense  matter  of  the 
Kingship.  Which  the  reader  shall  now  hear,  and  so  have  done 
with  it. 

The  Whitlocke  Committee  of  Ninety-nine  had,  by  appointment, 
waited  on  his  Highness  yesterday,  Thursday  May  7th  ;  gave  him  'a 
Paper,'— some  farther  last-touches  added  to  their  ultimate  painfully 
revised  edition  of  the  Petition  and  Advice,  wherein  all  his  Highness's 
suggestions  are  now,  as  much  as  possible,  fulfilled  ; — and  were  in 
hopes  to  get  some  intimation  of  his  Highness's  final  answer  then. 
Highness,  ''  sorry  to  have  kept  them  so  long,"  requested  they  would 
come  back  next  morning.  Next  morning,  Friday  morning  :  "  We 
have  been  there  ;  his  Highness  will  see  you  all  in  the  Banqueting- 
Llouse  even  now. "J  Let  us  shoulder  our  Mace,  then,  and  go. — '  Peti- 
tion of  certain  Officers,'  that   Petition  which  Ludlow§   in   a  vague 

*  Dryasdust  knows  a  little  piece  of  Archaeology  :  How  '  piccadillies '  {quasi 
Spanish  peccadillos,  or  little-sins,  a  kind  of  notched  Unen-tippet)  used  to  be  sold 
in  a  certain  Shop  there  ;   whence  &c.  &c. 

•j-  Burton,  ii.  loi. 

1  Commons  Journals,  vii.  531. 

§  ii.  588,  &c.,  the  vague  passage  always  cited  on  this  occasion. 


200         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

erroneous  manner  represents  to  have  been  the  turning-point  of  the 
business,  is  just '  at  the  door  :'  we  receive  it,  leave  it  on  the  table,  and 
go.    And  now  hear  his  Highness. 

Mr.  Speaker, 

I  come  hither  to  answer  That  that  was  in  your  last  Paper  to 
your  Committee  you  sent  to  me  'yesterday  ;'  which  was  in  relation  to 
the  Desires  that  were  offered  me  by  the  House,  in  That  they  called 
their  Petition. 

I  confess,  that  Business  hath  put  the  House,  the  Parliament,  to  a 
great  deal  of  trouble,  and  spent  much  time.*  I  am  very  sorry  for 
that.  It  hath  cost  me  some  '  trouble,'  and  some  thoughts  :  and  be- 
cause I  have  been  the  unhappy  occasion  of  the  expense  of  so  much 
time,  I  shall  spend  little  of  it  now. 

I  have,  the  best  I  can,  revolved  the  whole  Business  in  my  thoughts  : 
and  I  have  said  so  much  already  in  testimony  to  the  whole,  I  think  I 
shall  not  need  to  repeat  what  I  have  said.  I  think  it  is  an  'Act  of 
Government  which,  in  the  aims  of  it,  seeks  the  Settling  of  the  Nation 
on  a  good  foot,  in  relation  to  Civil  Rights  and  Liberties,  which  are  the 
Rights  of  the  Nation.  And  I  hope  1  shall  never  be  found  one  of  them 
that  go  about  to  rob  the  Nation  of  those  Rights  ; — but  '  always '  to 
serve  it  what  I  can  to  the  attaining  of  them.  It  has  also  been  ex- 
ceedingly well  provided  there  for  the  safety  and  security  of  honest 
men-in  that  great  natural  and  religious  liberty,  which  is  Liberty  of 
Conscience. — These  are  the  great  Fundamentals  ;  and  I  must  bear 
my  testimony  to  them  ;  as  1  have  done,  and  shall  do  still,  so  long  as 
God  lets  me  live  in  this  world :  That  the  intentions  and  the  things  are 
very  honourable  and  honest,  and  the  product  worthy  of  a  Parlia- 
ment. 

I  have  only  had  the  unhappiness,  both  in  my  Conferences  with  your 
Committees,  and  in  the  best  thoughts  I  could  take  to  myself,  not  to 
be  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  that  thing  which  hath  been  so  often 
insisted  on  by  you, — to  wit,  the  Title  of  King, — as  in  itself  so  necessary 
as  it  seems  to  be  apprehended  by  you.  And  vet  I  do,  with  all  honour 
and  respect,  testify  that,  ccFtens  paribus,  no  private  judgment  is  to  be 
in  the  balance  with  the  judgment  of  Paraament.  But  in  things  that 
respect  particular  persons, — every  man  who  is  to  give  an  account  to 
God  of  his  actions,  he  must  in  some  measure  be  able  to  prove  his  own 
work,  and  to  have  an  approbation  in  his  own  conscience  of  that  which 
he  is  to  do  or  to  forbear.  And  whilst  you  are  granting  others  Liberties, 
surely  you  will  not  deny  me  this  ;  it  being  not  only  a  Liberty  but  a 
Duty,  and  such  a  Duty  as  I  cannot  without  sinning  forbear, — to 
examine  my  own  heart  and  thoughts  and  judgment,  in  every  work 
which  I  am  to  set  my  hand  to,  or  to  appear  in  or  for. 

I  must  confess  therefore,  though  I  do  acknowledge  all  the  other 
*  points,'  I  must  be  a  little  confident  in  this,  That  what  with  the  cir- 
cumstances which  accompany  human  actions, — whether  thev  be  circum- 
stances of  time  or  persons  \Straitlaced  Republican  Soldiers  /Irrt  have 
just  been  presenting  you  their  Petition],  whether  circumstances  that 

*  23  Feb.  —8  May  :  ten  weeks  and  more. 


SPEECH  XIII.  5ot 


relate  to  the  whole,  or  private  and  particular  circumstances  such 
as  compass  any  person  who  is  to  render  an  account  of  his  own  actions, 
— I  have  truly  thought,  and  I  do  still  think,  that,  at  the  best,  if  I 
should  do  anything  on  this  account  to  answer  your  expectation,  at  the 
best  I  should  do  it  doubtingly.  And  certainly  whatsoever  is  so  is  not 
of  faith.  And  whatsoever  is  not  so,  whatsoever  is  not  of  faith,  is  sin 
to  him  that  doth  it, — whether  it  be  with  relation  to  the  substance  of 
the  action  about  which  that  consideration  is  conversant,  or  whether  to 
circumstances  about  it  \Thmskhined  Republicans  or  the  like 
"  circumstances''''\  which  make  all  indifferent  actions  good  or  evil.  I 
say  "  Circumstances  "  [  Y^s  /j  ;  and  truly  I  mean  "  good  or  evil  to  him 
that  doth  it  \^Not  to  you  Honourable  Gentlemen  who  have  merely 
advised  it  in  general. 

I,  lying  under  this  consideration,  think  it  my  duty — Only  I  could 
have  wished  I  had  done  it  sooner,  for  the  sake  of  the  House,  who 
have  laid  such  infinite  obligations  on  me  [With  a  kind  glance  over 
these  honourable  faces  ;  all  silent  as  if  dead,  many  of  thetn  with  their 
mouths  opeft]  ;  I  wish  I  had  done  it  sooner  for  your  sake,  and  for  saving 
time  and  trouble  ;  and  for  the  Committee's  sake,  to  whom  I  must 
acknowledge  I  have  been  unreasonably  troublesome  !  But  truly  this 
is  my  answer.  That  (although  I  think  the  Act  of  Government  doth  con- 
sist of  very  excellent  parts,  in  all  but  that  one  thing,  of  the  Title  as 
to  me),  I  should  not  be  an  honest  man,  if  I  did  not  tell  you  that  I 
cannot  accept  of  the  Government,  nor  undertake  the  trouble  and 
charge  of  it — as  to  which  1  have  a  little  more  experimented  than 
everybody  what  troubles  and  difficulties  do  befall  men  under  such 
trusts,  and  in  such  undertakings — [Sentence  irrecoverable\ — I  say  I 
am  persuaded  to  return  this  answer  to  you,  That  I  cannot  undertake 
this  Government  with  the  Title  of  King.  And  that  is  mine  answer  to 
this  great  and  weighty  Business.* 

And  so  exeunt  Widdrington  and  Parliament  :  "  Buzz,  buzz  !  Dis- 
tinct at  last  ! " — and  the  huge  buzzing  of  the  public  mind  falls  silent, 
that  of  the  Kingship  being  now  ended  ; — and  this  Editor  and  his 
readers  are  delivered  from  a  very  considerable  weariness  of  the  flesh. 

'  The  Protector,'  says  Bulstrode,  '  was  satisfied  in  his  private  judg- 

*  ment  that  it  was  fit  for  him  to  accept  this  Title  of  King,  and  matters 

*  were  prepared  in  order  thereunto.  But  afterwards,  by  solicitation 
'  of  the  Commonwealth's-men,'  by  solicitation,  representation  and 
even  denunciation  from  'the  Commonwealth's-men'  and  'many 
Officers  of  the  Army,'  he  decided  '  to  attend  some  better  season  and 
'  opportunity  in  the  business,  and  refused  at  this  time.'  f  With  which 
summary  account  let  us  rest  satisfied.  The  secret  details  of  the 
matter  are  dark,  and  are  not  momentous.  The  Lawyer-party,  as  we 
saw,. were  all  in  favour  of  the  measure.  Of  the  Soldier-party,  Ex- 
Major- Generals  Whalley,  Goffe,  Berry  are  in  a  dim  way  understood 

*  Commons  Journals,  vii.  533 ;  as  reported  by  Speaker  Widdrington,  on  Tues- 
day the  X2lh.  Reported  too  in  Somers  (pp.  400-1),  but  in  the  form  of  coagulated 
nonsense  there.  The  Commons  Journals  give  it,  as  here  with  no  variation  worth 
noticing,  in  the  shape  of  sense. 

\  VVliitlocke,  p.  646. 


202         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

to  have  been  for  it ;  Desborow  and  Fleetwood  strong  against  it ;  to 
whom  Lambert,  much  intriguing  in  the  interim,  had  at  last  openly 
joined  himself.  *  Which  line  of  conduct,  l.o  soon  t  ,  it  became  mani- 
fest, procured  him  from  his  Highness  a  handsome  dismis'sal.  Dis- 
missal from  all  employment ;  but  with  a  retiring  pension  of  ^2,000  : 
which  mode  of  treatment  passed  into  a  kind  of  Proverb,  that  season  ; 
and  men  of  wooden  wit  were  wont  to  say  to  one  another,  "  I  will 
Lambertise  you."  \  The  *  great  Lord  Lambert,'  hitherto  a  very  im- 
portant man,  now  *  cultivated  flowers  at  Wimbledon  ; '  attempted 
higher  things,  on  his  own  footing,  in  a  year  or  two,  with  the  worst 
conceivable  success  ;  and  in  fact  had  at  this  point,  to  all  reasonable 
intents^  finished  his  public  work  in  the  world. 

The  rest  of  the  Petition  and  Advice,  so  long  discussed  and  con- 
ferenced  upon,  is  of  course  accepted  :  \  a  much  improved  Frame  of 
Government ;  with  a  Second  House  of  Parliament  ;  with  a  Chief 
Magistrate  who  Is  to  '  nominate  his  successor,'  and  be  King  in  all 
points  except  the  name.  News  of  Blake's  victory  at  Santa  Cruz 
reach  us  in  these  same  days,§  whereupon  is  Public  Thanksgiving, 
and  voting  of  a  Jewel  to  General  Blake  :  and  so,  in  a  general  tide  of 
triumphant  accordance,  and  outward  and  inward  prosperity,  this 
Second  Protectorate  Parliament  advances  to  the  end  of  its  First 
Session. 


SPEECH    XIV.,    LETTERS    CLII.— CLVII. 

The  Session  of  Parliament  is  prosperously  reaching  its  close  ;  and 
during  the  recess  there  will  be  business  enough  to  do.  Selection  of 
our  new  House  of  Lords  ;  carrying-on  of  the  French  League  Offen- 
sive against  Spain  ;  and  other  weighty  interests.  Of  which  the  fol- 
lowing small  documents,  one  short  official  Speech,  and  six  short, 
mostly  official  Letters  are  all  that  remain  to  us. 


SPEECH    XIV. 

Parliament  has  passed  some  Bills  ;  among  the  rest,  some  needful 
Money-Bills,  Assessment  of  ^340,000  a-month  on  England,  /6,ooo 
on  Scotland,  ^9,000  on  Ireland  ;  1|  to  all  which  his  Highness,  with 

*  Godwin,  iv.  352,  367.  f  Heath's  Chronicle. 

I  Commons  Journals,  vii.  358  {25  May  1657)  ;  Whitlocke,  p.  648. 
§  28  May  (Commons  Journals,  vii.  54;    Burton,  ii.  142). 

II  Parliamentary  History,  xxi.  151  ;  Commons  Journals,  yii.  554-7. 


SPEECH  XIV.  203 


some  word  of  thanks  for  the  money,  will  now  signi-fy  his  assent. 
Unexceptionable  word  of  thanks,  accidentally  preserved  to  us,* 
which,  with  the  circumstances  attendant  thereon,  we  have  to  make 
conscience  of  reporting. 

Tuesday  morning,  9th  June,  1657,  Message  comes  to  the  Honour- 
able House,  That  his  Highness,  in  the  Painted  Chamber,  requires 
their  presence.  They  gather  up  their  Bills  ;  certain  Money-Bills  '  for 
an  assessment  towards  the  Spanish  War  ; '  and  '  divers  other  Bills, 
some  of  public,  some  of  more  private  concernment,'  among  which 
latter  we  notice  one  for  settling  Lands  in  the  County  of  Dublin  on 
Widow  Bastwick  and  her  four  children,  Dr.  Bastwick's  widow,  poor 
Susannah,  who  has  long  been  a  solicitress  in  this  matter  :  these  Bills 
the  Clerk  of  the  Comraons  gathers  up,  the  Sergeant  shoulders  his 
Mace  ;  and  so.  Clerk  and  Sergeant  leading  off,  and  Speaker  Widd- 
rington  and  all  his  Honourable  Members  following,  the  whole  House 
in  this  due  order,  with  its  Bills  and  apparatus,  proceeds  to  the  Painted 
Chamber.  There,  on  his  platform,  in  chair  of  State  sits  his  Highness, 
attended  by  his  Council  and  others.  Speaker  Widdrington  at  a  table 
on  the  common  level  of  the  floor  '  finds  a  chair  set  for  him,  and  a 
form  for  his  clerk.'  Speaker  Widdrington,  hardly  venturing  to  sit, 
makes  a  'short  and  pithy  Speech'  on  the  general  proceedings  of  Par- 
liament ;  presents  his  Bills,  with  probably  some  short  and  pithy 
words,  such  as  suggest  themselves,  prefatory  to  each  :  "  A  few  slight 
Bills  ;  they  are  but  as  the  grapes  that  precede  the  full  vintage,  may 
it  please  your  Highness."  His  Highness  in  due  form  signifies  assent ; 
and  then  says  : 

Mr.  Speaker, 

I  perceive  that,  among  these  many  Acts  of  Parliament,  there 
hath  been  a  very  great  care  had  by  the  Parliament  to  provide  for  the 
just  and  necessary  support  of  the  Commonwealth  by  those  Bills  for 
the  levying  of  money,  now  brought  to  me,  which  I  have  given  my 
consent  unto.  Understanding  it  hath  been  the  practice  of  those  who 
have  been  Chief  Governors  to  acknowledge  with  thanks  to  the  Com- 
mons their  care  and  regard  of  the  Public,  I  do  very  heartily  and 
thankfully  acknowledge  their  kindness  herein,  f 

The  Parliament  has  still  some  needful  pohshing-up  of  its  Petition 
and  Advice,  other  perfecting  of  details  to  accomplish  :  after  which  it 
is  understood  there  will  be  a  new  and  much  more  solemn  Inaugura- 
tion of  his  Highness  ;  and  then  the  First  Session  will,  as  in  a  general 
p2al  of  joy-bells,  harmoniously  close. 

*  Commons  Journals,  vii.  551-2. 

f  Commons  Journals,  vii.  552  ;  Reported  by  Widdrington  in  the  afternoon. 


204         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


LETTER   CLII. 

Official  Letter  of  Thanks  to  Blake,  for  his  Victory  at  Santa  Cruz 
on  the  20th  April  last.  The  '  small  Jewel'  sent  herewith  is  one  of /500 
value,  gratefully  voted  him  by  the  Parliament ;  among  whom,  as  o\er 
Plngland  generally,  there  is  great  rejoicing  on  account  of  him.  Where 
Blake  received  this  Letter  and  Jewel  we  know  not  ;  but  guess  it  may 
have  been  in  the  Bay  of  Cadiz,  Along  with  it,  '  Instructions '  went 
out  to  him  to  leave  a  Squadron  of  Fourteen  Ships  there,  and  come 
home  with  the  rest  of  the  Fleet.  He  died,  as  we  said  above,  withm 
sight  of  Plymouth,  on  the  7th  of  August  following. 

*  To  General  Blake,  at  Sea! 

Whitehall,  lothjune,  1657. 

Sir, 

I  have  received  yours  of — '  April  last  ;''^  and  thereby  the 
account  of  the  good  success  it  hath  pleased  God  to  give  you  at  the 
Canaries,  in  your  attempt  upon  the  King  of  Spain's  Ships  in  the  Bay 
of  Santa  Cruz, 

The  mercy  therein,  to  us  and  this  Commonwealth,  is  very  signal ; 
both  in  the  loss  the  Enemy  had  received,  and  also  in  the  preservation 
of  our  '  own '  ships  and  men  ;t — which  indeed  was  very  wonderful  ; 
and  according  to  the  goodness  and  lovingkindness  of  the  Lord,  where- 
with His  People  hath  been  followed  in  all  these  late  revolutions  ;  and 
doth  call  on  our  part,  That  we  should  fear  before  Him,  and  still  hope 
in  His  mercy. 

We  cannot  but  take  notice  also  how  eminently  it  hath  pleased  God 
to  make  use  of  you  in  this  service  ;  assisting  you  with  wisdom  in  the 
conduct,  and  courage  in  the  execution  'thereof  ; ' — and  have  sent  you 
a  small  Jewel,  as  a  testimony  of  our  own  and  the  Parliament's  good 
acceptance  of  your  carriage  in  this  Action.  We  are  also  informed  that 
the  Officers  of  the  Fleet,  and  the  Seamen,  carried  themselves  with 
much  honesty  and  courage  ;  and  we  are  considering  of  a  way  to  shew 
our  acceptance  thereof.  In  the  meantime,  we  desire  you  to  return 
our  hearty  thanks  and  acknowledgments  to  them. 

Thus,  beseechg  tha  L  ord  to  continue  His  presence  with  you,  I 
remain. 

Your  very  affectionate  friend, 

Oliver  P. 'J 

Land-General  Reynolds  has  gone  to  the  French  Netherlands,  with 
Six-thousand  me,  to  join  Turenne  in  fighting  the  Spaniards  there  ;  and 
Sea-General  Montague  is  about  hoisting  his  flag  to  cooperate  with 
him  from  the  other  element.  By  sea  and  land  are  many  things  pass- 
ing ;— and  here  in  London  is  the  loudest  thing  of  all :  not  yet  to  be 

*  Blank  in  MSS. 

t  '50  slain  outright,  150  wounded,  of  ours '  (Burton,  ii.  142), 

J  Ihuiioc,  vi,  342.     '  Instructions  to  General  Blake,"  of  the  same  date,  ibid. 


INSTALLATION.  205 


entirely  omitted  by  us,  though  now  it  has  fallen  very  silent  in  com- 
parison. Inauguration  of  the  Lord  Protector  ;  second  and  more  solemn 
Installation  of  him,  now  that  he  is  fully  recognised  by  Parliament 
itself  lie  cannot  yet,  as  it  proves,  be  crowned  King  ;  but  he  shall  be 
installed  in  his  Protectorship  with  all  solemnity  befitting  such  an 
occasion. 

Friday,  26 fh  June,  1657.  The  Parliament  and  all  the  world  are  busy 
with  this  grand  affair  ;  the  labours  of  the  session  being  now  complete, 
the  last  finish  being  now  given  to  our  new  Instrument  of  Government, 
to  our  elaborate  Petition  and  Advice,  we  will  add  this  topstone  to  the 
work,  and  so,  amid  the  shoutings  of  mankind,  disperse  for  the  recess. 
F'riday  at  two  o'clock,  '  in  a  place  prepared,'  duly  prepared  with  all 
manner  of '  platforsm,'  '  cloths  of  state,'  and  '  seats  raised  one  above 
the  other,'  '  at  the  upper  end  of  Westminster  Hall.'  Palaceyard,  and 
London  generally,  is  all  a-tiptoe,  out  of  doors.  Within  doors.  Speaker 
Widdrington  and  the  Master  of  the  Ceremonies  have  done  their  best : 
the  Judges,  the  Aldermen,  the  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  foreign 
Ambassadors  and  domestic  Dignitaries  without  end  ;  chairs  of  state, 
cloths  of  state,  trumpet-peals,  and  acclamations  of  the  people — Let 
the  reader  conceive  it  ;  or  read  in  old  Pamphlets  the  '  exact  relation' 
of  it  with  all  the  speeches  and  phenomena,  worthier  than  such  things 
usually  are  of  being  read.^ 

'  His  Highness  standing  under  the  Clorn  of  State,^  says  Bulstrode, 
whose  fine  feelings  are  evidently  touched  by  it,  'the  Speaker,  in  the 
'  name  of  the  Parliament  presented  to  him  :  First,  a  Robe  of  purple 
*  velvet:  which  the  Speaker,  assisted  by  Whitlocke  and  others,  put 
'upon  his  Highness.  Then  he,'  the  Speaker,  '  delivered  to  him  the 
Bible  richly  gilt  and  bossed,'  an  affecting  symbolic  Gift  :  '  After  that, 
'the  Speaker  girt  the  Sword dhow'i  his  Highness  ;  and  delivered  into 
'  his  hand  the  Sceptre  of  massy  gold.  And  then,  this  done,  he  made  a 
'  Speech  to  him  on  these  several  things  presented  ; '  eloquent  mellifluous 
Speech,  setting  forth  the  high  and  true  significance  of  these  several 
Symbols,  Speech  still  worth  reading  ;  to  which  his  Highness  answered 
in  silence  by  dignified  gesture  only.  '  Then  Mr.  Speaker  gave  him  the 
Oath  ; '  and  so  ended,  really  in  a  solemn  manner.  '  And  Mr.  Manton, 
'  by  prayer,  recommended  his  Highness,  the  Parliament,  the  Council, 
'  the  Forces  by  land  and  sea,  and  the  whole  Government  and  People 

'  of  the  Three  Nations,  to  the  blessing  and  protection  of  God.' 

And  then  'the  people  gave  several  great  shouts  ;  and  'the  trumpets 
'  sounded  ;  and  the  Protector  sat  in  his  chair  of  state,  holding  the 
'  Sceptre  in  his  hand  : '  a  remarkable  sight  to  see.  '  On  his  right  sat 
'  the  Ambassador  of  France,'  on  his  left  some  other  Ambassador ;  and 
all  round,  standing  or  sitting,  were  Dignitaries  of  the  highest  quality  ; 
'  and  near  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  stood  the  Lord  Viscount  Lisle,  stood 
'  General  Montague  and  Whitlocke,  each  of  them  having  a  drawn 
'  sword  in  his  hand,' — a  sublime  sight  to  some  of  us  If 

And  so  this  Solemnity  transacts  itself ; — which  at  the  moment  was 
solemn  enough  ;  and  is  not  yet,  at  this  or  any  hoUowest  moment  of 

*  An  exact  Relation  of  the  manner  of  the  solemn  Investiture,  &c.  (Reprinted  in 
Farhamctttary  History,  xxi.  152-160.) 
f  Whitlocke,  p.  661. 


2o6        SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

Human  History,  intrinsically  altogether  other.  A  really  dignified  and 
veritable  piece  of  Symbolism  ;  perhaps  the  last  we  hitherto,  in  these 
quack-ridden  histrionic  ages,  have  been  privileged  to  see  on  such  an 
occasion. — The  Parliament  is  prorogued  till  the  20th  of  January  next; 
the  new  House  of  Lords,  and  much  else,  shall  be  got  ready  in  the 
interim. 


LETTER  CLIIL 

Sea-General  Montague,  whom  we  saw  standing  with  drawn 
sword  beside  the  chair  of  state,  is  now  about  proceeding  to  co-operate 
with  Lan^- General  Reynolds,  on  the  despatch  of  real  business. 

For  General  Montague,  on  board  the  Naseby,  in  the  Downs. 

'Whitehall,  nth  August,  1657. 

Sir, 

You  having  desired  by  several  Letters  to  know  our  mind 
concerning  your  weighing  anchor  and  sailing  with  the  Fleet  out  of  the 
Downs,  we  have  thought  fit  to  let  you  know,  That  we  do  very  well 
approve  thereof,  and  that  you  do  cruise  up  and  down  in  the  Channel, 
in  such  places  as  you  shall  judge  most  convenient,  taking  care  of  the 
safety,  interest,  and  honour  of  the  Commonwealth. 

I  remain. 

Your  very  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.* 

Under  the  wax  of  the  Commonwealth  Seal,  Montague  has  written. 
His  Highnesses  letter,  Aug^*  11,  1657,  to  coinand  Tnee  to  sayle. 


LETTER   CLIV. 
For  my  loving  Friend,  John  Dunch,  Esquire. 

'Hampton  Court,'  27th  August,  1657, 

Sir, 

I  desire  to  speak  with  you  ;  and  hearing  a  report  from  Hursley 
that  you  were  going  to  your  Father's  in  Berkshire,  I  send  this  express 
to  you,  desiring  you  to  come  to  me  at  Hampton  Court. 

With  my  respects  to  your  Father,t— I  rest. 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.:|^ 

•  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  168).     'Original  Letter,  in  the  possession  of 
Thomas  Lister  Parker,  Esq. 
t  Father-in-law,  Mayor.  +  Harris,  p.  515 


WHITEHALL.  207 

This  is  the  John  Dunch  of  Pusey ;  married,  as  we  saw,  to  Mayor's 
younger  Daughter,  the  Sister-in-law  of  Richard  Cromwell :  the 
Collector  for  us  of  those  Seventeen  Pusey  Letters  ;  of  which  we  have 
here  read  the  last.  He  is  of  the  present  Parliament,  was  of  the 
former  ;  seem  to  be  enjoying  his  recess,  travelling  about  in  the 
Autumn  Sun  of  those  old  days, — and  vanishes  from  History  at  this 
point,  in  the  private  apartments  of  Hampton  Court 


LETTER   CLV. 

General  Montague,  after  a  fortnight's  cruising,  has  touched  at 
fhe  Downs  again,  '28th  August,  wind  at  S.S.W.,'  being  in  want  of 
some  instruction  on  a  matter  that  has  risen  *  'A  Flushinger,'  namely, 
'  has  come  into  St.  Maloes  ;  said  to  have  twenty-five  ton  of  silver  in 
her  ;'  a  Flushinger  there,  and  'six  other  Dutch  Ships'  hovering  in  the 
distance  ;  which  are  thought  to  be  carrying  silver  and  stores  for  the 
Spaniards.  Montague  has  sent  Frigates  to  search  them,  to  seize  the 
very  bullion  if  it  be  Spanish  ;  but  wishes  fresh  authority,  in  case  of 
accident. 

'•  For  General  Montague^  on  board  the  Naseby,  in  the  Downs! 

Hampton  Court,  30th  August,  1657. 

Sir, 

The  Secretary  hath  communicated  to  us  your  Letter  of  the  28th 
instant  by  which  you  acquaint  him  with  the  directions  you  have  given 
for  the  searching  of  a  Flushinger  and  other  Dutch  Ships  which,  as 
you  are  informed,  have  bullion  and  other  goods  aboard  them  belong- 
ing to  the  Spaniard,  the  declared  Enemy  of  this  State. 

There  is  no  question  to  be  made  but  what  you  have  directed  therein 
is  agreeable  both  to  the  Laws  of  Nations  and  '  to '  the  particular 
Treaties  which  are  between  this  Commonwealth  and  the  United 
Provinces.  And  therefore  we  desire  you  to  continue  the  said  direc- 
tion, and  to  require  the  Captains  to  be  careful  in  doing  their  duty 
therein. 

Your  very  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.f 


LETTER  CLVL 

By  the  new  and  closer  Treaty  signed  with  France  in  March  last.t 
for  assaulting  the  Spanish  Power  in  the  Netherlands,  it  was  stipulated 
that  the  French  King  should  contribute  Twenty-thousand  men,  and 

*  His  Letter  to  Secretary  Thurloe  ( Thurloe,  vi,  489). 

t  Thurloe,  vi.  489. 

X  23  March,  1656-7  :  Authorities  in  Godwin  (iv,  540-3J. 


2o3         SiECOND  PROTECrORAlE  PARtlAMENr. 

the  Lord  Protector  Six-thousand,  with  a  sufficient  Fleet  ;  which  com- 
bined forces  were  straightway  to  set  about  reducing  the  Three  Coast 
Towns,  Gravelines,  Mardike  and  Dunkirk  ;  the  former  when  reduced 
to  belong  to  France,  the  two  latter  to  England  ;  if  the  former  should 
chance  to  be  the  first  reduced,  it  was  then  to  be  given  up  to  England, 
and  held  as  cautionary  till  the  other  two  were  got.  Mardike  and 
Dunkirk,  these  were  what  Oliver  expected  to  gam  by  this  adventure. 
One  or  both  of  which  strong  Haven-towns  would  naturally  be  very 
useful  to  him,  connected  with  the  Continent  as  he  was, — continually 
menaced  with  Royalist  Invasion  from  that  quarter  :  and  struggling,  as 
the  aim  of  his  whole  P'oreign  Policy  was,  to  unite  Protestant  Europe 
with  England  in  one  great  effectual  league*  Such  was  the  French 
Treaty  of  the  23d  of  March  last. 

Oliver's  part  of  the  bargain  was  promptly  and  faithfully  fulfilled.  Six- 
thousand  well-appointed  men,  under  Commissary-General  Reynolds, 
were  landed,  'in  new  red  coats,  'near  Boulogne  on  the  13th  and  14th 
days  of  May'  last,  and 'a  Fleet  under  Montague,  as  we  observe, 
sufficient  to  command  those  seas,  and  prevent  all  relief  by  ships  in 
any  Siege,  is  actually  cruising  there.  Young  Louis  Fourteenth  came 
down  to  the  Coast  to  see  the  English  Troops  reviewed  ;  expressed  his 
joy  and  admiration  over  them  ; — and  has  set  them,  the  Cardinal  and  he 
have  set  them,  to  assault  the  Spanish  Power  in  the  Netherlands  by  a 
planof  their  own  !  To  reduce  not '  Gravelines,  Mardike  and  Dunkirk,' 
on  the  Coast,  as  the  Treaty  has  it,  but  Montmedi,  Cambray  and  I  know 
not  what,  in  the  Interior  • — the  Cardinal  doubling  and  shuffling,  and 
by  all  means  putting  off  the  attack  of  any  place  whatever  on  the 
Coast  !  With  which  arrangement  Oliver  Protector's  disbatibfaction 
has  at  length  reached  a  crisis  ;  and  he  now  writes,  twice  ou  the  same 
day,  to  his  Ambassador,  To  signify  pei-emptorily  that  tiie  same  must 
terminate. 

Of  '  Sir  William  Lockhart,  our  Ambassador  in  France '  in  these 
years,  there  were  ranch  more  to  be  said  than  we  have  room  for  here. 
A  man  of  distinguished  qualities,  of  manifold  adventures  and  employ- 
ments ;  whose  Biography,  if  he  could  find  any  Biographer  with  real 
industry  instead  of  sham  industry,'  and  above  all  things  with  human 
eyes  instead  of  pedant  spectacles,  might  still  be  worth  writing,  in  brief 
compass.t  He  is  Scotch  ;  of  the  '  Lockharts  of  Lee  '  in  Lanarkshire; 
has  been  in  many  wars  and  businesses  abroad  and  at  home  ; — was  in 
Hamiltojis  Engaf^ement  for  one  thing  ;  and  accompanied  Dugald 
Dalgetty  or  Sir  James  Turner  in  those  disastrous  days  and  nights  at 
Preston,^  though  only  as  a  common  Colonel  then,  and  not  noticed  by 
anybody.  In  the  next  Scotch  War,  he  received  affronts  from  the 
Covenanted  King ;  remained  angrily  at  home,  did  not  go  to  Worcester 

*  Foreign  Alfairs  in  the  Protector's  Time  (in  Sotners  Tracts,  vi.  329-39),  by 
some  ancient  anonymous  man  of  sense,  is  worth  reading. 

t  Noble  (ii.  233-7;)  has  reproduced,  probably  with  new  errors,  certain  MS. 
'Family  Memoirs'  of  this  Lockhart,  which  are  everywhere  very  vague,  and  in 
passages  (that  of  Dunkirk,  for  example)  quite  mytkolcgical.  Lockhart's  owa 
Letters  are  his  best  Memorial ;— For  the  present,' drowned,  with  so  much  else, 
in  the  deep  slumbt^r  lakes  of  Thurloe  ;  with  or  without  chance  of  recovery. 

X  Anu'd,  vol.  i    p.    '-1, 


WHITEHALL.  209 


or  elsewhither.  The  Covenanted  King  having  vanished,  and  Lock- 
hart's  connexions  being  Presbyterian-Royahst,  there  was  Httle  outlook 
for  him  now  in  Scotland,  or  Britain  ;  and  he  had  resolved  or  trying 
France  again.  He  came  accordingly  to  London,  seeking  leave  from 
the  Authorities;  had  an  interview  with  Oliver  now  newly  made 
Protector, — who  read  the  worth  of  him,  saw  the  uses  of  him,  advised 
him  to  continue  where  he  was. 

He  did  continue ;  married  '  Miss  Robina  Sewster,'  a  Huntingdon- 
shire lady,  the  Protector's  Niece  ;  has  been  our  Ambassador  in 
France  near  two  years  now  -^ — does  diplomatic,  warlike,  and  what- 
ever work  comes  before  him,  in  an  effectual  and  manful  manner. 
It  is  thought  by  judges  that  in  Lockhart  the  Lord  Protector  had 
the  best  Ambassador  of  that  age.  Nay,  in  spite  of  all  considera- 
tions, his  merits  procured  him  afterwards  a  similiar  employment  in 
Charles  Second's  time.  We  must  here  cease  speaking  of  hin:  ; 
recommend  him  to  some  diligent  succinct  Biographer  of  insigl-Lj 
should  such  a  one,  by  unexpected  favour  of  the  Destinies,  turn  up. 

*  To  Sir  William  Lockhart^  our  Ambassador  in  France '\ 

Whitehall,  31st  August,  1657. 

'  Sir/ 

I  have  seen  your  last  Letter  to  Mr.  Secretary,  as  also  divers 
others  :  and  although  I  have  no  doubt  either  of  your  diligence  or  ability 
to  serve  us  in  so  great  a  Business,  yet  I  am  deeply  sensible  that  the 
French  are  very  much  short  with  us  in  ingenuousnessij;  and  per- 
formance. And  that  which  increaseth  our  sense  *  of  this '  is,  The 
resolution  we  'for  our  part'  had,  rather  to  overdo  than  to  be  behind- 
hand in  anything  of  our  Treaty.  And  although  we  never  were  so 
foolish  '  as '  to  apprehend  that  the  French  and  their  interests  were  the 
same  with  ours  in  all  things,  yet  as  to  the  Spaniard,  who  hath  been 
known  in  all  ages  to  be  the  most  implacable  enemy  that  France  hath, 
— we  never  could  doubt,  before  we  made  our  Treaty,  that,  going 
upon  such  grounds,  we  should  have  been  failed  '  towards  '  as  we  are  ! 

To  talk  of  "  giving  us  Garrisons  "  which  are  inland^  as  Caution  for 
future  action  ;  to  talk  of  "  what  will  be  done  next  Campaign," — are 
but  parcels  of  words  for  children.  If  they  will  give  us  Garrisons,  let 
them  give  us  Calais,  Dieppe  and  Boulogne  ; — which  I  think  they  will 
do  as  soon  as  be  honest  in  their  words  in  giving  us  any  one  Spanish 
Garrison  upon  the  coast  into  our  hands  !  I  positively  think,  which 
I  say  to  you,  they  are  afraid  we  should  have  any  footing  on  that  side 
'  of  the  Water,'  though  Spanish. 

I  pray  you  tell  the  Cardinal  from  me.  That  I  think,  if  France 
desires  to  maintain  its  ground,  much  more  to  get  ground  upon  the 
Spaniard,  the  performance  of  his  Treaty  with  us  will  better  do  it  than 
anything  appears  yet  to  me  of  any  Design  he  hath  ! — Though  we 
cannot  so  well  pretend  to  soldiery  as  those  that  are  with  him ;  yet  we 

*  Since  30  Dec.  1655  ('  Family  Memoirs'  in  Noble,  ii.  244). 
t  Now  with  the  Court  at  Peronne  (Thurloe,  vi.  482,  487) ;  soon  after  at  Paris 
{lb.  496). 
\  'ingenuity,'  as  usual,  in  orig. 


2IO 


SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


think  that,  we  being  able  by  sea  to  strengthen  and  secure  his  Siege, 
and  'to'  reinforce  it  as  we  please  by  sea,  and  the  Enemy  'being'  in 
capacity  to  do  nothing  to  relieve  it,— the  best  tinie  to  besiege  that 
place  will  be  now.  Especially  if  we  consider  that  the  French  hors& 
will  be  able  so  to  ruin  Flanders  as  that  no  succour  can  be  brought  to 
relieve  the  Place  ;  and  that  the  French  Army  and  our  own  will  have 
constant  relief,  as  far  as  England  and  France  can  give  it,  without  any 
manner  of  impediment,— especially  considering  the  Dutch  are  now 
engaged  so  much  to  Southward*  as  they  are. 

I  desire  you  to  let  him  know  That  Englishmen  have  had  so  good 
experience  of  Winter  expeditions,  they  are  confident,  if  the  Spaniard 
shall  keep  the  field.  As  he  cannot  impede  this  work,  so  neither  will 
he  be  able  to  attack  anything  towards  France  with  a  possibility  of 
retreat.f  And  what  do  all  delays  signify  but  '  even  this  : '  The  giving 
the  Spaniard  opportunity  so  much  the  more  to  reinforce  himself  ; 
and  the  keeping  our  men  another  Summer  to  serve  the  French, 
without  any  colour  of  a  reciprocal,  or  any  advantage  to  ourselves  ! — 

And  therefore  if  this  will  not  be  listened  unto,  I  desire  that  things 
may  be  considered  of  To  give  us  satisfaction  for  the  great  expense  we 
have  been  at  with  our  Naval  Forces  and  otherwise  ;  which  out  of  an 
honourable  and  honest  aim  on  our  part  hath  been  incurred,  thereby 
to  answer  the  Engagements  we  had  made.  And  '  in  fine '  That  con- 
sideration may  be  had  how  our  Men  may  be  put  into  a  position  to  be 
returned  to  us  ; — whom  we  hope  we  shall  employ  to  a  better  purpose 
than  to  have  them  continue  where  they  are. 

I  desire  we  may  know  what  France  saith,  and  will  do,  upon  this 
point.  We  shall  be  ready  still,  as  the  Lord  shall  assist  us,  to  perform 
what  can  be  reasonably  expected  on  our  part.  And  you  may  also  let 
the  Cardinal  know  farther,  That  our  intentions,  as  they  have  been, 
will  be  to  do  all  the  good  offices  we  can  to  promote  the  Interest  com- 
mon to  us. J 

Apprehending  it  is  of  moment  that  this  Business  should  come  to 
you  with  speed  and  surety,  we  have  sent  it  by  an  Express. 

Your  very  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.§ 

*  Spain-ward  :  so  much  inclined  to  help  the  Spaniard,  if  Montague  would  let 
them ;  a  thing  worth  Mazarin's  consideration  too,  though  it  comes  in  irregularly 
here !  • 

t  You  may  cut  off  his  retreat,  if  he  venture  that  way. 

X  '  thereof  tn  orig.  §  Thurloe,  vi.  490. 


WHITEHALL.  211 


LETTER  CLVII. 
Same  date,  same  parties  :  an  afterthought,  by  the  same  express. 

*  To  Sir  William  Lockhart^  our  Ambassador  in  France^ 

Whitehall,  31st  August,  1657. 

Sir, 

We  desire,  having  written  to  you  as  we  have,  that  the  design 
be  Dunkirk  rather  than  Gravelines  ;  and  much  more  that  it  be  : — ■ 
but  one  of  them  rather  than  fail. 

We  shall  not  be  wanting.  To  send  over,  at  the  French  charge.  Two 
of  our  old  regiments,  and  Two-thousand  foot  more,  if  need  be, — if 
Dunkirk  be  the  design.*  Believing  that  if  the  Army  be  well  en- 
trenched, and  if  La  Ferte's  Foot  be  added  to  it,  we  shall  be  able  to 
give  liberty  to  the  greatest  part  of  the  French  Cavalry  to  have  an  eye 
to  the  Spaniard, — leaving  but  convenient  numbers  to  stand  by  the 
Foot. 

And  because  this  action  will  probably  divert  the  Spaniard  from 
assisting  Charles  Stuart  in  any  attempt  upon  us,  you  may  be  assured 
that,  if  reality  may  with  any  reason  be  expected  from  the  French,  we 
shall  do  all  reason  on  our  part.  But  if  indeed  the  French  be  so  false 
to  us  as  that  they  would  not  have  us  have  any  footing  on  that  side 
the  Water, — then  I  desire,  as  in  our  other  Letter  to  you,  That  all 
things  may  be  done  in  order  to  the  giving  us  satisfaction  '  for  our 
expense  incurred,'  and  to  the  drawing-off  of  our  Men. 

And  truly,  Sir,  I  desire  you  to  take  boldness  and  freedom  to  your- 
self in  your  dealing  with  the  French  on  these  accounts. 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  P.+ 

This  Letter  naturally  had  its  effect :  indeed  there  goes  a  witty 
sneer  in  France,  "  The  Cardinal  is  more  afraid  of  Oliver  than  of  the 
Devil  ; " — he  ought  indeed  to  fear  the  Devil  much  more,  but  Oliver  is 
the  palpabler  Entity  of  the  two  !  Mardike  was  besidged  straight- 
way ;  girt  by  sea  and  land,  and  the  great  guns  opened  'on  the  21st 
day  of  September,  next  :  Mardike  was  taken  before  September  ended  ; 
and  due  delivery  to  our  General  wai  had  of  Mardike.  The  place 
was  in  a  weak  state  ;  but  by  sea  and  land  all  hands  were  now  busy 
fortifying  and  securing  it.  An  attempt  to  retake  Mardike,  by  scalado 
or  surprised  from  the  Dunkirk  side,  was  made,  next  month,  by  Don 
John  with  a  great  Spanish  Force,  among  which  his  Ex-Royal  High- 
ness the  Duke  of  York,  with  Four  English-Irish  emigrant  Regiments 
he  has  now  got  raised  for  him  on  Spanish  pay,  was  duly  conspicuous  : 
but  it  did  not  succeed  ;  it  amounted  only  to  a  night  of  unspeakable 

*  Gravelines  is  to  belong  to  them ;  Dunkirk  to  us  :  Dunkirk  will  be  mugb 
preferable. 

f  Thurloe,  vi,  489. 


212 


SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 


tumult ;  to  much  expenditure  of  shot  on  all  sides,  and  of  life  on  his 
Royal  Highness's  and  Don  John's  side,— Montague  pouring  death-fire 
on  them  from  his  ships  too,  and  'four  great  flaming  Hnks  at  the 
corners  of  Mardike  Tower'  warning  Montague  not  to  aim  thitherward ; 
—and  •  the  dead  were  carried-off  in  carts  before  sunrise.'* 

Let  us  add  here,  that  Dunkirk,  after  gallant  service  shown  by  the  Six- 
thousand,  and  brilliant  fighting  and  victory  on  the  sandhills,  was  alsc 
got,  next  summer  ;t  Lockhart  himself  now  commanding  there,  pooj 
Reynolds  having  perished  at  sea.  Dunkirk  too  remained  an  English 
Garrison,  much  prized  by  England  ;  till,  in  very  altered  times,  his  now 
Restored  Majesty  saw  good  to  sell  it,  and  the  loyallest  men  had  to 
make  their  comparisons.— On  the  whole  we  may  say,  this  Expedition 
to  the  Netherlands  was  a  successful  one  ;  the  Six-thousand,  '  immortal 
Six-thousand  '  as  some  call  them,^  gained  what  they  were  sent  for,  and 
much  glory  over  and  above. 

This  is  the  last  Letter  left  to  us  of  Oliver  Cromwell's  ;  this  of  the 
31st  August,  1657  :— Ohver's  great  heroic  Dayswork,  and  the  small 
unheroic  pious  one  of  Ohver's  Editor,  is  drawing  to  a  close  !  But  in 
the  same  hours  while  Ohver  writes  this  Letter,— let  us  still  spare  a 
corner  for  recording  it, — John  Lilburn,  Freeborn  John,  or  alas  only 
the  empty  Case  of  John,  is  getting  buried  ;  still  in  a  noisy  manner  ! 
Noisy  John,  set  free  from  many  prisons,  had  been  living  about  Eltham 
lately,  in  a  state  of  Quakerism,  or  Quasi- Quakerism.  Here  is  the 
clipping  from  the  old  Newspaper  : 

^August  3ij-/,  1657.     Mr.  John  Lilburn,  commonly  known  by  the 

*  name  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Lilburn,  dying  on  Saturday  at  Eltham, 
'  was  this  morning  removed  thence  to  London  ;  and  his  corpse  con- 
'  veyed  to  the  House  called  the  Mouthy  old,  still  extant  Bull-and- 
Mouth  Inn,  '  at  Aldersgate, — which  is  the  usual  meeting-place  of  the 
'  people  called  Quakers,  to  whom,  it  seems,  he  had  lately  joined  in 

*  opinion.     At  this  place,  in  the  afternoon,  there  assembled  a  medley 

*  of  people;  among  whom  the  Quakers  were  most  eminent  for  number: 
'  and  within  the  house  a  controversy  was.  Whether  the  ceremony  of  a 

*  hearse-cloth  '  (pall)  '  should  be  cast  over  his  coffin  ?  But  the  majoi 
'  part,  being  Quakers,  would  not  assent  ;  so  the  coffin  was,  about  five 

*  o'clock  in  the  evening,  brought  forth  into  the  street.  At  its  coming 
'  out,  there  stood  a  man  on  purpose  to  cast  a  velvet  hearse-cloth  over 
'  the  coffin  ;  and  he  endeavoured  to  do  it  :  but  the  crowd  of  Quakers 
'  would  not  permit  him  ;  and  having  gotten  the  body  upon  the^r 
'  shoulders,  they  carried  it  away  without  farther  ceremony  ;  and  the 
'  whole  company  conducted  it  into  Moorfields,  and  thence  to  the  new 
'  Churchyard  adjoining  to  Bedlam,  where  it  lieth  interred.'§ 

One  noisy  element,  then,  is  out  of  this  world  :— another  is  fast 
going.  Frantic-Anabaptist  Sexby,  over  here  once  more  on  Insurrec- 
tionary business,  scheming  out  a  new  Invasion  of  the  Charles-Stuart 

*  22  October  (Heath's  Chronicle,  p.  727;  Carte's  Ormond,  ii.  175). 
t  13  June,  1658,  the  fight ;  15  June,  the  surrender;  24th,  the  delivery  to  Lock- 
hart  (Ihurloe,  vii.  155.  173,  &c.).     Clarendon,  iii.  853-58. 
X  Sir  William  Temple,  Memoirs,  Part  iii.  154  (cited  by  Godwin,  iv.  547). 
§  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  168). 


WINTER  NEWS.  213 


Spaniards  and  English- Irish  Regiments,  and  just  hfting  anchor  for 
Flanders  again,  was  seized  '  in  the  Ship  Hope,  in  a  mean  habit,  dis- 
'  guised  like  a  countryman,  and  his  face  much  altered  by  an  over- 
'  grown  beard  ;  '—before  the  Ship  Hope  could  get  under  way,  about  a 
month  ago*  Bushy-bearded  Sexby,  after  due  examination  by  his 
Highness,  has  been  lodged  in  the  Tower  ;  where  his  mind  falls  into  a 
very  unsettled  state.  In  October  next  he  volunteers  a  confession  ; 
goes  mad  ;  and  in  the  January  following  dies,t  and  to  his  own  relief 
and  ours  disappears, — poor  Sexby. 

Sexby,  like  the  Stormy  Peterel,  indicates  that  new  Royalist-Ana- 
baptist Tumult  is  a-brewing.  '  They  are  as  the  waves  of  the  Sea,  they 
cannot  rest  ;  they  must  stir  up  mire  and  dirt,' — it  is  the  lot  appointed 
them  1  In  fact,  the  grand  Spanish  Charles-Stuart  Invasion  is  again 
on  the  anvil  ;  and  they  will  try  it,  this  year,  even  without  the  Preface 
of  Assassination.  New  troubles  are  hoped  from  this  new  Session  of 
Parliament,  which  begins  in  January.  The  'Excluded  Members' 
are  to  be  readmitted  then  ;  there  is  to  be  a  '  Second  House  : '  who 
knows  what  possibilities  of  trouble  !  A  new  Parliament  is  always  the 
signal  for  new  Royalist  attempts  ;  even  as  the  Moon  to  waves  of  the 
sea  :  but  we  hope  his  Highness  will  be  prepared  for  them  ! — 

Wednesday,  wth  November,  1657.  'This  day,'  say  the  old  News- 
papers, '  the  most  Illustrious  Lady,  the  Lady  Frances  Cromwell, 
'  youngest  Daughter  of  his  Highness  the  Lord  Protector,  was  married 
'  to  the  most  noble  gentleman  Mr.  Robert  Rich,  Son  of  the  Lord 
'  Rich,  Grandchild  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and  of  the  Countess- 
'  Dowager  of  Devonshire  ;  in  the  presence  of  their  Highnesses,  and  of 
*his  Grandfather,  and  Father,  and  the  said  Countess,  with  many 
*  other  persons  of  high  honour  and  quality.'  At  Whitehall,  this  blessed 
Wednesday  ;  all  difficulties  now  overcome  ;  —which  we  are  glad  to 
hear  of,  '  though  our  friends  truly  were  very  few  !  '—And  on  the 
Thursday  of  next  week  follows,  at  Hampton  Court,  the  Lady  Mary's 
own  wedding.]:  Wedding  '  to  the  most  noble  lord,  the  Lord  Fau- 
conberg,'  lately  returned  from  his  Travels  in  foreign  parts  :  a  Bellasis, 
of  the  Yorkshire  kindred  so  named,— which  was  once  very  high  in 
Royalism,  but  is  now  making  other  connexions.  For  the  rest,  a 
brilliant,  ingenuous  and  hopeful  young  man,  '  in  my  opinion  a  person 
of  extraordinary  parts  ;  '§  of  whom  his  Highness  has  made  due  in- 
vestigation, and  finds  that  it  may  answer. 

And  now  for  the  new  Session  of  Parliament  which  assembles  m 
January  next  :  the  Second  Session  of  Parliament,  and  indeed  the 
last  of  this  and  of  them  all ! 


*  24  July  (Newspapers,  in  Cromwelliana,  p.  167). 
t  Ibid.  pp.  169-70.  t  Ibid.  p.  169. 


t  Ibid.  pp.  169-70.  X  Ibid.  p.  169. 

§  Lockharts's  report  of  him  to  Thurloe, 'after  an  interview  at  Pans,  as  ordered 
on  Fauconberg's  return  homeward,  21  March,  1657  (Thurloe,  vi.  134 ;  125). 


il4         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


SPEECHES   XV,   XVI.,   XVII. 

The  First  Session  of  this  Parliament  closed,  last  June,  under  such 
auspicious  circumstances  as  we  saw  ;  leaving  the  People  and  the  Lord 
Protector  in  the  comfortable  understanding  that  there  was  now  a 
Settlement  arrived  at,  a  Government  possible  by  Law  ;  that  irregular 
exercises  of  Authority,  Major-Generals  and  such  like,  would  not  be 
needed  henceforth  for  saving  of  the  Commonwealth.  Our  Public 
Affairs,  in  the  Netherlands  and  elsewhere,  have  prospered  in  the 
interim  ;  nothing  has  misgone.  Why  should  not  this  Second  Session 
be  as  successful  as  the  First  was  ? — Alas,  success,  especially  on  such 
a  basis  as  the  humours  and  parliamentary  talkings  and  self-develop- 
ments of  Four-hundred  men,  is  very  uncertain  !  And  indeed  this 
Second  Session  meets  now  under  conditions  somewhat  altered. 

For  one  thing,  there  is  to  be  a  new  House  of  Lords  :  we  know  not 
how  that  may  answer  !  For  another  thing,  it  is  not  now  permissible 
to  stop  our  Haselrigs,  Scotts  and  Ashley  Coopers  at  the  threshold  of 
the  Parliament,  and  say.  Ye  shall  not  enter  :  if  they  choose  to  take 
the  Oath  prescribed  by  this  new  Instrument,  they  have  power  to  enter, 
and  only  the  Parliament  itself  can  reject  them.  These,  in  this  Second 
Session,  are  new  elements;  on  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  generation 
of  Plotters  are  already  spieculating  ;  on  which  naturally  his  Highness 
too  has  his  anxieties.  His  Highness,  we  find,  as  heretofore,  struggles 
to  do  his  best  and  wisest,  not  yielding  much  to  anxieties  :  but  the 
result  is,  this  Session  proved  entirely  unsuccessful ;  perhaps  the  un- 
successfullest  of  all  Sessions  or  Parliaments  on  record  hitherto  !  — 

The  new  House  of  Lords  was  certainly  a  rather  questionable  adven- 
ture. You  do  not  improvise  a  Peerage: — no,  his  Highness  is  well 
aware  of  that  !  Nevertheless  '  somewhat  to  stand  between  me  and 
the  House  of  Commons'  has  seemed  a  thing  desirable,  a  thing  to  be 
decided  on  :  and  this  new  House  of  Lords,  this  will  be  a  'somewhat,' 
—the  best  that  can  be  had  in  present  circumstances.  Very  weak 
and  small  as  yet,  like  a  tree  new-planted  ;  but  very  certain  to  grow 
stronger,  if  it  have  real  life  in  it,  if  there  be  in  the  nature  of  things  a 
real  necessity  for  it.  Plant  it,  try  it,  this  new  Puritan  Oliverian 
Peerage-of-Fact,  such  as  it  has  been  given  us.  The  old  Peerage- 
of-Descent,  with  its  thousand  years  of  strength,— what  of  the  old 
Peerage  has  Puri.j.n  sincerity,  and  manhood  and  marrow  in  its  bones, 
will,  in  the  course  o»"  years,  rally  round  an  Oliver  and  his  new  Peerage- 
of-Fact, — as  it  is  aheady  by  many  symptoms  shewing  a  tendency  to 
do  If  the  Heaven >  ordain  that  Oliver  continue  and  succeed  as 
hitherto,  undoubtedly  his  new  Peerage  may  succeed  along  with  him, 
and  gather  to  it  wiiatever  of  the  Old  is  worth  gathering,  In  the 
mean  hile  it  has  been  enacted  by  the  Parhament  and  him  ;  his  part 
is  now,  To  put  it  n\  ^ii^r^  the  best  he  can.  , 


SECOND  SESSION,  ±i% 


The  List  of  Oliver's  Lords  can  be  read  in  many  Books  ;  *  but 
issuing  as  that  matter  did,  it  need  not  detain  us  here.  Puritan  Men 
of  Eminence  such  as  the  Time  had  yielded  :  Skippon,  Desborow, 
Whalley,  Pride,  Hewson,  these  are  what  we  may  call  the  Napoleon- 
Marshals  of  the  business  :  Whitlock,  Haselrig,  Lenthall,  Maynard, 
old  Francis  Rouse,  Scotch  Warriston,  Lockhart  ;  Notabilities  of  Par- 
liament, of  Religious  Politics,  or  Law.  Montague,  Howard  are  there  ; 
the  Earls  of  Manchester,  Warwick,  Mulgrave,— some  six  Peers  ;  of 
whom  only  one,  the  Lord  Eure  from  Yorkshire,  would,  for  the  pre- 
sent, take  his  seat.  The  rest  of  the  Six  as  yet  stood  aloof ;  even 
Warwick,  as  near  as  he  was  to  the  Lord  Protector,  could  not  thinkf 
of  sitting  with  such  a  Napoleon-Marshal  as  Major-General  Hewson, 
who,  men  say,  started  as  a  Shoemaker  in  early  life.  Yes  ;  in  that 
,  low  figure  did  Hewson  start ;  and  has  had  to  fight  every  inch  of  his 
way  up  hitherward,  doing  manifold  victorious  battle  with  the  Devil 
and  the  World  as  he  went  along, — proving  himself  a  bit  of  right  good 
stuff,  thinks  the  Lord  Protector  !  You,  Warwicks  and  others,  accord- 
ing to  what  sense  of  manhood  you  may  have,  you  can  look  into  this 
Hewson,  and  see  if  you  find  any  manhood  or  worth  in  him  ;— I  have 
found  some  !  The  Protector's  List,  compiled  under  great  difficulties,:^: 
seeniis,  so  far  as  we  can  now  read  it,  very  unexceptionable  ;  practical, 
substantial,  with  an  eye  for  the  New  and  for  the  Old  ;  doing  between 
these  two,  with  good  insight,  the  best  it  can.  There  were  some  Sixty- 
three  summoned  in  all ;  of  whom  some  Forty  and  upwards  sat, 
mostly  taken  from  the  House  of  Commons  :— the  worst  effect  of 
which  was  that  his  Highness  thereby  lost  some  forty  favourable  votes 
in  that  other  House  ;  which,  as  matters  went,  proved  highly  detri- 
mental there. 

However,  Wednesday  20th  January  1657-8  has  arrived.  The  Ex- 
cluded Members  are  to  have  readmission, — so  many  of  them  as  can 
take  the  Oath  according  to  this  New  Instrument.  His  Highness 
hopes  if  they  volunteer  to  swear  this  Oath,  they  will  endeavour  to 
keop  it ;  and  seems  to  have  no  misgivings  about  them.  He  to  govern 
and  administer,  and  they  to  debate  and  legislate,  in  conformity  with 
this  Petition  and  Advice'  not  otherwise  :  this  is,  in  word  and  in 
essence,  the  thing  they  and  he  have  mutually  with  all  solemnity  bar- 
gained to  do.  It  may  be  rationally  hoped  that  in  all  misunderstand- 
ings, should  such  arise,  some  good  basis  of  agreement  will  and  must 
unfold  itself  between  parties  so  related  to  each  other.  The  common 
dangers,  as  his  Highness  knows  and  will  in  due  time  make  known, 
are  again  imminent  ;  Royalist  Plottings  once  more  rife,  Spanish 
Charles-Stuart  Invasion  once  more  preparing  itself 

But  now  the  Parliament  reassembling  on  this  Wednesday  the  20th, 
there  begins,  in  the  '  Outer  Court,'  since  called  the  Lobby,  an  immense 
'  administering  of  the  Oath,'  the  whole  Parliament  taking  it ;  Six 
Commissioners  appearing  '  early  in  the  morning,'  with  due  apparatus 

*  Complete,  in  Parliamentary  History,  xxi.  167-9  '■  incomplete,  with  angry 
stontemporary  glosses  to  each  name,  which  are  sometimes  curious, — in  Harleian 
■  Miscellany,  vi.  460-71. 

f  Ludlow,  ii.  sq6.  i  Xhurloe^  vi.  64^. 


2i6         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENf. 


and  solemnity,  minutely  described  in  the  Journals  and  Old  Books  ;  * 
and  then  labouring  till  all  are  sworn.  That  is  the  first  great  step. 
Which  done,  the  Commons  House  constitutes  itself;  appoints  '  Mr. 
Smythe '  Clerk,  instead  of  Scobell,  who  has  gone  to  the  Lords,  and 
with  whom  there  is  continual  controversy  thenceforth  about  '  surren- 
dering of  Records'  and  the  like.  In  a  little  while  (hour  not  named) 
comes  Black  Rod  ;  reports  that  his  Highness  is  in  the  Lords  House, 
waiting  for  this  House.  Whereupon,  Shoulder  Mace,— yes,  let  us 
take  the  Mace,— and  march.  His  Highness,  somewhat  indisposed  in 
health,  leaving  the  main  burden  of  the  exposition  to  Nathaniel 
Fiennes  of  the  Great  Seal  who  is  to  follow  him,  speaks  to  this  effect ; 
as  the  authentic  Commons  Journals  yields  it  for  us. 


SPEECH   XV. 

My  Lords,  and  Gentlemen  'of'  the  House  of  Commons, 
I  meet  you  here  in  this  capacity  by  the  Advice  and  Petition  of 
this  present  Parliament.  After  so  much  expence  of  blood  and  trea- 
sure, '  we  are  now '  to  search  and  try  what  blessings  God  hath  in 
store  for  these  Nations.  I  cannot  but  with  gladness  of  heart  remem- 
ber and  acknowledge  the  labour  and  industry  that  is  past,  '  your  past 
labour,'  which  hath  been  spent  upon  a  business  worthy  of  the  best 
•men  and  the  best  Christians.  \^AJay  it  prove  fruitful  r\ 

It  is  very  well  known  unto  you  all  what  difficulties  we  have  passed 
through,  and  what '  issue '  we  are  now  arrived  at.  We  hope  we  may 
say  we  have  arrived  if  not '  altogether '  at  what  we  aimed  at,  yet  at 
that  which  is  much  beyond  our  expectations.  The  nature  of  this 
Cause,  and  the  Quarrel,  what  that  was  at  the  first  you  all  very  well 
know  ;  I  am  persuaded  most  of  you  have  been  actors  in  it  :  It  was 
the  maintaining  of  the  Liberty  of  these  Nations  ;  our  Civil  Liberties  as 
Men,  our  Spiritual  Liberties  as  Christians.  [Have  we  arrived  at 
thatf\  I  shall  not  much  lookback  ;  but  ^^ther  say  one  word  con- 
cerning the  state  and  condition  we  are  all  now  in. 

You  know  very  well,  the  first  Declaration,!  after  the  beginning  of 
this  War,  that  spake  to  the  life,  was  a  sense  held  forth  by  the  Parlia- 
ment, That  for  some  succession  of  time  designs  had  been  laid  to 
innovate  upon  the  Civil  Rights  of  the  Nations,  'and'  to  innovate  in 
matters  of  Religion.  And  those  very  persons  who,  a  man  would  have 
thought,  should  have  had  the  least  hand  in  meddling  with  Civil 
things,  did  justify  them  all.  {Zealous  sycophant  Priests,  Sibthorp, 
Manwaring,  Montagu,  of  the  Laud  fratertiity :  forced-loans  monopo- 
lies, ship-monies,  all  Civil  Tyranny  was  right  according  to  them  f\ 
All  the  '  Civil '  transactions  that  were,—'  they  justified  them '  in  their 

*  Commons  Journals,  vii.  578;   Whitlocke,  p.  666  ;  Burton,  ii.  322. 

t  Peclaration,  2  August  1642,  went  through  the  Lords  House  that  day;  it  is  in 
Parliamentary  History,  vi.  350.  A  thing  of  audacity  reckoned  almost  impious  at 
the  time  (see  D'Ewes  s  MS.  Journal,  23  July) ;  corresponds  in  purport  to  what  is 
said  of  it  here. 


SPEECH  XV:  2\7 


pulpits,  presses,  and  otherwise  !  Which  was  verily  thought,  '  had 
they  succeeded  in  it,'  would  have  been  a  very  good  shelter  to  them, 
to  innovate  upon  us  in  matters  of  Religion  also.  And  so  to  innovate 
as  to  eat  out  the  core  and  power  and  heart  and  life  of  all  Religion  ! 
By  bringing  on  us  a  company  of  poisonous  Popish  Ceremonies 
\So7ne'what  animaled,  your  Highness  /],  and  imposing  them  upon 
those  that  were  accounted  "  the  Puritans "  of  the  Nation,  and  pro- 
fessors of  religion  among  us,— driving  them  to  seek  their  bfead  in  an 
howling  wilderness  !  As  was  instanced  to  our  friends  who  were 
forced  to  fly  for  Holland,  New  England,  almost  anywhither,  to  find 
Liberty  for  their  Consciences. 

Now  if  this  thing  hath  been  the  state  and  sum  of  our  Quarrel,  and 
of  those  Ten  Years  of  War  wherein  we  were  exercised  ;  and  if  the 
good  hand  of  God,  for  we  are  to  attribute  it  to  no  other,  hath  brought 
this  business  thus  home  unto  us  as  it  is  now  settled  in  the  Petition 
and  Advice, — I  think  we  have  all  cause  to  bless  God,  and  the  Nations 
have  all  cause  to  bless  Him.  [If  ive  were  of  thankful  just  hearty 
—yea  .^] 

I  well  remember  I  did  a  little  touch  upon  the  Eighty-fifth  Psalm 
when  I  spake  unto  you  in  the  beginning  of  this  Parliament. "'^  Which 
expresseth  well  what  we  may  say,  as  truly  as  it  was  said  of  old  by  the 
Penman  of  that  Psalm  !  The  first  verse  is  an  acknowledgment  to 
God  that  He  "  had  been  favourable  unto  His  land,"  and  "  brought 
back  the  captivity  of  His  people  ;"  and  '  then '  how  that  He  had  "  par- 
doned all  there  iniquities  and  covered  all  their  sin,  and  taken  away 
all  His  Wrath  ;" — and  indeed  of  these  unspeakable  mercies,  blessings, 
and  deliverances  out  of  captivity,  pardoningofnationalsinsand  national 
iniquities.  Pardoning,  as  God  pardoneth  the  man  whom  He  justifieth ! 
He  breaks  through,  and  overlooks  iniquity  ;  and  pardoneth  because 
He  will  pardon.  And  sometimes  God  pardoneth  Nations  also  !— And 
if  the  enjoyment  of  our  present  Peace  and  other  mercies  may  be  wit- 
nesses for  God  '  to  tis^ — we  feel  and  see  them  every  day. 

The  greatest  demonstration  of  His  favour  and  love  appears  to  us 
in  this  :  That  He  hath  given  us  Peace  ;  and  the  blessings  of  Peace,  to 
wit,  the  enjoyment  of  our  Liberties  civil  and  spiritual  !  \Wete  not  our 
prayers,  and  struggles,  and  deadly  wrestlings,  all eve?t  for  this, — and  we 
in  some  measure  have  it  !^  And  I  remember  well,  the  Church  '  in  that 
same  Eighty-fi^th  Psalm '  falls  into  prayer  and  into  praises,  great  ex- 
pectations of  future  mercies,  and  much  thankfulness  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  present  mercies ;  and  breaks  into  this  expression  :  "  Surely 
'•  salvation  is  nigh  unto  them  that  fear  Him  ;  that  glory  may  dwell  in 
*'  our  land."  In  the  beginning  it  is  called  His  land  ;  "  Thou  hast  been 
favourable  to  Thy  land."  Truly  I  hope  this  is  His  land  !  In  some 
sense  it  may  be  given  out  that  it  is  God's  land.  And  he  that  hath  the 
weakest  knowledge  and  the  worst  memory,  can  easily  tell  that  we  are 
"  a  Redeemed  People," — '  from  the  time '  when  God  was  first  pleased 
to  look  favourably  upon  us,  '  to  redeem  us '  out  of  the  hands  of 
Popery,  in  that  never  to  be  forgotten  Reformation,  that  most  signifi- 
cant and  greatest  'mercy'  the  Nation  hath  felt  or  tasted  !  I  would 
but  touch  upon  that,— -but  a  touch  :  How  God  hath  redeemed  us,  as 
*  AnUa,  iSpeech  VI.  pp.  136-37. 


tiB         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 


we  stand  this  day  !  Not  from  trouble  and  sorrow  and  anger  only,  but 
into  a  blessed  and  happy  estate  and  condition,  comprehensive  of  all 
Interests,  of  every  member,  of  every  individual ; — '  an  imparting  to 
iis '  of  those  mercies  '  there  spoken  of,'  as  you  very  well  see  ! 

And  then  in  what  sense  it  is  "  our  Land  ;" — through  this  grace  and 
favour  of  God,  That  He  hath  vouchsafed  unto  us  and  bestowed  upon 
us,  with  the  Gospel,  Peace,  and  rest  out  of  Ten  Years  War  ;  and 
given  us  what  we  would  desire  I  Nay,  who  could  have  forethought, 
when  we  were  plunged  into  the  midst  of  our  troubles,  That  ever  the 
people  of  God  should  have  had  liberty  to  worship  God  without  fear 
of  enemies  ?  \Strange  :  this  "  liberty  "  is  to  Oliver  Cromwell  a  bless- 
ing almost  too  great  for  belief ;  to  us  it  has  become  as  commoji  as  the 
liberty  to  breathe  atinospheric  air,— a  liberty  not  once  worth  thinking 
of  It  is  the  way  with  all  attainmejits  a?id  conquests  in  this  world. 
'Do  1  think  of  C admits,  or  the  old  unknown  Orientals,  while  I  write 
with  LETTERS  ?  The  world  is  built  upon  the  mere  dust  of 
Heroes ;    once    earnest- wrestling,    death-defying,  prodigal  of   their 

blood;    who    now    sleep    well,  forgotten    by    all    their  heirs. 

"  Without  fear  of  enemies^^  he  says^  Which  is  the  very  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  Promise  of  Christ  that  "  He  would  deliver  His  from 
"  the  fear  of  enemies,  that  they  might  worship  Him  in  holiness  and 
"  in  righteousness  all  the  days  of  their  Hfe." 

This  is  the  portion  that  God  hath  given  us j  and  I  trust  we  shall 
forever  heartily  acknowledge  it  !— The  Church  goes  on  there,  '  in  that 
Psalm,'  and  makes  her  boast  yet  farther  :  "  His  salvation  is  nigh  them 
that  fear  Him,  that  glory  may  dwell  in  our  land."  His  glory  ;  not 
carnal,  nor  anything  related  thereto  :  this  glory  of  a  Free  Possession 
of  the  Gospel  ;  this  is  that  which  we  may  glory  in  !  {^Beautifid,  thou 
noble  soul ! — And  very  strange  to  see  such  things  in  the  Journals  of 
the  English  House  of  Commons.  O  Heavens,  into  what  oblivion  of  the 
Highest  have  stupid,  ca?iting,cotto7i-spinning,partridg  e-s hooting  mortals 
fallen,  since  that  January  1658  !]  And  it  is  said  farther,  "  Mercy  and 
"  Truth  are  met  together  ;  Righteousness  and  Peace  have  kissed  each 
*'  other."  And  '  note,'  it  shall  be  such  righteousness  as  comes  down 
from  Heaven  :  "Truth  shall  grow  out  of  the  Earth,  and  Righteousness 
"  shall  come  down  from  Heaven."  Here  is  the  Truth  of  all  'truths  ;' 
here  is  the  righteousness  of  God,  under  the  notion  of  righteousness 
confirming  our  abilities, — answerable  to  the  truth  which  He  hath  in 
the  Gospel  revealed  to  us  !  [According  to  Calviii  aiid  Paul.^  And 
the  Psalm  closeth  with  this  :  "  Righteousness  shall  go  before  Him, 
"  and  shall  set  us  in  the  way  of  His  steps  ;" — that  righteousness,  that 
mercy,  that  love  and  that  kindness  which  we  have  seen,  and  been 
made  partakers  of  from  the  Lord,  //  shall  be  our  Guide,  to  teach  us 
to  know  the  right  and  the  good  way  ;  which  is.  To  tread  in  the  steps 
of  mercy,  righteousness  and  goodness  that  our  God  hath  walked  before 
us  in. — 

We  *  too  '  have  a  Peace  this  day  !  I  believe  in  my  very  heart,  you 
all  think  the  things  that  I  speak  to  you  this  day.  I  am  sure  you  have 
cause. 

And  yet  we  are  not  without  the  murmurings  of  many  people,  who 
turn  all  this  grace  and  goodness  into  worniwood ;  who  indeed  are 


SPEECH  XV.  21^ 


disappointed  by  the  works  of  God.  And  those  men  are  of  several 
ranks  and  conditions  ;  great  ones,  lesser  ones, — of  all  sorts.  Men 
that  are  of  the  Episcopal  spirit,  with  all  the  branches,  the  root  and 
the  branches  ; — who  gave  themselves  a  fatal  blow  in  this  Place,* 
when  they  would  needs  make  a  "  Protestation  that  no  Laws  were 
*•  good  which  were  made  by  this  House  and  the  House  of  Commons 
"  in  //z^/r  absence  ;"  and  so  without  injury  to  others  cut  themselves 
off !  '  Men  of  an  Episcopal  spirit  :'  indeed  men  that  know  not  God  ; 
that  know  not  how  to  account  upon  the  works  of  God,  how  to  mea- 
sure them  out  ;  but  will  trouble  Nations  for  an  interest  which  is  but 
7nixed,  at  the  best, — made  up  of  iron  and  clay,  like  the  feet  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's Image  :  whether  they  were  more  Civil  or  Spiritual  was 
hard  to  say.  But  their  continuance  was  like  to  be  known  beforehand ; 
[  Yes,  your  Highness  .^]  iron  and  clay  make  no  good  mixtures,  they  are 
not  durable  at  all  ! — 

You  have  now  a  godly  Ministry  ;  you  have  a  knowing  Ministry  ; 
such  a  one  as,  without  vanity  be  it  spoken,  the  world  has  not.  Men 
knowing  the  things  of  God,  and  able  to  search  into  the  things  of  God, 
— by  that  only  which  can  fathom  those  things  in  some  measure.  The 
spiril  of  a  beast  knows  not  the  things  of  a  man  ;  nor  doth  the  spirit 
of  man  know  the  things  of  God  !  "  The  things  of  God  are  known 
by  the  Sphit.'"-\ — Truly  I  will  remember  but  one  thing  of  those,  '  the 
misguided  persons  now  cast  out  from  us  :'  Their  greatest  persecution 
hath  been  of  the  People  of  God  ;  -  men  really  of  the  spirit  of  God,  as 
I  think  very  experience  hath  now  sufficiently  demonstrated  ! — 

But  what's  the  reason,  think  ^ou,  that  men  slip  in  this  age  wherein 
we  live?  As  I  told  you  befoie,  They  understand  not  the  works  of 
God.  They  consider  not  the  operation  of  His  Laws.  They 
consider  not  that  God  resisted  and  broke  in  pieces  the  Powers 
that  were,  that  men  might  fear  Him  ; — might  have  liberty  to  do 
and  enjoy  all  that  we  have  been  speaking  of !  Which  certainly 
God  has  manifested  to  have  been  the  end  ;  and  so  hath  He  brought 
the  things  to  pass  !  Therefore  it  is  that  men  yet  slip,  and  engage 
themselves  against  God.  And  for  that  very  cause,  saith  David  (Psalm 
Twenty-eighth),  "  He  shall  break  them  down,  and  not  bind  them  up  !" 

If,  therefore,  you  would  know  upon  what  foundation  you  stand,  own 
your  foundation  'to  be'  from  God.  He  hath  set  you  where  you  are  : 
He  hath  set  you  in  the  enjoyment  of  your  Civil  and  Spiritual  Liberties. 

I  deal  clearly  with  you,J  I  have  been  under  some  infirmity  ;  \^His 
Highness  still  looks  unwell?^  therefore  dare  not  speak  farther  to  you  ; 
—  except  to  let  you  know  thus  much.  That  I  have  with  truth  and 
simplicity  declared  the  state  of  our  Cause,  and  our  attainments  in  it 
by  the  industry  and  labour  of  this  Parliament  since  they  last  met  upon 
this  foundation — You  shall  find  I  mean,  Foundation  of  a  Cause  and 
Quarrel  thus  attained  to,  wherein  we  are  thus  estated.§     I  should  be 

*  In  this  same  House  of  Lords,  on  the  i8th  of  December,  1641.  Busy  Williams 
the  Lincoln  Decoy-duck,  with  his  Eleven  too-hasty  Bishops,  leading  the  way  in  that 
suicide.     {Anten,  vol.  i.  p.  94.) 

t  I  Corinthians,  ii,  11. 

X  Means  "Give  me  leave  to  say." 

§  This  Parliaiaent's  'foundation.'  the  ground  this  Parliament  took  its  stand 
upon,  was  a  recognition  that  our  Cause  had,  been  so  and  10,  that  our  '  attainnawat 


220         SECOND   PROTECTORATE  PARLtAM^Mf. 


very  glad  to  Liy  my  bones  with  yours  ;  \^What  a  ^one /]—Rnd  would 
have  done  it,  with  all  heartiness  and  cheerfulness,  in  the  meanest 
capacity  I  ever  yet  was  in,  to  serve  the  Parliament. 

If  God  give  you,  as  I  trust  He  will,— ["  P/i's  blessins^'  or  "  stre7ti(tk : " 
bjit  the  Sentence  is  gone  ]— He  hath  given  it  you,  for  what  have  I  been 
speaking  of  but  what  you  have  done  ?  He  hath  given  you  strength 
to  do  wiiat  you  have  done  !  And  if  God  should  bless  you  in  this 
work,  and  make  this  Meeting  happy  on  this  account,  you  shall  all  be 
called  the.  Blessed  of  the  Lord.  [  Poor  Oliver  /]— The  generations  to 
come  will  bless  us.  You  shall  be  the  "  repairers  of  breaches,  and  the 
restorers  of  paths  to  dwell  in  !  "■*  And  if  there  be  any  higher  work 
which  mortals  can  attain  unto  in  the  world,  beyond  this,  I  acknow- 
ledge 7ny  ignorance  '  of  it.' 

As  I  told  you,  I  have  some  infirmities  upon  me.  I  have  not  liberty 
to  speak  more  unto  you  ;  but  I  have  desired  an  Honourable  Person 
here  by  me  \Glancing  towards  Natha?tiel Fiennes^  him  with  the  Purse 
a7id  Seal?[  to  di^ourse,  a  little  more  particularly,  what  may  be  more 
proper  for  this  occasion  and  this  meeting.f 

Nathaniel  Fiennes  follows  in  a  longhighflown,  ingenious  Discourse,! 
characterised  by  Dryasdust,  in  his  Parliamentary  History  and  other 
Works,  as  false,  canting,  and  little  less  than  insane  ;  for  which  the 
Anti-dryasdust  reader  has  by  this  time  learned  to  forgive  the  fatal 
Doctor  of  Darkness.  Fiennes's  Speech  is  easily  recognisable,  across 
its  Calvinistic  dialect,  as  full  of  sense  and  strength  ;  broad  manful 
thought  and  clear  insight,  couched  in  a  gorgeous  figurative  style, 
which  a  friendly  judge  might  almost  call  poetic.  It  is  the  first  time  we 
thoroughly  forgive  the  Honourable  Nathaniel  for  surrendering  Bristol 
to  Prince  Rupert  long  ago  ;  and  rejoice  that  Prynne  and  Independency 
Walker  did  not  get  him  shot,  by  Court-Martial,  on  that  occasion. 

Nathaniel  compares  the  present  state  of  England  to  the  rising  of 

Cosmos  out  of  Chaos  as  recorded  in  Ge?tesis :  Two  '  firmaments '  are 

made,  two  separate  Houses  of  Parliament ;  much  is  made,  but  much 

yet  remains  to  be  made.     He  is  full  of  figurative  ingenuity  ;  full  of 

resolution,  of  tolerance,  of  discretion,  and  various  other  good  qualities 

not  very  rife  in  the  world.     "  What  shall  be  done  to  our  Sister  that 

Jiath  no  breasts  ?"  he  asks,  in  the  language  of  Solomon's  Song.     What 

the  GoiTp^lo  with  those  good  men,  friends  to  our  Cause,  who  yet  reject 

the  Psalm  closc^^*^^  ^^  ^^^^^^  estates  1     We  will  soothe  them,  we  will 

*'  and  shall  set  us  ^^'^  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^y^  invite  them  to  us.     Our  little 

^Tiercy,  that  love  an  ^  ^^^^^'  ^^^  ^^^^  build  a  palace  of  silver  upon  her  ; 

made  partakers  of  frop  ^^^^  enclose  her  with  boards  of  cedar  :" — our 

to  know  the  right  and  tf  estranged  from  us,  if  it  please  God  ! — 

of  mercy,  righteousness  anu^  _  .      ^         r 

us  in.—  '^^nough  of  unanimity  at  present.     One  of 

all  think  the  tWngs^that^I^speak  r^  ^^^''  Peiition  and  Advice,  and  other  very 
cause. 

And  yet  we  are  not  without  the's  the  Original.—reported  by  Widdrington 
turn   all  this  grace  and  goodness  '^^^  History  (xxi.  170)  are  copies. 

-    582-7,  Monday,  25  Jan.  1657-8, 


SPEECH  XV.  221 


these  days,  there  came  a  man  riding  jogtrot  through  Stratford-at-the- 
Bow,  with  *  a  green  glazed  cover  over  his  hat/  a  '  night-cap  under  it,' 
and  '  his  vahse  behind  him  ;'  a  rustic-looking  man  :  recognisable  to 
us,  amid  the  vanished  populations  who  take  no  notice  of  him  as  he 
jogs  along  there, — for  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  Charles  Stuart's  head 
man  !  He  sat  up,  at  Colchester,  the  night  before,  '  playing  shuffle- 
board  with  some  farmers,  and  drinking  hot  ale.'  He  is  fresh  from 
Flanders,  and  the  Ex-King  ;  has  arrived  here  to  organise  the  Spanish 
Charles-Stuart  Invasion,  and  see  what  Royalist  Insurrection,  or  other 
domestic  mischief  there  may  be  hopes  of.  Lodges  now,  '  with  dyed 
hair '  in  a  much  disguised  manner,  '  at  the  house  of  a  Papist  Chirur- 
geon  in  Drury  Lane  ;'  communicating  with  the  ringleaders  here.* 

The  Spanish  Charles-Stuart  Invasion  is  again  on  foot,  and  no  fable. 
He  has  four  English-Irish  Regiments  ;  the  low-minded  Dutch,  we 
understand,  have  hired  him  Two-and-twenty  ships,  which  hope  to 
escape  our  frigates  some  dark  night ;  and  Don  John  has  promised  a 
Spanish  Army  of  Six  thousand  or  Ten-thousand,  if  the  domestic 
Royalists  will  bestir  themselves.  Like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  they 
cannot  rest  ;  that  have  to  go  on,  throwing  up  mire  and  dirt !  Frantic- 
Anabaptists  too  are  awakening  ;  the  general  English  Hydra  is  rallying 
itself  again,  as  if  to  try  it  one  other  last  time. 

Foreign  Affairs  also  look  altogether  questionable  to  a  Protestant 
man.  Swede  and  Dane  in  open  war  ;  inextricable  quarrels  bewilder- 
ing the  King  of  Sweden,  King  of  Denmark,  Elector  of  Brandenburg, 
all  manner  of  Foreign  Protestants,  whom  Oliver  never  yet  could  re- 
concile ;  and  the  Dutch  playing  false ;  and  the  Spaniards,  the 
Austrians,  the  Pope  and  Papists,  too  well  united  !  — Need  enough  that 
this  Parliament  be  unanimous. 

The  hopes  of  Oliver  and  Fiennes  and  all  practicable  Puritans  may 
have  naturally  stood  high  at  this  meeting  : — but  if  so,  it  was  not  many 
hours  till  they  began  fatally  to  sink.  There  exists  also  an  z;;/practi- 
cable  set  of  Puritan  men, — the  old  Excluded  Members,  introduced 
now,  or  now  first  admitted  into  this  Parliament, — whom  no  beauti- 
fullest  '  two  firmaments'  seen  overspanning  Chaos,  no  Spanish  Inva- 
sion threatening  to  bring  Chaos  back,  no  hopefullcst  and  no  fearfullest 
phenomenon  of  Nature  or  Constitutional  Art,  will  ever  divorce  from 
their  one  Republican  Idea.  Intolerabihty  of  the  Single  Person  :  this, 
and  this  only,  will  Nature  in  her  dumb  changes,  and  Art  in  her  spoken 
interpretations  thereof,  reveal  to  these  men.  It  is  their  one  Idea  ; 
which,  in  fact,  they  will  carry  with  them  to— the  gallows  at  Charing 
Cross,  when  no  Oliver  any  more  is  there  to  restrain  it  and  them  ! 
Poor  windy  angry  Haselrig,  poor  little  peppery  I'homas  Scott — And 
yet  these  were  not  the  poorest.  Scott  was  only  hanged  :  but  what 
shall  we  say  of  a  Luke  Robinson,  also  very  loud  in  this  Parliament, 
who  had  to  turn  his  coat  that  he  might  escape  hanging  ?  The  history 
of  this  Parhament  is  not  edifying  to  Constitutional  men. 


*  Carte's  Ormond,  ii.  176-8. 


222 


SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 


SPEECH  XVI. 

We  said,  the  Two  Houses,  at  least  the  First  House,  very  ill  fulfilled 
his  Highness's  expectations.  Hardly  had  they  got  into  their  respec- 
tive localities  after  his  Highness's  Opening  Speech,  when  the  New 
House,  sending  the  old  a  simple  message  about  requesting  his  High- 
ness to  have  a  day  of  Fasting,  there  arose  a  Debate  as  to  What  answer 
should  be  given  ;  as  to  What  '  name,'  first  of  all,  this  said  New  House 
was  to  have,— otherwise  what  answer  could  you  give  ?  Debate  carried 
on  with  great  vigour  ;  resumed,  re-resumed  day  after  day  ;— and  never 
yet  terminated  ;  not  destined  to  be  terminated  in  this  world  !  How 
eloquent  were  peppery  Thomas  Scott  and  others,  lest  we  should  call 
them  a  House  of  Lords,— noi,  alas,  lest  he  the  peppery  Constitutional 
Debater,  and  others  such,  should  lose  their  own  heads,  and  entrust 
their  Cause  with  all  its  Gospels  to  a  new  very  curious  Defender  of  the 
Faith  !     It  is  somewhat  sad  to  see. 

On  the  morning  of  Monday  January  25,  the  Writer  of  the  Diary 
called  Burton's,— -^^.ihdimeX  Bacon  if  that  were  he, — finds,  on  enter- 
ing the  House,  Sir  Arthur  Haselrig  on  his  feet  there,  saying,  "  Give 
me  my  Oath  !"  Sir  Arthur,  as  we  transiently  saw,  was  summoned  to 
the  Peers  House  ;  but  he  has  decided  to  sit  here.  It  is  an  ominous 
symptom.  After  '  Mr.  Peters '  has  concluded  his  morning  exercise,* 
the  intemperate  Sir  Arthur  again  demands,  "  Give  me  my  Oath  !  " — 
"  I  dare  not,"  answers  Francis  Bacon,  the  official  person  ;  Brother  of 
the  Diarist.  But  at  length  they  do  give  it  him  ;  and  he  sits  :  Sir 
Arthur  is  henceforth  here.  And,  on  the  whole,  ought  we  not  to  call 
this  pretended  Peers  House  the  '  Other  House '  merely  ?  Sir  Arthur, 
peppery  Scott,  Luke  Robinson  and  Company,  are  clearly  of  that 
mind. 

However,  the  Speaker  has  a  Letter  from  his  Highness,  summoning 
us  all  to  the  Banqueting-House  at  Whitehall,  this  afternoon  at  three  ; 
both  Houses  shall  meet  him  there.  There  accordingly  does  his  High- 
ness, do  both  Houses  and  all  the  Official  world  make  appearance. 
Gloomy  Rushworth,  Bacon,  and  one  '  Smythe,'  with  Notebooks  in 
their  hands,  are  there.  His  Highness,  in  the  following  large  manful 
manner,  looking  before  and  after,  looking  abroad  and  at  home, — with 
true  nobleness  if  we  consider  all  things, — speaks  : 

My  Lords  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Two  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, 

(For  so  I  must  own  you),  in  whom  together  with  myself  is 
vested  the  Legislative  Power  of  these  Nations  ! — The  impression  of 
the  weight  of  those  affairs  and  interests  for  which  we  are  met  to- 
gether is  such  that  I  could  not  with  a  good  conscience  satisfy  myself, 
if  I  did  not  remonstrate  to  you  somewhat  of  my  apprehensions  of  the 
State  of  the  Affairs  of  these  Nations  ;  together  with  the  proposal  of 
such  remedy  as  may  occur,  to  the  dangers  now  imminent  upon  us, 

*  Burton,  ii.  347. 


SPEECH  XVL  225 

I  conceive  the  Well-being,  yea  the  Being  of  these  Nations  is  now 
at  stake.  If  God  bless  this  Meeting, — our  tranquillity  and  peace  may- 
be lengthened  out  to  us  ;  if  otherwise, — I  shall  offer  it  to  your  judg- 
ments and  considerations,  by  the  time  I  have  done,  whether  there  be, 
as  to  men,'''  '  so  much  as '  a  possibility  of  discharging  that  Trust  which 
is  incumbent  upon  us  for  the  safety  and  preservation  of  these  Nations  ! 
When  I  have  told  vou  what  occurs  to  my  thoughts,  I  shall  leave  it  to 
such  an  operation  on  your  hearts  as  it  shall  please  God  Almighty  to 
work  upon  you,  [His  Hi[i^/iness,  I  think,  looks  earnest  enough  today. 
Oppressed  with  many  things,  and  not  in  good  health  either.  In  those 
deep  mournful  eyes ,  which  are  always  full  of  noble  silent  so7'row,  of 
affection  and  pity  and  7'alour.  what  a  depth  today  of  thoughts  that 
cannot  be  spoken  /  Sorrow  enough,  depth  enough, — and  this  deepest 
attainable  depth,  to  rest  upon  what  ^^  it  shall  please  God  Almighty" 
to  do .'] 

I  look  upon  this  to  be  the  great  duty  of  my  Place  ;  as  being  set  on 
a  watch-tower  to  see  what  may  be  for  the  good  of  these  Nations,  and 
what  may  be  for  the  preventing  of  evil ;  that  so,  by  the  advice  of  so 
wise  and  great  a  Council  as  this,  which  hath  in  it  the  life  and  spirit  of 
these  Nations,  such  "good  "  may  be  attained,  and  such  "  evil,"  what- 
ever it  is,  may  be  obviated.  [  Truly  /]  We  shall  hardly  set  our 
shoulders  to  this  work,  unless  it  shall  please  God  to  work  some  con- 
viction upon  our  hearts  that  there  is  fieed  of  our  most  serious  and  best 
counsels  at  such  a  time  as  this  is  ! — I  have  not  prepared  any  such 
matter  and  rule  of  speech  to  deliver  myself  unto  you,  as  perhaps 
might  have  been  fitter  for  me  to  have  done,  and  more  serviceable  for 
you  in  understanding  me  :— but  shall  only  speak  plainly  and  honestly 
to  you  out  of  such  conceptions  as  it  hath  pleased  God  to  set  upon 


We  have  not  been  now  four  years  and  upwards  in  this  Government, 
to  be  totally  ignorant  of  what  things  may  be  of  the  greatest  concern- 
ment to  us.  [A^o  mortal  thinks  so,  your  Highness\  Your  dangers, 
— for  that  is  the  head  of  my  speech,— are  either  with  respect  to  Affairs 
Abroad  and  their  difficulties,  or  to  affairs  at  Home  and  their  difficul- 
ties. You  are  come  now,  as  I  may  say,  into  the  end  \Which  may  but 
prove  the  new  beginning  !^  of  as  great  difficulties  and  straits  as,  I 
think,  ever  Nation  was  engaged  in.  I  had  in  my  thoughts  to  have 
made  this  the  method  of  my  Speech  :  To  have  let  you  see  the  things 
which  hazard  your  Being,  and  '  those  which  hazard  '  your  Well-being. 
But  when  I  came  seriously  to  consider  better  of  it,  I  thought,  as  your 
affairs  stand,  all  things  would  resolve  themselves  into  very  Being  ! 
You  are  not  a  Nation,  you  will  not  be  a  Nation,  if  God  strengthen  you 
not  to  meet  these  evils  that  are  upon  us  ! 

First,  from  Abroad  :  What  are  the  Affairs,  I  beseech  you,  abroad  ? 
I  thought  the  Profession  of  the  Protestant  Religion  was  a  thing  of 
"  Well-being  :  "  and  truly,  in  a  good  sense,  so  it  is,  and  it  is  no  more  : 
though  it  be  a  very  high  thing,  it  is  but  a  thing  of  "  Well-being."  \A 
Nation  can  still  BE,  even  without  Protestantism.^  But  take  it 
with  all  the  complications  of  it,  with  all  the  comitants  of  it,  with 
*  humanlj  speaking. 


224         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

respect  had  to  the  Nations  abroad,— I  do  beheve,  he  that  looks  well 
about  him,  and  considereth  the  estate  of  the  Protestant  Affairs  ali 
Christendom  over  ;  he  must  needs  say  and  acknowledge  that  the 
grand  Design  now  on  foot,  in  comparison  with  which  all  other  De- 
signs are  but  low  things,  is.  Whether  the  Christian  world  shall  be  all 
Popery?  Or,  whether  God  hath  a  love  to,  and  we  ought  to  have  '  a 
love  to,  and'  a  brotherly  fellow-feeling  of,  the  interests  of  all  the 
Protestant  Christians  in  the  world  ?  [  Yes^yoiw  Highness^  the  ragms; 
sea  shut  out  by  your  labour  and  valour  and  death-peril, — with 
%vhat  i7idifferc7ice  do  we  now,  safe  at  two  centuries  distance,  look  back 
upon  it,  hardly  audible  so  far  off, — tmgrateiul  as  we  are  !^ 
He  that  strikes  at  but  one  species  of  a  general  to  make  it  nothing, 
strikes  at  all. 

Is  it  not  so  now,  that  the  Protestant  Cause  and  Interest  abroad  is 
struck  at  ;  and  is,  in  opinion  and  apprehension,  quite  under  foot, 
trodden  down  ?  Judge  with  me  a  little,  I  beseech  you.  Whether  it  be 
so  or  no.  And  then,  I  will  pray  you,  consider  how  far  we  are  con- 
cerned in  that  danger,  as  to  '  our  very '  Being  ! 

We  have  known  very  well,  the  Protestant  Cause  is  accounted  the 
honest  and  religious  Interest  of  this  Nation.  It  was  not  trodden 
under  foot  all  at  once,  but  by  degrees — that  this  Interest  might  be 
consumed  as  with  a  canker  insensibly,  as  Jonah's  gourd  was,  till  it  was 
quite  withered.  It  is  at  another  rate  now  !  For  certainly  this,  in 
the  general,  *  is  the  fact : '  The  Papacy,  and  those  that  are  upholders 
of  it,  they  have  openly  and  avowedly  trodden  God's  people 
under  foot,  on  this  very  motion  and  account,  that  they  were  Pro- 
testants. The  money  you  parted  with  in  that  noble  Charity  which 
was  exercised  in  this  Nation,  and  the  just  sense  you  had  of  those  poor 
Piedmonts,  was  satisfaction  enough  to  yourselves  of  this,t  That  if  all 
the  Protestants  in  Europe  had  had  but  that  head,  that  head  had 
been  cut  off,  and  so  an  end  of  the  whole.  But  is  this  '  of  Piedmont ' 
all  ?  No.  Look  how  the  House  of  Austria,  on  both  side  of  Chris- 
tendom, '  both  in  Austria  Proper  and  Spain,'  are  armed  and  pre- 
pared to  destroy  the  whole  Protestant  Interest. 

Is  not, — to  begin  there,— the  King  of  Hungary,  who  expecteth  with 
his  partisans  to  make  himself  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  in  the  judg- 
ment of  all  men  '  with '  not  only  a  possibility  but  a  certainty  of  the 
acquisition  of  it, — is  not  he,  since  he  hath  mastered  the  Duke  of 
Brandenburg,  one  of  the  Electors,  '  as  good  as  sure  of  the  Emperor- 
ship?'! No  doubt  but  he  will  have  three  of  the  Episcopal  Electors 
*  on  his  side,'  and  the  Duke  of  Bavaria.  {There  are  but  Eight  Electors 
in  all;  Hanover  not  yet  made.']  Whom  will  he  then  have  to  contest 
with  him  abroad,  for  taking  the  Empire  of  Germany  out  of  his  hands? 
Is  not  he  the  son  of  a  Father  whose  principles,  interest  and  personal 

*  Means  '  one  limb  of  a  body  : '  metaphysical  metaphor. 

t  proof  enough  that  you  believed, 

X  Emperor  Ferdinand  III.,  under  whom  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  was  made,  had 
died  this  year;  his  second  son,  Leopold,  on  the  death  of  the  first  son,  had  been 
made  King  of  Hungary  in  1655 ;  he  was,  shortly  after  this,  elected  Emperor, 
Leopold  L,  and  reigned  till  1705.  '  Brandenburg'  was  Frederick  William;  a  dis- 
tinguished Prince,  father  ofihe  First  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  the  Great's  great* 
•^randfathor  ;  properly  the  Founder  of  the  J'ruosian  Monarchy. 


SPEECH  XVL  225 


conscience  guided  him  to  exile  all  the  Protestants  out  of  his  own  patri- 
monial country, — out  of  Bohemia,  got  with  the  sword  ;  out  of  Moravia 
and  Silesia  ?  ^Ferdinand the  Second,  his  Grandfather ;  yea,  your  Hii^h- 
ness  ; — and  brought  the  great  Gicstavtis  upon  him  i7i  consequence.  Not  a 
good  kindred  that  .'^^  'And 'it  is  the  daily  complaint  which  comes 
over  to  us. — new  reiterations  of  which  we  have  but  received  within 
these  two  or  three  days,  being  conveyed  by  some  godly  Ministers  of 
the  City,  That  the  Protestants  are  tossed  out  of  Poland  into  the  Em- 
pire ;  and  out  thence  whither  they  can  fly  to  get  their  bread  ;  and  are 
ready  to  perish  for  want  of  food. 

And  what  think  you  of  the  other  side  of  Europe,  Italy  to  wit, — if  I 
may  call  it  the  other  side  of  Europe,  as  I  think  I  may,—'  Italy,'  Spain, 
and  all  those  adjacent  parts,  with  the  Grisons,  the  Piedmonts  before 
mentioned,  the  Switzers?  They  all, — what  are  they  but  a  prey  of  the 
Spanish  power  and  interest  ?  And  look  to  that  that  calls  itself  {Neiiter 
gender]  the  Head  of  all  this  !  A  Pope  fitted,— I  hope  indeed  "  born'^ 
not  "  in  "  but  out  of  "  due  time,"  to  accomplish  this  bloody  work  ;  that 
so  he  may  fill  up  his  cup  to  the  brim,  and  make  himself  ripe  for  judg- 
ment !  [^Somewhat  grim  of  look,  your  Highness  !]  He  doth  as  he 
hath  always  done.  He  influences  all  the  Powers,  all  the  Princes  of 
Europe  to  this  very  thing  [Rooting  out  of  the  Protestants. — The  sea 
which  is  fW7u  scarcely  audible  to  us,  two  safe  centuries  off,  how  it  roars 
and  devouringly  rages  while  this  Valiant  One  is  heroically  bent  to  bank 
it  in  ! — He  prospers,  he  does  it,  flings  his  life  ittto  the  gap, — that 
WE  for  all  coming  centuries  jnay  be  safe  and  ungrateful!] — ;  and 
no  man  like  this  present  man.*  So  that,  I  beseech  you,  what  is  there 
in  all  the  parts  of  Europe  but  a  consent,  a  cooperating,  at  tliis  very 
time  and  season,  '  of  all  Popish  Powers '  to  suppress  everything  that 
stands  in  their  way  ?     \A  grave  epoch  indeed.] 

But  it  may  be  said,  "  This  is  a  great  way  off,  in  the  extremest 
parts  of  the  world  ;t  what  is  that  to  us?  " — If  it  be  nothing  to  you, 
let  it  be  nothing  to  you  !  I  have  told  you  it  is  somewhat  to  you. 
It  concerns  all  your  religions,  and  all  the  good  interests  of  Eng- 
land. 

I  have,  I  thank  God,  considered,  and  I  would  beg  of  you  to  con- 
sider a  Httle  with  me  :  What  that  resistance  is  that  is  likely  to  be 
made  to  this  mighty  current,  which  seems  to  be  coming  from  all  parts 
upon  all  Protestants .?  Who*is  there  that  holdeth  up  his  head  to  op- 
pose this  danger?  A  poor  Prince  [Charles  X.  King  of  Sweden;  at 
present  attacked  by  the  Ki7ig  of  Detimark ;  the  Dutch  also  aiming 
at  him]  ; — indeed  poor  ;  but  a  man  in  his  person  as  gallant,  and 
truly  I  think  I  may  say  as  good,  as  any  these  last  ages  have  brought 
forth  ;  a  man  that  hath  adventured  his  all  against  the  Popish  In- 
terest in  Poland,  and  made  his  acquisition  still  good  'there'  for  the 
Protestant  Religion.  He  is  now  reduced  into  a  corner  :  and  what 
addeth  to  the  grief  of  all, — more  grievous  than  all  that  hath  been 
spoken  of  before  (I  wish  it  may  not  be  too  truly  said  !)  -is,  That 
men   of  our  Religion    forget  this,  and  seek  his  ruin.      [Dutch  and 

*  Alexander  VII.  ;  'an  able  Pope,'  Dryasdust  informs  me. 
t  '  parts  of  it '  in  orig. 
VOL.  III.  I 


226         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

Danes  •  but  do  not  some  of  us  too  forget?  "  /  wish  it  may  not  be  too 
truly  saidr] 

I  beseech  you  consider  a  little  ;  consider  the  consequences  of  all 
that!  For  what  doth  it  all  signify  ?_  Is  it  only  a  noise  ?  Or  hath 
it  not  withal  an  articulate  sound  in  it?  Men  that  are  not  true  to 
the  Religion  we  profess,— '  profess/  I  am  persuaded,  with  greater 
truth,  uprightness  and  sincerity  than  it  is  '  professed  by  any  collected 
body,  so  nearly  gathered  together  as  these  Nations  are,  in  all  the 
world, — God  will  find  them  out!  [The  low-minded  Dutch;  petti- 
fo^gin^  for  ^^  Sound  Dues"  for  '"''  Possessio7i  of  the  Sound,"  and  mere 
shopkeeper  luc7'e  /]  I  beseech  you  consider  how  things  do  cooperate. 
*  Consider,'  If  this  may  seem  but  a  design  against  your  Wellbeing  ?  It 
is  a  design  against  your  very  Being  ;  this  artifice,  and  this  complex 
design,  against  the  Protestant  Interest, — wherein  so  many  Protestants 
are  not  so  right  as  were  to  be  wished  !  If  they  can  shut  us  out  of 
the  Baltic  Sea,  and  make  themselves  masters  of  that,  where;  is  your 
Trade?  Where  are  your  materials  to  preserve  your  Shipping? 
Where  will  you  be  able  to  challenge  any  right  by  sea,  or  justify  your- 
selves against  a  foreign  invasion  in  your  own  soil  ?  Think  upon  it  ; 
this  is  in  design  !  I  believe,  if  you  will  go  and  ask  the  poor  mariner 
in  his  red  cap  and  coat  ["  Coat,'^  I  hope,  is  not  "  red :" — but  we  are 
in  haste\  as  he  passeth  from  ship  to  ship,  you  will  hardly  find  in  any 
ship  but  they  will  tell  you  this  is  designed  against  you.  So  obvious 
is  it,  by  this  and  other  things,  that  you  are  the  object.  And  in  my 
conscience,  I  know  not  for  what  else  'you  are  so'  but  because  of 
the  purity  of  the  profession  amongst  you  ;  who  have  not  yet  made  it 
your  trade  to  prefer  your  profit  before  your  godliness  \\Vhatever 
certain  Dutch  and  Daties  may  do  /J,  but  reckon  godliness  the  greater 
gain  ! 

But  should  it  happen  that,  as  contrivances  stand,  you  should  not 
be  able  to  vindicate  yourselves  against  all  whomsoever, —  I  name  no 
one  state  upon  this  head,  \po  not  name  the  Dutch,  with  their  petti- 
foggings  for  the  Soimd :  no  /]  but  I  think  all  acknowledge  States  are 
engaged  in  the  combination, — judge  you  where  you  were  !  You 
have  accounted  yourselves  happy  in  being  environed  with  a  great 
Ditch  from  all  the  world  beside.  Truly  you  will  not  be  able  to  keep 
your  Ditch,  nor  your  Shipping, — unless  you  turn  your  Ships  and 
Shipping  into  Troops  of  Horse  and  Companies  of  Foot  ;  and  fight 
to  defend  yourselves  on  terra  firma  J —      * 

And  these  things  stated,  liberavi  aitimam  meam ;  and  if  there 
be  "no  danger"  in  'all'  this,  I  am  satisfied.  I  have  told  you  ;  you 
will  judge  if  no  danger  !  If  you  shall  think,  We  may  discourse  of 
all  things  at  ^\Q^'iv\xQ,~lDchafe  for  days  and  weeks.  Whether  it  shall 
be  "  House  of  Lords  "  or  "  Other  House  ;"  put  the  question,  Whether 
this  question  shall  be  put;  and  say  Ay,  say  No  ;  and  thrash  the  air 
with  idle  jargon  .^],— and  that  it  is  a  time  of  sleep  and  ease  and  rest, 
without  any  due  sense  of  these  things, — I  have  this  comfort  to  God- 
ward  :  I  have  told  you  of  it.  [  Yes,  your  Hiohness  f—O  intemperate 
vain  Sir  Arthur,  peppery  TJiomas  Scott,  and  ye  other  constitutional 
Patriots,  IS  there  tio  si<:nse  of  truth  in  you,  then  :  no  discernment  of 
what  really  is  what  ?  Instead  of  belief  and  in  sight,  have  you  not/iin^  but 


SPEECH  XVL  227 


whirlpools  of  old  paper-clippings,  and  a  grey  waste  of  Parliamentary 
constitutional  logic  ?  Such  HEADS,  too  common  in  the  world,  will  run 
a  chance  in  these  times  to  get  the^nselves — stuck  up  on  Temple  Bar  !'\ 

Really  were  it  not  that  France  (give  me  leave  to  say  it)  is  a  balance 
against.that  Party  at  this  time — ! — Should  there  be  a  Peace  made 
(which  hath  been,  and  is  still  laboured  and  aimed  at,  "  a  General 
Peace"),  then  will  England  be  the  "general"  object  of  all  the  fury 
and  wrath  of  all  the  Enemies  of  God  and  our  Religion  in  the  world  ! 
I  have  nobody  to  accuse  ; — but  do  look  on  the  other  side  of  the 
water  !  You  have  neighbours  there  ;  some  that  you  are  in  amity 
with  ;  some  that  have  professed  malice  enough  against  you.  I  think 
you  are  fully  satisfied  in  that.  I  had  rather  you  would  trust  your 
enemy  ihan  some  friends,— that  is,  rather  believe  your  enemy,  and 
trust  ////;/  that  he  means  your  ruin,  than  have  confidence  in  some  who 
perhaps  may  be  in  some  alliance  with  you  !  \\Ve  have  watched  the 
Dutch,  and  their  dealings  i?t  the  Baltic  lately  /] — I  perhaps  could  en- 
force all  this  with  some  particulars,  nay  I  'certainly'  could.  For  you 
know  that  your  enemies  be  the  same  who  have  been  accounted  your 
enemies  ever  since  Queen  Elizabeth  came  to  the  crown.  An  avowed 
designed  enemy  '  all  along ;'  wanting  nothing  of  counsel,  wisdom  and 
prudence,  to  root  you  out  from  the  face  of  the  Earth  :  and  when 
public  attempts  {^Spanish  Armadas  and  such  like^  would  not  do,  how 
have  they,  by  the  Jesuits  and  other  their  Emissaries,  laid  foundations 
to  perplex  and  trouble  our  Government  by  taking  away  the  lives  of 
them  whom  they  judged  to  be  of  any  use  for  preserving  our  peace  ! 
\^Guy  Faux  and  Jesuit  Garnet  were  a  pair  of  pretty  men;  to  i^o  no 
farther.  Ixavaillac  in  the  Ihie  de  la  Ferronerie,  and  Stadtholder  l\  fl- 
liatn's  Jesuit ;  and  the  Night  of  St.  Bartholomew :  het-e  and  elsewhere 
they  have  not  wanted  '"''  counsel^''  of  a  sort /^  And  at  this  time  I  ask 
you,  Whether  you  do  not  think  they  are  designing  as  busily  as  ever 
any  people  were,  to  prosecute  the  same  counsels  and  things  to  the 
uttermost. 

The  business  then  was  :  The  Dutch  needed  Queen  Elizabeth  of 
famous  m.emory  for  their  protection.  They  had  it,  'had  protection 
from  her.'  I  hope  they  will  never  ill  requite  it  !  For  if  they  should 
forget  either  the  kindness  that  was  then  shewn  them  (which  was  their 
real  safety),  or  the  desires  this  Nation  hath  had  to  be  at  peace  with 
them, — truly  I  believe  whoever  exercises  any  ingratitude  in  this  sort 
will  hardly  prosper  in  it.  [//^  catinot,your  HigJiness :  unless  GoD  and 
ft  is  Truth  be  a  mere  Hearsay  of  the  mark$t,  he  tiever  cati  I'\  But 
this  may  awaken  you,  howsoever.  I  hope  you  will  be  awakened,  upon 
all  these  considerations  !  It  is  certain,  they  \lhese  DutcJi\  have  pro- 
fessed a  principle  which,  thanks  be  to  God,  we  never  knew.  They  will 
sell  arms  to  their  enemies,  and  lend  their  ships  to  their  enemies.  They 
will  do  so.  And  truly  that  principle  is  not  a  matter  in  dispute  at  this 
time,  '  we  are  not  here  to  argue  with  them  about  it :'  only  let  every- 
thing veigh  with  your  spirits  as  it  ought  ; — let  it  do  so.  And  we  must 
tell  you,  we  do  know  that  this,  '  of  their  having  such  a  principle,'  is 
true.  1  dare  assure  you  of  it  ;  and  I  think  if  but  your  Exchange  here 
'in  London'  ^\e^G  resorted  to,  it  would  let  youknow,  as  c^enrl^- as  you 
can  desire  to  know,  That  they  have  hired? — sloops,  I  think  they  QcUI 

I  2 


228         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 


them  or  some  other  name,— they  have  hired  sloops,  'let  sloops  on  hire,' 
to  transport  upon  you  Four-thousand  Foot  and  One-thousand  Horse, 
upon  the  pretended  interest  of  that  young  man  that  was  the  late  King^s 
Son.  [  What  a  designation  for  "  Charles  by  the  graee  of  God  /'  7  he 
"  was''  may  possibly  have  been  "  is  "  when  spoken ;  but  we  eamiot,  afford, 
to  ekanoe  it.\  And  this  is,  1  think,  a  thing  far  from  being  reckonable  as 
a  suggestion  to  any  ill  end  or  purpose  :— a  thing  to  no  other  end  than 
thatit  may  awaken  you  to  a  just  consideration  of  your  danger,  and 
to  uniting  for  a  just  and  natural  defence. 

Indeed  I  never  did,  I  hope  I  never  shall,  use  any  artifice  with  you 
to  pray  you  to  help  us  with  money  for  defending  ourselves  :  but  if 
money  be  needful,  I  will  tell  you,  "  Prayhelp  us  with  money,  that  the 
Interest  of  the  Nation  may  be  defended  abroad  and  at  home."  I  will 
use  no  arguments  ;  and  thereby  will  disappoint  the  artifice  of  bad  men 
abroad  who  say,  It  is  for  money.  Whosoever  shall  think  to  put  things 
out  of  frame  upon  such  a  suggestion  —[//is  fate  may  be  guessed;  but 
the  Sentence  is  oj  ]— For  you  will  find  I  will  be  very  plain  with  you 
before  I  have  done  ;  and  that  with  all  love  and  affection  and  faithful- 
ness to  you  and  these  Nations. 

If  this  be  the  condition  of  your  affairs  abroad,  I  pray  a  little  consi- 
der what  is  the  estate  of  your  affairs  at  home.  And  if  both  these  con- 
siderations, '  of  home  affairs  and  foreign,'  have  but  this  effect,  to  get  a 
consideration  among  you,  a  due  and  just  consideration, — let  God  move 
your  hearts  for  the  answering*  of  anything  that  shall  be  due  unto  the 
Nation,  as  He  shall  please  !  And  I  hope  I  shall  not  be  solicitous 
[The  "  artifice  "  and  "  money'"  of  the  foj^mer  paragraph  still  sounding 
somewhat  in  his  //ighjtess^s  ears'];  I  shall  look  up  to  Him  who  hath 
been  my  God  and  my  Guide  hitherto. 

I  say,  I  beseech  you  look  to  your  own  affairs  at  home,  how  they 
stand  !  I  am  persuaded  you  are  all,  I  apprehend  you  are  all,  honest 
and  worthy  good  men  ;  and  that  there  is  not  a  man  of  you  but  would 
desire  to  be  found  a  good  patriot.  I  know  you  would  !  We  are  apt  to 
boast  sometimes  that  we  are  Englishmen  :  and  truly  it  is  no  shame 
for  us  that  w^e  are  Englishmen  ; — but  it  is  a  motive  to  us  to  do  like 
Englishmen,  and  seek  the  real  good  of  this  Nation,  and  the  interest 

of  it.     [It'uly  /] — But,  I  beseech  you,  what  is  our  case  at  home? 

I  profess  I  do  not  well  know  where  to  begin  on  this  head,  or  where 
to  end, — I  do  not.  But  I  must  needs  say,  Let  a  man  begin  where  he 
will,  he  shall  hardly  be  out  of  that  drift  I  am  speaking  to  you  '  upon.' 
We  are  as  full  of  calamities,  and  of  divisions  among  us  in  respect  of 
the  spirits  of  men,  'as  we  could  well  be.' — though,  through  a  wonder- 
full,  admirable,  and  never  to  be  sufficiently  admired  providence  of 
(;.od,  '  still  '  in  peace  !  And  the  fighting  we  have  had,  and  the  success 
we  have  had — yea,  we  that  are  here,  we  are  an  astonishment  to  the 
world  !  And  take  us  in  that  temper  we  are  in,  or  rather  in  that  dis- 
temper, it  is  the  greatest  miracle  that  ever  befell  the  sons  of  men, 
'  that  we  are  got  again  to  peace  — 

['Beautiful  great   Soul,'  exclaims   a  modern  Commentator  here, 

*  performing  on  siuli  demand 


SPEECH  XVr.  229 


*  Beautiful  great  Soul ;  to  whom  the  Temporal  is  all  irradiated  with 

*  the  Eternal,  and  God  is  everywhere  divinely  visible  in  the  affairs  of 

*  men,  and  man  himself  has  as  it  were  become  divine  !      O  ye  eternal 

*  Heavens,  have  those  days  and  those  souls  passed  away  without  re- 
'  turn  ? — Patience  :  intrinsically  they  can  never  pass  away  ;  intrinsically 
'  they  remain  with  us  ;  and  will  yet,  in  nobler  unexpected  form,  reap- 
'  pear  among  us,—  if  it  please  Heaven  !  There  have  beett  Divine  Souls 
'  in  England  ;  England  too,  poor  moihng  toiling  heavyladen  thickeyed 
i  England,   has  been   illuminated,   though  it  were  but  once,  by  the 

*  Heavenly  Ones  ; — and  once^  in  a  sense,  is  always  !'] 

— that  we  are  got  again  to  peace.  And  whoever  shall  seek  to  break 
it,  God  Almighty  root  that  man  out  of  this  Nation  !  And  He  will  do 
it,  let  the  pretences  be  what  they  may  !  {Privilege  of  Parliament^  or 
whatever  else,  my  peppery  friends  /] 

'Peace-breakers,   do   they   consider   what  it   is  they  are   driving 

*  towards?  They  should  do  it!'  He  that  considereth  not  the 
"  woman  with  child," — the  suckling  children  of  this  Nation  that  know 
not  the  right  hand  from  the  left,  of  whom,  for  aught  I  know,  it  may  be 
said  this  City  is  as  full  as  Nineveh  was  said  to  be  ; — he  that  con- 
sidereth not  these,  and  the  fruit  that  is  like  to  come  of  the  bodies  of 
those  now  living  added  to  these  ;  he  that  considereth  not  these,  must 
have  the  heart  of  a  Cain  ;  who  was  marked,  and  made  to  be  an  enemy 
to  all  men,  and  all  men  enemies  to  him  !  For  the  wrath  and  justice 
of  God  will  prosecute  such  a  man  to  his  grave,  if  not  to  Hell  \ 
[  Where  is  Sam  Coopfr,  or  some  '  prince  of  limness^  to  take  us  that 
look  of  his  Highness  ?     I  would  give  my  tot  best  Historical  Paintings 

for  it,  gilt  frames  and  twaddle-criticisms  into  the  bargaift  /] — 1  say, 
look  on  this  Nation  ;  look  on  it !  Consider  what  are  the  varieties  of 
Interests  in  this  Nation, — if  they  be  worthy  the  name  of  Interests. 
If  God  did  not  hinder,  it  would  all  but  make  up  one  confusion.  We 
should  find  there  would  be  but  one  Cain  in  England,  if  God  did  not 
restrain  !  We  should  have  another  more  bloody  Civil  War  than  ever 
we  had  in  England.  For,  I  beseech  you,  what  is  the  general  spirit  of 
this  Nation.?  Is  it  not  that  each  sect  of  people,— if  I  may  call  them 
sects,  whether  sects  upon  a  Religious  account  or  upon  a  Civil  account 
— [Sentence  gone;  meaning  left  clear  enougJi] — Is  not  this  Nation 
mi^erable  in  that  respect  ?  '  What  is  that  which  possesseth  every  sect  ? 
What  is  it  ?  That  every  sect  may  be  uppermost  !  That  every  sort 
of  men  may  get  the  power  into  their  hands,  and  "  they  would  use  it 
well  ;  " — that  every  sect  may  get  the  power  into  their  hands  !  [A 
reflection  to  make  one  wonder. — Let  them  thank  God  they  have  got  a 
man  able  to  bit  und  bridle  them  a  little ;  the  nnfortiinate,  peppery, 
loud-babbling  individuals, — with  so  much  good  in  them  too,  while 
'  bitted  r'\ 

It  were  a  happy  thing  if  the  Nation  would  be  content  with  rule. 

*  Content  with  rule,'  if  it  were  but  in  Civil  things,  and  with  those  that 
would  rule  worst  ; — because  misrule  is  better  than  no  rule  ;  and  an  ill 
Government,  a  bad  Government,  is  better  than  none  ! — Neither  is 
this  all  :  but  we  have  an  appetite  to  variety  ;  to  be  not  only  making 
wounds,  '  but  widening^  those  already  made.'     As  if  you  should  see 


^30         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

one  making  wounds  in  a  man's  side,  and  eager  only  to  be  groping 
and  grovelling  with  his  fingers  in  those  wounds  !  This  is  what  '  such ' 
men  would  be  at ;  this  is  the  spirit  of  those  who  would  trample  on 
men's  liberties  in  Spiritual  respects.  They  will  be  making  wounds, 
and  rending  and  tearing,  and  making  them  wider  than  they  were.  Is 
not  this  the  case  ?  Doth  there  want  anything — I  speak  not  of  sects 
in  an  ill  sense  ;  but  the  Nation  is  hugely  made  up  ol  them, — and  what 
is  the  want  that  prevents  these  things  from  being  done  to  the  utter- 
most, but  that  men  have  more  anger  than  strength  ?  They  have  npt 
power  to  attain  their  ends.  '  There  wants  nothing  else.'  And,  I 
beseech  you,  judge  what  such  a  company  of  men,  of  these  sects,  are 
doing,  while  they  are  contesting  one  wdth  another  !  They  are  con- 
testing in  the  midst  of  a  generation  of  men  (a  malignant  Episcopal 
l^arty,  I  mean)  ;  contesting  in  the  midst  of  these  all  ttnited.  What 
must  be  the  issue  of  such  a  thing  as  this  t  '  So  stand  >  it  ; '  it  is  so. — 
And  do  but  iudge  what  proofs  have  been  made  of  the  spirits  of  these 
men.  {Republican  spirits :  we  took  a  "  Standara  "  lately,  a  Painted 
07te,  and  a  Pri7ited,  laith  wondrous  apparatus  behittd  it  J\  Summon- 
ing men  to  take  up  arms  ;  and  exhorting  men,  each  sort  of  them,  to 
fight  for  their  notions  ;  each  sort  thinking  they  are  to  try  it  out  by  the 
sword  ;  and  every  sort  thinkii.g  that  they  are  truly  under  the  banner 
of  Christ,  if  they  but  come  in,  and  bind  themselves  in  such  a  project  !* 

Now  do  but  judge  what  a  hard  condition  this  poor  Nation  is  in. 
This  is  the  state  and  condition  we  are  in.  Judge,  I  say,  what  a  hard 
condition  this  poor  Nation  is  in,  and  the  Cause  of  God  *  is  in/— ' 
amidst  such  a  party  of  men  as  the  Cavaliers  are,  and  their  participants  ! 
Not  only  with  respect  to  what  these — ["  Cavaliers  aiui  their  Partici- 
pants," both  equally  at  first,  but  it  becomes  the  latter  chiefiy,  and  at 
length  exclusively,  before  the  Sentence  ends] — are  like  to  do  of  them- 
selves :  but  some  of  these,  yea  some  of  these,  they  care  not  who  carry 
the  goal  :  {^Fra.Jic- Anabaptist  Sexby,  dead  the  other  day,  he  was  not 
very  careful  f] — some  of  these  have  invited  the  Spaniard  himself  to 
carry  on  the  Cavalier  Cause. 

And  this  is  t^ue.  '  This  '  and  many  other  things  that  are  not  lit  to 
be  suggested  unto  you  ;  because  '  so  '  we  should  betray  the  interest  of 
our  intelligence.  [Spy-Royalist  Sir  Richard  Willis  and  the  like 
ambiguous  persons,  if  we  shew  them  in  daylight,  they  vanish  forever, 
—as  Manni7io^  when  they  shot  him  in  Newlmrg,  did.]  I  say,  this  is 
your  condition  !  What  is  your  defence  ?  W'hat  hindereth  the  irrup- 
tion of  all  this  upon  you  to  your  utter  destruction  ?  Truly,  'that'  you 
have  an  Army  in  these  parts,— in  Scotland,  in  England  and  Ireland. 
Take  thein  away  tomorrow,  would  not  all  these  Interests  run  into  one 
another.?— I  know  you  are  rational  prudent  men.  Have  you  any 
Frame  or  Model  of  things  that  would  satisfy  the  minds  of  men,  if  this 
be  not  the  Frame,  '  this  '  which  you  are  now  called  together  upon,  and 
engaged  in,— I  mean,  the  Two  Houses  of  Parliament  and  myself? 
What  hinders  this  Nation  from  being  an  Aceldama,  '  a  field  of  blood,' 
jf  t'  is  cloth  not  ?  It  is,  without  doubt,  'this  :  '  Give  the  glory  to  Cod  ; 
jor  without  this,  it  would  prbvef  as  great  a  plague  as  all  that  hath 
*  '  and  oblige  upon  this  account '  7??  orig. 
,  t  '  it  would  prove  '  is  an  //^personal  verb ;  such  as  '  it  will  rain,"  and  the  like* 


SPEECH  XVI.  231 


been  spoken  of.  It  is  this,  without  doubt,  that  keeps  this  Nation  in 
peace  and  quietness  — And  what  is  the  case  of  your  Army  *  withal  ?' 
A  poor  unpaid  Army  ;  the  soldiers  going  barefoot  at  this  time,  in  this 
city,  this  weather  !  [  Twetity-fifth  of  January  ?[  And  yet  a  peaceable 
people,  '  these  soldiers  ; '  seeking  to  serve  you  with  their  lives  ;  judg- 
ing their  pains  and  hazards  and  all  well  bestowed,  in  obeying  their 
officers  and  serving  you,  to  keep  the  Peace  of  these  Nations  !  Yea  he 
must  be  a  man  with  a  heart  as  hard  as  the  weather  who  hath  not  a 
due  sense  of  this  !  \^A  severe  frosty  though  the  Almanacs  do  not 
mention  it.] 

So  that,  I  say,  it  is  most  plain  and  evident,  this  is  your  outward 
and  present  defence.  [J his  Frame  of  Govern?nent :  the  Army  is  a 
part  of  that.]  And  yet,  at  this  day,— do  but  you  judge  !  The  Cavalier 
'Party,  and  the  several  humours  of  unreasonable  men  'of  other  sorts,' 
in    those   several   ways,   having  'continually'  made   battery  at  this 

defence  ever  since  you  got  to  enjoy  ^e2iCQ'-[Sentence  catches  fire] 

What  have  they  made  their  business  but  this,  To  spread  libellous 
Books;  {Their '' Standard^]  ^' Kiilifig  no  Murder,''  and  other  little 
fiddling  things  belonging  to  that  sort  of  Periodical  Literatu7e.]  yea 
and  pretend  the  "  Liberty  of  the  Subject  ''—{Sentence gone  again] — ?— 
which  really  wiser  men  than  they  may  pretend  !  For  let  me  say  this 
to  you  at  once  :  I  never  look  to  see  the  People  of  England  come  into 
a  just  Liberty,  if  another  '  Civil '  War  overtake  us.  I  think,  '  I  '  at 
least,  that  the  thing  likely  to  bring  us  into  our  "  Liberty"  is  a  con- 
sistency and  agreement  at  this  Meeting  ! — Therefore  all  I  can  say  to 
you  is  this  :  It  will  be  your  wisdom,  I  do  think  truly,  and  your  justice, 
to  keep  that  concernment  close  to  you  ;  to  uphold  this  Settlement 
'  now  fallen  upon.'  Which  I  have  no  cause  but  to  think  you  are 
agreed  to  ;  and  that  you  like  it.  For  I  assure  you  I  am  very  greatly 
mistaken  else,  '  for  my  own  part  ;'  having  taken  this  which  is  now  the 
Settlement  among  us  as  my  chief  inducement  to  bear  the  burden  I 
bear,  and  to  serve  the  Commonwealth  in  the  place  I  am  in  ! 

And  therefore  it  you  judge  that  all  this  be  not  argument  enough  to 
persuade  you  to  be  sensible  of  your  danger — ? — '  A  danger '  which  '  all 
manner  of  considerations,'  besides  good-nature  and  ingenuity  '  them- 
selves,' would  move  a  stone  to  be  sensible  of  ! — Give  us  leave  to  con- 
sider a  little,  What  will  become  of  us,  if  our  spirits  should  go  other- 
wise, 'and  break  this  Settlement.?'  If  our  spirits  be  dissatistied,  what 
will  become  of  things  .-*  Here  is  an  Army  five  or  six  months  behind 
in  pay  :  yea  an  Army  in  Scotland  near  as  much  '  behind  ;'  an  Army 
in  Ireland  much  more.  And  if  these  things  be  considered, — I  cannot 
doubt  but  they  will  be  considered  ; — I  say,  judge  what  the  state  of 
Ireland  is  if  free-quarter  come  upon  the  Irish  People  !  {Free-quarter 
must  come,  if  there  he  no  pay  provided,  and  that  soon  !]  You  have  a 
company  of  Scots  in  the  North  of  Ireland,  '  Forty  or  Fifty  thousand 
of  them  settled  there  ;'  who,  I  hope,  are  honest  men.  In  the  Province 
of  Gahvay  almost  all  the  Irish,  transplanted  to  the  West.*  You  have 
the  Interest  of  England  newly  begun  to  be  planted.  The  people 
there,  'in these  English  settlements,'  are  full  of  necessities  and  com- 

*  "All  the  Irish  :"  all  the  Malignant  Irish,  the  ringleaders  of  the  Popish  Rebel- 
lion :  Gal  way  is  here  called  '  Galloway.' 


232         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

plaints.  They  bear  to  the  uttermost.  And  should  the  soldiers  run 
upon  free-quarter  there,— upon  your  English  Planters,  as  they  must, 
—the  English  Planters  must  quit  the  country  through  mere  beggary  : 
and  that  which  hath  been  the  success  of  so  much  blood  and  treasure, 
to  get  that  Country  into  your  hands,  what  can  become  of  it,  but  that 
the'^Enghsh  must  needs  run  away  for  pure  beggary,  and  the  Irish  must 
possess  the  country  'again'  for  a  receptacle  to  the  Spanish  In- 
terest ? — 

And  hath  Scotland  been  long  settled  ?  \Middletoiis  Highland  In- 
surrection with  its  Mosstroopery  and  misery  is  7iot  dead  three  years 
yet*]  Have  not  they  a  like  sense  of  poverty  ?  I  speak  plainly.  In 
good  earnest,  I  do  think  the  Scots  Nation  have  been  under  as  great  a 
suffering,  in  point  of  livelihood  and  subsistence  outwardly,  as  any 
People  I  have  yet  named  to  you.  I  do  think  truly  they  are  a  very 
ruined  Nation.  [Torn  to  pieces  with  now  near  Twenty  Nears  of  con- 
tinual War,  and  foreign  and  intestine  worrying  with  themselves  and 
with  all  the  world.]— And  yet  in  a  way  (1  have  spoken  with  some 
Gentlemen  come  from  thence)  hopeful  enough  ;— it  hath  pleased  God 
to  give  that  plentiful  encouragement  to  the  meaner  sort  in  Scotland. 
I  must  say,  if  it  please  God  to  encourage  the  meaner  sort — [  77te  con- 

sequences  may  be  foreseen,  but  are  not  stated  here.] The  meaner 

sort '  in  Scotland'  live  as  well,  and  are  likely  to  come  into  as  thriving 
a  condition  under  your  Government,  as  when  they  were  under  their 
own  great  Lords,  who  made  them  work  for  their  living  no  better  than 
the  Peasants  of  France.  I  am  loath  to  speak  anything  which  may  re- 
flect upon  that  Nation  :  but  the  middle  sort  of  people  do  grow  up 
there  into  such  a  substance  as  makes  their  lives  comfortable,  if  not 
better  than  they  were  before.  [Scotland  is  p^'ospering j  has  fair-play 
and  ready-money  ;— prospering  though  sulky ^ 

If  now,  after  all  this,  we  shall  not  be  sensible  of  all  those  designs 
that  are  in  the  midst  of  us  :  of  the  tmited  Cavaliers  ;  of  the  designs 
which  are  animated  every  day  from  Flanders  and  Spain  ;  while  we 
have  to  look  upon  ourselves  as  a  divided  people — [Sentence  off] — A 
man  cannot  certainly  tell  where  to  find  consistency  anywhere  in 
England  !  Certainly  there  is  no  consistency  in  anything,  that  may 
be  worthy  of  the  name  of  a  body  of  consistency,  but  in  this  Company 
who  are  met  here  !  How  can  any  man  lay  his  hand  on  his  heart,  and 
'  permit  himself  to'  talk  of  things, — [Roots  of  Constitutio7tal  Go7>ern- 
ment,  "  Other  Housed'  "  House  of  Lords  "  and  such  like]  neither  to  be 
made  out  by  the  light  of  Scripture  nor  of  Reason  ;  and  draw  one 
another  off  from  considering  of  these  things, — '  which  are  very  pal- 
pable things  ! '     I  dare  leave  them  with  you,  and  commit  them  to  your^ 

isom.  They  have  a  weight, — a  greater  weight  than  any  I  have  yet 
suggested  to  you,  from  abroad  or  at  home  !  If  such  be  our  case 
abroad  and  at  home,  That  our  Being  and  Wellbeing, — our  Wellbeing 
is  not  worth  the  naming  comparatively, — I  say,  if  such  be  our  case, 
of  our  Being  at  home  and  abroad,  That  through  want  to  bear  up  our 
Honour  at  Sea,  and  through  want  to  maintain  what  is  our  Defence 
at  Home,  *  we  stand  exposed  to  such  dangers  ;'  and  if  through  our 
*  Feb.  1654-5  CWhitlocke,  p.  599). 


Speech  xvi,  233 


mistake  we  shall  be  led  off  from  the  consideration  of  these  things  ; 
and  talk  of  circumstantial  things,  and  quarrel  about  circumstances  ; 
and  shall  not  with  heart  and  soul  intend  and  carry-on  these  things— ! 
— I  confess  I  can  look  for  nothing  '  other/  I  can  say  no  other  than 
what  a  foolish  Book*  expresseth,  of  one  that  having  consulted  every- 
thing, could  hold  to  nothing;  neither  Fifth-Monarchs,  Presbytery  ,-nor 
Independency,  nothing  ;  but  at  length  concludes,  He  is  for  nothing 
but  an  "  orderly  confusion  !"  And  for  men  that  have  wonderfully  lost 
their  consciences  and  their  wits, — I  speak  of  men  going  about  who 
cannot  tell  what  they  would  have,  yet  are  willing  to  kindle  coals  to 
disturb  others —  !  \^A7i  orderly  corifiision^''  and  general fire-consum- 
ination  :  what  else  is  possible  f\ 

And  now  having  said  this,  I  have  discharged  my  duty  to  God  and 
to  you,  in  making  this  demonstration, — and  I  profess,  not  as  a  rheto- 
rician !  My  business  was  to  prove  the  verity  of  the  Designs  from 
Abroad  ;  and  the  still  unsatisfied  spirits  of  the  Cavaliers  at  Home, — 
who  from  the  beginning  of  our  Peace  to  this  day  have  not  been  want- 
ing to  do  what  they  could  to  kindle  a  fire  at  home  in  the  midst  of  us. 
And  I  say,  if  this  be  so,  the  truth, — I  pray  God  affect  your  hearts  with 
a  due  sense  of  it  !  [  Yea  /]  And  give  you  one  heart  and  mind  to 
carry  on  this  work  for  which  we  are  met  together  !  If  these  things 
be  so, — should  you  meet  tomorrow,  and  accord  in  all  things  tending 
to  your  preservation  and  your  rights  and  liberties,  really  it  will  be 
feared  there  is  too  much  time  elapsed  '  already  '  for  your  delivering 
yourselves  from  those  dangers  that  hang  upon  you  ! — 

We  have  had  now  Six  Years  of  Peace,  and  have  had  no  inter- 
ruption of  Ten  Years  War.  We  have  seen  and  heard  and  felt  the 
evils  of  War  ;  and  now  God  hath  given  us  a  new  taste  of  the  benefits 
of  Peace.  Have  you  not  had  such  a  Peace  in  England,  Ireland  and 
Scotland,  that  there  is  not  a  man  to  hft  us  his  finger  to  put  you  into 
distemper  ?  Is  not  this  a  mighty  blessing  from  the  Lord  of  Heaven  ? 
\^Hah!\  Shall  we  now  be  prodigal  of  time?  Should  any  man,  shall 
ive,  listen  to  delusions,  to  break  and  interrupt  this  Peace .''  There  is 
not  any  man  that  hath  been  true  to  this  Cause,  as  I  believe  you  have 
been  all,  who  can  look  for  anything  but  *^"  greatest  rending  and 
persecution  that  ever  was  in  this  world  !  [^Pe/pery  Scotfs  hot  head 
will  go  up  on  Temple  Bar,  and  H as e trig  will  do  well  to  die  soon.\ — 
I  wonder  how  it  can  enter  into  the  heart  of  man  to  undervalue  these 
things  ;  to  slight  Peace  and  the  Gospel,  the  greatest  mercy  of  God. 
We  have  Peace  and  the  Gospel  !  {What  a  to7ie /^  Let  us  have  one 
heart  and  soul ;  one  mind  to  maintain  the  honest  and  just  rights  of 
this  Nation  ;  not  Xo  pretend  \.o  them,  to  the  destruction  of  our  Peace, 
to  the  destruction  of  the  Nation  !  {As  yet  there  is  one  Hero-heart 
among  you,  ye  bhisteriftg  contentious  r able;  one  Soul  blazing  as  a  light- 

*  Now  rotting  probably,  or  rotten  among  the  other  Pamphletary  rubbish,  in  the 
crypts  of  Public  Dryasdust  Collections, — all  but  this  one  phrase  of  it,  h(;re  kept 
alive. 

t  He  died  in  the  Anna  Mirabilis  of  1660  itself,  say  the  Baroneiagrs.  Worn  ;o 
death,  it  is  hke,  by  the  frightful  vicissitudes  and  distracting  excitement  of  those 
sad  months. 


234         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

beacon  in  the  midst  of  Chaos,  forbidding  Chaos  yet  to  be  supreme.  In 
a  little  li/Jiile  that  too  will  be  extinct;  and  thenf]  Really,  pretend 
what  we  will,  if  you  run  into  another  flood  of  blood  and  War,  the 
sinews  of  this  Nation  being  wasted  by  the  last,  it  must  sink  and 
perish  utterly.  I  beseech  you,  and  charge  you  in  the  name  and 
presence  of  God,  and  as  before  Him,  be  sensible  of  these  things,  and 
lay  them  to  heart  !  You  have  a  Day  of  Fasting  coming  on.  I 
beseech  God  touch  your  heart  and  open  your  ears  to  this  truth  ;  and 
that  you  may  be  as  deaf  adders  to  stop  your  ears  to  all  Dissension  ! 
And  may  look  upon  them  '  who  would  sow  dissension.'  whoever  they 
may  be,  as  Paul  saith  to  the  Church  of  Corinth,  as  I  remember  : 
"  Mark  such  as  cause  divisions  and  offences,"  and  would  disturb  you 
from  that  foundation  of  Peace  you  are  upon,  under  any  pretence 
whatsoever ! — 

I  shall  conclude  with  this.  I  was  free,  the  last  time  of  our  meeting, 
to  tell  you  I  would  discourse  upon  a  Psalm  ;  and  I  did  it."^  I  am  not 
ashamed  of  it  at  any  time,  \Why  should you^  your  High7iess?  A 
word  that  does  speak  to  us  from  the  eternal  heart  of  thittgs^  "  word  of 
God^^  as  you  well  call  it,  is  highly  wo^th  discoursing  upon!\ — especially 
when  I  meet  with  men  of  such  consideration  as  you.  There  you  have 
one  verse  which  I  forgot.  "  I  will  hear  what  God  the  Lord  will  speak  : 
"  for  he  will  speak  peace  unto  His  people,  and  to  His  saints  ;  but  let 
"  them  not  turn  again  to/^//y."  Dissension,  division,  destruction,  in 
a  poor  Nation  under  a  Civil  War, — having  all  the  effects  of  a  Civil 
War  upon  it  !  Indeed  if  we  return  again  to  "folly,"  let  every  man 
consider,  If  it  be  not  like  turning  to  destruction  ?  If  God  shall  unite 
your  hearts  and  bless  you,  and  give  you  the  blessing  of  union  and  love 
one  to  another  ;  and  tread  down  everything  that  riseth  up  in  your 
hearts  and  tendeth  to  deceive  your  own  souls  with  pretences  of  this 
thing  or  that,  as  we  have  been  saying,— [7"//^?  Sentence  began  as  a  posi- 
tive, "  if  God  shall  /"  but  gradually  turning  o7t  it's  a  vis,  it  has  now  got 
quiet  rotmd  into  the  negative  side'\~2Lnd  not  prefer  the  keeping  of 
Peace,  that  we  may  see  the  fruit  of  righteousness  in  ihem  that  love 
peace  and  embrace  peace, — it  will  be  said  of  this  poor  Nation,  Actum 
est  de  Anolia,  Mt  is  all  over  with  England  !' 

But  I  trust  God  will  never  leave  it  to  such  a  spirit.  And  while  I 
live,  and  am  able,  I  shall  be  ready — 

[Courage,  my  brave  one  !  Thou  hast  but  some  Seven  Months  more 
of  it,  and  then  the  ugly  coil  is  all  over  ;  and  thy  part  in  it  manfully 
done  ;  manfully  and  fruitfully,  to  all  Eternity  !  Peppery  Scott's  hot 
head  can  mount  to  Temple  Bar,  whither  it  is  bound  ;  and  England, 
with  immense  expenditure  of  Hquor  and  tarbarrels,  can  call  in  its  Nell- 
Gwyn  Defender  of  the  Faith,— and  make  out  a  very  notable  Two 
Hundred  Years  under  his  guidance  ;  and,  finding  itself  now  nearly 
got  to  the  Devil,  may  perhaps  pause,  and  recoil  and  remember  :  who 
knows  ?  Nay  who  cares  ?  may  Oliver  say.  He  is  honourably  quit  of 
It,  he  for  one  ;  and  the  Supreme  Powers  will  guide  it  farther  according 
to  their  pleasure.] 

—I  shall  be  ready  to  stand  and  fall  with  you,  in   this   seemingly 
*  The  Eighty-fifth  ;  Antea,  pp.  217  et  seqq.  _ 


SPEECH  XVI.  23$ 


promising  Union*  which  God  hath  wrought  among  you,  which  I  hope 
neitlier  the  pride  nor  envy  of  men  shall  be  able  to  make  void.  I 
have  taken  my  Oath  [In  Westminster  Hall,  Twetity -sixth  of  June 
last]  to  govern  "  according  to  the  Laws"  that  are  now  made";  and  I 
trust  I  shall  fully  answer  it.  And  know,  I  sought  not  this  place. 
[W/io  would  have  ''sought''  it,  that  could  have  as  nobly  avoided  it  ? 
Very  scurvy  creatures  only.  The  ''place''  is  no  great  things,  I  think ; 
—  with  either  Heaven  or  else  Hell  so  close  upon  the  rear  of  it,  a  man 
might  do  without  the  "place  /"  Know  all  men,  Oliver  Cromwell  did 
not  seek  this  place,  but  was  sought  to  it,  and  led  and  drivejt  to  it,  by 
the  Necessities,  the  Divine  Providences,  the  Eter?ial  Laws.]  I  speak 
it  before  God,  Angels,  and  Men  :  I  DID  NOT.  You  sought  me  for  it, 
you  brought  me  to  it  ;  and  I  took  my  Oath  to  be  faithful  to  the 
Interest  of  these  Nations,  to  be  faithful  to  the  Government.  All  those 
things  were  implied,  in  my  eye,  in  the  Oath  "to  be  faithful  to  this 
Government "  upon  which  we  have  now  met.  And  I  trust,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  as  I  have  taken  my  Oath  to  serve  this  Commonwealth 
on  such  an  account,  I  shall,— I  must !— see  it  done,  according  to  the 
Articles  of  Government.  That  every  just  interest  may  be  preserved  ; 
that  a  Godly  Ministry  may  be  upheld,  and  not  affronted  by  seducing 
and  seduced  spirits  ;  that  all  men  may  be  preserved  in  their  just 
rights,  whether  civil  or  spiritual.  Upon  this  account  did  I  take  oath, 
and  swear  to  this  (Government  ! — [And  mean  to  contimte  adininistei- 
ing  it  withal]— hwdi  so  having  declared  my  heart  and  mind  to  you  in 
this,  I  have  nothing  more  to  say,  but  to  pray,  God  Almighty  bless 
you.t 

His  Highness,  a  few  days  after,  on  occasion  of  some  Reply  to  a 
Message  of  his 'concerning  the  state  of  the  Public  Monies,' — was 
formerly  requested  by  the  Commons  to  furnish  them  with  a  Copy  of 
Speech  :;|;  he  answered  that  he  did  not  remember  four  lines  of  it  in  a 
piece,  and  that  he  could  not  furnish  a  Copy  Some  Copy  would  never- 
theless have  been  got  up,  had  the  Parliament  continued  sitting. 
Rushw.orth,  Smythe,  and  '  I '  (the  Writer  of  Bujion's  Diary),  we,  so 
soon  as  the  Speech  was  done,  went  to  York  House  ;  Fairfax's  Town- 
house, where  Historical  John,  brooding  over  endless  Paper-masses, 
and  doing  occasional  Secretary  work,  still  lodges  :  here  at  York  House 
we  sat  together  till  late,  'comparing  Notes  of  his  Highness's  Speech  ;' 
could  not  finish  the  business  that  night,  our  Notes  being  a  little  cramp. 
It  was  grown  quite  dark  before  his  Highness  had  done  ;  so  that  we 
could  hardly  see  our  pencils  go,  at  the  time.§ 

The  Copy  given  here  is  from  the  Pell  Papers,  and  in  part  from  an 
earlier  Original  ;  first  printed  by  Burton's  Editor  ;  and  now  repro- 
duced, with  slight  alterations  of  the  pointing  &c.,  such  as  were 
necessary  here  and  there  to  bring  out  the  sense,  but  not  such  as 
could  change  anything  that  had  the  least  title  to  remain  unchanged. 

*  The  new  Frame  of  Government.  f  Burton,  ii.  351-71. 

X  Thursday  28  Jan.  1657-8  (Parliamentary  History,  xxi.  196;   Burton,  ii.  479). 

§  Burton,  ii.  351. 


^36         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 


SPEECH  XVII. 

His  Highness's  last  noble  appeal,  the  words  as  of  a  strong  great 
Captain  addressed  in  the  hour  of  imminent  shipwreck,  produced  no 
adequate  effect.  The  dreary  Debate,  supported  chiefly  by  intem- 
perate Haselrig,  peppery  Scott,  and  future-renegade  Robinson,  went 
on,  trailing  its  slow  length  day  after  day  ;  daily  widening  itself  too 
into  new  dreariness,  new  questionability  :  a  kind  of  pain  to  read  even 
at  this  distance,  and  with  view  of  the  intemperate  hot  heads  actually 
stuck  on  Temple  Bar  !  For  the  man  in  '  green  oilskin  hat  with 
nightcap  under  it,'  the  Duke  of  Ormond  namely,  who  lodges  at  the 
Papist  Chirurgeon's  in  Drury  Lane,  is  very  busy  all  this  while.  And 
Fifth- Monarchy  and  other  Petitions  are  getting  concocted  in  the  City, 
to  a  great  length  indeed  ;— and  there  are  stirrings  in  the  Army  itself  ; 
—and,  in  brief,  the  English  Hydra,  cherished  by  the  Spanish  Charles- 
Stuart  Invasion,  will  shortly  hiss  sky-high  again,  if  this  continue  ! 

As  yet,  however,  there  stands  one  strong  Man  between  us  and  that 
issue.  The  strong  Man  gone,  that  issue,  we  may  guess,  will  be  in- 
evitable ;  but  he  is  not  yet  gone.  For  ten  days  more  the  dreary 
Debate  has  lasted.  Various  good  Bills  and  Notices  of  Bills  have 
been  introduced  ;  attempts  on  the  part  of  well-affected  Members  to 
do  some  useful  legislation  here  ;*  attempts  which  could  not  be  accom- 
plished. What  could  be  accomplished  was  to  open  the  fountains  of 
constitutional  logic,  and  debate  this  question  day  after  day.  One  or 
two  intemperate  persons,  not  excluded  at  the  threshold,  are  of  great 
moment  in  a  Popular  Assembly.  The  mind  of  which,  if  it  have  any 
mind,  is  one  of  the  vaguest  entities  ;  capable,  in  a  very  singular 
degree,  of  being  made  to  ferment,  to  freeze,  to  take  fire,  to  develop 
itself  in  this  shape  or  in  that  !  The  history  of  our  Second  Session, 
and  indeed  of  these  Oliverian  Parliaments  generally,  is  not  exhila- 
rating to  the  constitutional  mind  ! — 

But  now  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  Debate,  with  its  noise  growing  ever 
noisier,  on  the  4th  of  February,  1657-8,  'about  eleven  in  the  morning,' 
^while  Peppery  Scott  is  just  about  to  attempt  yelping  out  some  new 
second  speech,  and  there  are  cries  of  "  Spoken  !  spoken  ! "  which 
Sir  Arthur  struggles  to  argue  down— arrives  the  Black  Rod — "The 
Black  Rod  stays  !"  cry  some,  while  Sir  Arthur  is  arguing — "  What 
care  I  for  the  Black  Rod  ? "  snarls  he  :  "  The  Gentleman  "  (peppery 
Scott)  "  ought  to  be  heard." — Black  Rod,  however,  is  heard  first  ; 
signifies  that  "  His  Highness  is  in  the  Lords  House,  and  desires  to 
"  speak  with  you."  Under  way  therefore  !  "  Shall  we  take  our 
Mace  ?"     By  all  means,  if  you  consider  it  likely  to  be  useful  for  you  !t 

They  take  their  Mace  ;  range  themselves  in  due  mass  in  the 
"  Other  House,"  Lords  House,  or  whatever  they  call  it  ;  and  his 
Highness,  with  a  countenance  of  unusual  earnestness,  sorrow,  resolu- 
tion and  severity,  says : 


*  Parliamentary  History,  xxi.  203-4  f  Burton,  ii.  4C2  et  seqq. 


SPEECH  XVIL  iri 


My   Lords,   and   Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Commons, 

I  had  very  comfortable  expectations  that  God  would  make  the 
meeting  of  this  Parliament  a  blessing  ;  and,  the  Lord  be  my  witness, 
/  desired  the  carrying  on  the  Affairs  of  the  Nation  to  these  ends  !  The 
blessing  which  I  mean,  and  which  we  ever  climbed  at,  was  mercy, 
truth,  righteousness,  and  peace, — which  I  desired  "ynight  be  improved. 

That  which  brought  me  into  the  capacity  I  now  stand  in  was  the 
Petition  and  Advice  given  me  by  you  ;  who,  in  reference  to  the  ancient 
Constitution  ["  Which  had  Two  Houses  and  a  Kiui^,'''' — though  ive 
do  not  in  words  mentioJi  that  /]  did  draw  me  to  accept  the  place  of 
Protector.  ["  /  was  a  kind  of  Protector  already^  I  ahuays  under- 
stood j  but  let  that  pass.  Certaijtly  you  i?tvited  me  to  become  the 
Protector  I  now  am,  with  Two  Houses  and  other  appendages,  and 
there  lies  the  gist  of  the  matter  at  present.^^'\  There  is  not  a  man 
living  can  say  I  sought  it ;  no,  not  a  man  nor  woman  treading  upon 
English  ground.  But  contemplating  the  sad  condition  of  these 
Nations,  relieved  from  an  intestine  War  into  a  six  or  seven  years 
Peace,  I  did  think  the  Nation  happy  therein  !  ["  /  did  think  even 
my  first  Protectorate  was  a  success  fid  kind  of  thing  /^^^  But  to  be 
petitioned  thereunto,  and  advised  iDy  you  to  undertake  such  a  Govern- 
ment, a  burden  too  heavy  for  any  creature  ;  and  this  to  be  done  by 
the  House  that  then  had  the  Legislative  capacity  : — certainly  I  did 
look  that  the  same  men  who  made  the  Frame  should  make  it  good 
unto  me  !  I  can  say  in  the  presence  of  God,  in  comparison  with 
whom  we  are  but  like  poor  creeping  ants  upon  the  earth,  —I  would 
have  been  glad  to  have  lived  under  my  woodside,  to  have  kept  a  flock 
of  sheep — [  Yes,  your  Highness ;  it  had  been  infinitely  quieter,  healthier, 
freer.  But  it  is  gone  forever  :  no  woodsides  now,  and  peaceful 
nibbling  sheep,  and  great  still  thoughts,  and  glimpses  of  God  ^  in  the 
cool  of  the  evening  walking  amoftg  the  trees  :  '  nothing  but  toil  and 
trouble,  double,  double,  till  om^s  discharge  arrive,  attd  the  Eternal 
Portals  open!  Nay  even  there  by  your  woodside,  you  had  not  been 
happy  ;  not  you, — with  thoughts  gving  dowjt  to  the  Death-kingdoms, 
aftd  Heaven  so  near  you  on  this  ha7id,  and  Hell  so  near  you  on  that. 
Nay  who  would  grudge  a  little  temporary  Trouble,  when  he  can  do  a 
large  spell  of  eternal  Work  ?  Work  that  is  true,  and  will  last 
through  all  Eternity  !  Complain  not,  your  Highness  .'—His  High- 
ness does  not  complain.  "  To  have  kept  a  flock  of  sheep,''  he  says\^ 
i-ather  than  undertaken  such  a  Government  as  this.  But  undertaking 
it  by  the  Advice  and  Petition  of  you,  I  did  look  that  you  who  had 
offered  it  unto  me  should  make  it  good. 

I  did  tell  you  at  a  Conference"^  concerning  it,  that  I  would  not  under- 
take it  unless  there  might  be  some  other  Persons  to  interpose  between 
me  and  the  House  of  Commons,  who  then  had  the  power,  and  preve  t 
tumultuary  and  popular  spirits  :  and  it  was  granted  I  should  name 
another  House.  I  named  it  of  men  who  shall  meet  you  Vv'heresoever  you 
go,  and  shake  hands  with  you  ;  and  tell  you  it  is  not  Titles,  nor  Lords, 
nor  Parties  that  they  value,  but  a  Christian  and  an  English  Interest  ! 
Men  of  your  own  rank  and  quality,  who  will  not  only  be  a  balance 

*  One  of  the  Kingship  Conferences  of  which  there  is  no  Report. 


238         SECOAD  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT 

unto  you,  but  a  new  force  added  to  you,*  while  you  love  England 
and  Religion.  ,  ^    ,. 

Having  proceeded  upon  these  terms  ;— and  finding  such  a  spirit  as 
is  too  mtich  predominant,  everything  being  too  high  or  too  low  ; 
where  virtue,  honesty,  piety  and  justice  are  omitted  :— I  thought  I 
had  been  doing  that  which  was  my  duty,  and  thought  it  would  have 
satisfied  you  !  But  if  everything  must  be  too  high  or  too  low,  you  are 
not  to  be  satisfied.  [There  is  an  innocency  and  childlike  goodness  iji 
these  poor  sentences,  which  speaks  to  Jis  in  spite  of  rhetoric^ 

Again,  I  would  not  have  accepted  of  the  Government,  unless  I 
knew  there  would  be  a  just  accord  between  the  Governor  and 
Governed  ;  unless  they  would  take  an  Oath  to  make  good  what  the 
Parliament's  Petition  and  Advice  advised  me  unto  !  Upon  that 
I  took  an  Oath  \0n  the  Twenty-sixth  of  June  last],  and  they 
[On  the  Twentieth  of  January  last  at  their  long-  Table  in  the  Ante- 
room] took  another  Oath  upon  their  part  answerable  to  mine  :— and  did 
not  every  one  know  upon  what  condition  he  swore.  God  knows,  /  took 
it  upon  the  conditions  expressed  in  the  '  Act  of.  Government !  And 
I  did  think  we  had  been  upon  a  foundation,  and  upon  a  bottom  :  and 
thereupon  1  thought  myself  bound  to  take  it,  and  to  be  "  advised  by  the 
Two  Houses  of  Parliament."  And  we  standing  unsettled  till  we  arrived 
at  that,  the  consequences  would  necessarily  have  been  confusion,  if  that 
had  not  been  settled.  Yet  there  were  not  constituted  "Hereditary 
Lords,"  nor  "  Hereditary  Kings  ;"  'no,'  the  Power  consisteth  in  the 
Two  Houses  and  myself.— I  do  not  say,  that  was  the  meaning  of  your 
Oath  Xjoyou.  That  were  to  go  against  my  own  principles,  to  enter 
upon  another  man's  conscience.  God  will  judge  between  you  and 
me  !  If  there  had  been  in  you  any  intention  of  vSettlement,  you  would 
have  settled  upon  this  basis,  and  have  offered  your  judgment  and 
opinion  '  as  to  minor  improvements  ' 

God  is  my  witness  ;  I  speak  it ;  it  is  evident  to  nil  the  world  and 
people  living.  That  a  new  business  hath  been  seeking  in  the  Army 
against  this  actual  Settlement  made  by  your  consent.  1  do  not  speak 
to  these  Gentlemen  ['  Pointing-  to  his  fight  haftd,'  says  the  Report] 
or  Lords,  or  whatsoever  you  will  call  them  ;  I  speak  not  this  to  them, 
but  to  you. — You  advised  me  to  come  into  this  place,  to  be  in  a 
capacityt  by  your  Advice.  Yet  instead  of  owning  a  thing,  some  must 
have  I  know  not  what  ; — and  you  have  not  only  disjointed  yourselves 
but  the  whole  Nation,  which  is  in  likelihood  of  running  into  more  con- 
fusion in  these  fifteen  or  sixteen  days  that  you  have  sat,  than  it  hath 
been  from  the  rising  of  the  last  session  to  this  day.  Through  the 
intention  of  devising  a  Commonwealth  again!  That  some  people  might 
be  the  men  that  might  rule  all !  [Intemperate  Haselrig,  peppery  Scott 
and  such  like:  very  inadequate  they  to  "  rule  ;"  inadequate  to  keep  their 
own  heads  on  their  shoulders,  if  they  were  not  ruled,  they  !]  And 
they  are  endeavouring  to  engage  the  Army  to  carry  that  thing. — And 
hath  that  man  been  "  true  to  this  Nation,"  whosoever  he  be,  especially 
that  hath  taken  an  Oath,  thus  to  prevaricate?     These  designs  have 

*  '  but  t®  themselves,'  however  helplessly,  must  mean  this;  and  a  good  reporter 
would  have  substituted  this. 
t  '  of  authority '  is  delicately  understood,  but  not  expressed. 


SPEECH  XVII.  /ly 


"been  made  among  the  Army,  to  break  and  divide  us.  I  speak  this  in 
the  presence  of  some  of  the  Army  :  That  these  things  have  not  been 
according  to  God,  nor  according  to  truth,  pretend  what  you  will  ! 
[W(?,  your  Hio;hness ;  they  have  not.']  These  things  tend  to  nothing 
else  but  the  playing  of  the  King  of  Scots's  game  (if  I  may  so  call  him); 
and  I  think  myself  bound  before  God  to  do  what  I  can  to  prevent  it. 
["  /,  for  my  share : "     J  'ea  /] 

That  which  I  told  you  in  the  Banqueting-House, 'ten|days  ago' 
was  true.  That  there  are  preparations  of  force  to  invade  us.  God  is 
my  witness,  it  hath  been  confirmed  to  me  since,  not  a  day  ago,  That 
the  King  of  Scots  hath  an  Army  at  the  water's  side,  ready  to  be 
shipped  for  England.  I  have  it  from  those  who  have  been  eye- 
witnesses of  it.  And  while  it  is  doing,  there  are  endeavours  from 
some  who  are  not  far  from  this  place,  to  stir  up  the  people  of  this 
Town  into  a  tumulting, — \City  Petitions  are  mounting  very  high., — • 
as  pej'haps  Sir  Arthur  and  ot/ie>'s  know  I] — what  if  I  said,  Into  a 
rebellion  !  And  I  hope  I  shall  make  it  appear  to  be  no  better,  if  God 
assist  me.  \^Nobk  scorn  and  indignation  is  gradually  getting  the 
better  of  every  other  feeling  in  his  Highness  and  usi\ 

It  hath  been  not  only  your  endeavour  to  pervert  the  Army  while 
you  have  been  sitting,  and  to  draw  them  to  state  the  question  about  a 
'•  Commonv^ealth  ;  "  but  some  of  you  have  been  listing  of  persons,  by 
commission  of  Charles  Stuart,  to  join  with  any  Insurrection  that  may 
be  made.  \What  a  cold  qualm  in  some  conscious  heart  that  listens  to 
this  /  Let  him  trefuble,  every  Joint  of  him  ; — or  not  visibly  tremble  ; 
but  cower  home  to  his  place.,  and  repent;  and  remember  in  whose 
hand  his  beggarly  existence  in  this  world  lies  I]  And  what  is  like  to 
come  upon  this,  the  Enemy  being  ready  to  invade  us,  but  even  present 
blood  and  confusion.? — \frhe  next  atid  final  Sente7ice  is  partly  on  fire] 
— And  if  this  be  so,  I  do  assign  '  it '  to  this  cause  :  Your  not  assenting 
to  what  you  did  invite  me  to  by  your  Petition  and  Advice, 'as  that 
which  might  prove  the  Settlement  of  the  Nation.  And  if  this  be  the 
end  of  your  sitting,  and  this  be  your  carriage — [Sentence  now  all 
beautifully  blasing\  I  think  it  hi^  time  that  an  end  be  put  to  your 
sitting.  And  I  DO  DISSOLVE  THIS  PARLIAMENT!  And  let  God  be 
judge  between  you  and  me  !* 

Figure  the  looks  of  Haselrig,  Scott  and  Company !  *  The  Mace 
'  was  clapt  under  a  cloak  ;  the  Speaker  withdrew,  and  exit  Parlia- 
ment um^  the  Talking- Apparatus  vanishes,  t  "  God  be  judge  between 
you  and  me  !" — ''  Amen  !"  answered  they,;]:  thought  they,  indignantly  ; 
and  sank  into  eternal  silence. 

It  was  high  time  ;  for  in  truth  the  Hydra,  on  every  side,  is  stirring 
its  thousand  heads.  "  Believe  me,"  says  Samuel  Hartlib,  Milton's 
friend,  writing  to  an  Official  acquaintance  next  week,  "  believe  me,  it 
"  was  of  such  necessity,  that  if  their  Session  had  continued  but  two 

*  Burton,  ii.  465-70. 
t  lb.  ii.  464. 

X  Tradition  in  various  modern  Books  (Parliamentary  History,  xxi.  203;  Note  to 
Burtpn,  ii.  470) ;  not  supported,  that  I  can  find,  by  any  contemporary  witness. 


240         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

"  or  three  days  longer,  all  had  been  in  blood  both  in  City  and  Coun- 
*■  try,  upon  Charles  Stuart's  account."* 

His  Highness,  before  this  Monday's  sun  sets,  has  begun  to  lodge 
the  Anarchic  Ringleaders,  Royalist,  Fifth-Monarchist,  in  the  Tower  ; 
his  Highness  is  bent  once  more  with  all  his  faculty,  the  Talking- 
Apparatus  being  gone,  to  front  this  Hydra,  and  trample  it  down  once 
again.  On  Saturday  he  summons  his  Officers,  his  Acting-Apparatus, 
to  Whitehall  round  him  ;  explains  to  them  '  in  a  Speech  two  hours 
long'  what  kind  of  Hydra  it  is  ;  asks.  Shall  it  conquer  us,  involve  us 
in  blood  and  confusion  ?  They  answer  from  their  hearts.  No,  it  shall 
not !  "  We  will  stand  and  fall  with  your  Highness,  we  will  live  and 
die  with  you  !  "f — It  is  the  last  duel  this  Oliver  has  with  any  Hydra 
fomented  into  life  by  a  Talking-Apparatus  ;  and  he  again  conquers  it, 
invincibly  compresses  it,  as  he  has  heretofore  done. 

One  day,  in  the  early  days  of  March  next,  his  Highness  said  to 
Lord  Broghil  :  An  old  friend  of  yours  is  in  Town,  the  Duke  of  Or- 
mond,  now  lodged  in  Drury  Lane,  at  the  Papist  Surgeon's  there  :  you 
had  better  tell  him  to  be  gone  !J — Whereat  his  Lordship  stared  ; 
found  it  a  fact,  however  ;  and  his  Grace  of  Ormond  did  go  with  ex- 
emplary speed,  and  got  again  to  Bruges  and  the  Sacred  Majesty, 
with  report  That  Cromwell  had  many  enemies,  but  that  the  rise  of 
the  Royalists  was  moonshine.  And  on  the  12th  of  the  month  his 
Highness  had  the  Mayer  and  Common  Council  with  him  in  a  body  at 
Whitehall;  and  'in  a  Speech  at  large' explained  to  them  that  his 
Grace  of  Ormond  was  gone  only  'on  Tuesday  last  ;'  that  there  were 
Spanish  Invasions,  Royalist  Insurrections  and  Frantic-Anabaptist 
Insurrections  rapidly  ripening  ; — that  it  would  well  beseem  the  City 
of  London  to  have  its  Militia  in  good  order.  To  which  the  Mayor 
and  Common  Council,  '  being  very  sensible  thereof,'  made  zealous 
response§  by  speech  and  by  act.  In  a  word,  the  Talking-Apparatus 
being  gone,  and  an  Oliver  Protector  now  at  the  head  of  the  Acting- 
Apparatus,  no  Insurrection,  in  the  eyes  of  reasonable  persons,  had 
any  chance.  The  leading  Royalists  shrank  close  into  their  privacies 
again,— considerable  numloers  of  them  had  to  shrink  into  durance  in 
the  Tower.  Among  which  latter  class,  his  Highness,  justly  incensed, 
and'  considering,'  as  Thurloe  says, '  that  it  was  not  fit  there  should  be  a 
Plot  of  this  kind  every  winter,'  had  determined  that  a  High  Court  of 
Justice  should  take  cognisance  of  some.  High  Court  of  Justice  is 
accordingly  nominated||  as  the  Act  of  Parliament  prescribes  :  among 
the  parties  marked  for  trial  by  it  are  Sir  Henry  Slingsby,  long  since 
prisoner  for  Penruddock's  business,  and  the  Reverend  Dr.  Hewit,  a 
man  of  much  forwardness  in  Royalism.  Sir  Henry,  prisoner  in  Hull 
and  acquainted  with  the  Chief  Officers  there,  has  been  treating  with 
ihem  for  betrayal  of  the  place  to  his  Majesty  ;  has  even,  to  that  end, 

*  Hartlib  in  London  (11  Feb.  1657-8),  to  Moreland  at  Geneva;  printed  in  Par- 
liamentary History,  xxi.  205. 

t  I larllib's  Letter,  ubi  supra. 

X  Godwin,  iv.  508  ;  Budgcl's  Lives  of  theBoyles,p.  49  ;  &c. 

§  Newspapers  (in  Cromvvelliana,  p.  171). 

II  27  April  1658.  Act  of  Parliament,  with  List  of  the  Names,  is  in  Scobell,  il 
372-5  :  see  also  Commons  Journals,  vij,  427  (Sept.  1656), 


HIGH  COURT  OF  JUSTICE.  241 

given  one  of  them  a  Majesty's  Commission  ;  for  whose  Spanish  Inva- 
sion such  a  Haven  and  Fortress  would  have  been  extremely  con- 
venient. Reverend  Dr.  He  wit,  preaching  by  sufferance,  according  to 
the  old  ritual,  '  in  St.  Gregory's  Church  near  Paul's,'  to  a  select  dis- 
affected audience,  has  farther  seen  good  to  distinguish  himself  very 
much  by  secular  zeal  in  this  business  of  the  Royalist  Insurrection  and 
Spanish  Charles-Stuart  Invasion  ; — which  has  now  come  to  nothing, 
and  left  poor  Dr.  Hewit  in  a  most  questionable  position.  Of  these 
two,  and  of  others^  a  High  Court  of  Justice  shall  take  cognisance. 

The  Insurrection  having  no  chance  in  the  eyes  of  reasonable 
Royalists,  and  they  in  consequence  refusing  to  lead  it,  the  large 
body  of  2^«reasonable  Royalists  now  in  London  City  or  gathering 
thither  decide,  with  indignation.  That  they  will  try  it  on  their 
own  score,  and  lead  it  themselves.  Hands  to  work,  then,  ye 
unreasonable  Royalists;  pipe,  All  hands!  Saturday  15th  of  May, 
that  is  the  night  appointed  :  To  rise  that  Saturday  Night  ;  beat 
drums  for  *  Royalist  Apprentices,'  '  fire  houses  at  the  Tower,'  slay 
this  man,  slay  that,  and  bring  matters  to  a  good  issue.  Alas,  on 
the  very  edge  of  the  appointed  hour,  as  usual,  we  are  all  seized  ; 
the  ringleader  of  us  are  all  seized,  'at  the  Mermaid  in  Cheapside,' — 
for  Thurloe  and  his  Highness  have  long  known  what  we  were 
upon  !  Barkstead  Governor  of  the  Tower  '  marches  into  the  City 
with  five  drakes,'  at  the  rattle  of  which  every  Royalist  Apprentice, 
and  party  implicated,  shakes  in  his  shoes  : — and  this  also  has  gone 
to  vapour,  leaving  only  for  result  certain  new  individuals  of  the 
Civic  class  to  give  account  of  it  to  the  High  Court  of  Justice. 

Tiiesday,  25M  May  1658,  the  High  Court  of  Justice  sat ;  a 
formidable  Sanhedrim  of  above  a  Hundred-and-thirty  heads ;  con- 
sisting of  'all  the  Judges,'  chief  Law  Officials,  and  others  named 
in  the  Writ  according  to  Act  of  Parliament; — sat  'in  Westminster 
'  Hall,  at  nine  in  the  morning,  for  the  Trial  of  Sir  Henry  Slingsby 
'  Knight,  John  Hewit  Doctor  of  Divinity,'  and  three  others  whom  we 
may  forget.*  Sat  day  after  day  till  all  were  judged.  Poor  Sir  Henry, 
on  the  first  day,  was  condemned ;  he  pleaded  what  he  could,  poor 
gentleman,  a  very  constant  Royalist  all  along  ;  but  the  Hull  business 
was  too  palpable  ;  he  was  condemned  to  die.  Reverend  Dr.  Hewit, 
whose  proceedings  also  had  become  very  palpable,  refused  to  plead  at 
all  ;  refused  even  'to  take  off  his  hat,'  says  Carrion  Heath,  'till  the 
officer  was  coming  to  do  it  for  him  ;'  '  had  a  Paper  of  Denrurrers 
prepared  by  the  learned  Mr.  Prynne,'  who  is  now  again  doing 
business  this  way ; — '  conducted  himself  not  very  wisely.'  says 
Bulstrode.  He  likewise  received  sentence  of  death.  The  others^  by 
narrow  missing,  escaped ;  by  good  luck  or  the  Protector's  mercy, 
suffered  nothing. 

As  to  Slingsby  and  Hewit,  the  Protector  was  inexorable.  Hewit 
has  already  taken  a  very  high  line :  let  him  persevere  in  it !  Slingsby 
was  the  Lord  Fauconberg's  Uncle,  married  to  his  Aunt  Bellasis  ;  but 
that  could  not  stead  him, — perhaps  that  was  but  a  new  monition  to  be 
strict  with  him.     The  Commonwealth  of  England,  and  its  Peace  are 

,  *  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  p.  172). 


242         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

not  Nothing  !  These  Royalist  Plots  every  winter,  deliveries  of  garri- 
sons to  Charles  Stuart,  and  reckless  '  usherings  of  us  into  blood,'  shall 
end  !  Hewit  and  Slingsby  suffered  on  Tower  Hill,  on  Monday  8th 
June  ;  amid  the  manifold  rumour  and  emotion  of  men.  Of  the  City 
Insurrectionists  six  were  condemned;  three  of  whom  were  executed, 
three  pardoned.  And  so  the  High  Court  of  Justice  dissolved  itself; 
and  at  this  and  not  at  more  expense  of  blood,  the  huge  Insurrec- 
tionary movement  ended,  and  lay  silent  within  its  caves  again. 

Whether  in  any  future  year  it  would  have  tried  another  rising 
against  such  a  Lord  Protector,  one  does  not  know, — one  guesses 
rather  in  the  negative.  The  Royalist  Cause,  after  so  many  failures, 
after  such  a  sort  of  enterprises  '  on  the  word  of  a  Christian  King,'  had 
naturally  sunk  very  low.  Some  twelvemonth  hence,  with  a  Common- 
wealth not  now  under  Cromwer.,  but  only  under  the  impulse  of  Crom- 
well, a  Christian  King  hastening  down  to  the  Treaty  of  the  Pyrenees, 
where  France  and  Spain  were  making  Peace,  found  one  of  the  coldest 
receptions.  Cardinal  Mazarin  '  sent  his  coaches  and  guards  a  day's 
'journey  to  meet  Lockhart  the  Commonwealth  Ambassador ;'  but 
refused  to  meet  the  Christian  King  at  all  ;  would  not  even  meet 
Ormond  except  as  if  by  accident,  '  on  the  public  road,'  to  say  that 
there  was  no  hope.  The  Spanish  Minister,  Don  Luis  de  Haro,  was 
civiller  in  manner  ;  but  as  to  Spanish  Charles-Stuart  Invasions  or  the 
like,  he  also  decisively  shook  his  head.*  The  Royalist  Cause  was  as 
good  as  desperate  in  England  ;  a  melancholy  Reminiscence,  fast 
fading  away  into  the  realm  of  shadows.  Not  till  Puritanism  sank  of 
its  own  accord,  could  Royalism  rise  again.  But  Puritanism,  the  King 
of  it  once  away,  fell  loose  very  naturally  in  every  fibre, — fell  into 
Kinglessness,  what  we  call  Anarchy  ;  crumbled  down,  ever  faster,  for 
Sixteen  Months,  in  mad  suicide,  and  universal  clashing  and  collision  ; 
proved,  by  trial  after  trial,  that  there  lay  not  in  it  either  Government 
or  so  much  as  Self-government  any  more  ;  that  a  Government  of 
England  by  //  was  henceforth  an  impossibility.  Amid  the  general 
wreck  of  things,  all  Government  threatening  now  to  be  impossible,  the 
Reminiscence  of  Royalty  rose  again,  "  Let  us  take  refuge  in  the  Past, 
the  Future  is  not  possible  !" — and  Major- General  Monk  crossed  the 
Tweed  at  Coldstream,  with  results  which  are  well  known. 

Results  which  we  will  not  quarrel  with,  very  mournful  as  they  have 
been  !  If  it  please  Heaven,  these  Two  Hundred  Years  of  universal 
Cant  in  Speech,  with  so  much  of  Cotton-spinning,  Coal-boring,  Com- 
mercing, and  other  valuable  Sincerity  of  Work  going  on  the  while, 
shall  not  be  quite  lost  to  us  !  Our  Cant  will  vanish^  our  whole  baleful 
cunningly-compacted  Universe  of  Cant  as  does  a  heavy  Nightmare 
Dream.  We  shall  awaken  ;  and  find  ourselves  in  a  world  greatly 
widened. — Why  Puritanism  could  not  continue?  My  friend,  Puri- 
tanism was  not  the  Complete  Theory  of  this  immense  Universe  ;  no, 
only  a  part  thereof !  To  me  it  seems,  in  my  hours  of  hope,  as  if  the 
Destinies  meant  something  grander  with  England  than  even  Oliver 
Protector  did  !  We  will  not  quarrel  with  the  Destinies  ;  we  will  work 
as  we  can  towards  fulfilment  of  them. 

*  Kennet,  iii.  214 ;  Clarendon,  iii.  914.  • 


DUNKIRK.  243 


But  in  these  same  June  days  of  the  year  1658,  while  Hewit  and 
Shngsby  lay  down  their  heads  on  Tower  hill,  and  the  English  Hydra 
finds  that  its  Master  is  still  here,  there  arrive  the  news  of  Dunkirk 
alluded  to  above  :  Dunkirk  gloriously  taken,  Spaniards  gloriously 
beaten  :  victories  and  successes  abroad  ;  which  are  a  new  illumination 
to  the  Lord  Protector  in  the  eyes  of  England.  Splendid  Nephews  of 
the  Cardinal,  Manzinis,  Dues  de  Crequi,  come  across  the  Channel  t6 
congratulate  '  the  most  invincible  of  Sovereigns  ;'  young  Louis  Four- 
teenth  himself  would  have  come,  had  not  the  attack  of  small-pox 
prevented.*  With  whom  the  elegant  Lord  Fauconberg  and  others 
busy  themselves  :  their  pageantry  and  gilt  coaches,  much  gazed  at  by 
the  idler  multitudes,  need  not  detain  us  here. 

The  Lord  Protector,  his  Parliament  having  been  dismissed  with 
such  brevity,  is  somewhat  embarrassed  in  his  finances.  But  otherwise 
his  aftairs  stand  well  ;  visibly  in  an  improved  condition.  Once  more 
he  has  saved  Puritan  England  ;  once  more  approved  himself  invincible 
abroad  and  at  home.  He  looks  with  confidence  towards  summoning 
a  new  Parliament,  of  juster  disposition  towards  Puritan  England  and 
him.f  With  a  Parliament,  or  if  extremity  of  need  arrive,  without  a 
Parliament  and  in  spite  of  Parliaments,  the  Puritan  Gospel  Cause, 
sanctioned  by  a  Higher  than  Parliaments,  shall  not  sink  while  life 
remains  in  this  Man.  Not  till  Oliver  Cromwell's  head  lie  low,  shall 
English  Puritanism  bend  its  head  to  any  created  thing.  Erect,  with 
its  foot  on  the  neck  of  Hydra  Babylon,  with  its  open  Bible  and  drawn 
sword,  shall  Puritanism  stand,  and  with  pious  all-defiance  victoriously 
front  the  world.  That  was  Oliver  Cromwell's  appointed  function  in 
this  piece  of  sublunary  Space,  in  this  section  of  swift-flowing  Time  ; 
that  noble,  perilous,  painful  function  :  and  he  has  manfully  done 
it, — and  is  now  near  ending  it,  and  getting  honourably  reUeved 
from  it. 

*  Newspapers  (in  Cromwelliana,  pp.  172-3 ;  15-21  June,  1658). 
f  Thurloe,  vii,  84,  99,  128,  &c.  (April,  May,  1658). 


344 


SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLTAMENT. 


DEATH  OF  THE  PROTECTOR, 

There  remain  no  more  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromivellior 
us  ;  the  above  is  the  last  of  them  of  either  kind.  He  takes  his  leave 
of  the  world,  in  these  final  words  addressed  to  his  Second  Parliament, 
on  the  4th  of  February,  1657-8:  "God  be  judge  between  you  and 
me  !  "^ — So  was  it  appointed  by  the  Destinies  and  the  Oblivions  ;  these 
were  his  last  public  words. 

Other  Speeches,  in  that  crisis  of  Ohver's  affairs,  we  have  already 
heard  of;  '  Speech  of  two  hours' to  his  Officers  in  Whitehall ;  Speech 
to  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Common  Council,  in  the  same  place,  on  the 
same  subject :  but  they  have  not  been  reported,  or  the  report  of  them 
has  not  come  down  to  us.  There  were  domestic  Letters  also,  as  we 
still  find,  written  in  those  same  tumultuous  weeks  ;  Letters  to  the 
Earl  of  Warwick,  on  occasion  of  the  death  of  his  Grandson,  the  Pro- 
tector's Son-in-law.  For  poor  young  Mr.  Rich,  whom  we  saw  wedded 
in  November  last,  is  dead.*  He  died  on  the  twelfth  day  after  that 
Dissolution  of  the  Parliament  :  while  Oliver  and  the  Commonwealth 
are  wrestling  against  boundless  Anarc'hies,  Oliver's  own  Household 
has  its  visitations  and  dark  days.  Poor  little  Frances  Cromwell,  in 
the  fourth  month  of  her  marriage,  still  only  about  seventeen,  she  finds 
herself  suddenly  a  widow  ;  and  Hampton  Court  has  become  a  house 
of  mourning.  Young  Rich  was  much  lamented.  Oliver  condoled 
with  the  Grandfather  '  in  seasonable  and  sympathising  Letters  ;'  for 
which  the  brave  old  Earl  rallies  himself  to  make  some  gratefullest 
Reply  :t — "  Cannot  enough  confess  my  obligation,  much  less  discharge 
"  it,  for  your  seasonable  and  sympathising  Letters  ;  which,  besides 
"  the  value  they  derive  from  so  worthy  a  hand,  express  such  faithful 
"  affections,  and  administer  such  Christian  advices  as  renders  them 
"  beyond  measure  dear  to  me."  Blessings,  and  noble  eulogies,  the 
outpouring  of  a  brave  old  heart,  conclude  this  Letter  of  Warwick's. 
He  himself  died  shortly  after  ;t  a  new  grief  to  the  Protector. — The 
Protector  was  delivering  the  Commonwealth  from  Hydras  and  fight- 
ing a  world-wide  battle,  while  he  v»Tote  those  Letters  on  the  death  of 
young  Rich.  If  by  chance  they  still  lie  hidden  in  the  archives  of  some 
kinsman  of  the  Warwicks,  they  may  yet  be  disimprisoned  and  made 
audible.  Most  probably  they  too  are  lost.  And  so  we  have  now 
nothing  more  ; — and  Ohver  has  nothing  more.  His  Speakings,  and 
also  his  Actings,  all  his  manifold  Strugglings,  more  or  less  victorious, 
to  utter  the  great  God's-Message  that  was  jn  him, — have  here  what  we 
call  ended.    This  Summer  of  1658,  likewise  victorious  after  struggle, 

*  16  Feb.  1657-8  (Newspapers  in  Cromwelliana,  p.  170). 

t  Earl  of  Warwick  to  the  Lord  Protector,  date  11  March,   1657-8;  printed  in 
Godwin,  iv.  528. 
\  19  April,  1658  (Thurloe,  vii.  8^. 


DEATH  OF  THE  LORD  PROTECTOR.  ui 

is  his  last  in  our  World  of  Time.     Thenceforth  he  enters  the  Eter- 
nities ;  and  rests  upon  his  arms  ^/lere. 

Oliver's  look  was  yet  strong ;  and  young  for  his  years,*  which 
were  Fifty-nine  last  April.  The  'Three-score  and  ten  years/  the 
Psalmist's  limit,  which  probably  was  often  in  Oliver's  thoughts  and 
those  of  others  there,  might  have  been  anticipated  for  him  :  Ten 
Years  more  of  Life  ; — which,  we  may  compute,  would  have  given 
another  History  to  all  the  Centuries  of  England.  But  it  was  not  to  be 
so,  it  was  to  be  otherwise.  Oliver's  health,  as  we  might  observe,  was 
but  uncertain  in  late  times  ;  often  '  indisposed  '  the  spring  before  last. 
His  course  of  life  had  not  been  favourable  to  health  !  "A  burden  too 
heavy  for  man  ! "  as  he  himself,  with  a  sigh,  would  sometimes  say. 
Incessant  toil  ;  inconceivable  labour,  of  head  and  heart  and  hand  ; 
toil,  peril,  and  sorrow  manifold,  continued  for  near  Twenty  years  now, 
had  done  their  part  :  these  robust  hfe-energies,  it  afterwards  ap- 
peared,+  had  been  gradually  eaten  out.  Like  a  Tower  strong  to  the 
eye,  but  with  its  foundations  undermined  ;  which  has  not  long  to 
stand  ;  the  fall  of  which,  on  any  shock,  may  be  sudden. — 

The  Manzinis  and  Dues  de  Crequi,  with  their  splendours,  and  con- 
gratulations about  Dunkirk,  interesting  to  the  street-populations  and 
general  public,  had  not  yet  withdrawn,  when  at  Hampton  Court  there 
had  begun  a  private  scene,  of  much  deeper  and  quite  opposite  in- 
terest there.  The  Lady  Claypole,  Oliver's  favourite  Daughter,  a 
favourite  of  all  the  world,  had  fallen  sick  we  know  not  when  ;  lay  sick 
now, — to  death,  as  it  proved.  Her  disease  was  of  internal  female 
nature;  the  painfullest  and  most  harassing  to  mind  andsense,it  is  under- 
stood, that  falls  to  the  lot  of  a  human  creature.  Hampton  Court  we  can 
fancy  once  more,  in  those  July  days,  a  house  of  sorrow  >  pale  Death 
knocking  there,  as  at  the  door  of  the  meanest  hut.  '  She  had  great 
sufferings,  great  exercises  of  spirit.'  Yes  : — and  in  the  depths  of  the 
old  Centuries,  we  see  a  pale  anxious  Mother,  anxious  Husband,  anxious 
weeping  Sisters,  a  poor  young  Frances  weeping  anew  in  her  weeds. 
'  For  the  last  fourteen  days'  his  Highness  has  been  by  her  bedside  at 
Hampton  Court,  unable  to  attend  to  any  public  business  whatever-.;]: 
Be  still,  my  Child  ;  trust  thou  yet  in  God  :  in  the  waves  of  the  Dark 
River  there  too  is  He  a  God  of  help  ! — On  the  6th  day  of  August 
she  lay  dead  ;  at  rest  forever.  My  young,  my  beautiful,  my  brave  ! 
She  is  taken  from  me  ;  I  am  left  bereaved  of  her.  The  Lord  giveth, 
and  the  Lord  taketh  away  ;  blessed  be  the  Name  of  the  Lord  ! — 

'His  Highness,'  says  Maidston,§  'being  at  Hampton  Cour't,  sick- 

*  Heath.  f  Mr.  Bates,  on  examination  posf  mortem. 

X  Thurloe,  vii.  295  (27  July  1658). 

§  A  Collection  of  several  Passages  concerning  his  late  Highness  Oliver  Cromwell, 
in  the  Time  of  his  Sickness  ;  wherein  is  related  many  of  his  Expressions  upon  his 
Deathbed,  together  with  his  Prayer  within  two  or  three  Days  before  his  Death. 
Written  by  one  that  was  then  Groom  of  his  Bedchamber.  (King's  Pamphlets,  sm. 
4to,  no.  792,  art.  22  :  London,  9  June  1659.)  We  have  called  him  '  Maidston,'  on 
Noble's  bad  authority  :  and  to  avoid  confusion  shall  continue  to  do  so  :  but  must 
warn  the  reader  that  Maidston  was  'Steward  of  the  Household,'  not  'Groom  of 
the  Bedchamber,'  and  that  the  authorship  of  this  Pamphlet  remains  uncertain  for 
tUe  present.  '" 


24^         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

*  ened  a  little  before  the  Lady  Elizabeth  died.     Her  decease  was  on 

*  Friday  6tJi  August,  1658  ;  she  having  lain  long  under  great  extremity 
'  of    bodily  pain,   which,  with   frequent  and   violent  convulsion-fits, 

*  brought  her  to  her  end.  But  as  to  his  Highness,  it  was  observed 
'  that  his  sense  of  her  outward  misery,  in  the  pains  she  endured,  took 

*  deep  impression  upon  him  ;  who  indeed  was  ever  a  most  indulgent 

*  and    tender    Father ;— his    affections'    too    'being    regulated    and 

*  bounded  by  such  Christian  wisdom  and  prudence,  as  did  eminently 

*  shine  in  filling  up  not  only  that  relation  of  a  Father,  but  also  all 

*  other  relations  ;  wherein  he  was  a  most  rare  and  singular  example. 

*  And  no  doubt  but  the  sympathy  of  his  spirit  with  his  sorely  afflicted 

*  and  dying  Daughter'  did  break  him  down  at  this  time  ;  '  consider- 
^  ing  also,' — innumerable  other  considerations  of  suffering  and  toils, 
'  which  made  me  often  wonder  he  was  able  to  hold  up  so  long  ;  ex- 
'  cept '  indeed  '  that  he  was  borne  up  by  a  Supernatural  Power  at  a 
'  more  than  ordinary  rate.  As  a  mercy  to  the  truly  Christian  World, 
'  and  to  us  of  these  Nations,  had  we  been  worthy  of  him  ! ' — 

The  same  authority,  who  unhappily  is  not  chronological,  adds  else- 
where this  little  picture,  which  we  must  take  with  us  ;  'At  Hampton 
'  Court,  a  few  days  after  the  death  of  the  Lady  Elizabeth,  which 
'  touched  him  nearly, — being  then  himself  under  bodily  distempers, 
'  forerunners  of  that  Sickness  which  was  to  death,  and  in  his  bed- 
'  chamber, — he  called  for  his  Bible,  and  desired  an  honourable  and 
'  godly  person  there,  with  others,  present.  To  read  unto  him  that  pas- 
'  sage  in.  Philippiafts,  Fourth  :  "  Not  thai  I  speak  in  respect  of  want : 
^  for  I  have  learned  in  whatsoever  state  I  am,  therewith  to  be  content. 
'  I  know  both  how  to  be  abased,  and  I  know  how  to  abound.  Every- 
'  where,  and  by  all  things,  J  am  instructed ;  both  to  be  full  and  to  be 
'  hungry,  both  to  abound  and  to  siiffer  need.  1  can  do  all  things,  through 

*  Christ  which  stre7itheneth  me^*  Which  read, — said  he,  to  use  his 
'■  own  words  as  near  as  I  can  remember  them  :  "  This  Scripture  did 
'  once  save  my  life  ;  when  my  eldest  Son  "  poor  Oliverf  "died  ;  which 

*  went  as  a  dagger  to  my  heart,  indeed  it  did."  And  then  repeating 
'  the  words  of  the  text  himself,  and  reading  the  tenth  and  eleventh 

*  verses,  of  Paul's  contentation,  and  submission  to  the  will  of  God  in 
'  all  conditions,— said  he  :  "  It's  true,  V3iVi\,you  have  learned  this,  and 
'  attained  to  this  measure  of  grace  :  but  what   shall  /  do  1     Ah  poor 

*  creature,  it  is  a  hard  lesson  for  me  to  take  out  !     I  find  it  so  !  "    But 

*  reading  on  to  the  thirteenth  verse,  where  Paul  saith,  "  I  ca7i  do  all 
'  tlmtgs  through  Christ  that  sire7iotheneth  ;;z^,"— then  faith  began  to 
'  work,  and  his  heart  to  find  support  and  comfort,  and  he  said  thus 

*  to  himself,  "  He  that  was  Paul's  Christ  is  my  Christ  too  !  "  And  so 
'  drew  waters  out  of  the  well  of  Salvation.' 

In  the  same  dark  days,  occurred  George  Fox's  third  and  last  inter- 
view with  Oliver.  Their  first  interview  we  have  seen.  The  second, 
which  had  fallen  out  some  two  years  ago,  did  not  prosper  quite  so 
well.  George,  riding  into  Town  '  one  evening,'  with  some  '  Edward 
Pyot,'  or  other  broadbrimmed  man,  espied  the  Protector  '  at  Hyde 
Park  Corner  among  his  Guards,'  and  made  up  to  his  carriage- window, 

*  Philippians,  iv.  11,  12,  13. 

f  A  blank  in  the  Pamphlet  here :  see  Antea^  vol.  i.  pp.  98,  1 15-16. 


DEATH  OF  THE  PROTECTOR.  247 

in  spite  of  opposition  ;  and  was  altogether  cordially  welcomed  there. 
But  on  the  following  day,  at  Whitehall,  the  Protector  '  spake  lightly  ; ' 
he  sat  down  loosely  '  on  a  table,'  and  '  spake  light  things  to  me,' — in 
fact,  rather  quizzed  me ;  finding  my  enormous  sacred  Self-confidence 
none  of  the  least  of  my  attainments  !  *  Such  had  been  our  second 
interview  ;  here  now  is  the  third  and  last. — George  dates  nothing  ; 
and  his  facts  everywhere  lie  round  him  like  the  leather-parings  of  his 
old  shop  :  but  we  judge  it  may  have  been  about  the  time  when  the 
Manzinis  and  Dues  de  Crequi  were  parading  in  their  gilt  coaches, 
That  George  and  two  Friends,  '  going  out  of  Town,'  on  a  summer 
day,  '  two  of  Hacker's  men  '  had  met  them, — taken  them,  brought 
them  ^  to  the  Mews.'  '  Prisoners  there  a  while  : '  but  the  Lord's  power 
was  over  Hacker's  men  ;  they  had  to  let  us  go.     Whereupon  : 

'  The  same  day,  taking  boat  I  went  down'  {up)  '  to  Kingston,  and 
'  from  thence  to  Hampton  Court,  to  speak  with  the  Protector  about 
'  the  Sufferings  of  Friends.  I  met  him  riding  into  Hampton  Court 
'  Park  ;  and  before  I  came  to  him,  as  he  rode  at  the  head  of  his  Life- 
*  guard,  I   saw  and  felt  a  waft '   {whiff)  '  of  death  go  forth  against 

'  him  ' Or  in  favour  of  him,  George  ?     His  life,  if  thou  knew  it, 

has  not  been  a  merry  thing  for  this  man,  now  or  heretofore  !  I  fancy 
he  has  been  looking,  this  long  while,  to  give  it  up,  whenever  the  Com- 
mander-in-chief required.  To  quit  his  laborious  sentry-post  ;  honour- 
ably lay-up  his  arms,  and  be  gone  to  his  rest  : — all  Eternity  to  rest  in,  O 
George  !  Was  thy  own  life  merry,  for  example,  in  the  hollow  of  the 
tree  ;  clad  permanently  in  leather  ?  And  does  kingly  purple,  and 
governing  refractory  worlds  instead  of  stitching  coarse  shoes,  make  it 
merrier .?  The  waft  of  death  is  not  against  him,  I  thmk, — perhaps 
against  thee,  and  me,  and  others,  O  George,  when  the  Nell-Gwyn 
Defender  and   Two   Centuries  of  all-victorious  Cant  have  come  in 

upon   us  !     My  unfortunate   George '  a  waft   of  death  go  forth 

against  him  ;  and  when  I  came  to  him,  he  looked  like  a  dead  man. 
After  I  had  laid  the  Suffering  of  Friends  before  him,  and  had  warned 
him  according  as  I  was  moved  to  speak  to  him,  he  bade  me  come 
to  his  house.     So  I  returned  to  Kingston  ;  and,  the  next  das^  went 
up  to  Hampton  Court  to  speak  farther  with  him.     But  when  I  came, 
Harvey,  who  was  one  that  waited  on  him,  told  me  the  Doctors  were 
not  willing  that  I  should  speak  with  him.     So  I  passed  away,  and 
never  saw  him  more.'t 
Friday  the   20th   of  August   1658,  this  was  probably  the  day  on 
which  George  Fox  saw  Oliver  riding  into   Hampton   Park  with  his 
Guards,  for  the  last  time.     That  Friday,  as  we  find,  his  Highness 
seemed  much  better  :  but  on  the  morrow  a  sad  change  had  taken 
place  ;    feverish   symptoms,  for   which  the   Doctors    rigorously   pre- 
scribed quiet.     Saturday  to  Tuesday  the  symptoms  continued  ever 
worsening  :  a  kind  of  tertian  ague,  '  bastard  tertian  '  as  the  old  Doctors 
name  it  ;  for  which  it  was  ordered  that  his  Highness  should  return  to 
Whitehall,  as  to  a  more  favourable  air  in  that  complaint.     On  Tuesday 
accordingly  he  quitted  Hampton  Court  ; — never  to  see  it  more. 

'  His  time  was  come,'  says  Maidston  ;    '  and  neither  prayers  nor 
*. tears  could  prevail  with  God  to  lengthen  out  his  life  and  continue 
*  Fox's  Journal,  i.  381,  2.        __. —  f  Ibid,  pp.  485,  6. 


24B         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT. 

him  longer  to  us.  Prayers  abundantly  and  incessantly  poured  out 
on  his  behalf,  both  publicly  and  privately,  as  was  observed,  in  a 
more  than  ordinary  way.  Besides  many  a  secret  sigh,— secret  and 
unheard  by  men,  yet  like  the  cry  of  Moses,  more  loud,  and  strongly 
laying  hold  on  God,  than  many  spoken  supplications.  All  which, — 
the  hearts  of  God's  People  being  thus  mightily  stirred  up,— did  seem 
to  beo^et  confidence  in  some,  and  hopes  in  all  ;  yea  some  thoughts 
in  himself,  that  God  would  restore  him.' 

'  Prayers  public  and  private  : '  they  are  worth  imagining  to  our- 
selves. Meetings  of  Preachers,  Chaplains,  and  Godly  persons  ;  '  Owen, 
Goodwin,  Sterry,  with  a  company  of  others,  in  an  adjoining  room  ; ' 
in  Whitehall,  and  elsewhere,  over  religious  London  and  England, 
fervent  outpourings  of  many  a  loyal  heart.  For  there  were  hearts  to 
whom  the  nobleness  of  this  man  was  known  ;  and  his  worth  to  the 
Puritan  Cause  was  evident.  Prayers,— strange  enough  to  us  ;  in  a 
dialect  fallen  obsolete,  forgotten  now.  Authentic  wrestlings  of  ancient 
Human  Souls, — who  were  alive  then,  with  their  affections,  awe-struck 
pieties  ;  with  their  Human  Wishes,  risen  to  be  traiiscendcmt,  hoping 
to  prevail  with  the  Inexorable.  All  swallowed  now  in  the  depths  of 
dark  Time  ;  which  is  full  of  such,  since  the  beginning  ! — Truly  it  is  a 
great  scene  of  World-History,  this  in  old  Wliitehall  :  Oliver  Crom- 
well drawing  nigh  to  his  end.  The  exit  of  Oliver  Cromwell  and  of 
English  Puritanism  ;  a  great  Light,  one  of  our  few  authentic  Solar 
Luminaries,  going  down  now  amid  the  clouds  of  Death.  Like  the 
setting  of  a  great  victorious  Summer  Sun  ;  its  course  now  finished. 
'  So  stirbt  eiii  Held^  says  Schiller,  '  So  dies  a  Hero  !  Sight  worthy 
to  be  worshipped  ! ' — He  died,  this  Hero  Ohver,  in  Resignation  to 
God  ;  as  the  Brave  have  all  done.  '  We  could  not  be  more  desirous 
'  he  should  abide,'  says  the  pious  Maidston,  '  than  he  was  content 
and  willing  to  be  gone.'  The  struggle  lasted,  amid  hope  and  fear,  for 
ten  days. — Some  small  miscellaneous  traits,  and  confused  gleanings 
of  last- words  ;  and  then  our  poor  History  ends. 

Oliver,  we  find,  spoke  much  of  '  the  Covenants  ;  which  indeed  are 
the  grand  axis  of  all,  in  that  Puritan  Universe  of  his.  Two  Cove- 
nants ;  one  of  Works,  with  fearful  Judgment  for  our  shortcomings 
therein,  one  of  Grace,  and  unspeakable  mercy  ; — gracious  Engage- 
ments, '  Covenants,'  which  the  Eternal  God  has  vouchsafed  to  make 
with  His  feeble  creature  Man.  Two  ;  and  by  Christ's  Death  they 
have  become  One  :  there  for  Oliver  is  the  divine  solution  of  this  our 
Mystery  of  Life."^  "  They  w^ere  Two,"  he  was  heard  ejaculating  : 
"  Two,  but  put  into  One  before  the  Foundation  of  the  World  ! "  And 
again  :  "  It  is  holy  and  true,  it  is  holy  and  true,  it  is  holy  and  true  ! — 
"  Who  made  it  holy  and  true  ?  The  Mediator  ©f  the  Covenant  ! " 
And  again  :  "  The  Covenant  is  but  One.  Faith  in  the  Covenant  is 
"  my  only  support.  And  if  I  believe  not,  He  abides  faithful  !  "  When 
his  Children  and  Wife  stood  weeping  round  him,  he  said  :  "  Love 
"  not  this  world.  I  say  unto  you,  it  is  not  good  that  you  should  love 
*'  this  world  !  "     No.     "  Children,  five  like  Christians  : — I  leave  you 

*  Much  intricate  intense  reasoning  to  this  effect,  on  this  subject,  in  Owen'5 
Works,  among  others. 


DEATH  OF  THE  PROTECTOR.  54.^ 

"  the  Covenant  to  feed  upon  !  "  Yea,  my  brave  one  ;  even  so  !  The 
Covenant,  and  eternal  Soul  of  Covenants,  remains  sure  to  all  the 
faithful  ;  deeper  than  the  Foundations  of  this  World  ;  earlier  than 
they,  and  more  lasting  than  they  ! — 

Look  also  at  the  following  ;  dark  hues  and  bright  ;  immortal  light- 
beams  struggling  amid  the  black  vapours  of  Death.  Look  ;  and  con- 
ceive a  great  sacred  scene,  the  sacredest  this  world  sees  ;— and  think 
of  it,  do  not  speak  of  it,  in  these  mean  days  which  have  no  sacred 
word.  "Is  there  none  that  says,  Who  will  deliver  me  from  the 
peril  ?"  moaned  he  once.  Many  hearts  are  praying,  O  wearied  one  ! 
"  Man  can  do  nothing,"  rejoins  he  ;  "  God  can  do  what  He  will." — 
Another  time,  again  thinking  of  the  Covenant,  "  Is  there  none  that 
will  come  and  praise  God,"  whose  mercies  endure  forever  ! 

Here  also  are  ejaculations  caught  up  at  intervals,  undated,  in  those 
final  days  :  "  Lord,  Thou  knowest,  if  I  do  desire  to  live,  it  is  to  shew 
forth  Thy  praise  and  declare  Thy  works  !  " — Once  he  was  heard 
saying,  "It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Living 
"  God  !  "*     '  This  was  spoken  three  times,'  says  Maidston  ;  '  his  repe- 

*  titions  usually  being  being  very  weighty,  and  with  great  vehemency 

*  of  spirit.'  Thrice  over  he  said  this  ;  looking  into  the  Eternal  King- 
dom.— But  again  :  "  All  the  Promises  of  God  are  in  Him :  yes,  in 
**  Him  Amen  ;  to  the  glory  of  God  by  us, — by  us  in  Jesus  Christ." — 
*'  The  Lord  hath  filled  me  with  as  much  assurance  of  His  pardon, 
"  and  His  love,  as  my  soul  can  hold." — "  I  think  I  am  the  poorest 
**  wretch  that  lives  :  but  I  love  God  ;  or  rather,  am  beloved  of  God." — • 
*•'  I  am  a  conqueror,  and  more  than  a  conqueror,  through  Christ  that 
*•  strcngtheneth  me  !"t 

So  pass,  in  the  sickroom,  in  the  sickbed,  these  last  heavy  uncertain 
days.  '  The  Godly  Persons  had  great  assurances  of  a  return  to  their 
Prayers  : '  transcendant  Human  Wishes  find  in  their  own  echo  a  kind 
of  answer  !  They  gave  his  Highness  also  some  assurance  that  his 
life  would  be  lengthened.     Hope  was  strong  in  many  to  the  very  end. 

On  Monday,  August  30th,  there  roared  and  howled  all  day  a  mighty 
storm  of  wind.  Ludlow,  coming  up  to  Town  from  Essex,  could  not 
start  in  the  morning  for  wind  ;  tried  it  in  the  afternoon  ;  still  could 
not  get  along,  in  his  coach,  for  head-wind  ;  had  to  stop  at  Epping.;]; 
On  the  morrow,  Fleetwood  came  to  him  in  the  Protector's  name,  to 
ask.  What  he  wanted  here  i^ — Nothing  of  public  concernment,  only  to 
see  my  Mother-in-law  !  answered  the  solid  man.  For  indeed  he  did 
not  know  that  Oliver  was  dying  ;  that  the  glorious  hour  of  Uisenthral- 
ment,  and  immortal  '  Liberty '  to  plunge  over  precipices  with  one's 
self  and  one's  Cause,  was  so  nigh  ! — It  came  ;  and  he  took  the  preci- 
pices, like  a  strongboned  resolute  blind  ginhorse  rejoicing  in  the 
breakage  of  its  halter,  in  a  very  gallant  constitutional  manner.  Adieu, 
my  solid  friend  ;  if  I  go  to  Vevay,  I  will  read  thy  Monument  there, 
perhaps  not  without  emotion,  after  all  ! 

It  was  on  this  stormy  Monday,  while  rocking  winds,  heard  in  the 
sickroom  and  everywhere,  were  piping  aloud,  that  Thurloe  and  an 
Official  person  entered  to  inquire,  Who,  in  case  of  the  worst,  was  to 

*  Hebrews  x.  31,  f  From  Maidston  ;  scattered  over  his  Pamphlet. 

J  Ludlow,  ii.  610,  12, 


250         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT.     -^ 

be  his  Highness's  Successor?  The  Successor  is  named  in  a  sealed 
Paper  already  drawn  up,  above  a  year  ago,  at  Hampton  Court  ;  lying 
in  such  and  such  a  place  there.  The  Paper  was  sent  for,  searched 
for  ;  it  could  never  be  found.  Richard's  is  the  name  understood  to 
have  been  written  in  that  Paper  :  not  a  good  name  ;  but  in  fact  one 
does  not  know.  In  ten  years'  time,  had  ten  years  more  been  granted, 
Richard  might  have  become  a  fitter  man  ;  might  have  been  cancelled, 
if  palpably  unfit.  On  the  Thursday-night  following,  'and  not  till 
then,' his  Highness  is  understood  to  have  formally  named  'Richard!" 
— or  perhaps  it  might  only  be  some  heavy-laden  "  Yes,  yes  ! "  spoken, 
out  of  the  thick  death-slumbers,  in  answer  to  Thurloe's  question 
"  Richard  !"  The  thing  is  a  little  uncertain."'*"  It  was,  once  more,  a 
matter  of  much  moment ;— giving  colour  probably  to  all  the  subse- 
quent centuries  of  England,  this  answer  ! — 

On  or  near  the  night  of  the  same  stormy  Monday,  '  two  or  three 
days  before  he  died,'  we  are  to  place  that  Prayer  his  Highness  was 
heard  uttering  ;  which,  as  taken  down  by  his  attendants,  exists  in 
many  old  Notebooks.  In  the  tumult  of  the  winds,  the  dying  Oliver 
was  heard  praying  : 

Lord,  though  I  am  a  miserable  and  wretched  creature,  I  am  in 
Covenant  with  Thee  through  grace.  And  I  may,  I  will,  come  to 
Thee,  for  Thy  People.  Thou  hast  made  me,  though  very  unworthy, 
a  mean  instrument  to  do  them  some  good,  and  Ihee  service  ;  and 
many  of  them  have  set  too  high  a  value  upon  me,  though  others  wish 
and  would  be  glad  of  my  death  ;  Lord,  however  Thou  do  dispose  of 
me,  continue  and  go  on  to  do  good  for  them.  Give  them  consistency 
of  judgment,  one  heart,  and  mutual  love  ;  and  go  on  to  deliver  them, 
and  with  the  work  of  reformation  ;  and  make  the  Name  of  Christ 
glorious  in  the  world.  Teach  those  who  look  too  much  on  Thy  in- 
struments, to  depend  more  upon  Thyself.  Pardon  such  as  desire  to 
trample  upon  the  dust  of  a  poor  worm,  for  they  are  Thy  People  too. 
And  pardon  the  folly  of  this  short  Pra-yer  : — Even  for  jesus  Christ's 
sake.     And  give  us  a  good  night,  if 'it  be  Thy  pleasure.     Amen. 

*  Some  variation  there  is,'  says  Maidston, '  of  this  Prayer,  as  to  the 
'  account  divers  give  of  it ;  and  something  is  here  omitted.  But  so 
'  much  is  certain,  that  these  were  his  requests.  Wherein  his  heart 
'  was  so  carried  out  for  God  and  His  People, — yea  indeed  for  some 
'  who  had  added  no  little  sorrow  to  him,'  the  Anabaptist  Republicans, 
and  others, — 'that  at  this  time  he  seems  to  forget  his  own  Family  and 
'  nearest  relations.'     Which  indeed  is  to  be  remarked. 

Thursday  night  the  Writer  of  our  old  Pamphlet  was  himself  in 
attendance  on  his  Highness  ;  and  has  preserved  a  trait  or  two  ;  with 
which  let  us  hasten  to  conclude.  Tomorrow  is  September  Third, 
always  kept  as  a  Thanksgiving  day,  since  the  Victories  of  Dunbar 
and  Worcester.  Maidston  heard  the  wearied  one, 'that  very  night 
before  the  Lord  took  him  to  his  everlasting  rest,'  thus  with  oppressed 
voice  speaking  ! 

*  Authorities  in  Godwin,  iv.  572-3.  But  see  also  Thurloe,.  vii.  375 ;  FuucOBfli 
berg's  second  Letter  there  I 


DEATH  OF  THE  PROTECTOR.  ^51 

111 ■ 

* "  Truly  God  is  good  ;  indeed  He  is  ;  He  will  not " Then  his 

'speech  failed  him,  but  as  I  apprehended,  it  was,  "  He  will  not  leave 
*me."     This  saying,  "God  is  good,"   he  frequently  used  all  along; 

*  and  would  speak  it  with  much  cheerfulness,  and  fervour  of  spirit,  in 

*  the  midst  of  his  pains, — Again  he  said  :  "  I  would  be  willing  to  live 

*  to  be  farther  serviceable  to  God  and  His  People :  but  my  work  is 
*done.     Yet  God  will  be  with  His  People." 

'  He  was  very  restless  most  part  of  the  night,  speaking  often  to 

*  himself  And  there  being  something  to  drink  offered  him,  he  was 
'  desired  To  take  the  same,  and  endeavour  to  sleep. — Unto  which  he 

*  answered  :  "  It  is  not  my  design  to  drink  or  sleep  ;  but  my  design 

*  is,  to  make  what  haste  1  can  to  be  gone." — 

'  Afterwards  towards  morning,  he  used  diverse  holy  expressions, 
'  implying  much  inward  consolation  and  peace  ;  among  the  rest  he 

*  spake  some  exceeding  self-debasing  \^ ox di^^  annihilating  and  judging 
'  himself  And  truly  it  was  observed,  that  a  public  spirit  to  God's 
'  Cause  did  breathe  in  him, — as  in  his  lifetime,  so  now  to  his  very 

*  last.' 

When  the  morrow's  sun  rose,  Oliver  was  speechless  ;  between 
three  and  four  in  the  afternoon,  he  lay  dead.  Friday,  3rd  September, 
1658.  "The  consternation  and  astonishment  of  all  people,"  writes 
Fauconberg,"*^  "  are  inexpressible  ;  their  hearts  seem  as  if  sunk  within 
"  them.  My  poor  Wife,—  I  know  not  what  on  Earth  to  do  with  her. 
"  When  seemingly  quieted,  she  bursts  out  again  into  a  passion  that 
"  tears  her  very  heart  in  pieces." — Husht,  poor  weeping  Mary  !  Here 
is  a  Life-battle  right  nobly  done.     Seest  thou  not, 

•  The  storm  i.s  changed  into  a  calm, 
At  His  command  and  will ; 
So  that  the  waves  which  raged  before 
Now  quiet  are  and  still. 

Then  are  they  glad,— because  at  rest 
And  quiet  now  they  be  : 
So  to  the  haven  He  them  brings 
Which  they  desired  to  see.' 

*  Blessed  are  the  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord  ; '  blessed  are  the  valiant 
that  have  lived  in  the  Lord.  '  Amen,  saith  the  Spirit,' — Amen.  '  They 
do  rest  from  their  labours,  and  their  works  follow  them.' 

*  Their  works  follows  them.'  As,  I  think,  this  Oliver  Cromwell's 
works  have  done  and  are  still  doing  !  We  have  had  our  '  Revolutions 
of  Eighty-eight,'  officially  called  '  glorious  ; '  and  other  Revolutions 
not  yet  called  glorious  ;  and  somewhat  has  been  gained  for  poor 
Mankind.  Men's  ears  are  not  now  slit-off  by  rash  Officiality  ;  Offi- 
ciality will,  for  long  henceforth,  be  more  cautious  about  men's  ears. 
The  tyrannous  Starchambers,  branding-irons,  chimerical  Kings  and 
Surplices  at  Allhallow-tide,  they  are  gone,  or  with  immense  velocity 
going.     Oliver's  works  do  follow  him  ! — The  works  of  a  man,  bury 

*  T©  Henry  Cromwell,  7  September  1658  {Thurloe,  vii.  375), 


^52         SECOND  PROTECTORATE  PARLIAMENT, 

them  under  what  guano-mountains  and  obscene  owl-droppings  you 
will,  do  not  perish,  cannot  perish.  What  of  Heroism,  what  of  Eternal 
Light  was  in  a  Man  and  his  Life,  is  with  very  great  exactness  added 
to  the  Eternities  ;  remains  forever  a  new  divine  portion  of  the  Sum  of 
Things  ;  and  no  owl's  voice,  this  way  or  that,  in  the  least  avails  in  the 
matter. — But  we  have  to  end  here. 

Oliver  is  gone  ;  and  with  him  England's  Puritanism,  laboriously 
built  together  by  this  man,  and  made  a  thing  far- shining  miraculous 
to  its  own  Century,  and  memorable  to  all  the  Centuries,  soon  goes. 
Puritanism,  without  its  King,  is  kiiigjess,  anarchic  ;  falls  into  disloca- 
tion, self- collision  ;  staggers,  plunges  into  ever  deeper  anarchy  ;  King, 
Defender  of  the  Puritan  Faith  there  can  now  none  be  found  ; — and 
nothing  is  left  but  to  recall  the  old  disowned  Defender  with  the 
remnants  of  his  Four  SurpHces,  and  two  Centuries  of  Hypocrisia, 
and  put-up  with  all  that,  the  best  we  may.  The  Genius  of  England 
no  longer  soars  Sunward,  world-defiant,  like  an  Eagle  through  the 
storms, '  mewing  her  mighty  youth,'  as  John  Milton  saw  her  do  :  the 
Genius  of  England,  much'liker  a  greedy  Ostrich  intent  on  provender 
and  a  whole  skin  mainly,  stands  with  its  other  extremity  Sunward  ; 
with  its  Ostrich-head  stuck  into  the  readiest  bush,  of  old  Church- 
tippets,  King-cloaks,  or  what  other  '  sheltering  Fallacy '  there  may  be, 
and  so  awaits  the  issue.  The  issue  has  been  slow  ;  but  it  is  now  seen 
to  have  been  inevitable.  No  Ostrich,  intent  on  gross  terrene  pro- 
vender, and  sticking  its  head  into  Fallacies,  but  will  be  awakened  one 
day,— in  a  terrible  a-posteriori  manner,  if  not  otherwise  ! — Awake 
before  it  comes  to  that ;  gods  and  men  bid  us  awake  !  The  Voices 
of  our  Fathers,  with  thousandfold  stern  monition  to  one  and  all,  bid 
us  awake. 


THE  END, 


7  DAY  l^'^^ 


3  7HC 


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